Hi Richard,
Welcome to حوإ¼½م½م-blog, I hope you will find our Brazil Forum quite informative and lots of fun.
If you have not already done so please take the time to read the Brazil Forum Code of Conduct on the first page of our forum. Also you will find a number of postings that I have placed (also at the top of the page) which should give you all the information you will need to know for starting out your life in Brazil. The "Gringo's Survival Guide to Brazil" covers just about everything. While my posting "The High Cost of Living in SP, how to economize" was written for Sأ£o Paulo it actually applies to any large city in Brazil, such as Belo Horizonte.
I lived in Belo Horizonte for a number of years and it is a wonderful place. The only thing I wasn't crazy about is it is a bit too centralized, anything you want you need to go to the center of the city to find it - but what the heck. It is also a little difficult to get around in the city, pretty chaotic at times. Other than that there are a lot of things to see and do and it's a great place both for singles and for families.
The Baptist Church of Lagoinha holds services in English on Sudays so if you are inclined to attend a church I know you will meet lots of English speakers there. One warning I will give you is that Mineiros are sort of withdrawn, observers so don't expect to make friends quickly. They will take their own sweet time to size you up and warm up to you, don't rush them. On the other hand, once you have a friend there it's forever.
Finding work for any foreigner is not an easy task indeed, mostly because of the laws that make it necessary for a company to prove that they have exhausted all avenues to fill the position with a Brazilian and still can't find anyone qualified. Your best bet for securing work here is to contact some of the multinational companies at home with operations in Brazil (there are many) and find out if they have any vacancies here. Generally a multinational will also help with all the immigrations bureaucracy too. Other than that the easiest work to find (not paying well, but...) is teaching English. Also if you have money to invest you can obtain a permanent visa for investors with an investment of R$150,000 (about 75K USD).
Cheers and Welcome Aboard,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, حوإ¼½م½م-blog
