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Aurea Carvalho, 33, prepares costumes at her mother-in-law's ...

Wed Jan 16, 6:09 PM ET

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Aurea Carvalho, 33, prepares costumes at her mother-in-law's house at the Mangueira slum in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Dec.2, 2007. 'For me it's total 18 to 20 hours days. It's so intense I need to take the rest of the year off,' said Aurea Carvalho, who has worked in her mother-in-law's house constructing carnival costumes known as 'fantasias' for the past 12 years. Carvalho employs 11 seamstresses and is adding a night shift next week in order to have 100 costumes ready in time for the parade.

(AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes)