Sunday is the final day of the forum, a day for the assemblies to convene in order to address the 10 themes of the WSF. They are meant to bring together the statements, plans and calls that have emerged from the forum. This is a difficult process of course, but over the last three days thousands of people had been working into the night to produce common goals. This underlines how the WSF is trying to forge a common vision of what the world might be like, but without squashing or crowding out any views or perspectives. It can tiring and sometimes frustrating, but it's also inspirational.

In the afternoon we went to a tax justice meeting. Tax is one of War on Want's campaigns and the meeting emphasised the need to keep working on this issue in the UK. London is the world's tax haven and Gordon Brown a key defender of tax havens internationally.

The great thing about the WSF is the experiences you have between the meetings. In many ways you learn more from chance meetings than the main planned events. At lunch we shared our table with a group who runs a solidarity bank in one of Brazilian states. They showed us the special currency they use and explained that people are paid partly in this currency, which local shops and business accept. This system ensures that money stays with the community. This seems a powerful alternative to the current mess our present economic model has caused.

That afternoon Dave spoke about the mobilisation against the G20 in London on March 28, which War on want is taking a lead in organising. The session was aimed at getting groups together to push forward an alternative to ‘casino capitalism', a system has taken away jobs and lives all over the world. Unfortunately were hit by the (in)famous technical problems that have plagued the forum from day one and didn't have interpretation. But with help of a few volunteers we carried on.

This morning it rained and didn't stop. Walking past the damp and muddy youth camp on the way to the first seminar was far more reminiscent of UK festivals than the sunny weather we had expected. We went to a meeting on migration with speakers from unions across the world and groups including SOLIDAR. The focus was mainly South-North migration but it was also noted that most migrants travel from one Southern nation to another.

Dave attended a two-part seminar called ‘Global crises: cross-networking space to discuss alternatives' that aimed to bring together networks working on a range of issues, including gender, trade, water, finance, environment, housing, multination companies and more. It was a hard slog - the meeting lasted six hours and was held in three languages -- but there was a remarkable amount of agreement among the participants and were able to draw up principles for an alternative global economy and society. It was a really interesting meeting, and there seems to be a shared agreement that we need to come up with a coherent vision for the world. Before we can begin the process of building another world we need develop an idea of what it wiil look like and this was one of the first steps towards achieving that.

One recurring theme of the week has been the unpredictable phone service. Despite this lack of instant communication it is amazing we were able to find people in such a vast place. Nevertheless this random system of meeting up in a crowd of 100,000 people isn't always successful. This morning we spent a long time tracking down War on Want's Colombian partners Cactus in a hotel across the city - and an even longer time trying to find a bank that would accept Visa.

This is the first time that the WSF has had four sitting presidents participating in one of its debate: Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) and Fernando Correa (Ecuador) were all in attendance. Each president presented similar statements on the need to build a new brand of socialism that works towards a new model of development in Latin America. The pillars of this new system were described in detail: it should promote Latin American integration; uphold the principles on social justice and gender equity; protect workers' rights; reject all forms of violence; and assume total responsibility for the earth and the environment.

While Dave, Ruth and Nadia had a productive and informative day running workshops, networking and sharing information, Graciela got an unexpected phone call which would change her day.

Dave participated in a meeting called "a global answer to the financial crisis", which was organised by global and regional networks in Europe and Latin America as well as European trade union networks. The meeting was an attempt to bring together groups working on the financial crisis and to create a convergence of conclusions and concrete proposals for alternative models, with particular emphasis on global public finance. The main speakers were John Christiansen from Tax Justice Network, and representatives from IBON, Philippines and Bank Track in Geneva, UNAM and The World Council of Churches.

Most of the participants present for the afternoon session had not been to the morning session, so there would have to be quite a lot of repetition. Also, at least half of those present were students unaffiliated with any organisation or campaign. We therefore decided that it would be more productive to split the meeting, with organisation/campaign representatives discussing Palestine proposals and the WSF process with Stop the Wall in adjacent room and Nadia leading a Q&A on BDS and general session on actions to take on the issue.

After a bit of exploring we took the free shuttle bus to the other university campus where we first registered. We had little idea just how much more walking was in store for us. All the tents and buildings holding events were located on the other side of the campus and we had to walk through the youth camp to get there. As we walked past we had to remind ourselves that on the "other side" there would be exciting and provocative seminars and meetings we had long been looking forward to.

We spent a good portion of the morning familiarising ourselves with the rest of the (very big) university site where our workshops would be held the next day. Only then did we begin to truly appreciate the enormity of the site, its proximity to the river and the strength of the sun. As we reached the other side of the site, we saw Jamal Jumaa from the Stop the Wall Coalition, a War on Want partner organisation, reading traditional Palestinian poetry on the stage.

After a healthy lunch at a nearby vegetarian comida (pay-by-weight), we headed back to the hotel to get the War on Want banner in preparation for the march and opening ceremony. We heard loud music and amplified chants, reminiscent of the Notting Hill Carnival - at least to those of us who had never been to a Latin carnival. Little did we know just how carnival-like it would become!

After a hearty breakfast with fellow WSFers in the breakfast room in our hotel, we headed out to the university to register. Along the way we saw several large WSF billboards welcoming participants in various languages, as well as others that declared "The rich can pay for their crisis" which although not an official theme of the forum was nevertheless a reoccurring slogan.

After over 24 hours of travel, we finally arrived in hot, humid Belém and we are taking in the atmosphere. There is a live band and dancers at the baggage carousel which surprises us and sets the tone and friendly mood.