Iguacu

Iguacu Falls was incredibly beautiful. The magnitude is tough to describe! Very much worth the travel time & minor hassles crossing borders.



We also saw Itaipu, those white tubes have turbines in them. It's the second largest hydro power plant in the world. Itaipu produces 20% of Brazil's electricity and nearly all of Paraguay's. It took over 10 years to construct.



This spillway is only open 10% of the year- we were lucky to see it!

Ijui

We have now been in Injui for two days. Major thunderstorm yesterday all day and night, we have been very lucky to only have had 2 days of rain so far. My host family again is so wonderful, Gerson and Roseane Feldman have two sons Martin and Igor (14 and 15). Long nap on my first day in Ijui and settled in with host family. We had our presentation and met lots of very nice Brazilian people from Ijui. Before getting into our day - Roseane taught me how to make flan and we watched the full process of how to make polenta - two really common things here in Brazil (so fun). Today we toured a museum about the Indians of Brazil mainly the Ge, Guarani, and Pompeano, and history of Ijui, very interesting and again the lush green plants and flowers are amazing. We then went to the Unijui University which is a community run university with 7,000 students. We met host families for lunch and then toured a public hospital where we were able to view an angiogram being done as it was happening. This clinic particularly provides treatment for cancer and many people are referred here from other small clinics in the state. I was able to visit with a psychologist that works with families to help them with learning of their cancer diagnosis. There is only one psychologist in this hospital, however, there is also another hospital that specifically works with those that struggle with mental illness. We then went with Gerson and Rogerio to a shop where the Ijui Rotary bought us very beautiful (bonito or lindo) havannas with beaded flowers on them. Jill and Quinn headed off to get manicures while Gerson took me to some shops downtown and in the city center park. We later went back to my host home where I met their three dogs and picked bergamot, oranges, an orange lemon (which I ate thinking there was no such thing as an orange lemon - my face would have been a good picture. Fantastic day! We will be meeting up with all team members for Feijoda tonight. One more full day in Ijui and we leave for the conference later afternoon on Friday. I will again miss these wonderful people.

AGCO visit

Sao Miguel Mission Ruins

Ijui

We are now in Ijui. We arrived around noon today. It´s been raining since yesterday. Muita chuva. Lots of rain! My hosts, Ricardo and Janni, are very nice. I look forward to getting to know them better in the coming days here! They took me to a Churrascaria for lunch. Tasty meats served off the skewer! I think that brings me to 11.... on the Churrasco count.

Santa Rosa was fun. Whew! We were on the run each day with plenty of places to see and lots of people to meet. Yesterday we went to 8 different places! We started off with a hospital in a neighboring town, Girua. The hospital specializes in women´s health, physical rehabilitation after brain injury and care of people with sight issues. After the hospital we popped into the local newspaper for a quick interview before returning to Santa Rosa. Next up, Vier, a erva mate or yerba mate manufacturer. Super neat to see the process. Now we better understand what it takes to make that perfect chimarrao. Off to lunch where we were treated to rice and black beans, some greens, pasta and chicken fried steak. Then to a coffee roaster and candy maker. Talk about a one man shop. He roasts coffee and in a second area makes candy. It was quite an operation. We rushed from there to the local campus of Unijui, a private University. We heard about a lot of neat initiatives and programs they have going on, including participating in the local regional planning process and their business incubation program within the University. Cool stuff! Then to the local TV studio. We talked with Lisi, who luckily didn´t interview us on camera. First time I´ve been inside a real live television studio! And let´s see, to cap off the afternoon we went to a farmers´market. Lots of vegetables and fruits. After a brief break at our host homes we gave our final presentation at Casa de Amizade. Thank you Santa Rosa for a fun packed week!

Santa Rosa Rotary sings

Churrasco Watch Update: Double Digits!!

After what seemed like an eternity without Churrasco (read: three days), our delicious friend re-appeared at the ranch of Marco & Elaine Cortez yesterday and quickly found its way into our expanding bellies. Here, James is hoisting a skewer of what could be hippopotamus ribs:

 
And today we lunched at the lovely home of the Mustafa's, where we were told we would be having fish...with a side of Churrasco. I'm not complaining, but my muffin-top overfloweth. I may soon have to borrow pants from this guy:

This leaves James still in the lead at 10 days of Churrasco, Quinn in hot pursuit at 9, and Jill/Carrie/Ann still gnawing their way to 8. Oh the indigestion excitement!

Quinn's Pet Fix

Many of you know I'm missing a special four-legged super-furry and rather large friend at home...so throughout my time here I've been befriending nearly all the animals in my path. Note- it has taken plenty of restraint not to attempt petting the sometimes ridiculously numerous street dogs. I'll now share with you some of my favorite Brazilian fur-covered acquaintances.

Santo Angelo Experience

It has been a very interesting almost week in Santo Angelo. I had settled in with host family Bacilla and Josef Mustafa and their daughters, Saima and Yasmine. Beautiful family and have enjoyed my time with them. Learning about teen culture in Brazil from Sai and Mini has been fun, really very similar to teenagers in United States and Canada. We toured a hospital that was both public and private. Later this week, I was able to meet with a group of medical and educational professionals who meet once a month to discuss a book they are reading "The Art of Dying". They had many questions and we were able to have a very meaningful discussion on the services Hospice of the Red River Valley offers and how my job as a grief counselor also fits into this. They do not yet have provisions for this type of service but it legitimized I think the belief of an important service to all human beings. This group has written many articles on the subject of the Art of Dying for the newspaper and we have arranged to exchange this information and research information I can give them. We are very excited for future contact. The group has also been asked to visualize the experience of what it would be like one day if they found they were dying and record how they would feel, what they may do. We also went to public and private schools in Santo Angelo, we were very impressed by the questions that we were asked and really enjoyed spending time sharing with the kids who were 5th grade to high school. We will be continuing on to visit the URI University again tomorrow, go to the San Miguel Missions, Tuesday we will be doing our presentation to the four Rotary groups and Wednesday we are "on the road again" (I think there is a song in there) on our way to Santa Rosa where we will be for approximately a week. Thank you Santo Angelo for a very memorable week, I have learned much and feel like I will leave with many friends and contacts that I would not have had without the commitment of my host mother, Bacilla and other Rotarians of Santo Angelo.

Host family and party at there home

Day 4 - Ann´s Facial Trauma Watch - Improvement Noted!!

More of Santo Angelo

Touring Santo Angelo

Rhodesia style Italian meal with hosts and gaucho music in Santo Angelo

Day 3 of Ann´s Facial Trauma Watch!

Ann is complimenting her eyes with her matching shirt today! She is making progress but no doubt we will see many more shades appear. She is a good sport about the blog updates!

April 30th - International Corn Fair

The Corn Guy!

April 30th

Wonderful traditional Gaucho music!

April 30th

Gathering fresh pecans at Marco´s ranch

My wonderful hostess Laila!

Local salvaging materials to recycle for money

Santo Angelo Cathedral

Highlight Photos - April 29th

The Cotton Candy man in Central Park

Ann´s Facial Trauma Watch! Daily Facial Color Updates - Stay Tuned!

Vocational Visits in Santo Angelo

I had unfortunate luck of having my camera go haywire and so I bought a new one however missed some pictures, all instructions in adjustment are in Portuguese so will learn these words in Portuguese quickly. My host Bacilla took me to a nursing home facility where she volunteers as a cardiologist. There are three of them in town and they are not required to pay to stay in these facilities. When looking at some of the activities they hold for residents, accordion music, cakes and picnics outside are part of the entertainment. It takes many caring people and volunteers to help serve the residents and food donations and health donations are important. We also went to the office of my host family who are both doctors, Bacilla's husband Josef is a gastrointestologist and also does gastric bypasses which have been performed in Brazil for about the last 10 years as compared with the United States has been performing for 20 years. Our interpreter Marlo took me to a funeraria (funeral home) where I was able to ask many questions and the director also had some interesting questions. In Brazil most burials are within 24 hours and so there is very little embalming. Cremation is not common as many funeral homes do not have a crematorium. A mausoleum cost is approximately $15,000, where as a marble marker and with a long slab is about $2,500. Marble I believe is very plentiful here and this funeral home in Santo Angelo also gets the marble unfinished and puts finish on themselves. Fascinating day! Unfortunately, our team leader, Ann, took a tumble and bruised her head. At Ann's expense I was able to see how they did MRIs in Brazil and referral and immediate care take place. Thank God, it came out ok with no broken bones and no damage to the brain, just very harsh bleeding under her eyelids. Hoping the healing comes fast for Ann, she has been able to find humor in it and really coping very well considering how traumatic it must have been for her. I'll let her tell anything else. Tomorrow we visit a grade school, college and hospital. Ta Ta for Now!

Behind on Santa Maria Photos

Here are some fun photos with Rotaract group who made Easter chocolate bags for a school that has children that are not as fortunate in material ways and some of the scenery we experienced in the mountains around Santa Maria. I also had a hot dog - which they add many things to it including peas, corn, piknik fries, mayonaise, ketchup and mustard. Many other toppings may be included! The last two pictures are of the farms my host family has in which they raise 2000 acres of soybeans.

Santo Angelo

We arrived in Santo Angelo yesterday and were again greeted by several friendly Rotarians. I was introduced to my new hostess Laila. She is wonderful! We are able to communicate well, laugh, talk about fashion and travels. She speaks english beautifully! She has had some amazing international travels, it is so fun to hear her stories.
We were able to catch a bit of downtown shopping time and a quick tour of her neighborhood.
Today I will have a vocational visit and a Rotary meeting tonight.
Im anxious to catch up with my team as well.
Santo Angelo is very different then Santa Maria. It is quiet, relaxing and a bit slower pace here. More of what I am used to. I love it!
Pictures to come soon.........

A Different Pace?

So far in Santo Ângelo the pace is different. The driving, what I saw of it yesterday, is more relaxed and the people seem less frenetic. I am kindly being hosted by Bernardo, his wife Elici, & their daughter Fernanda. The room I'm occupying belongs to Sabrina who is studying in Santa Maria & bizarrely enough lives within a block of where I was staying with Cherli, Jean, Luiza & Giordana! It's a small world everywhere.

Last night I was welcomed with some of the best pizza ever. Fernanda's boyfriend, Jedson, is quite a chef! He made 6 pizzas! 3 salgado or ~salty and 3 doce or sweet. Yet another meal that made me wish I had an elastic waistband on my pants.



Jedson cutting one of creations. In the foreground is a pizza with a chocolate crust, sweetened condensed milk & peanuts.



Me, getting ready to nom some deliciousness! The pizza on the right is called California and has apples, pineapple, raisins & cherries.



Your eyes do not deceive- that is chocolate crusted, chocolate-covered ice cream-topped pizza. Something I doubt I'll ever see again!

Traffic noises are subdued, bird songs can be heard and the sun is illuminating my room- feels like a good day!

On to Santo Angelo

Thank you for the beautiful engraved plaques Santa Maria Rotarians, and for your generosity, wonderful hearts and happy spirits, we will miss you! Our luggage load has expanded extreme amounts and so I am sorry to our future hosts that help us with it.

We drove to Santo Angelo today, a four hour drive and met our new host families, I am with Bacdilla and Josef and their identical twin girls. Spent the day relaxing, chatting with the twins and again look forward to yet another fantastic experience with the Brazilian people in Santo Angelo!

Gaucho attire

The Beginning of Buffets and Barbecues