DAY 2 in Brazil

After a terrific greeting from President Phillippe, Sergio and Alcione from District 4660 we drove 4 hours to Santa Maria where started with a wonderful meal and getting to know my host family mostly through picture sharing and Google translator. Spent all of the next day with hosts Paulo and Lizette Pigatto. Paulo is a civil engineer and Lizette has a doctorate in education and works with special education students. They also have a farming operation and plan was to spend the day at the farms. The most wonderful hosts, we drove to area near Julio de Castilhos where Paulo has two farmsteads to manage a farm of 2000 acres of soybeans. Met the foreman and his wife who prepared a traditional churassco, MMMMMM. This is Brazilian barbecue - had beef and pork that are barbecued on a spit. Lizette took me around to the many fruit trees where I reveled in the many different kinds of fruit including, fig, pomegranite, guava, oranges, limes, and a couple I had never heard of. I will never see fruit the same way and my palate definitely has expanded - trying to minimize waistline expanding, but it will be very difficult. In addition to the soybeans, there were pigs, cattle, chickens and fruit trees to keep family supplied. There is one house where they serve the employees and another house for the foreman´s family. Very similar concept to Bonanzaville farms in earlier years in Red River Valley. Roads are dirt roads and soil is very red in rural areas. We traveled on to the second farm which is where the main soybean operation is. Pigattos have their own elevator right on their farm. Their son Luis, is an agronomist on the farm. Another beautiful home, where they have rooms for workers to sleep in, kitchen and dining area for employees. Many fruit trees here. We had picked up Paulo´s father Antonio who was with us all day, and we also stopped at Antonio´s sister´s house, much of his family lives in area. The Pigatto family are a very warm and generous Italian family and you can tell they are very close. For being in another part of the world there are many similarities in industry. John Deere tractors are prevalent as they have a plant in Santa Maria. Day 2 - Today was up for breakfast with Liz, who is a Paulo and Lizette´s daughter, warm milk with instant coffee and sugar, baguette´s with various spreads, and papaya was my start to the day and is very typical Brazilian breakfast. Then was picked up by the Brazilian GSE Coordinator and he took me to Santa Maria´s funeral chapel. Customs in ceremonies share some similiarities and some differences. Not many people are allowed to have their funeral in the church, they actually have a room in a chapel where people can visit for 24 hours. where viewing is available. They do not bring anything but flowers to this room for viewing and being with family, sign of respect for people to stop in to chapel. There is an area outside of the chapels for people to meet or take a break from the mourning in chapel. When the 24 hour vigil is over the loved one is transferred to the cemetery and many times the funeral service arranges a bus to take mourners to the gravesite. The chapels are next to the hospital so the body can be transferred easily. As a grief counselor, for me this is helpful in understanding customs that may be the norm in Brazil. Thales then took me to a Gaucho store (which is Brazilian cowboy traditional wear and supplies), Santa Maria is very proud of this gaucho culture. We traveled on to a dinosaur museum where we saw artifacts from old missions and also bones from before the jurassic period of dinosaurs. We have been graciously driven around and taken care of by many Rotary members. Tonight, we had our first presentation for the Julio de Castilho Rotary club, we had a very fun time with them and learned about their area also. They were very generous to us with gifts and hospitality, and we look forward to more time with clubs. I have taken many pitures but its midnight - will post pictures in the next couple of days. Grocery store was very fun experience today, lots of different produce and meats!