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!