Family Bar-B-Que and Goodbye Party

We got up feeling a little stiff from dancing, but breakfast was waiting for us and we had a nice morning feast. A little swim and then it was time for a walk in their central park that was a tropical paradise with a big lake in the center. Zosia and I were happy because the birds were wonderful and we found several life species. How interesting that we ran in to Anita and Don and their crew talking a walk in the same park. Small towns are different.

Today is the family Bar-B-Q, so we spent the morning setting up and cooking. Gilberto and Marceli's family were all coming, brothers, wives, sisters, mothers, And Judy's hosts and family also came. Giberto did the meat cooking and there was plenty. The younger family members spoke English so we had lively discussions about the way of Brazil and the many issues they have in their society. We knew that there was unrest in the country where the President had only a 5% approval rating. And we expected to hear all about the Olympics - no not a word on the Olympics, just day to day living and lack of education.  But Maringa is really isolated from the chaos and crime that lives in the bigger cities.  The party lasted all the afternoon and then it was nap time again to prepare for the Farewell party.

The farewell party was held in a high rise in the center of city near the cathedral. We all met and had a good feast we were all teary-eyed as we are leaving the next day. It was like leaving our relatives, and this after just five days. Pictures all around and then our ambassadors decided that we would sign, and sing we did - America the Beautiful, Let there be peace on Earth, even the Iowa song.

The hosts were quite impressed with our new found talent. We shared gifts and pledges that share the friendship our club promotes. We felt like old friends and wished the times could last, but tomorrow we will be on another adventure, but this time on our own and not with a home stay. 

A day downtown and a night at the County Music Dancehall

We got up a little late this morning, Gilberto asked me if I wanted to go with him to the fitness center. You bet, and I was ready for some exercise because these exchanges have you active much of the day, but no real physical exercise. It was wonderful as his trainer, who also did not speak and English had me work out for an hour or so. I felt great, and isn't nice that no one seems to be put out that you cannot speak or understand their language.

Back at the house, we packed off to the open market downtown. It was mainly food and we were pretty late at this point, so we went into the covered market to see what was going on. All the ambassadors and hosts showed up and after shopping for a while, we settled down where there was a really good musician. I must say that all of our people loved his music and he played to us.   So we art and ate and had many beers throughout the afternoon.

We had a leisurely day around the pool with the family as tonight we were going to go out to the country music dance hall. I was taking my afternoon nap when Marceli came out and said that Giberto want to know if I could join him at the neighbors for a beer. Sure, that sounds like fun. We went next door where his friend had wheeled out a key of beer to the street and all the neighborhood men were sitting around joking and cutting up. Not that I knew anything they were saying but I laughed when they laughed and refilled my glass when they did. We were like old friends. They slapped me on my back when we had to go an hour later. These are some really friendly people.

Now we are off to the dance hall which was way out in the country. It must have held a thousand people and we were greeted at the door by the owner, a woman well into her 80s. But she knew our hosts and we got a great table that fit all 40 of us. The buffet was enormous in the Brazilian way, but the specialty was the fried pork. The band played all sorts of music like waltz, polka, Latin dance music and just plane old popular music and everyone got up to dance. 

Tour the UniCesumar (university) and Brazilian Nightclub

We had a nice leisurely morning good breakfast and swims. We didn't know what to expect at this University but we were shocked. In Brazil there are Public Universities which are free and the are Private Universities which you pay. Public ones are highly competitive where 1 out of every 100 applicants get in. This university we are visiting is private. We are to meet the president in this beautiful conference room - they provide us with an information package full of goodies. We watch a video that describes their mission and programs. It was impressive but nothing compared to the speech the President gave us. It was in Portuguese, but the translator, Naama, made the hour-long presentation sound so fluid, almost like we were understanding the President directly.

President Wilson passionately explained how the public school system worked providing only two hours of instruction each day. Far below all other Latin American countries and how this has led to their crime rate being high and holds the seventh largest economy back so long. It sure sounded like a political speech,and it were, all of the Ambassadors would have voted for him. We were breathless and impressed; and felt we knew the cure for much that ails Brazil. Then, of course, a wonderful wonderful lunch salmon and sushi starters and the endless "self-service" buffet.

Then during afternoon we went to the mall where I hung out nursing a tiny cut of strong Brazilian coffee reading a book on the phone. Zosia and the others shopped for what seemed like a long time. The mall is the last place I wanted to be on this Brazilian day, but we all need to appreciate the needs of others. And Mall did have the best Creche scene - after all Christmas is only six weeks away. The streets were decorated already. Then it was back home again for a swim and wait out the daily thunderstorm.


Tonight was the night we were to go to the Brazilian dance hall, but things didn't go as smoothly as we hoped. The night club was to open at 9:00, but the club had been flooded with the afternoon thunderstorm. So we decided we would head out late. Some of our group showed up early without calling and found the club closed, others didn't know what was going on so they found there things to do. Our group showed up a little after ten, but we were told the band wouldn't start until 11. That's OK, we'll just sit here and eat fried chicken and fried fish, and of course drink lots of beer.

When the band did start the place started to rock. We all got up and danced much of the time. It was exciting, but then again when are we really out at a club until 1:00 am eating and drinking. They were a versatile band and even started  playing songs that we Americans loved. What a time and it was no surprise that our hosts knew the owners.

Meeting with the Mayor and city tour

Today we got up and had a leisurely morning eating, swimming, and getting relaxed before we went off to meet with the mayor and tour the city. The meeting was a fairly formal affair with speeches by Marceli, the mayor and Zosia. Of course there had to be translators as there is a big language gap among the Friendship Force Americans and everyone here. We reviewed what an up and coming city this is and many of the Friendship Force people are city leaders (director of airport, developers, teachers) All of our people think this place is wonderful and well organized and prosperous. Gifts are exchanged - Zosia and I received a beautiful framed relief that will present problem to get back home.

Then we are off on the official city bus for the tours - the unique Cathedral,
the Japanese Center, the city streets, and a Mosque. They are trying to show us the diversity of their city. The tour is assisted by a woman singer and we go through the city singing away as we tour. Our crowd starts singing away, we are like a school bus full of kids- what fun. Everyone was impress by the Mosque as we learned more about Islam and what they really want to project, not what is sensationalized in the news.

Now it time for another fabulous lunch at the Nations Lebanese Restaurant where, you guessed it - had an amazing buffet with sushi, middle eastern foods, and Brazilian specialties.

We stopped by Marceli's public school where she teaches and visit about eight classes where the kids are very interested asking us all sorts of questions about how language differences causes problems and how much does McDonald hamburgers cost in America. It was really cute. Schools are another story here - more to come on that.

Now it is home for swims and naps and getting to know each other. We were supposed to go to Brazilian nightclub, but it is really tomorrow, so we decide to take the hosts out to dinner.We go to their friends restaurant at 9:30 - a Lebanese place that was overwhelming. The food never stopped, nor did the beer and wine. There were 10 of us and the owner made sure we were treated like royalty. Back at home by 11:30 and stayed up having more beer until late getting to know each other - It seemed like we were now understanding each others language much better - at least the non-verbal parts.

Wednesday - goodbye Sao Paulo, Hello Maringa

We get up really early to leave at 6:30 am. We have to be there on time at 8:00 am or everyone will throw us off the plane as we have everyone;s ticket. Zosia does a fabulous job of getting everyone checked in and their bags on the plane. A short two hour and arrive in Maringa and our host are waiting for us as we arrive. Everyone is tired as we got home very late and everyone had to pack the nigh before. This town of 250,000 has a totally different feel than Sao Paulo with its 20 million people. First order of business is,of course, lunch - Like everywhere we go it is a buffet with fantastic food.
This city is 10% Japanese heritage so all places have sushi. Everyone loads up their pate and it is weighed and the Friendship Force of Maringa  pays for all these lunches. Now we go to our new home for five nights.

And what a beautiful home it is. In an exclusive gated neighborhood close to downtown, the home is very modern. Our hosts are Marceli (with an accent on the i) and Gerberto who are professional in their 50s. Marceli is a teacher at two schools and is the Exchange Director who organized the stay for the club. There is a motorcycle out front as Gerberto is an enthusiast. We come through the kitchen where we are greeted by Gabriela, the 17 year-old daughter and Isabel, the comely day maid. We are led to our quarters which is the mother-in-law suite out back with a living room, bathroom, and air-conditioning in the bedroom (which is sweet as it is about humid 90s). Outside our door is the swimming pool. We put down our bags and put on the bathing suits and we are ready.Kathleen, another Ambassador from Austin, stays in the house with the family. Here is Marceli and Gabriela -

Mercedi asks if w want to go with her to pick up Gabriella at the horse stables in town - Yeah! It is a really large facility and the young girls are all training and surrounded by young working men. We go to see her horse, Sweepi (sweetpea). They are quite the pair.

We see some great birds and then off to the travel agent Zosia has been working with for months. We have to make sure all of the arrangements are in order and paid for for the rest of the trip where we are not being hosted. Zosia did a fantastic job we do some money arranging as we have US dollars.

Back at home we are preparing for the welcome party. Marceli is in charge of the dinner, in fact as time goes on we find our host is in charge of about everything. We bring the things down to the community center in the neighborhood where we meet all  of the hosts. They have also hired a couple of woman to serve and help.  Half of which are of Japanese descent. The party begins where the men are all hanging together as we muddle through languages barriers. Everyone is so friendly - good thing they are in Friendship Force. What can we say, every got to know each other very well and many sets of pictures.

Later we take the leftovers back home and do a modest clean up leaving the real clean up for the maids they have hired to finish the job tomorrow.

Tuesday - Day Trips and Farewell Party

Today we must be on time. It is a good when we get the call that we start at 10:00 not 9:30. So we encourage our host to leave early anyway. He assures us that, yes, we will be on time in fact that we will probably be the first allowing an hour and 15 minutes to get across town. We start off and traffic is light what a relief. And the it is not so light in fact there is a traffic jam. Time ticks away and I get more anxious in the back seat. I keep hearing it is just a short distance.  Yes we arrive at 10:25 and are not sure where we are to be. Yes, we are greeted with - that everyone is noticing we now have a reputation. I tried to calm myself through my meditation practices, but that is really hard in stop and go traffic. I will have to work on that. At least we weren't the last people.

The first thing was to visit the Bio-medical labs where they extract snake and other animal venom to produce anti-venom and vaccines They had samples of all the snakes and spiders they used. Brazil is full of snakes. This is also the hospital where they bring people in Brazil who have been bitten by poisonous snakes. The other part of the facilities was about the development of vaccines. It told the story of first discovering germs and bacteria hundreds of years ago through finding cures to many of the diseases we now control like the plague, and yellow fever, to finding cures for mad cow disease and AIDS. It was very informative. Of course, Zosia and I took the opportunity to look at the birds as the Campus is full of very high trees. Brazil is very tropical, like Florida only the vegetation has been growing here a lot longer in these parks.

Lunch was in a mall and the biggest most extensive food court I have ever seen. The restaurant was fantastic like all the others we go to - It was self-service buffet with hundreds of variety from sushi to all sort of meats, vegetable dishes, salads and lots of desserts.And how fortunate - it had great noon time beer specials where we tried three new kinds of beer.

Next stop the University of Sao Paulo where it cover several square miles and services 100,000 students. We went to the geology school, but I must say our stop at the stone store the day before was much more impressive.We talked with geologists about the formations of gems, stones, and rocks. Zosia and I were tired and we didn't want to go on the walking tour in the heat so I was able to do my meditation for  the day. I set my alarm for 15 minutes and Zosia shoot me back to life after 13 minutes thinking it was 30 minutes. We took an auto tour of the campus and got monied-up (getting more cash). Cash seems to flow as fast here as at home.

Off to the farewell party and surprise we are the first to arrive. These people know how to party - they have a bartender and the crepe station ladies, and the kitchen crew. It is at the common room at Valdice's condo.
They have funny hats, goofy glasses, glowing bands around our wrists and fake ties. Now are all dressed up and everyone is arriving. The drinks are beginning to flow. It is fairly hot, as usual. The musician from the first day was there and we greeted each other as old friends - I love these people they are so expressive and friendly. OK, so everything is loud so we all are talking in animated level so we are all excited. Everyone is bouncing around the room greeting each other. Everyone now is eating the crepes and having beers, sodas, and wine. And after a while it is now time for 100 group photos and the presentations.
Valdice reads a glowing tribute to Austin and features Zosia as a wonderful Exchange Director and for some weird reason praised me as somebody special. Zosia gives here wonderful presentation about our visit - We exchange gifts - our club gives them money, they give Zosia a gift and then gives me a gift. The Austin club steps up and sings God Bless America, Yellow Rose of Texas and some other song. Then the choir of the Sao Paulo club put up a keyboard and entertain us with five songs.

We have to get up very early the next day, but now it is time for dessert crepes. So we stay until 10:00 and have an hour drive home.  It took a long time to say good bye and kisses and hugs to everyone. At home I pack quickly and Zosia stay up having tea with Iracema until I go to bed. I had to have an eye mask as Zosia was packing until 3:00 am or so. I have to get up at 4:45 am.

W

Monday - day off with the hosts

Monday came and we all had more time in the morning. Zosia slept in and I really could not sleep beyond my usual time so at 6:20 I was up and doing my morning stretches. I may be in a strange environment, but my morning activities are like gold to me. I get up and do my 21 Qi Gong movements to open the body to the world ahead. Then read the Austin morning paper online. And do some writing. I run out of time to do my daily meditation, but I can do that when I am feeling stressful during the day if I can find a quiet spot. Iracema got up about 7:30 and we tried to communicate with our different languages. She could not find the words that I understood but she left the impression we were on our own for breakfast. I thought I had asked her if she could make some coffee and she nodded yes and went back in her room.

Zosia got up and I explained to her that Iracema had asked us to help ourselves to breakfast and she would come back out to make coffee as I could not find any coffee or a coffee maker. Did she go back to bed? She was in there a long time. So Zosia and I had a small breakfast of cereal and bread, jam, and fruit and still no Iracema. Later Iracema came out and she was showered and dressed.

No, she didn't say today was self service, she said we were going for a big breakfast at her favorite bakery. Oh what confusion these languages brings. So the joke of the day to all we meet is "Self-service" as we talk about our confusion. By the way self-service here means - buffet.

Next we are off to the stone store. Of course, I am thinking a bead shop that Zosia likes to go to to buy supplies for her jewelry business. It takes a long time to get there across town. No, this store is the palace of stones - the marketplace for crystals and gems. It is an expansive warehouse. Some of the crystals are 1200 pounds, first floor of elaborate displays of raw minerals, the second floor of polished minerals and crystals. I buy a few uncut stones that fit my fancy and Zosia goes shopping. At the end of an hour she comes down and asks me for all my cash as if she uses cash she gets a discount. She is in heaven.

Now it is off to lunch and find a money machine. I will not go into details as much of it would be from the backseat of the car as we drove for two and a half hours through the streets of  Sao Paulo looking for the right restaurant which we never found as it is Monday and all of the museums are closed. We ended up at the large city park where also all of the eateries were closed except one with prepared cold sandwiches.  But we are at a park and we can do some birding. But even that was short lived as a thunderstorm came in and we must head home because of traffic.

This night we are going out to the most expensive restaurant in town on top of the 43 story Italian Building. The best view in the city. I will let Zosia write about that as expensive restaurants and I have a "thing."  This was not my favorite day. But tomorrow will be great.