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.