Rotary US 5610 GSE Exchange to Brazil 4740

"Back in the U.S.A."

I'm just old enough to actually remember the great old Chuck Berry song, too ---- and I'm happy to report that the entire 2008 District 5610 Outbound GSE Team to District 4740 (Brazil) Brazil is now officially "back in the U.S.A.

Kyla, Shelle, Michele, and I arrived last Monday (April 28th) and yesterday (Monday, May 5th) Jon and Sol returned after spending what I'm sure they term as a "well-deserved" week on the beaches of Florianopolis.

Happily, all of our return flights were uneventful --- and we made it to Sioux Falls within mere minutes of our scheduled times.

We still have a few more blog posts to add and we'll have those up within a few days. [Cut us some slack, we're trying to re-adjust to "real life"!] Meanwhile, I'm proud to report that Rotary District 4740 Governor Jefferson Bittencourt gave me the following letter for delivery to our DG Dick Nolte. He was kind enough to give me permission to reprint it here. My hat's off to a simply wonderful team --- it was personally very rewarding to be associated, albeit only for a few months, with five of our Districts finest young professionals! Read Jefferson's letter and you'll understand that pride!

gll

Our Last day in Brazil

Sunday, April 27, 2008; our last day in Brazil!!  We woke in Foz do Iguacu and left for the airport at 7:15 a.m.  I will admit, I was a little apprehensive in going to the airport, given our absolutely chaotic and awful trip getting to Brazil.  The only issue in the airport at the Falls was that Kyla, Shelle and Greg all had carry-on bags in excess of 5 kg, but a simple gate-check took care of that.

Claudia and Tico sent us on our way.  One of the worst parts of leaving the Falls was leaving the boys!!  Jon and Sol made arrangements to stay in Brazil for an extra week, so they stayed behind at the airport.  They had a flight out of the Falls later that day to return to Florianopolis.  They were going to get back some of the time we lost in "Floripa" at the beginning of our travels. The "Delta 5" (which we dubbed ourselves after dealing with Delta Airlines during our travels to Brazil) has now become the Delta 3.  It was sad to leave the boys, but we girls were also excited, because our plane was going to Rio de Janeiro, where we had a twelve hour layover and plans to spend the day!

Our plane arrived in Rio and we were met by a Rotarian from Rio, and our driver.  The Rotarian could not stay with us for the day, but he scheduled the driver to spend the day with us and take us to see the sights of Rio.

The first thing I noticed in Rio is that it is HOT.  It was 104 degrees in Rio the day we were there.  This is more like it!  The next thing I notice is that there are many favelas on our travels through Rio.  It seems to be a very poor city.  My research of Rio indicated that there is a wide disparity in income in Rio; either you are rich or you are poor.  This seems to be the case.  There is also graffiti all over the city.  I learned that Brazilians view graffiti as a mode of expression, not as vandalism.  As such, they don't clean it off of their buildings.  Rio is absolutely covered in graffiti.  I think that is also a testament to the gang issues that are prevalent in Rio. 

First stop: Christ the Redeemer.  It is a huge statute of Jesus Christ built to look over the city of Rio.  It was quite amazing.  This was a stop that was important to Shelle, and I think she had a nice time visiting Christ the Redeemer.

Second stop: Ipanema.  We HAD to visit the beach.  Our beach time at the beginning of this trip was stolen from us by Delta Airlines, so we were excited to get to the beach.  Greg went for lunch and the girls hit the beach. 

Ipanema has been voted one of the best beaches in the world.  The voters are right!  It was beautiful.  There were thousands of people on the beach.  The waves were crashing into the beach at a heavy rate.  In fact, the waves were so strong that people would be swimming in the ocean and would get drug out to sea by the tide.  There was a helicopter housed on a mountain close to the beach and, if someone started wandering out, the helicopter would come and scoop them out of the water and put them back on the beach.  It was crazy!

As we were looking at the beautiful waves crashing into the beach, Kyla came up with an idea.  Kyla was wearing jeans and she wanted to play in the ocean, so she bought a sarong and wrapped herself in it.  She put her jeans and shoes on the beach and ran into the surf.  Now, the waves were so strong that they would come up on the beach higher than normal.  Well, a particularly strong wave came up and reached high onto the beach…and grabbed Kyla's jeans and shoes!  We chased them down before they were swept away into the ocean.  Now, Kyla had no dry clothes!  We spent about an hour chasing down new clothes for Kyla.  It was hysterical! (maybe not as hysterical for Kyla!).  I got stung by a bee during the chase for clothes too!  But, Kyla got new (dry) Rio clothes and we were back on our way.

We left Rio at 5:00 p.m. to go back to the airport.  Our flight left at 10:55 p.m., to fly overnight into Atlanta.  We arrived at the airport relaxed and calm.  Greg went off to the VIP suite and the girls sat with the commoners in the airport. [Editor note: they were invited to join me!!]  Kyla met a tour group from Virginia and we all sat and talked to them for a long while.  The tour group spent about 25 days in different parts of South America, including Peru.  It was nice to talk to them.  While the Brazilians are the nicest people I have met, they don't sit and B.S. like Americans do!  Americans are the only people I have seen who talk to complete strangers just to pass the time.  I rather enjoyed it!

We boarded our flight and left about 15 minutes late.  It's nice to be on the overnight flight back to the states…the lights are off on the plane and we all get to "sleep" until morning.  As I look out the plane window at Rio's twinkling lights, I am sad to leave Brazil.  I will miss Brazil and the Delta 5.  This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  I have met a wonderful group of people that I will spend time with for the rest of my life.  I have new Brazilian friends and "family."  My heart is very full as I leave the country.  

Thanks to Rotary for this amazing opportunity.  Words cannot express the gratitude that I have to the Rotary organization for allowing me to engage in this professional and cultural exchange.  It has been a memory that I will forever cherish. 

Also, thanks to my new friends, Kyla, Shelle, Jon and Sol.  You have made an impression on my life and I am forever changed from it.  I look forward to continuing to get to know each of you and spending time with you at home.  You are wonderful people and I wish you only the best of luck.  Thank you for spending this month with me!

Tchau! 

Michele

I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow!

Saturday April 26th--I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow already!  This month has flown by....but before our trip is over we are going to see 2 huge tourist attractions and I can hardly wait!

This morning we all took off for Itaipu-the largest hydroelectric  power plant in the world!  It was selected as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers and is on the Parana River on the border of Paraguay and Brazil. It is huge!! and that is an understatement!  Hopefully, my pictures and video will do it a small justice, because words really can not.  The amount of water going over the spillway is incredible and the sound was so cool!

The dam consists of 20 turbines/generators--10 on the Paraguay side and 10 on the Brazil side, but only 18 operate. (the other 2 are rotated for maintenance)  Half of the employees of the power plant are from Paraguay and the other half is from Brazil.  There is even a line painted in the power plant that shows where the 2 countries meet!  This power plant alone would be a good reason for both countries to work hard at getting along....it supplies almost all of the energy needs for Paraguay and about 20% of Brazil's.

After a tour of Itaipu, we headed back to the town of Foz do Iguacu to have lunch.  Some of us ate at this great little Turkish restaurant.  Excellent food-I especially liked the cheese bread thing that Michele and I shared!  Think we need to have one of these back in Rapid City

The afternoon was saved for a trip to Iguacu Falls.  These waterfalls are on the Iguacu River on the border of Argentina and Brazil. (We have been in 3 countries now---Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay! Not bad!!!)  We all took a bunch of pictures...and even some videos...to try to help capture the grandeur of this place.  Not sure if that is possible!  Some of us hiked the walkway up to Devil's Throat--which is the U-shaped group of falls that is the most impressive and marks the border of Argentina and Brazil.  Others took a boat ride to experience the falls from the "water" level--and get a little wet!!  Didn't matter which way you went, the sights and sounds were amazing.  Very calming, peaceful, and relaxing!  Great way to end a month long trip! 

With feeling so peaceful and relaxed, it is only natural to want to enjoy a beer, right?  So we headed to the restaurant area to order some beers, however our friendly "bee" friends did not like us joining them, so we took our beers and went for a little boat ride on the Parana River (top of the falls).  We had an excellent boat captain--he wouldn't let us get to close to the falls-even though we wanted him to take us closer!!  Great idea to do that--Thanks, Alex! 

(for those of you who want to see the falls, it will be featured in the upcoming movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"-I saw the preview for it this past weekend!  I am excited to go see the movie and see the falls again!)

After a quick shower and cleanup, we all headed to the restaurant Rafain.  It is a churrascaria and dinner show...Jefferson got us great seats--front row which meant we had lots of "volunteers" from our table to go up and dance with the performers!  Junior, Alex, and Sol represented us well!  It was a lot of fun...good food, friends, and wine

Hard to believe that this was our last day...the whole month was incredible.  The places we were able to go to were amazing, the people we were fortunate enough to meet/stay with were unforgettable and the memories made will last forever!  Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible--Rotary Districts 5610 and 4740, our families, friends, translators, tour guides,  and everyone else who made us feel so warm and welcome.  It was a very special month of my life and I feel very blessed to have been given this opportunity!  My home is open to all my new friends and families-I would love to have you come stay with me in South Dakota! 

always,

Shelle

And now .... on to the Falls!

Friday morning we were scheduled to depart for our final Brazilian stop with our hosts. We had convinced them that time at Foz do Iguacu' was very important to us and made them PROMISE that we'd be on the road early --- starting with an 8:00am pick-up for the boys, an 8:30am for the girls, a stop at Junior's bakery for breakfast, and we'd be out of town by 9:00am! We weren't --- I know you're shocked!! If there's one thing we've learned about Brazil it's that culturally time simply doesn't have the same importance as in the U.S.A. We've had long discussions about the relative merits of this "more relaxed" attitude toward punctuality --- and we've even begun to appreciate some of the easy going lifestyle. But this was different --- we were going to the FALLS and we wanted time there, not waiting around for a van or something. Well, we convinced the Brazilians and they were all ready to roll, as planned, with the driver and mini-bus at Steven's at 8:00am. Well, it seems that our "last night" party was pretty serious and a few of US were actually late!! Pretty funny to our hosts!! After a good laugh we did hit the road, made good time and were in Foz do Iguacu' by about 3:30pm. We met DG Jefferson there , got organized at the place we stayed and immediately WALKED across the bridge to Paraguay! [Photo taken on the International bridge --- Brazil is right / Paraguay left] What a change -- Brazil is vibrant and wealthy when compared to its neighbor to the west. The streets are dirty and we were warned about the area being "different" from Brazil --- i.e. "unsafe". But, the prices are great and we stayed together in groups. Mostly.

At about 4:30pm we decided to let everyone shop on their own and meet at 7:00pm to walk back to Brazil. There was some confusion as Paraguay is in a different time zone, but we finally determined that two and a half hour would be sufficient shopping time. I went with Alex and Junior while they shopped for electronics and the Jefferson, his wife (Marlee), and the team went exploring. Stores began closing about 6:00pm and Alex and Junior wanted to head back --- so, after confirming with Jefferson we headed back. Then, about 7:10pm, to my horror, I discovered that ALL the Brazilians were back at the hotel in Brazil ---- they (WE) had left my team stranded in a foreign country! At night! YIKES --- I was FRANTIC!!

A very quick and excited series of phone calls located the team (they were fine, just a bit scared) and in a few minutes Alex was there to accompany them home. By 8:00pm we were all safely ensconced in Brazil. My team was pretty disgusted and felt they'd been "abandoned" and made sure I knew it! I was just happy they were all safe and accounted for.

We headed downtown for pizza and beer --- pizza wasn't very good, but the beer was cold and the entertainment was wonderful. We're tired and anxious to see the world famous falls tomorrow.

gll      

Bocha is a Ball!!

We stayed in the house of Esteva’o and Janda Casa Nova of Sa’o Lorenco do Oeste. They have a very nice chacara (small hobby farm) on the edge of town. It consists of their home, an indoor churrascaria, an outdoor churrascaria, a gazebo, and some out buildings for raising birds. Churrascarias are basically barbeques where Brazilians cook their meat on spits over charcoal. In the region we toured, it was very common to see them in the houses,  but Esteva’o’s were very unique. In the indoor one, he also had a full kitchen and recreation room. The outdoor BBQ was basically a plumbed picnic structure, and one was sited on the edge of a fast moving creek. The out buildings for the birds housed a nice collection of chickens, pigeons, ducks, and pheasants. There were even Chinese Ringneck pheasants mallard ducks.

I woke up about 7:30 AM, grabbed my book, and headed outside. I was going for the picnic shelter near the creek to read, but I ran into Esteva’o and Janda. They invited me to the indoor BBQ where Janda was preparing breakfast. We had a little juice, and Esteva’o and I went into town to pick up supplies for breakfast and lunch.

On the way to the bakery, we stopped in at Estevao’s driving school. In Brazil, you have to be eighteen and attend a special  school to get a drivers license. Estevao’s school teaches driving for cars, motorcycles, and trucks. He was quite proud of his motorcycle training course, which was on an empty lot isolated from the street. It simulated the traffic signals and riding conditions people would encounter on the streets, though I believe nothing could prepare a person for driving in Brazil.

After returning from the bakery, Jon and I went down to the picnic shelter to play some cribbage. We were joined by Sideney and his wife. They had spent seven years in New Jersey working as managers for Dunkin’ Donuts. They are fluent in English, and it was nice to be able to have a conversation without translation.

For lunch we had a great home cooked meal. Estevao had a house full. Friends, Rotarians, and a hungry GSE team all filled their plate, and went outside to eat in the sun. One of our favorite dishes was the Stuffed Baked Cauliflower. Kyla got the recipe. You take a head of cauliflower, and stuff it with carrots, onions, ham, and red peppers. Then you pour real cream over it, top it with cheese, and bake for 30 minutes. I’m guessing 350 F would be a good temperature.

After lunch we went to Estevao’s favorite haunt to learn how  to play Bocha. It is similar to Bocci Ball, but they play on a special field constructed inside the bar. We played a game of doubles. A small object ball is rolled out, and teams alternate trying to throw their balls closest to the object ball. It scores similar to horseshoes, and is a fun game. Estevao has many trophies on display at his driving school.

After bocha, Jon, Greg and I went back to Estevao’s driving school so they could see it. Then we went over to the mayor’s office so I could look at a bore log from a deep new well they drilled for the city. That was very interesting. The well is about 1800 meters deep, and it is drilled through mostly basalt. The water is in a thick sand lense, and under enough pressure so that the well is free flowing. A similar well we had seen in Maravilha produced 200,000 liters of water per hour. The temperature of the water coming from the well is about 109 degrees Fahrenheit. The interesting thing about it was the water is very clean. Deep wells in South Dakota produce famously hard water whereas the Guarani Aquifer water quality was very good, and after cooling is ready for drinking. If I understood correctly, the wells in Maravilha and Sao Lorenco do Oeste were the first to be drilled into the Guarani aquifer in Brazil.

We met up with the rest of the team at Alec’s language school. Kyla and I played a little ping pong while Greg worked on getting our blog posts up to date. The ping pong ball was about three times heavier than the ones I play with back home. You really have to swing to get that thing to bounce. The girls decided to go for a walk back at their chacara, Greg stayed with Alec, and Jon and I went with Estevao and Janda. On the way home we stopped to play a game of pool. Brazilians call it snooker, but we played eight ball on a snooker table. The table is big, and the pockets are tight so the game lasted about an hour. The tips on the pool cues were a hard black rubber, and added more challenge to the already difficult game. I couldn’t put any English on the cue ball. I call the little spin I was able to get with those strange cues Portuguese. After chasing the balls around for a long while it was time to get ready for my appearance on the soccer field. For the the highlight shot of the game was a single bank into the side.

Talking to Sideney earlier in the day I learned that men play Socidad Futbol. It’s basically men’s league for soccer. They play on a short field, and use six players instead of eleven. I’d seen fields all over Santa Catarina, but I’d only seen a field in  use in Joacaba. Sideney said it would be okay if I took the field for a little bit during their evening game. Estevao loaned me some shin pads and soccer socks. I wasn’t able to find cleats (Brazilian feet run on the small side) so I went out in my running shoes. It’d been seven years since I played soccer, and the Brazilian game is much different than how I’ve played in America. It is much faster, and with the short field and fewer players much more like basketball. I didn’t contribute much to my team, but I did touch the ball a couple times, and it was fun to see the game from the field. I played for about 20 minutes before the Brazilians decided it was time for a substitution. Anyway, it was time to suit up for the last presentation. I hit the shower, and put on my Rotary sport coat and tie for the last time in Brazil.

The Sao Lorenco do Oeste club is small. Our last presentation was to a crowd of maybe 25 people. We had our customary Portuguese welcome speech, delivered our presentation, and capped the evening off with a few draughts of the local firewater. With luck, my days as a stage performer singing such timeless classics as “This auld Flag”, “Take me out and Shoot me”, and “The Hokey Pokey” with body parts sung in Portuguese are over.

Sol

We’re on the move again!

We left Chapeco Wednesday morning and headed towards Sao Laurenco – but first a stop at Coronel Freitas, a city just a short drive away, with its own Rotary Club. Eliseta Stenger(2007 GSE team member from Brazil 4740 to USA 5610) joined us for the entire trip that day. It was great visiting with her about her experience in our District! She had a wonderful time!

Upon arrival in Coronel Freitas, we toured City Hall, met the mayor, toured a local APAE (school for mental/physical challenged children and adults) facility supported by the local Rotary and also toured a local hospital. Jon and Shelle especially enjoyed this part. The hospital was more of a clinic, and reminded me of a facility from the 60s. Not only that, but the equipment was antique and the place was empty. The wheelchairs looked like something out of the 19^th century, and the X-ray room was pretty wild too. I’m always amazed that the hospitals in Brazil are empty. Are Brazilians healthier than Americans, do they just not go to the doctor as often? Odd! Personally, I think their stress levels are so much lower, that fewer of them get ill and need hospitalization. We were joined for lunch by local Rotarian women, and it was an excellent lunch. Time to kennel up again, as we continue our journey towards the northern border with Parana, another Brazilian state.

We are met at San Laurenco by Alex (Brazilian exchange team member) and friends. Several of them speak English. They are a happy group and we followed them to what appeared to be a hobby farm/animal menagerie/guest resort – complete with guesthouse ( 3 bedrooms), dining hall, streams, Brazilian pine  trees and a host of farm animals and exotic macaw birds. This is “Junior’s” hobby home. The girls learn we are staying together here – and we are ecstatic. [Editors note: The boys had equally wonderful quarters at another Rotarian's "home" (actually more of an estate!)] It was just a beautiful setting, with vast opportunities for long walks, fresh air, and some quality time together. We all gathered for coffee, treats from Junior’s bakery, beer, and grilled pinion (pine nuts) before settling into our new accommodations before dinner. The girls decided to go on a long country road walk during our free time. The sun was setting, the cows mooed at us along the way, and every farm dog reminded us who was the Alpha Dog. The fresh air and GREEN countryside was just phenomenal, and exactly what we needed at this point in the journey.

Dinner was fabulous. A wonderful homemade soup, meat, breads, and bottles of wine and beer. Alex brought his guitar and played music for us (John Denver’s “Country Roads”), while we Americans taught the Brazilians how to play Spoons with cards. Have you ever tried to explain the game of Spoons in Portuguese to someone? It’s an experience. Sometimes that practice round is a crucial component. Anyway, it was a fabulous evening!

Kyla

It's the 80's All Over Again

The 80's were wonderful --- unless of course we're discussing fashion or technology in the practice of public accounting! Fortunately, we've come a long way since then. Unfortunately (for them) our counterparts in Brazil have not. One of the benefits of the GSE program is the opportunity for "professional visits". In Chapeco, Santa Catarina, Brazil (pop 210,000) Rotarian and Contrador Luis Klanert arranged a wonderful series of meetings for me. Luis and his English-speaking university aged son first took me to meet with Avaci Gazoni, Diretor of the Sindicato das Emprasas de Servicos Contabeis Assessormento, Pericias, Informacoes e Pesquisas no Estado de Santa Catarina [translation: Executive Director of the CPA Society of Santa Catarina]. Avaci was very helpful and most interested in understanding the similarities and differences in how the profession is practiced in our respective countries. We compared demographics and found that while Brazil has more firms per capita than the U.S., both countries have an overwhelming majority of small (under 10) firms. In reviewing the state of small business in Brazil it's easy to understand why ---- there are very few franchises and most businesses are small "Mom & Pop" owner-managed style. These businesses utilize precious little technology (the most advanced retailers have just rolled out scanners and bar codes!) and most are required by law to engage a "Contrador" (i.e. CPA). Once engaged the Contrador (actually the firm) performs virtually all bookkeeping and accounting services. No Sarbanes-Oxley management rules here --- the outside firm does EVERYTHING and at year-end issues a signed and certified "book" that contains a printed record of EVERY transaction, including all appropriate adjusting journal entries, for the year. This "book" is kept by the client and must be presented upon demand of a bank creditor or of the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service. I tried, without success, to find something that vaguely resembled a financial statement in the "book" I was shown. It seems that management prepares and issues financial statements and the role of the independent accountant is to capture, classify, and record every transaction and prepare a record of such. Avaci proudly told me that the Society is working with vendors to develop a method to deliver the "book" electronically! [Ya think?]

My next stop was the Revenue Service where I met Roberto Forselius, District Manager of the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service. Roberto confirmed that the IRS and CPAs in Brazil have the same "love/hate" relationship as in the U.S. --- with certain significant differences. The format of the "book" is prescribed by the Service and the accountant's license is at risk for virtually any material error. In sharp contrast with the U.S. young accountants in Brazil begin their careers in private practice and aspire to land a prestigious, high-paying position with the IRS. I was surprised to hear that the Brazilians estimate a 50% revenue loss attributable to under-reporting and failure to file ---- sorta made me feel proud to realize that they admire our success in voluntary compliance!

My last stop was at the offices of the largest firm in Chapeco --- about 160 people. The firm looks exactly like a typical U.S. firm of the 80's. Two partners, six managers, about 20 seniors, and 130 clerk/data-input/bookkeepers. Professionally licensed "Contradors" are 4 year college graduates while clerks are basically trained "on the job". I observed no "sense of urgency" here and everywhere I looked I saw vestiges of the "the olden days" for the profession. From a wall full of rubber stamps to rooms full of data entry clerks --- Brazil is decidedly  behind the U.S. in the delivery of professional services. Managing  Partner Vilmar Tadeu Da Silva told me that people are cheap in Brazil and while they are trying to advance technology the costs are very steep. During this discussion I heard an interesting complaint --- one that I heard at a small office in Compos Novos a few weeks ago and also at the Society office earlier today. It seems that the market leading provider in Brazil (I.O.B.) was recently purchased and prices have increased substantially. The purchaser? None other than Thomson. (No further comment!).

While Brazil is technically considered a "third world" country their financial infrastructure seems solid, albeit mostly manual. They understand their need for technology and they keep a close eye on the U.S. as an aspirational example. They have a vibrant economy and an enviable entrepreneurial work ethic. My prediction is that they will move 30 years in the next 10. It's an exciting time for this South American giant and I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to share with and learn from them.

Obrigado, amigos!

gll

Old Brazilian Adage --- "Let Sleeping Snakes Lie!!

Como vai, amigos? Its time for me to send you all a note again, I cant believe that it has been a week since I have blogged... we had a great day on Monday, April 21st. After numerous discussions the previous day amongst our Brazilian friends (in Portuguese of course) a decision was finally made that they would take us for a hike. Of course, we where all very excited about his. The hike was to be up a trail with multiple waterfalls...we where skeptical as to what the hike would be like, however our Brazilian friends did not fail us, nor did the weather ---- sun sun sun. We had an amazingly beautiful hike over rough terrain (Rocks, stream and log crossings etc...) There even involved ropes and cables at various steep sections. Sol, our wild man, was the first to dive into a clean crisp pool and take a shower under the falls. It didn't take me long before I was enjoying the water as well. It took a little encouragement to get Kyla in, but Shelle and Michelle wimped out. We preceded to hike 10 waterfalls of various heights, the tallest being approximately 100 feet. It was adventurous for us all.  As I climbed a rock while waking up the stream I hear several people yelling at me in Portuguese, I didn't think much of it, I get yelled at in Portuguese all the time!  As I crested the rock, I realized what the commotion was all about. I was face to face with a snake! He was about 2 feet away...sleeping peacefully!!!! (thankfully). I skirted around him and proceeded to have a deep tissue massage under a 75 foot waterfall. I learned later that Mr. Snake is not a very nice snake, however there is a anti-venom....yeah. Our friends prepared us a fabulous lunch of pasta and chicken, fried fish, and my favorite, fried pineapple. There may have been a few Caipirhinias and wine as well...We enjoyed this meal on the banks of the Uruguai river. Attempted some fishing, and Sol and I raced up a steep (30-40 degrees angle) boat ramp. I let Sol win, he has been a little homesick and needed an ego boost! Monday evening we meet as a group at a Rotarians farm. There are six rotary groups here in Chapeco, the presidents of each group organized a dinner consisting of risotto, breads and salads. It was the best risotto I have ever had! Not sure if it was that good, or I was really hungry after a great day in the Brazilian outdoors.

Jon

Top Ten Similarities (with apologies to Dave Letterman)

Brazil is a huge country that incorporates many different cultures. In Santa Catarina the influence is mostly European (German and Italian), much like the U.S. Other areas are more influenced by Africa --- as in African Americans (yes, there are African Americans here --- think about it!) The longer I'm here, the more I see similarities with the U.S. Here's my "top ten" list:

1. Both cover huge land areas and dominate their respective continents.
2. Both countries were settled discovered at approximately the same time by the same general people.
3. Both countries land was essentially "stolen" from indigenous people (Indians) and both are still trying to solve the "Indian problem".
4. Both were formed by separate states (U.S. 50 / Brazil 27) --- all of whom argue with the federal government about who controls what and pays for what.
5. The U.S. industry, population, higher standard of living and better education is (sort of) concentrated in the North and Costal areas. Brazil's in concentrated in the South and Costal area. (Remember the hemispheres are opposite!)
6. Both countries had slavery early on and serious difficulty trying to end it --- Brazil solved it without a civil war.
7. We both had our capital city designed by Europeans and built from scratch in a neutral area.
8. Both responded to the 1972 oil embargo with a plan to achieve energy independence. Too bad the similarity ends there as Brazil IS energy independent, and we're not even close!
9. Rotary is very important in both countries.
10. Both countries are "sports nuts" --- Brazil with soccer and volleyball, and the U.S. with football, basketball, and baseball.

Interesting ..... at least to me.

gll

More Random Observations

Traffic	Energy	Commerce
Stop signs are universally ignored	Lights are ALWAYS turned off when not in use	Stores are closed from noon to 2pm
Round-abouts are everywhere	Hallways are dark and lighted only when in use --- controlled by motion detectors	Nothing is open on week-ends or holidays
Left turns are from the far RIGHT lane and across traffic from BOTH directions	Very few incandescent lights.	Very few franchises
Roads here are in HORRIBLE condition	Street lighting is dim and/or non-existent.	Owners often live above their office / store.
Tail-gating is rampant --- 3 feet at 80 KPH is normal	It's often difficult to see if a gas station is open --- because they are ALL almost dark, all the time.	There are MANY family businesses
Traffic lights have indicators showing remaining time before changing. No yellows!	No water heaters ---- but hot water "on demand".	We saw many substantial (200 + employees) businesses that have been grown over the past 10 to 20 years.
There are MANY speed bumps irregularly spaced on roads --- in town and highway	Water volume in showers is VERY limited.	Very few large retail stores / most are owner operated.
There are also MANY speed control signs with cameras --- and expensive tickets are mailed to car owners	There is no hot water in sinks.	Very limited variety as compared to the U.S.
Auto insurance is not required	There are no dryers --- laundry is hung to dry.	Employers often provide transportation, lunch and medical services (i.e. a doctor on staff) for their employees.
Police have "way-points" where the road narrows and every car must drive slowly past an inspection station.	There are very few elevators.	Movie theatres are VERY rare --- 2 screens in Chapeco (pop 200K+)
I saw only a few children in car seats --- almost all were carried or standing on the front seat.	Air conditioning is very rare --- and when used only rooms are cooled and then only to about 78 degrees.	Employees often start work at 14 and it is not uncommon to retire with 50+ years of service to one employer.
Brazilian cars are TINY!!	Traffic moves slower because cars are smaller and roads are terrible!	Government retirement (Social Security) is very limited
90% of the vehicles in Brazil are "flex" fueled	Houses are much smaller and don't require heating	Families often live in multiple generation households with parents caring for children and elderly parents.
Lots of motorcycles --- and the largest are about 750cc.	Items for sale have very little "packaging"	It is common for children to remain at home through their late 20s / early 30s.
There are MANY cobblestone streets.	Recycling and mandatory and tracked by the government.	There are very few building codes