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4-23-08

Today I had to say goodbye to the generous and sweet Regina and Carlinhos.  Ruth brought us to our next destination:  Sao Jose dos Campos.  I had absolutley no idea of what to expect.  We headed out on a very congested highway that connects Sao Paulo with Rio.  Our arrival to Sao Jose was so calming.  It was so clean and beautiful and full of modern high rises with distinct and colorful architectural styles.  The streets were so clean and organized.  I felt like I was in Polanco in Mexico City!  We arrived to the city´s Rotary and there I met the divine Maria Helena Roche and her beautiful and fun daughter Fabiola (Fafa) Viera.  Fabiola speaks perfect English.  Within 2 minutes, I felt completely at ease with these remarkable women.  They brought me to a gorgeous green high rise called Edificio Pennsylvania to the 11th floor.  I couldn´t believe the privileged view!  Colorful buildings, rolling hills and clear skies for 180 degrees.  I could even see the Embraer ( Brazil´s famous aviation private jet company) plant from their living room.  My bedroom was so gorgeous!  An unparalled view, beautiful decoration and an ultramodern bathroom.  The whole apartment was so classy with clean colors on a crisp white palate.  There were balconies connecting the rooms and perfect natural light everywhere.  Fafa immediately took me on a two hour tour of the city in her car.  I saw the UNIVAP University, the downtown, a beautiful valley, modern shopping facilities, beautiful neighborhoods and a plethora of parks commemorating events and people.  Sao Jose has 750,000 inhabitants.  During my tour of the city, Fafa really made me feel like a sister!  She was amazing!  I miss her terribly.  Fafa works as a lawyer in her father Jairo´s office.  Fafa is always dressed formally with amazing style.  She loves clothes that have chic sparkles and bold colors.  She aslo has some of the most amazing shoes I´ve ever seen!  She took this time to describe her family to me.  She is so in love with her five year old son Carlos Eduardo Jr  and her husband Carlos Eduardo.  Carlos Eduardo is in school and her husband owns a gym and is a personal trainer.  She has two other sisters named Maria Agustina (Guta) and Juliana.  Maria Agustina works at the Aviation Secretary and is married to Agustino (Guto) and they have a seven year old son named Heitor who loves to swim.  He is so intelligent and always concentrating very hard.  Juliana works as a pharmacist in the policy and regulation field and she is married to Anderson who works at General Motors.  Juliana just had a baby a month and a half ago, so she is on maternity leave for four more months.  Her baby Enrico is gorgeous!  We arrived back to the Roche´s home and I had yet another amazing meal!  This was the BEST feijoada that I have tried to date!  The seasoning was exquisite.  It was so nice to meet everyone that Fafa had so lovingly described.  I had an immediate connection with her son Carlos Eduardo.  He is so full of spunk and personality!  He is also just adorable.  I had so much fun with him and we grew to be quite tight.  Right after lunch I went down to the apartment´s pool to go swimming with Heitor and Carlos Eduardo.  I couldn´t believe how at home I felt with this amazing family… and at this point I had only known them for five hours!  That evening I attended a birthday party at Fafa´s home.  She turned 33 on the day of my arrival!  I couldn´t believe that she spent her birthday making my visit optimal!  I met more of her friends and family, ate a feast and had a delicious birthday cake that Maria Helena prepared.  I also finally met Jairo, who got off of work late.  What an elegant, brilliant and amazing man!  He is originally from the state of Minas Gerais.  He has 10 brothers and sisters.  When he was very young, his father sent the family on  a train to Sao Jose dos Campos, while he travelled on a horse with a trailer.  It took him almost two weeks!  Jairo worked at a material factory to pay his way through law school.  He then became the confidant of the factory´s owners and their trusted lawyer.  Later, the family fell into economic problems and the city paid the debt.  Now the area is called Parque Burle Marx.  Jairo was very sad telling me this story, a he was the lawyer who facilitated the deal.  Jairo had a gift of speaking in a Portuguese that I could so easily understand.  He speaks so clearly and enunciates his words so well that I can understand 100%!  Jairo took hours to explain Brazil´s geography to me.  He laid a giant map out on the dining room table and explained commerce, population density, terrains and social economics by region.  He made me understand Brazil´s immensity.  That evening after Fafa´s wonderful party I returned to have a perfectly wonderful and restful night of sleep high above Sao Jose dos Campos. 

--Tanya George

4-22-08

We woke very early to go to Guararema.  Eloisa was kind enough to bring us all there.  She left us with Ruth.  It is about a half hour from Jacarei.  Guararema is a little bit more tropical than Jacarei.  The variety of flowers was impressive.  Guararena has no stop lights!  People drive slowly and with caution.  Once we waited at a corner at rush hour for minutes just to turn left.  Guararema has around 25,000 inhabitants.  Our first stop was at the city´s Rotary club.  There was a theatrical presentation in progress that was aimed at helping young adults in the community practice their communication skills.  We really enjoyed this.  From there Ruth brought us to an amazing orchid plantation!  The process to grow an orchid to its full size is long and arduous.  In the first part, chemists instigate the fertilization process and the gestation period is nine months.  The artificially created  plant stays in a small and temperature controlled room for a year and a half.  Afterwards, the plant is moved and moved to many different rooms and climates.  By the the time the plant is 13 years old it is full-grown. 

We enjoyed our young guide Filippe´s broad knowledge of this process.  I couldn´t believe the vast variety of orchids!  They were just gorgeous, and served as the background of some pretty beautiful photos.  It was also explained to us that after 13 years, the orchid sells to a wholesaler for less than US $15.  It then travels through the hands of several distributors, and by the time it arrives to the end-user its value is between $60 and $100.  By around 1 pm we were famished and Ruth brought us to the hacienda-style restaurant and hotel of a friend of hers.  We were so impresed by the beautiful grounds and swimming pools.  The restaurant was open and and beautiful.  We had a buffet of many salad ingredients (with my favorite:  arugula) and feijoada and meats.  The most impressive thing at the buffet was the extensive desserts!  There was a flan, candied pumpkin, doce de leite (caramel), fried bananas and fruits.  This was the first time I tried a fresh pineapple juice and it was amazing!  From there, we went to Guararema´s public health secretary building.  In the last 2 years, Guararema has switched over to a health care method called “SUS”.  In that small amount of time, 12,000 members of the community have enrolled.  We were graciously attended and informed by Adriana Martins de Paula.  She took an hour and a half out of her busy day to explain the system to us.  Socialized health care is a very volatile subject in Brazil.  The poor are very happy with this system, as it doesn´t cost them anything and doesn´t obligate them to work.  People who are able to in Brazil purchase costly private health insurance (comparable to US prices!), as they prefer not to wait in lines even if the health care is free.  These same people who opt to purchase health insurance do not want to have to pay higher taxes to pay for the health care of the masses.  This is a subject that sparks a lot of passion in Brazilians.  The Brazilians with whom I have stayed in both Jacarei and Sao Jose dos Campos are very fearful of Brazil´s left-turn, as they have seen what Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela.  Afterwards, we visited a center (CRAS) funded by the government that strives to aid in the development of at-risk youth.  They aim to develop character and educate kids as to what will be expected of them in their future jobs.  Afterwards, we visited another center (Projeto Arte e Riso) also funded by this government branch that promotes acting at a theater in the center of Guararema.  Later we visited a gorgeous park that is surrounded by the Parana River and tapirs (they look like giant guinea pigs).  It is an island connected to the mainland by a pretty bridge called Pau Dalho.  We then went to Ruth´s wonderful home on the edge of Guararema right near a huge and new school.  It is nestled in a gorgeous area on an expansive piece of land that has a myriad of trees, a swimming pool, flowers and seven dogs.  Her home is full of antiques and eclectic decoration.  She made us feel right at home and served us some wonderful fruit.  We changed into our very elegant unifroms and arrived soon after to Guararema´s Rotary club at 8pm.  They made a delicious valencia style paella.  Our presentation went really well!  Everyone was really engaged and entertained and we really felt like hits!  This was really invigorating for us.  We left the meeting at 11:30 and were in our beds back in Jacarei by 12:30.  It was a long but productive day. 

--Tanya George

4-21-08

We woke bright and early to go and see the birth of the Tiete River.  The drive leading to the town of Salesopolis was breath taking.  We saw extensive Eucalyptus plantations, dairy fazendas and lush green rolling hills.  We arrived to “Nasciente do Rio Tiete” and walked about a quarter mile to the actual source.  As the Tiete goes through the city of Sao Paulo, it gets increasingly polluted.  I learned that clean and balanced water in Brazil has a specific type of water bug, minnows and a “surface film”.  As the river nears the giant city of Sao Paulo, these three important variables disappear from the river´s ecosystem.  The area surrounding the river source used to be a eucalyptus farm.  Twelve years ago they cut away all of the trees, and in this short amount of time it has grown back to be a lush forest full of plants and trees native only to Brazil; avocado trees, giant ferns and bamboo to name a few.  I think the visit was very interesting for everyone.  I was so impressed that by only my second day Rotary International had planned an outing that completely fit the profile of my interest.  The visit was invaluable to me!  Afterwards, we had lunch at a spectacular place called Rancho Canarinho.  It was right on a placid lake surrounded by magnificent rolling hills.  The day had a misty cloudiness by this time.  We served ourselves at a buffet that had feijoada, salads, fish and cuts of meat.  I think everyone had seconds.  Afterwards we headed to Santa Branca.  I rode in the car with Sara, Ineis and Carlos.  It was so fun getting to know the dynamic and adorable couple!  They are so young at heart, you would think they were teenagers. Sara was so lucky to be with this vibrant pair!  They brought us to the picturesque town of Santa Branca.  We saw the huge Rotary club and a Rotary-sponsored organization ( from the city of Sao Paulo) that serves the elderly of that community.  The level of organization and cleanliness was admirable.  The sister who was in charge was amazing… she was 15 years older than many of the people whom she was serving and assisting.  Sister___ had the energy of a 30-year old!  We were all floored by her abilities.  Claudia and Sara found this visit to be very relevant to their backgrounds.  That evening, Manuel, Claudia, Sara and I worked on our presentation with Nicolau Jr.  He was so helpful!  We then did our practice presentation for the Eloisa and Greco at their home.  They gave us some constructive criticsim but loved it and we were relieved.  That evening, Eloisa prepared a wonderful dinner of feijoada, sausages, steamed vegetables, wonderful fresh fruits and candied pumpkin.  Eloisa and Greco´s apartment is os luxurious!  It´s on the 11th floor and so modern.  The view is just spectacular.  I was so impressed with the decorating. 

--Tanya George

4-20-08

We arrived to the Sao Paulo airport at 7am.  The Rotary club members from Jacarei, Brazil were there to greet us.  They made us feel so welcome with their enthusiasm!  It was especially good to finally meet Ruth Fernandes Mourao, the coordinator of all of our visits, activities and family stays.  Claudia was assigned to stay with Eloisa and Joao Greco (Greco).  Sara was assigned to stay with Carlos and Ineis Oliveira.  I met Regina and Carlinhos Bueno, and I was so happy to be assigned to stay at their home.  I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the highway was between Sao Paulo and Jacarei.  At 9:30 we entered the city limits of Jacarei (300,000 inhabitants), and Carlinhos decided to show us his business.  Carlinhos owns Camafran.  He has 28 trailers and trucks, and his business focuses mostly on the removal of hazardous waste.  I can´t thank Rotary International and Ruth Fernandes Mourao for connecting me with this Rotarian whose profession is so relevant to my interests!  In Sao Paulo state, there are many regulations about the disposal of hazardous waste.  Unfortunately (per Carlinhos), it is the only state in Brazil that presently has these strict regulations.  This is obviously also great for Carlinhos´business.  Carlinhos began driving trucks when he was only 14.  He bought his first truck in his 20s and humbly grew his business to what it is today.  The name Camafran is in honor of Carlinhos (Ca), Marcelo (Ma) and Francisco (Fran); his sons.  Regina and Carlinhos live in  a beautiuful and spacious yellow home in the heart of Jacarei.  They love their home, but will soon move to an apartment in a high rise.  There is too much space since their children moved out.  Regina told me that every Sunday, they host their extended family at their home, which means more than 70 people!  The first day was so eventful!  We went to a great family get together thrown by Claudia´s hosts´daughter.  We tried our first feijoada (beans, rice, farofa, cove) and caipirinhas (cachaça, lime and sugar), had a samba lesson from the beautiful Patricia (a cousin of the family), watched a soccer game and met probably 100 people!  That evening, we had pizza at a wonderful “coutry” themed restaurant.  Everyone got up and danced.  That evening we also met some additional Rotarians and their families.  Nicolau and Iliana.  Nicolau is an accountant and Iliana owns a language school that specializes in English and Japanese.  Their son Niclolau Jr was wonderful!  He is 18 and has perfect English.  He ended up accompanying us on a lot of our outings and even helped us refine our presentations.  Nicolau has spent extensive time in Michigan as an exchange student.  He loves the United States.  He is going to be attending University and he aspires to be a famous DJ some day. 

--Tanya George

Posted 4-10-2008