Rio Branco
What a wonderful greeting in Rio Branco!! ! At the airport there was a large banner and a large group of people to meet us. We have reach celebrity status and Kelly is in her element. This is the closest she is going to get to the Oscars party! Everyone was taking photos of us everywhere!! Liz grabbed some random guy to be in the photo, he posed for the photo with her and then wandered off bemused as he was n ot part of the Rotary welcome party!! Arriving and being assigned a new host is always a bit nerve racking part of the GSE experience and we were taken to a hotel where we haad a traditional Brazilian bbq, very nice!! The next thing is Romario ( very famous Brazilian footballer spending much of his ccareer with Barcelona ) walks in and sits down at the table next to us!! I have to admit to being a little star struck! I have a Liverpool shirt donated by Lucas Leiva and he was good enough to sign it for me. It is also sigened by the Liverpool team and we will auction it at the district conference. We are looking out for a suitable charity to support with the money and we have a few in mind already.
Rio Branco is more of a town than a city by our standards. They have just suffered the worst floods in a long long time with many people losing their homes. Romario was in town to play in a charity football match which we attended that evening. Here it is cattle country and so the staple diet of the team will change from Fish to meat. I have eaten fish every day since arriving in Brazil and it is amazing, I have never experienced food like it. There are so many mosquitoes about here and the humidity is very intense at times. My new host is Bruno, he lives on a run down farm and there is lots of land. There is a lake with crocodiles in it, monkeys everywhere and he was telling me about the three meter long Boa constrictor they caught ……….after that I don’t know what he said as I was kind of distracted!! I have informed my wife that I am not sleeping alone and I am sharing my room with about a million little creatures, thank god for the mozzie net!
We spent Friday visiting the two universities . One is the public uni, it looked a bit tired in places and wasn’t particularly inviting in appearance, we were met by the deacon who gave us a load of books each which we will not be able to take home as they weigh tooooo much! You have to earn your place in the public uni and once in,the courses are free. They very highly regarded. The private Uni on the other side of the main road is very modern and we had a tour in the afternoon. Beautiful place with wonderful facilities. We were shown around by one of the Professors Vanessa, it was really interesting to see and hear about the differences in the courses from the UK. Many of their courses include a year or two of practical experience where peole from the poor communities come in and receive free dental care or phsio or maybe councelling. These sessions are well attended and an appointment system has been set up due to the popularity.
Back home and a quick change for our presentation in the evening. Rio Branco most definitely works on Brazilian time!!! No one does anything on time here. The evening started at 830 pm. I arrived at about 8.40pm ( early here) we set up the equipment and the Rotaractors ( Young Rotary ) also prepared a presentation. People wers still arriving at abou 9.15 !! at 9.30 they got under way and the welcome speeches started. We eventually started about 1015pm!! The introduction was longer than our presentation !!! Except for a slight blip at the start it went really well and it was our best audience so far. Then some more speeches and presentations and then we ate dinner. It was now gone 11pm. We were all exhausted and all everyone wanted to do was talk to us And take photos and then more phtots. It can be really hard work at times. I got to bed at 0130 hrs and was up at 0630 to meet the team for the journey to Bolivia. As I type we are winding our way along therborder through the rubber tree plantations and the forest to the right. The scenery is lovely and another country is about to be ticked off the list!
Bolivia was a real experience, Before we left Brazil we visited a school for a leg stretch and toilet break. The next thing we are presented to a group of about 200 students who are doing extra work on a Saturday learning all about the environment. Theses impromptu introductions are happening quite a bit and the trip is being dubbed the Magical mystery tour as we have no idea what is going to happen next!! We love it!!
Overall the work ethic in Brazil is very good. They work hard and EVERYONE seems to be studying or teaching at night school. Universities seem to play a huge part of life in the cities. On the other hand they are late for everything! Brazil time means anytime and you can be kept waiting for an hour without any king of explanation, that’s just the way it is!
Coracy our organiser in Rio Branco, is very organised, he has everything sorted and even moved me out of my accommodation last night at midnight as he wasn’t too happy with it!!
More blogs and photos to follow………..
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