Off to Ararauma

Today we left the city of Niterio to head to the Rotary District Conference in Ararauma. The big city life is behind us for now and Ararauma is a smaller more rural place. Horses run free, even on the roads. We about hit the white one. We had to meet with the district Governer and attend an awards presentation. After a couple of hours of listening to people speak in a language you can not understand, youtend to become very sleepy. It became harder and harder to stay awake. Luckly for us, our friend Sandra pulled us out and saved us from death by yawning. At the conclusion, Eric and I watched an old man scarf down appetizers like crazy. At one time he followed the server around eating off the tray. Alexandra and Roberto took us out for supper at what turned out to be midnight. Too much food for that time of night. On to the next day, presentation tomorrow. See Ya!!

Day 4, School visit & presentation

Ola! We started the day off visiting a school and a university. The children at the school loved us for some reason. Mainly they wanted to hear us talk and take pictures with us. It was a lot of fun to spend some time with them. We experience our first bad lunch at the university. Only thing edible for me was the rice and an orange. I am stilled amazed of the beauty of Brazil and in awe of the poverty and life style some people have. We also gave our first presentation in Portuguese. It was dreadful. Looking forward to Sugar Loaf tomorrow. See Ya!!

Day 3 Fort Santa Cruz

We got a beautiful day on Tuesday to do some good site seeing. Since we all stayed with different families, starting off in the morning can be a long adventure. I was the first one picked up, so I get to spend a lot of time in the van. Our first stop was Fort Santa Cruz that was built in the 1600's to protect the bay leading into Rio & Niteroi. The road leading to the fort was narrow and was shear rock on one side and water on the other. We had a good tour, got sent to the prison, but released for good behavior and saw the massive number of cannons used to protect the inlet. From there we went to check out some beaches. Each one was better than the one before. Large rock outcrops, white sandy beaches and a warm breeze. We are becoming very spoiled by our host Sandra. She has been awesome. That's all for now. SEE YA!!

The arrival

We made it to Rio after our long 9 hour flight. Arrived around 8:30 am, made it through customs and was greeted by Alexandra & Fany. Had a great Brazilian fruit drink and some cheese bread puff things. We then jumped in a van and did a little touring on our way to see the Air Race in Rio. Drove by Capacabana Beach, was a bit rainy, so it was very quite. We then went to the Air Race only to see one flight before getting soaked. The race got rained out, so we went shopping, or at least Meg did. We ate lunch around 3:00 or so and headed out to meet our host families. I am staying with Flavia. She is a former GSE member who went to India. Today, we went to a hospital to see a Rotary funded milk bank for mothers. Also saw the ICU ward for premies. A set of twins and triplets. Had our first Rotary meeting with a good lunch. We then went to a factory where they make plastic covered wire. After that we got to see a private school that looked in disrepair. The kids were very happy to see us and even took some picyures with us. Did some more shopping, went to an 8:00 Rotary meeting, had some dinner and arrived back with my host family around 11:00 or so. Now time for bed. Get to do some site seeing tomorrow. SEE YA!!!