Dear Rotarians of District 7010,
I have now been in Brazil for 9 months and as I will be flying back to Canada on June 21st, I only have two months remaining in my exchange. As I approach the end of this year abroad, time seems to be passing quicker than ever. I remember my friend Vitor from Uberaba, Minas Gerais who did an exchange in Collingwood saying that there isn’t enough time in the year. I feel the same way. However, I have been trying to get the most I can out of my time here. I have taken up new sports that are unique to Brazil, have involved my self with the community service efforts of our local Interact club and had the opportunity to show my Canadian family Brazil.
While in Lencois, Ceara during the northeast trip, I took part in a demonstration of Capoeira, a martial art unique to Brazil. After returning from the trip, I found out that a few of my friends do Capoeira with a local group. With some proper instructions, I started attending classes with them. This has been a very unique experience as it has deep roots in Brazilian culture. In practice, we usually stretch, then work on some basic moves, learn some new techniques and then have a session where we stand in a circle, sing and play instruments while two people go against each other in the middle. I remember stopping in the last practice I went to and thinking about what I would be doing if I were in Canada. It’s at these times when I feel especially immersed in Brazil, and even after nine months, the feeling is still surreal.
I have also taken up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the past few months. The Brazilian form of this martial art is world-renowned and is taught around the world. Jiu Jitsu is taught normally at the same time as Capoeira on opposing sides of a sports arena. Capoeira usually finishes earlier though, so I’ll go for a Jiu Jitsu session after. This martial art is extremely tiring and technically complex. After spending months in the gym, I can start to see the benefits when fighting since although the other students are far more experienced, my strength and endurance can give them a tough time. If I haven’t made this clear already, I love playing sports. Getting involved with Capoeira and Jiu Jitsu, as well as soccer, has helped me get fit, participate in something deeply rooted in Brazilian culture and meet more people in my community.
Since arriving in Brazil, I have been attending Interact meetings. This is the division of Rotary for kids age 12-18. Unfortunately, Collingwood’s Interact club only started after I left Canada. I have gotten to participate with this level of our organization and see how it benefits our community. Iturama’s Interact club is very involved in community service work as members regularly volunteer at a shelter for abandoned and mostly disabled seniors and a soup kitchen in a poorer part of town.
I have become very involved with their community service projects, volunteering at the senior’s shelter with them on Friday afternoons and by myself during the rest of the week. My first host mom was the president of the senior’s shelter and appreciates my help just as much as the other staff and senior occupants do.
I have also taken part in helping a local soup kitchen on Saturdays. This is in a low-income part of town and our work is greatly appreciated. I have helped ladle soup into bowls, feeding a big flux of people coming through for a Saturday lunch, and fill up bowls I notice are empty. The soup kitchen has very low staff and even when a few of us show up, our efforts are greatly appreciated.
Interact also organizes fundraising events. I helped run one function recently called the “Festival de Sorvete” (or Ice Cream Festival). There, I waited tables, cleaned tables and scooped Ice Cream. It was on a hot, Sunday afternoon and there were over 200 kids who each paid R$5 each for admission. We raised approximately R$850 for our club. This money goes toward various local community projects and charity donations that help people across the world.
From May 4 to May 13, my Canadian family visited me in Brazil. It was great to see them again and show them around Brazil. They landed at Uberlandia airport after a connected flight from Sao Paulo, just as I did 9 months ago. It felt weird being on the other side of the gate at arrivals.
After talking to them for a few minutes and taking a few pictures, I began translating conversation between my family and my host dad and brother – this continued for the next 10 days while they were here. It really tested my language skills and definitely improved my Portuguese during their stay. It’s interesting to note that in Brazil although many young people speak English, very few adults speak even a word. My family joked that it felt really weird to be totally dependent on me for all forms of communication – well, me plus hand gestures and charades.
My host family and I spent the next day in Uberlandia showing my Canadian family the city I’ve stayed in many times throughout my year. We had lunch at the best Churracaria (barbecue restaurant) in Uberlandia - just as I did on my second day here. This is the best food I’ve had during my exchange and it was great to show them a completely different style of not only food, but service as well.
At a Churrasco restaurant, there are waiters constantly running around the restaurant with different cuts of meat. They offer standard cuts such as lamb, steak and pork, as well as completely different types of food like chicken hearts and feijoada, a bean mixture that includes pig snout, feet and ears. Between every bite you get offered a new type of food. In a two-hour sitting, you can eat a week’s worth of food.
After lunch, we returned to the apartment and my parents tried sleeping off some jetlag while my brother and I helped my host brother Luiz put together a Lego airplane he got as an early birthday present.
We had a great dinner later that night and gave my host parents some presents. Among other things, we gave my host mom Telma a Collingwood-made bracelet and Niagara icewine, my host dad a Canadian tie and an assortment of local craft beers, and two hockey sticks and indoor hockey balls for Luiz. They really appreciated the gifts.
The next day, we travelled to Caldas Novas for a Rotary District Conference. Caldas Novas is a popular tourist destination for Brazilians. It is located on top of a dormant volcano and is famous for its natural hot springs. Even after the water is cooled, some hot springs can be over 50 degrees Celsius. We spent all of Friday in the hotel’s water park and pools. The next morning, all the exchange students went to the conference center for a presentation about the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and to give individual speeches. My speech went well and my host dads said I spoke well and my Portuguese was correct. It was great for my parents to meet my exchange officials. I also met a lot of Rotarians who wanted to talk to me after the speeches. I think there was added interest about me since I introduced my family during my speech. Brazilians have a massive curiosity for foreigners, which I think most Canadians lack.
After the conference, we drove 5 hours south to Uberaba, Vitor’s city. We met up with Vitor and his family at a shopping mall. I hadn’t met up with him before in Brazil so it was cool to be speaking Portuguese with him and meet his family. We went to his house, unpacked and left for his grandparents’ house for dinner. There were around 30 relatives there and although looking like a family reunion, it was only a small portion of his family. After dinner, we went to an exhibition. At Brazilian exhibitions, there are rodeos, cattle sales, lots of food and concerts. Uberaba’s exhibition is the largest in Brazil. In their leilao, or cattle sale, one cow was sold for over two million dollars. After walking around the exposition for a bit, we split up. My parents went out to dinner with Vitor’s parents, and Vitor, his sister, my brother and I went to a concert. Vitor’s parents know just a few words of English, so at dinner our parents had to communicate with gestures and a few simple words, like I did when I first arrived in Brazil. We went to a sertanejo, brazilian country music, concert until about 5am. It was a good night, although Taylor, just like me during my first few weeks here, didn’t know how to dance to it.
The next day we got on the road early for a 9-hour drive south to Sao Paulo, SP. I bought tickets for us to see the final match of the Sao Paulo Championship between my favorite team the Corinthians and Santos who has two of Brazil’s top, young players. I had bought a package through the Corinthians’ tourism agency, which included tickets to the game, food and beverages, and a shuttle from a hotel to the game and back.
The travel agent told me to meet them at Hotel Mélia. I googled the hotel, looking up “Hotel Mélia Sao Paulo”. I read the name of the first match on the results page to the travel agent, to which he replied “okay”. Turns out there are several Hotel Mélias in Sao Paulo. We didn’t see the game live, but rather on the TV in the wrong hotel’s bar, which we got to know very well that afternoon. My parents especially loved the bathrooms since they had toilet seats, a rarity in public washrooms. We spent the afternoon in the hotel bar, ended up eating dinner there and at around 6pm, we navigated our way out of Sao Paulo and drove further south to Guarujá.
Once we arrived in Guarujá, we checked in to a hotel next to the ocean and relaxed after a day full of driving. We got up early in the morning, had breakfast and went to the beach. It was overcast with showers, but I believe a bad day at Guarujá beats a good day at Wasaga.
I booked my brother and I a surf lesson, partly as a birthday present to him. Neither of us had tried surfing before but we were able to pick it up quickly. I believe Taylor got up and rode a wave out on his third try and I got up one or two attempts later. It was an unreal experience to be relaxing with my family at the beach and learning how to surf, something my brother and I have been interested in for years.
The following morning, we left for Iturama. We had to drive through São Paulo again, and it was just as difficult as the first time. My dad said navigating through the city was like driving on a spider web- and all the streets are one-way. After a few wrong turns, we managed to get out of the city and on to the major highway which leads almost directly to Iturama.
After a 12-hour drive, we arrived in Iturama and went directly to an Interact meeting. The group gave us a great welcoming, and after the meeting, presented us with a cake.
After the meeting, we went out for churrasco with my first host family and then drove out to their cottage. I helped set up the cottage and my host dad told me how to maintain it overnight and the next day. We shared a beer and then my host parents went back to Iturama.
The next day, we simply relaxed. My mom made pancakes and we had breakfast outside, next to the pool. This was the first sunny day since Caldas Novas and we took advantage. I also showed my family how to feed the monkeys and got some incredible pictures and movies of it. The rest of the day, we played soccer and volleyball, and swam in the river and pool.
In the afternoon, my first host family and my current host dad came up to the cottage to do some churrasco. My dad was especially interested in the Brazilian barbecuing process as we usually cook a large cut of meet and eat it bit by bit as it cooks from the outside inward. We ate for about 5 hours.
The next morning, we closed up the cottage and drove to Iturama. We were short on time but I managed to show my family the places in town that I frequent most. They saw my school, the downtown core, the sports club, my first host mom’s clothing store, my current host dad’s gas station and both of my host family’s homes. We had lunch at my first host family’s house and then left for Uberlandia.
We stayed over at my first host family’s apartment again and in the morning, my family flew out of Uberlandia. It was a great experience to travel with my family and show them where I’ve been for the past 10 months. I really appreciated the opportunity to show Brazil. We did a lot of traveling but I believe it was worth it to see so much of the country.
In just a few weeks I will be leaving Brazil and I am making the most out my remaining time here. It is slightly depressing to know that at this time in my exchange, every time I see certain friends, it could be the last. At the same time however, I can’t believe how many great people I have met in such a short time. Talking with other exchange students, there is a consensus about Brazilian people. Which is that they are some of the most warm and welcoming people in the world. This certainly makes Brazil one of the easiest countries to do an exchange in. The people have such a curiosity for foreigners that they all want to meet you, and as I am living in a smaller town, I know most people I see when I walk around town. In Canada, on a weekend night, I would have to call up friends and make plans to go out that night. This isn’t necessary here. I only have to walk downtown and friends call out to me to join them wherever they are.
I would really like to thank everyone involved in making this exchange possible. This program has been the opportunity of a lifetime and I really appreciate the tireless efforts of Rotarians who volunteer to provide this program.
As I will be staying 11 months, my last quarterly report would be due after I get home. I will still write one nonetheless, about what it’s like being back in Canada.
