The Final Blog (O Blog final)

I started this first part in Santiago airport, about to board my flight to Auckland.

The morning was off to an early start – I opted to get up around 5am after sleeping through from 12:30 to 3:30 then dozing fitfully, waiting for the alarm to go off at 5:30 - silly, I know!  I finished my packing – a minor miracle – showered and dressed and was downstairs around 6:15.  The others arrived and so did the taxis. We had one extra passenger as Terumine’s flight had changed so he squeezed in with Cecilia and Leslie in the larger cab and Robert and I in the other.  We were early to the check-in so that was accomplished fairly quickly and the extra couple of kilos in my bag went unremarked. Leslie unfortunately ended up having to pay but Cecilia, who was carrying a case she could just about fit into, and who we all thought would be way overweight with all she had bought, escaped without any charges.

After a breakfast drink and sandwich it was time to board.  In the queue we met up with one of the reviewers who was also heading home. An uneventful flight, followed by a long wait for the transfer bus from the “small” (being relative – much bigger than Auckland!) Congonh airport we landed at to the main international airport in Sao Paulo,Guarulh.  We farewelled Robert and Cecilia at Congonh, as Robert was transferring there to another flight and Cecilia was staying in Sao Paulo for a few days.

A final look at an Ipê tree outside Congonh airport,
before boarding the bus to Guarulh

At Guarulh Leslie and I were able to check our bags in straight away but Terumine had to wait for his check-in to open.  We chanced to meet up with Sylvia and Hajira who had travelled there on an earlier flight via Belo Horizonte so it was another round of farewells!  We had lunch whilst we waited for Terumine’s check-in to open – unfortunately it turned out this was not a good way to leave Brazil as we picked a poor spot, with very expensive food of poor quality and quantity.  I felt the waiter was going through the motions as well.  

After that we said our farewells, Terumine going to check in and Leslie heading for a relaxation zone as she had a long wait for her flight. I headed for my gate and was soon on the flight to Santiago, Chile.  I was in the back row again, the other side this time, so it wasn’t the most comfortable of journeys, particularly as the “loo queue” was at my side – there was only one toilet at the back for around 60 passengers.  Otherwise the journey was OK and the cabin staff looked after us well. The man in front of me was quite unwell – I hope it was airsickness rather than a bug! 

And now I am back home in Auckland.  

Once again I end up in the back row of the plane for my last flight to Auckland - my own fault, I failed to follow our flight arranger's advice to check and if necessary change my seat allocation.  Unfortunately this poor location was made worse by a faulty entertainment system (no sound and no controller functions for our row), and a Polar blast from the air conditioning (everybody around us was sitting with coats and jackets on as well as the blankets you get).  I have to say the airline staff did all they could to help but it was beyond their resources, so instead they advised us on how to fill in the complaint form.  The Chilean lady beside me wrote reams on hers - she was incensed that the airline was letting Chile down by having these faults.  Despite all these problems, and contrary to my expectations, I did manage around 6 hours of sleep, which is good for me in economy (unfortunately my usual location!).

We arrived around 4:30am or so and I was through Customs and Immigration in no time at all. I had a brief stop at our agricultural checkpoint to have shoes I'd worn on a farm disinfected but that too was done in minutes so I was waiting on the kerb when my wife arrived to collect me at the local time of just after 5am. Yes, I have a wife to be treasured!

Although the journey back had its minor drawbacks, nothing can take away the fact that I will look back on the four weeks I spent in Brazil as a complex and hugely enjoyable experience.  As I said in our final review meeting on the Friday I am not yet sure where it is going to take me or how it is going to influence me, but I am sure it will have a profound effect on me and where I go from here.

On a lighter note the opportunity to spend a lot of time with fellow IBMers from all over the globe and hear their stories, find out their pet peeves, and see how globally-integrated IBM has become has been interesting and enjoyable. A great experience and I consider myself fortunate to have been selected for it, and supported by my own NZ team in being released for it.

Thanks to all who I worked with or who supported us in getting to and working in Brazil, the 19 people of Brazil 14, and my NZ supporters - you were all critical in this.

And that's all folks.

#ibmcsc brazil

Work Day Twenty - The Final Fling (O Fling final)

A bus was arranged to take the team to Uberlândia City Hall where all the teams were to present a summary of what they had set out do and what they had done to the Mayor, various City officials and representatives from the NGOs.

 

Our team outside City Hall

When we arrive the Tourism team were finishing off their presentation to the Mayor, Gilmar Machdo, and the Secretary for Tourism, Paulo Romes, and a large group of others.  We learned later that it had gone well.  Once that completed we settled ourselves in our positions and waited for the off. 

All presentations and speeches were to be instantaneously translated over headphones in both directions – i.e. if the speaker was in Portuguese we’d hear an English translation and vice versa.  The translator was very good and kept up a steady flow despite some of the technical terms. I chatted to him afterwards and found out he came to Uberlândia from Ireland as a Priest the same time as my wife and I went to NZ – 1976.  However the beautiful Brazilian senoritas were too much for him and he gave up the cloth, married, and settled down to live there. He has a number of business interests (as do many of the people I met in the four weeks) of which translation is one.

Back to the action. The Mayor gave a very warm and generous speech, thanking us for all we had done and promising the City would follow through with our work to the best of its ability.  Unfortunately he then had to leave for an equally important appointment in Uberabba with a Federal representative, so handed over to Paulo Romes, the Secretary for Tourism, to chair the rest of the meeting.

Gilmar Machodo making a point in his speech - the founder of
ONG CASA, Wender Marques, is in the yellow shrt

After an introductory speech from Alcely, the IBM Corporate Citizenship Executive in Brazil, we started our series of presentation on the various projects the teams had worked on.

Ação Moradia had two projects, Brick Making Process Improvements and Financial Management Support.

Christy makes a good point on
brick making...

...and the audience likes it (our translators and Karen)

Nirav leading off on the finacials...

...and Sylvie closing

Instituto Ipê Cultural also had two projects, Business Planning and Enhanced organizational structure and HR procedures - they weren't actually consecutive (not sure why not) but for convenience I've grouped them together.

The Business Planning team of Paul and Leslie and the
two translators (leftmost)

The HR team of Hajira and Joel.

The Politriz Institute had a communications strategy, which included a webpage development.

Terumine, Robert and Olaf for Politriz

Our project was ostensibly for the parent NGO, ONG CASA, but was really about establishing the SEDE project as a going concern. The day before we decided all four of us wouldn’t present as that would be too messy so we agreed that Michael and Chi would have the honour. In my unbiased opinion it was the most informative and well-delivered presentation of the day.  ;-)

Michael and Chi

And as noted above the City itself had a tourism project for the Municipal Secretariat for Economic Development and Tourism of Uberlândia. Modestly, Radhesh remarked that they'd saved the best for last.

Xuemai and Radhesh for the Tourism team - Marc and Jill
supporting from the sidelines

At the end of the presentations Paulo Romes gave a very warm speech of thanks to us all for the value we had added to the work by the NGOs in Uberlândia. He then invited everyone present (I’d guess at around 40-50 apart from our team of 19) to stand up and applaud us.  I must confess to feeling quite touched by this, as the applause and the looks in the faces of the audience was very genuine and heartfelt. Finally we were all presented with a large bag of special coffee.  The region produces top quality Brazilian coffee but most of it goes straight to export. As a result it is quite difficult (and expensive) to get, so we felt very honoured with this gift.

Paulo thanking us all

The formalities then concluded and we posed for lots of photos. 

The SEDE team with Larissa and Bruno
L-R - Larissa, Bruno, Laerte, Cecilia, Karen, Mariana, Chi, Isadore, Michael and me

Larissa then produced a Brazilian flag for each of us which we got signed by all those present who were members of our team or had contributed in some way or other to our work. Other gifts were also exchanged between various team members and supporters.

Flag signing in progress

We went over to the Mall, which is close by, for lunch and then back to the hotel (in a slight drizzle, unfortunately) so I could start my packing before a 3pm team meeting.  With the gifts we’d received plus the things I’d bought to take home my case was looking somewhat full, if not overflowing.  I left it half packed and went to our team meeting with some of the others, arriving as a prior meeting with the translators was coming to an end.  Gradually the others arrived and we got down to business, which was a feedback session and also a discussion on the highs and lows of what we’d done. We were all unanimous in feeling we’d finished on a high, something which doesn’t always happen!  To remember him by, Bruno gave us all a special bracelet made out of coconut wood and Larissa gave us some special Douce Laite, or sweet milk.It was very kind and generous of both of them and we were all quite touched by Bruno’s farewell hug and by Larissa’s speech.

Once the meeting was over I returned to my battle of fitting a quart into a pint pot and through a series of trial and error attempts and repackings finally managed to get all my belongings into my case. Then it was time to head to the final team dinner, at a well-known restaurant (which I’ve forgotten the name of).  Our taxi group was first there and settled in to some Brahma Special as our final farewell fizz.  As other groups arrived so did some food and by 9 o’clock it was all in full swing.  Apart from the whole Brazil 14 team (19 of us), most of our translators turned up, Larissa (of course) and the reviewers, and people from some of the NGOs, so it was a large crowd. 

A surprise of the evening was meeting up with Renato.  Marc, Cecilia and I were originally scheduled to do a different project than the ones we did and Renato was going to be our main representative for this other project.  Marc and I had had a telephone call with Renato and were very impressed with his knowledge and ability and we had been looking forward to working with him.  Unfortunately, and almost at the last minute, the NGO decided not to proceed with the project, so Marc, Cecilia and I were reallocated.  When we met Renato this evening we didn’t initially make the connection as his partner was one of the translators (although Renato was aware of us, and had dropped a hint or two we'd missed) but a chance remark from someone else joined the dots!

Marc, Renato, Cecilia and me - the virtual team

Sorting out the bill at the end of the evening took Larissa and Olaf some doing!  Most were going on to a nightclub but with the prospect of a 6:30am departure from the hotel and a 30 plus hour journey home I headed back to the hotel in company with Joel after several rounds of farewells!  Despite that, in the confusion and milling around, I realised later that I had missed saying goodbye to some, but I hope they know that wasn’t deliberate.

#ibmcsc brazil

Work Day Nineteen - the penultimate powerpoint presentation (a penúltima apresentação powerpoint)

When I reached the lobby today all was revealed as to why there had been a number of giants in the breakfast room over the last few days.

I used to think I was tall but now I realise in the Volleyball world I am just a shrimp!

Today our morning tasks were to do a final check and rehearsal for a presentation we were to deliver to some reviewers from IBM and others in the afternoon and to finalise the presentation to the Mayor of Uberlândia and other leaders on Friday morning. We also had a few minor revisions to make to our master presentation and some housekeeping to make sure all final versions of all our work was safely stored somewhere.  As I subscribe to the philosophy that the more copies you have the better, our work is stored (securely) just about everywhere I could find.

The morning passed quite quickly, so quickly that lunchtime came and went before we were ready for it. As our visitors were close to arriving we missed a final trip to our local (and good) kilo restaurant.   Laerte was the first, as he had some ONG CASA business to attend to first, and then we were joined by Larissa and one of the reviewers. Bruno and another reviewer were delayed so we decided to make a start, with the other arriving shortly after. The presentation went well and we felt we answered all the questions the reviewers had for us.

After the reviewers had left we rehearsed the Friday presentation and then declared the day a success and were back in the hotel not long after 4.  We'd arranged with Mariana that we would go to the large country club in Uberlândia, Praia Clube.  They claim it is the largest country club in South America and I am not about to challenge that - it certainly covers a large area and near the centre of town too. So Mariana and her Mum came past around 5:30 to collect us and off we went.  

When we go there we met up with Izadore, our other translator, and a couple of friends of the others. We started off with a tour of the facilities.  First stop was a games hall where they were playing Peteca, a game that was apparently played socially by competitors in the 1920 Olympics when the Brazilian team introduced it to them.  It's a cross between volleyball and badminton, played with a shuttlecock which you hit with your hand - we had a quick knock-about and it seemed like good fun. Apparently Uberlândians are pretty good at it.

The shuttlecock and courts in the background

 We then left the hall and went for a walk in the grounds - Praia Clube certainly has extensive grounds and is well situated beside the river, which they have cleverly Incorporated into their design and facilities.

Looking up the river from a bridge, designed to look like a boat

From the bridge we walked down to a park which had a jogging track around it.  One of our guides, Edgar, said that in the daytime the local community of capybaras had become such a pest they'd had to put in special fences so they wouldn't get in the road of the runners.  Of course at this point we had to go on a capybara hunt, even although it was now dusk.  We didn't spot any adults but Edgar heard two small junior capybara in the undergrowth and eventually they came out into the open to pose for me.

After that they headed off to the capybara fence and wriggled through it to get into the main park - it may restrain the adults but not the kids!

From there we went back up through a complex of large (25 and 50 metre) swimming pools, a huge indoor sport arena with multiple courts for training volleyball (apparently the local women's team is pretty strong) and other court sports, a large indoor soccer complex with lots of small boys developing their skills (some of them were pretty handy), and some more leisure type pools.

Just part of the court complex - huge!!

It was still quite warm so we stopped for an ice-cold coconut water - they keep them in the freezer and open to order - delicious!

We then headed up to the restaurant - given that Mariana and the three of us from the SEDE project had missed out on lunch we were definitely interested in eating (we survived on a packet of Karen's biscuits and half a very nice cake Mariana had brought in a day or two before - all right, not exactly bread and water but not far from it when you are used to a large plate of salad and meat each day!).  There was a large pool next to the restaurant so Michael and I had a very refreshing swim first - cool but pleasant water.

Trying the mixed beer

We tried a new kind of Chopp (a Chopp is draught beer), mixing a dark beer and lager - it was fine, but I'd have liked to try the dark beer on its own.  The beer was so cold there ice floating in it - they really like their beer cold in Brazil.

For food we had a selection of cheese and meat pastels to start - that's like large ravioli but fried and you can actually taste and see the filling - followed by a table-top grill of a mix of meat, vegetables and manioc - very tasty and satisfying.

And then sadly it was time to head home, with our taxi dropping Mariana off on the way.  A lovely evening and great company, very interesting and informative, and seeing some wildlife I am unlikely to see by a river in NZ!

#ibmcsc brazil

Work Day Eighteen - At last we get a chance to strut our stuff (Finalmente temos a chance de suportar nosso material)

But before we get into that...

We had a lower pressure morning for once, with Karen picking us up at noon so we could catch up on a few things.

First off was a less-rushed breakfast - there's a good selection of rolls and fillings, juices and fruits and an abundance of cakes of all sorts. Hot food is consistently scrambled eggs (known here as eggs mexican) and sliced sausage (frankfurter style) in tomato sauce.  Usually I've been having fresh squeezed orange juice, fruit (papaya, melon and strawberries for preference), and a couple of very nice small fresh rolls with cheese and meat. And green tea - there is no black tea but several choices of Matte, which I have tried but prefer the green tea.

Here's the spread (no, not my ever-growing stomach).

The fruit, juice, meat and cheese section

Cakes and rolls section

Then I caught up with my email, some work for our deliverables and some past overdue blogs (and thanks to my huge reader community for wondering why I hadn't posted for a couple of days. Well, at least one of you!)

At 12 Karen collected us and dropped us off at the kilo restaurant round the corner from the office - I think I could get used to this lifestyle...

When we finally got stuck into our work, we went through what we had to do and then broke for a small presentation to Karen and the translators, Mariana and Izadore, of some small gifts we'd brought with us to say thanks for all the help they have given us.  Karen has been amazing, ferrying us round town at all hours, keeping us supplied with drinks and nibbles and generally making life much easier for us.  Mariana and Izadore have complemented each other very well, with Mariana doing a tremendous job in "live" translation and Izadore working on translating the written word, of which there are lots! Afterwards we celebrated with some lethal varieties of chocolate mousse and cakes from MousseCake.  I've decided that when I get back I will open a kilo restaurant with a MousseCake beside it - an unbeatable combination!

The SEDE team outside the office

Our 4pm meeting with Laerte and our company representatives was cancelled due to flight issues so we worked on until around 6 when Karen took us back to our hotel for a short break before we had to go out for a 7pm presentation.  Concerned that we might fade away before we could get to our proper dinner later, she made us a big bowl of Brazilian soup which was fill of vegetables, pasta and meat. We demolished this at the hotel before venturing out again.  It was delicious! Meaty, substantial and very tasty.  I wasn't going to have three helpings but...

Karen came back for us around 6:45 to take us to our next port of call.

Our previous attempts to present our findings to a wider public had not taken place.  Laerte thought it would be a good idea if he arranged for us to address his MBA class on the practical use of some of the methods and techniques we used and which they are being taught.  So, after an introduction to SEDE from Laerte, Michael and I finally got to present to a wider audience some of our findings.  It was an interesting experience as Izadore had translated the presentation into Portuguese (and therefore I needed a copy in English of the presentation to remind me what was being said) and Mariana translated what we said into Portuguese as we went, but of course we had to remember to pause from time to let her speak.  Towards the end Laerte took over and gave her a rest but she did a tremendous job for a young undergraduate, particularly so as much of it was technical and not "normal" speech.

Michael and the class

Mariana wondering what am I about to say to test her translation skills

Laerte thinking the same...

Team with Marcel, the lecturer, at the left

Overall reception seemed to be positive and the lecturer, Marcel, thought we had provided good food for thought for his class. But will we be invited back?

Laerte had another class immediately afterwards so Karen, who had very kindly stayed in the class with us (and took most of the photos above), took us back to the hotel. There was talk of going out clubbing and dancing but I forswore such idle pursuits in favour of giving you, dear reader, an update of our life in Uberlândia.

I am not quite sure when I will be able to blog next - we have a fairly action packed couple of days and then I am away at 6:30 am local time on Saturday to the airport to start my 30+ hours journey home.  I'll be in touch!

#ibmcsc brazil



 

Work Day Seventeen - Painting and Presentations (Pintura e Apresentações)

This morning all of the Brazil 14 team (19 of us) were scheduled to spend the morning providing some direct contribution through labour to an NGO, Estação Vida.

This is an NGO of similar function to Politriz and ONG CASA, in that it takes in disadvantaged children through the day and provides activities and learning opportunities for them that they wouldn't otherwise receive.

Estação Vida, or Station Life, is in a new part of town to us, where they are building relatively high density, low cost blocks of apartments which the less well-off can afford to buy through a federal sponsored loan scheme.  As a result there are lots of children with nothing to do out of school (which you may remember is either morning or afternoon). You can find out more about it here http://projetoestacaovida.wordpress.com/.

The entrance

Arrived and waiting for directions

The Director started us off with a good tour of the facilities - it is fortunate in having a lot of land and a good central block to work from.  The Director lamented that although the children who come here pay nothing to attend when they asked for parent volunteers to help with some building project only 3 turned up.  Not too dissimilar to NZ school projects these days...

Somersault class

The vege plot (and banana plants)

Once we'd done the tour it was down to work. We were split into two teams - the white team who started on the block wall outside, and the blue team, which I was in, painting the walls on the main building.  First we had to remove all the notices, pictures and signs on the wall, then mask off the windows and doors and cover all windows in plastic (I wondered about this as to whether it was necessary but afterwards saw that it was!).  After that it was down to rollering on the paint. Our initial results weren't great, partly because we had to recover some of the rollers from the white team and didn't have time to wash out all traces of white paint, and partly because we weren't able to mix the paint properly (there not being anything suitable to do this).  But once we'd done one wall the paint was well-mixed, the rollers true blue and we settled down to work.

A shortage of rollers didn't stop Olaf

Painting the back wall

Morning tea break - well, coffee and juice

The plan was to do the lower half of the wall after morning tea in a darker blue but unfortunately the paint wasn't prepared in time (the top half was acrylic out the can but the bottom half was oil-based and needed to be mixed first) so we did the best we could in tidying up the first wall with the remains of the paint we had and then tidied up before leaving around mid-day.

Final results on the outside wall - not by our team!

Once back in the hotel we went off to shower and change and met again at 1pm when Karen came to take us to the office. Laerte arrived shortly after us and we spent a good couple of hours going through the materials we had prepared. He seemed pretty happy with most of it but we cleared up a few misunderstandings and agreed to add some pieces in where needed.

After he left Karen took us to the mall for a late lunch - as a couple of us noted it was the first time we had felt hungry since arriving!  Then back to the office to work on the materials until around 7 pm when the SEDE team arrived. We'd agreed to give them a run through of what we had done to bring them up to the same level of understanding as Laerte.  As Laerte was delayed we started off without him and covered the background to the work and how we had gone about it. Laerte arrived in time to join in discussion on the cooperation model we had prepared and the other main elements of our work - sustainability (covering financial and organisational elements), marketing and communications, and a transition plan.  We then took the team briefly through a presentation we had developed for some of the stakeholders - the NGOs and potential donors of resources (R$, people, things).  It was a good session and I think the SEDE team found it valuable.  We were also fortunate to have Bruno and Larissa with us as well so they could see what we had done and be able to provide some local support in the future to the SEDE team if necessary.

Team SEDE with Larissa and Bruno

Once we had finished (around 9:30 or so) we agreed to head for the Serra Malte bar downtown, one of the first we'd been in when we came - it has a great range of beer!!  We had a few celebratory drinks and a good selection of food and then called it a night.

#ibmcsc brazil

Work Day Sixteen - Visits and Meetings (Visitas e reuniões)

On Monday we were scheduled to meet with another NGO not directly related to the NGO with whom we are working - Institute Politriz. You can find more information on the Institute here:  http://institutopolitriz.org/en/ or on the blogs of two of our team who are working there:  http://bleekem.wordpress.com/  or   http://robertinuberlandia.wordpress.com/.  Politriz does similar work to ONG CASA, to take care and develop young children from poor backgrounds and provide them with an opportunity to grow when not at school.

Karen took us straight there where we met with the Director and the staff of one of their units.  When we arrived the children were having dance lessons from two professional dancers with a well-known and internationally travelled Brazilian dance company. The dance company does this partly as a give-back but it does also help them identify emerging talent - one of the dancers we spoke to had come through this route himself.

At the dance class

With the dance teachers and the Director of Politriz, third from the right

After the dance lesson we were invited to address the two classes - split by age and maybe 50-60 in total.  We told them our background and the older class in particular asked us lots of questions.  One boy was particularly interested in earthquakes and as we had representatives from China, Viet Nam, Japan and me from NZ we were able to give him a lot of detail!

Talking with the older class

There is absolutely no question in my mind that Politriz, ONG CASA, and the other NGOs who deliver similar services are a major help to these children being able to develop for a better future.  I gather the state schools in these areas are poorly resourced and heavily stretched so they only get a very basic education. These NGOs are set up by people who see the need and are able to act, either through their own generosity or by organising funding from the government and private benefactors. They do a tremendous job.

After we finished our visit there Karen took us on a brief visit to the last ONG CASA centre we hadn't seen - a small nursery school.  We arrived at morning nap time for the little ones and the slightly older ones were eating lunch.

Nap time for the littlies - I don't think our visit helped them sleep!

We then returned to the office where we spent the afternoon working through various changes and enhancements to the documents we were preparing.

We arrived back to the hotel in time for me to fit in a quick Skype call to my wife, who had been a bit poorly with a chest infection but was now thankfully on the mend, before attending the last of our weekly team meetings.  At these meetings, which all the members of the overall team attend, each project reports on progress, issues and any help they need.  Everyone is, of course, focussed on preparing their final deliverables to give to the client as this is our last week.

Brazil 14 team in action.

After the meeting, like many others, I caught up on some work and on my blog, which had fallen by the wayside a bit!

#ibmcsc brazil

Sunday - Dinner with the family (Jantar com a família)

At home Sunday is the most common time for some or all of our family plus partners to appear for a Sunday meal - most often a roast or a barbecue. And so it was this Sunday, with my new Brazil 14 family.  But I am getting ahead of myself...

On Sunday morning Radhesh had arranged, with the support of his clients/colleagues in the Tourism Department, a trip to a local farm.  There was a little bit of a mix-up on start times and they arrived for us slightly early, so we got away just around 10:30. After around 20 minutes or so we arrived at the location, a lovely setting by a large lake, with a purpose built restaurant and sheltered area (which we needed later).

The excited tourists spilling off the bus in search of new sights and experiences

After settling into our allocated area the first event was a boat ride round the lake - it seemed pretty large and we didn't actually go to the far end, looping around when we came across a very high viaduct/road that had been built across it.

I felt suitably honoured that they had built my monogram into the bridge

Returning to the restaurant, local residents ahead

After the boat ride there was a short interlude then we were allocated our passes for the horse ride.

Oh no, another bunch of tourists, hope I don't get that large gringo with the specs...

...darn it, lucked out again! 

The promised ride of 20 minutes turned out to be 5 minutes of preparation, 10 minutes of a gentle amble round the back of the block, and a couple of minutes dismounting at the end.  But it was enjoyable anyway, for me if not for the horse.

For the first time I saw some wild-life that persuaded me I was not in NZ - a humming-bird, a beautiful little thing but far too fast for me to catch in a photo, and a monkey. Someone thought they were a type of marmoset.

Whilst we were off horsing around and monkeying about some of the rest of the team braved the lake for a swim - they commented that the water seemed warmer than the pool at the country club.

The swimming team

Around this time lunch was called and we enjoyed another great selection of meat, salads, meat, fruit, meat, vegetables and did I mention meat?  We also had a selection of desserts, each of which it seemed tried to outdo its predecessor in the amount of sugar it contained. Coffee is served in tiny little cups - usually there is a pump pot full of it and you help yourself, so it is not an economy measure - in fact they have it by the door in most restaurants so even passers-by could help themselves!  Lunch was accompanied by a heavy downpour so it was as well we were under shelter.

 We assembled for a photograph before three of us were given the chance for another horse ride.   After that it was time to get on the bus and return to the hotel.

 Back at the hotel we had a couple of hours to do whatever before we headed out to a pot luck dinner at Larissa's father's house, where everyone was to bring along something related to their home country. I used the time to catch up on some zzzzs, have a shower, and do some washing.

We assembled downstairs with our plastic bags full of goodies and away we went in the taxi for about 20 minutes, a long ride across town.  The venue was in a walled and gated private housing estate, with sections looking like they were at least half an acre each, if not more.

Starting to gather at the house

We met Larissa's father and step-mother - I was very interested to hear they had been in NZ for a holiday at the beginning of this year and her father and I chatted about their trip. We also met the two Labrador dogs - a mother and daughter who took us all in their stride. The neighbours also came over so we met them too.  Once everyone had arrived we all got stuck into the various preparation activities. It was good fun and it was like a large (very large) family gathering.

Food preparation at work and hoover in position under the table in case of crumbs

Time to relax with an antipasto and a caipirinha

The main buffet

Desserts and cheeseboard and kiwifruit - my offering

View back to the party across the pool from the pool room (so to speak)

Party over, waiting for the taxis

It was a great evening and after dinner there was dancing for those so inclined (most of the party), and pool for me and a couple of others.  Much to my surprise (and no doubt to those of my friends with whom I play pool from time to time) I won a few games - I was on form!

Sadly it was soon time to pack up and head home.  We all agreed Larissa's parents had been very kind (and brave) to open their lovely home to us and we all had a great time there.

#ibmcsc brazil