Recharged, restocked, and ready for our last week!

To energize. I had a wonderfully relaxing soak in a whirlpool at the spa yesterday (at Aguas de Santa Barbara), and my choice of bath salts was one of the "energizing" options. As I reviewed some photos this morning, I thought back to how we have found ways to re-energize ourselves along the way. We have just hit our three-week mark - remarkable how quickly time passes! The excitement and fun and enjoyment has been a thrilling ride, but keeping up that pace can be difficult from time to time.  Each new Rotary club in each new city has the same strong desire to engage and learn and teach and exchange as did the first few in Sorocaba.  I try to take a step back, exhale and inhale deeply, and consider how I can be just as enthusiastic and outgoing on the next day as I was on the past day.  While I can only speak for myself, I do have a few ideas on what has energized some of my fellow team members.  I caught a few more memorable glances during some of our recent adventures…

We had just one day in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, but we saw many interesting sights.  One of these was the orchid laboratory.  This is a fascinating operation, and we got to see and understand it effectively start to finish.  The lab workers start by isolating cells and creating the initial stage of cloned plants.  These grow in a medium of nutrients in a sealed jar for a couple of months.  They are then opened, separated, transferred to another jar, and resealed.  This process is repeated one more time, eventually resulting in a jar of 27 individual orchid seedlings that can be sold and subsequently planted.  Really cool stuff.  Upon asking, I was informed that they are able to patent any new species they create - which they do - but do not currently license others to clone and produce their flowers.  The head researcher and director of the lab also described the difficulty in obtaining new strains from abroad to use in cross-breeding, as other countries are concerned with the current level of patent protection here in Brazil.  Another small but curious insight into our global marketplace.

 But that is off topic!  The flowers themselves, and us walking through the extensive and eye-popping garden of "mothers" after a few morning showers was a wonderfully revitalizing experience.  Here are a few of my own favorites.

 

The day before Santa Cruz (Wednesday this past week for anyone keeping track) was our first truly "free" day.  Our incredibly gracious host Fernando and his lovely wife Mariangela brought us to their lake house on a large reservoir near Ourinhos.  The beauty and perfect weather (for Wisonsinites at any rate) provided a much-needed opportunity to just kick back, toss a frisbee, and relax.  The smiles speak for themselves.

 

Back in Santa Cruz, we continued our day-long tour with a visit to a local school for underprivileged children.  This facility provides all-day school, while public schools tend to conclude in early afternoon. They provide three meals per day to the students, though they do not offer housing. One very interesting aspect of the organization is a "chocolateiria", where several older teenagers work as apprentices, and many volunteers contribute to the making, decorating, and selling of Easter eggs. You should also recognize that Easter eggs in Brazil are not small things you hide around the house.  They are gigantic chocolate eggs, sometimes as large as 500g of chocolate (more than one pound for all the non-metric folks out there).  That's pretty much the size of an American football.

After the school, we visited a youth shelter that does provide housing for at-risk children and teenagers. After dinner, the young girls in particular were eager to engage with the group. Karen jumped in and appeared to have a wonderful time dancing and talking to the excited youngsters.  I can only imagine this was energizing for her...

 

 

While I am the only one in our group without pets back home, I do recognize and understand the joy of spending time with animals. Melissa is particularly excited when we are surrounded by nature and have a chance to see the fauna.  Here, however, I managed to snag a rather priceless shot of Michael just after our arrival at Fazenda Santa Cecilia, the home and farm of Maria Christina, one of our hosts here in Cerqueira Cesar.  Hard not to enjoy this one!

 

For me personally, it's hard to pick something out. The new friends and new experiences around every corner are plenty to keep me going.  That said, I did particularly enjoy the chance to hop into an eighteen-wheeler last week. Boa noite for now!!