Week One Officially Over in a Couple of Hours

May first is the Brazilian Labor Day.  How does GSE Brazil choose to spend their day (question mark: I have to do it this way because I am on a Brazilian laptop and apparently they do not believe in question marks in Brazil)  We took a tour of a Bakery.  I will just say WOW.  The breads were the softest and with the gooeyiest stuffings that I could have ever imagined.  It was a long tour, so we thought that we deserved a little rest.  While considering all of the places that we could have gone to rest, my house was chosen.  Mom (Angela) and Dad (Rodolfo) let me have my friends over to play by the pool while eating Brazilian BBQ and drinking beer.  For dessert, we had a cake that was decorated for us earlier in the day at the Bakery.  

For my first vocational visit, I got to visit a factory that makes car door hinges for GM and Volkswagon.  How in the world does that have anything to do with anything that I do in the states you ask.  I was meeting with the Human Resources team.  They have quite a system of doing things in Human Resources.  Of course, it could not all work in the states because of the culture of workers rights.  Since I know that you want to know what kinds of great ideas they have in a Brazilian factory, I will tell you.  To reduce workers injuries, they have a physical therapist on staff to go around and lead people in morning stretches.  So of course, I also got to do some stretches with the team.   My visit was cut short, because Suzana (who also happened to be a GSE team member to Nigeria a couple of years ago) had to negotiate a labor dispute with the steal-workers union.  

My first week included 2, count them 2 visits to the zoo.  Why do I love the zoo you ask.  Because it inspires little kids to grow up and love animals so they can fund conservation projects.  This thought is brought to you by Mark Morris.  I hereby declare him, Good Attitude Mark.  

So as of Friday, I am feeling conflicted as to what the biggest honor is.  Is being greeted by a school band, playing a private performance for us, the biggest or is being honored at a ceremony by the Policia Militar bigger.  It is hard to say.  Our fabulous GSE host, Andrea, got to raise one of the three flags at the ceremony.  Being played Stars and Stripes Forever and the American National Anthem were mind blowing, but there was a little humor in all of it, as their is a resident dog that sings while the band plays the Brazilian national anthem.  Apperently the dog does not recognize the officers when not in uniform and has been known to bite.  We rounded out Friday with a visit to UNISO, a University that has an equine studies program as well as a medical school, gastronomy school and engineering school. 

Somewhere in this first week included a visit to the Church of Santo Daime for a couple of us.  When I was a child, I thought that Catholic 1.5 hour masses were long.  That is because I never could have imagined the 5 hours of Santo Daime.  If there was ever a church that could speak to me, this one might be it.  It promotes a lifestyle in conformity with the motto of Harmony, Love, Truth, and Justice.  It is allows one to step outside of themselves to better reflect on the person inside.  

This does not sound like such a busy schedule.  There is a lot of beer drinking and food eating in between, so   I wondered why I am so tired (consado).  Because none of this even touches the Rotary meetings that we attend, and the presentations that we give.  Let us not forget how we got here and the central place of congregation for us and our new international friends.  

This is Mike, signing off on a perfect first week in Brazil.  Boa Noite.