City #2:First Days in Porto Vehlo

Monday, May 4

On Monday, May 4, we had to say goodbye to our new, lifelong friends from Rio Branco. It's unbelievable how close you can get to people in only one week. Though it was very sad to leave, we boarded the airplane to Porto Vehlo at 4pm to go on to our next adventure.

After an hour flight, we arrived in the Porto Vehlo airport to a welcoming group of friendly Brazilians. We met the families that we will be staying with for the next week and headed off to a wonderful dinner together at a very nice Italian restaurant here. We spent a relaxing evening getting to know our hosts and tried to get some rest for the busy week ahead.

Tuesday, May 5

On Tuesday, May 5, we met visited a private university here and toured the training facilities and classrooms of Odebrecht, the company that is preparing to build the new hydroelectic plant on the Rio Madeira. The plant will cost approximately $12 billion of dollars to complete; it includes 47 turbines. The energy produced here in Porto Vehlo will go directly to Sao Paulo to serve the big city. In Brazil, 8% of the energy used in the country is provided by hydroelectric facilities along the powerful rivers.

During the afternoon, we had the opportunity to meet with a local media group in Porto Vehlo. It was interesting to learn about the company that both produces the local newspaper here as well as local television stations. After the tour of the media company, we returned to the private university to attend classes in the areas of our respective interests to talk to students about our careers in the United States as well as the Rotary Exchange program. Alison attended classes in journalism and marketing; Jenny attended a class learning about Business & Public Administration; and John, Everett & Alton visited a class on Real Estate. This was a very good, challenging expérience for us. Alison, John and I were "thrown into the fire" as we taught the classes we attended. The students had a lot of great questions for us (of course, questions and answers were in Portuguese... muito challenging para Alison y me!) When classes ended around 9:30pm, we returned home with our hosts for a quick dinner and headed to bed.

Wednesday, May 6

This morning, we toured the facilities of the concrete plant that will be responsible for providing most of the material to construct the hyroelectric plant on the Rio Madeira. It was very cool to see the developing facility and imagine the immense impact it will have on the economy of this city in the state of Rondonia.

Next, we met with a state legislator for Rondonia. Que bom!!! As a public administrator, this meeting was very special for me personally. Government in action in the largest, most powerful country in South America. I love Brazil!