February 10, 2011

Time is winding down. There are some students extremely excited and ready to come home and then others who want to stay longer. That is similar with other years. It’s Thursday afternoon and the students are returning from lunch. Five groups did their presentations this morning and two will be this afternoon. Topics included immigration, beef production, ethanol, folklore, transportation, dairy production and water conservation. They were all well done and the students should be proud of themselves.

Let me step back now to Sunday. Sunday was a free day. The students slept in, worked on their projects, soaked up the sun and relaxed. It really was the only free day we had in the six weeks we were in Brazil so the key word was RELAX!!



Monday we visited Coplacana which is a cooperative in Piracicaba with 8,000 members. The cooperative maintains all the resources the members need from a supply store, to seed, to banking, to hospital, to a dairy, to a farm fair, etc. It is a pretty amazing cooperative.


Tuesday we had Professor Nussio who is a beef specialist at ESALQ but who is also well known internationally. He spent time in the morning showing us the herd at ESALQ and discussing nutrition, breeding and research being done in Brazil. He discussed the differences between processing, storing and feeding sugar cane silage and corn silage. We heard more about the pasture fed cattle and how different they are than US cattle. The students celebrated Caroline’s birthday in the evening.

Wednesday we had an interesting tour of Faber-Castell. Do you know what they make? Take a guess! If you think about Crayola you are really thinking about Faber-Castell! Crayola pays Faber-Castell to produce many of their products. We saw the production from start to finish of colored pencils. We saw them labeling both packages of Faber-Castell colored pencils and Crayola colored pencils. Both originate in Brazil. We saw the packaging in Portuguese and English. Everywhere you looked in the factory you saw colors. It was a kids paradise!!




In the afternoon we visited the TAM Airplane Museum. It was newly built and did a nice job with the history of aviation, especially in Brazil. Many of the airplanes had actual lessons you could listen to on earphones you carried with you. It was a well done display of planes.

Tonight we have our closing dinner with the host families. It is all you can eat pizza. Brazilians love pizza just like Americans but the pizzas are quite different in Brazil. You will need to ask your student about the pizza. I am sure they have experienced more new toppings than they could imagine here in Brazil.

Tomorrow the students have a free morning to pack and do last minute shopping. I am sure some will soak up some last minute sun. We will have a lunch of fresh fish down by the river and we will leave the hotel for Sao Paulo about 4:00. I want to take this time to thank Professor Fernando, Professor Pedro, Professor Caron and Cristina for their patience in teaching us about Brazil. Also, Ana Vitoria, Caroline and Henrique for their translating, socializing, planning and keeping us on task. Shirota, you are great!! It takes so much time and dedication to support study abroad programs such as what you offer AZP. Thanks so much for this 12th year of the program. Parents, families and friends, thank you for allowing your students to participate in such an experience as AZP. They will be different when they return to the states. They will be more confident, inquisitive and appreciative of what they have in the United States. They may want to do another study abroad. They will want to eat certain foods. They will want to talk about their experience. I will warn you, they will want you to listen. They will also be very tired. Students, you are great! Thank you so much for the opportunity to spend six weeks in Brazil with you. I also want to thank Mike Crackel for assisting with the blog. To everyone, safe travels and we will see you in Columbus.

February 5, 2011

We arrived safely at Presidente /SP and had a short night of sleep before we started Friday’s visits. In the morning we visited Matsuda Seeds where we had an excellent description of the purpose and processes of a seed company. We learned how they collect their seed whether from the soil or the plant and the variables involved in measuring seed quality (vigor, disease resistance, germination etc.) We had a great lunch with our hosts and then we were off to the Chaparral’s Farm.



By scale this was a large feedlot and three farms were involved in the system. They received the animals at about 330 Kilograms and sold them at about 480 kilograms. It took about 118 days to feed them out. There is always a market for beef in Brazil so for these families this was a very profitable program and they were growing by leaps and bounds. We arrived at the hotel early for a change so we went out for dinner and were back by 10:00pm. The students socialized for a while before getting some sleep.




Today, Saturday we were introduced to the processing of Cassava at Halotek-Fidel. Cassava is a root crop similar to potato. It can be fried, boiled, baked or made into flour, starch, paper, toilet paper and glue. It was a very interesting tour. Cassava is also gluten free so for those who must maintain a gluten free diet, cassava makes a good option we normally wouldn’t think about.

We are now heading back to Antonio’s and should arrive there by supper time. Tomorrow the students have a free day. We all will enjoy the time to sleep, relax, work on projects, unpack and settle in for our last few days in Brazil. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

February 4, 2011

Keeping up with the blog becomes a challenge when we are doing so many exciting and new things. Monday night we arrived at the hotel in Bonito MS a little before 2:00 am. It was a short night as we were checked out of the hotel and on the bus by 7:30.am. We had reservations for snorkeling at 8:00 am. Today was the day the students talked the most about when they looked at the schedule when we arrived in Brazil. Bonito is described as the vacation spot of Brazil. It is hot, a resort area and very lush with animals and vegetation. The host families told the students it would be lots of fun. I think Bonito lived up to its reputation. At the snorkeling park we divided in three groups and were given a wet suit, life jacket and snorkeling mask. We were driven to a trail, followed it for a short walk, and learned some history of the area and the fish. We arrived at the dock and were given some brief instructions on preparing the mask and how to breathe and then into the water we went. Ask your student about their experience. It is so difficult to put it into words. We did see a variety of fish. I had an underwater camera so I was able to get some good shots. I still have lots of room to improve on my photography skills but it was great fun trying to take pictures. After snorkeling we were able to go swimming and enjoy the sun and then we had a very good lunch with food of the region. We left the snorkeling park and went to Balneario do Sol, which is a resort/water park in Bonito. You could swim with the fish, zip line into the water, dive or jump off the board, swim to the waterfalls, soak up the sun or play pool and ping pong. It was a awesome day swimming with the fish, having fun and relaxing in the water.


Wednesday we visited Bunge which is a smaller version of Farm Science Review. The show represents the Dourados region. The focus was on the plant industry rather than animals and we could see the research that was being conducted in the area and how determined Brazil is in improving their agriculture industry. In the afternoon we visited Semen Barra which is a seed company. They maintained a sample of each seed they processed. They had their own drying, chemical coating packaging and storage systems. While we were at the seed company it poured rain.



From there we went to a local softball stadium to play softball. There is a local girls team that Shirota is familiar with because he has family members who play on the team. First the AZP girls played them. We won’t discuss the outcome. All I will say is we need to practice, a lot!! Then the boys and Suzie stepped up to the plate and they held their own and at least represented AZP well. We didn’t keep score but I think our boys won. Shirota allowed us on the bus to come home. If we didn’t win we were going to be left behind.


In the evening the group was invited to a traditional Japanese meal with the softball team and their families. Again, oh so welcoming. Brazil is so much different than America when it comes to welcoming and making people feel at home.

Thursday we visited COPACENTRO which is a 127 member cooperative. They served us breakfast and we learned about the cooperative, services they offered their members and research they were doing. Most of the farmers owned 100 hectors or less and farming was their only income.


We had a wonderful lunch with Shirota’s cousin’s family. He is the President of the cooperative and the coach of the girl’s softball team we played. We had roasted pork and beef rib Brazilian style. They were so welcoming. This is the second time they have welcomed an AZP group into their family. After lunch we played pool and ping pong and relaxed, before we started on the long trip Presidente Prudente/SP. Until next time, stay warm.

January 31, 2011

Whew!!! It’s Monday, 6:50 in the evening and we are traveling to Bonito. We have had full days since we left Thursday night and not much internet connection. I am typing this on the bus in hopes of sending it off tonight when we arrive at the hotel. The students have so much to tell you about the trip and I will just briefly touch on our visits since Friday morning.


After driving all night Thursday night we at breakfast at a bakery in Campo Grande before we visited Embrapa’s Beef Cattle National Research Center where we heard about beef cattle research and the research they are doing on the insects and diseases affecting the grasses of the region. We then were shown their laboratories and test plots. This center would be compared to OARDC.




In the afternoon we traveled to Project PACU, which was a gorgeous facility. It was a family fish farm that started from a man’s interest in fishing and having his own pond to a 3,000 hector farm. You can do the conversion to acres so you can be in awe like us. They predominately produce fingerings for the industry now, consult and do research. They started when fish farming was new and basically started the industry in Brazil. The country looks to them for a vigorous product, research assistance and supplies.


I found the place to relax!! In the hut, beside the waterfall, surrounded by the pond, watching the dogs chase the flies and fishing now and then. The pictures will never do this place justice. We spent the night in Campo Grande.


Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel early and left for Sidrolandia where we visited a fish, cotton, soybean and corn farm. It was even larger than the fish farm on Friday. They bought their fingerings from PACU, fed them out and sent them back to PACU who marketed them for 5% of the cost. The fish were huge!! The students were able to see cotton and soybeans fields where that was all you could see to the horizon in any direction. Amazing!! The crops were so lush. They learned about cotton production and saw the huge pieces of Case and John Deere equipment that were needed to plant and harvest the crops. It is difficult for the students to even imagine owning that much land let alone producing a product too.



Then we had lunch at Henrique’s Aunt and Uncle’s home. Henrique’s aunt prepared the meal for us and it was so nice to have a home cooked meal. The food was delicious!! We also enjoyed all the fruit they grew in their yard. They had lime, lemon, orange, star fruit, guava, asceola, mango trees and pineapple plants. Everyone is just so friendly and welcoming to us.


We then headed to a silk worm farm. It is a federally funded project. The family applied for a grant where they had to demonstrate that they could earn enough money to sustain their family in order to receive the grant. They had six tables in a greenhouse like structure. Each table produced 36,000 silk worms which produced 50 kilos of silk a month and they get paid 8.00 a kilo. It’s a 28 day cycle from worm to cocoon. When the silkworms are eating they feed them blueberry branches every two hours. We were able to see two tables of worms and then they had samples of the cocoons so we could see where the silk came from. It was an extremely interesting visit. We then traveled to Aquidauana and checked into the hotel.




Sunday was an interesting day. We traveled to Corumbia/MS via Transpantaneira Road which was a very narrow dirt road with very primitive bridges that took us through a National Preserve. It was 140 kilometers, which I think is about 90 miles. We were able to see alligators, hawks, eagles, owls, iguana, kapybarrow, the tuiuiu bird which is the national bird of the Pantanel, all kinds of trees, flowers and other vegetation.




We then got to the end of the road, boarded a ferry (bus and all) across the Miranda River and traveled a little bit further to Corumbia and then boarded a boat to travel the Paraguay River for a couple of hours. We ate on the boat, relaxed, soaked up the sun until we ran into a storm, listened to live music while a few talents appeared amongst the group. After the great boat ride we arrived at the hotel where we went swimming and then out to dinner for pizza.



Tuesday, we slept in and boarded the bus at 8:30 am. We drove to Miranda/MS to the San Francisco Farm which was even bigger yet, 14,200 hectors. Can you imagine???? We had a nice lunch and then learned about their beef breeding program from their veterinarian and about their rice production system from the farm manager before going out to see the actual farms. We visited the beef farm first and they used mostly horses to round up the cattle. They were crossing Simmental and Swiss and Simmental and Senepol. They have created a purebred program with these original crosses. Then we saw the rice fields and equipment which was quite interesting. They were using water from the Miranda River to germinate and irrigate the seeds and they had their own processing, drying and storing system on site. We were able to see the rice in the field before it is processed, fields that had been harvested and then the actual seed at the processing plant. As a side note the temperature today was 36 degrees Celsius. It has been hot these last few days.

I will close for now as it is dark out and I am typing by light on the bus. One last note, we arrived at the hotel at 2:00 am. It was a very long day.

January 28, 2011

Ola!! The students are taking their written exam as I begin typing and we are leaving for our ten day trip tonight. I do not know what type of internet connections we will have so I thought I would get a quick entry to the blog done before we leave.






Even with all the rain, we finally were able to complete service project on Monday after two postponements. We divided into three groups and painted three houses in Piracicaba. This is the first we have attempted three houses in my experience with AZP and I was very proud of the students. There is a service organization in Piracicaba that for many years have built houses for a very low cost and families apply for the project. One of the houses we painted was featured in the local Piracicaba paper and some of the students were interviewed. The students worked very hard to complete all three houses. We had one student that was working so hard in a back bedroom painting that the group at his house left to join the other groups without him. They realized halfway to the planned meeting spot that he wasn’t with them so we sent the bus back to pick him up. As I joined the group everyone made me very much aware that he was missing and I was glad to have him back when the bus joined us. It was a nice chuckle to end a grand day. The students have lots of stories to tell about each activity and this is just one of them.

Tuesday the students had class all day and then enjoyed a game of two hand touch “American Football”!!! They were so excited. I think six Brazilians had their first experience. The first play was a kick which was caught by a Brazilian and he immediately tossed a forward lateral. The first thing I thought of was playing hot potato as a child and getting rid of the ball. Everyone had a good laugh, reviewed the rules with the Brazilians and it took them a bit of getting use to. It was a gorgeous night for playing and they went at it for about an hour and a half. Great fun!! Then back to the hotel to study, get some supper or sleep whichever came first.

Wednesday morning, in small groups, we had to check in at the police department. Based on the type of visa , Brazil has a policy that if you are staying in the country for more than 30 days you must check in with the local police. They review your visa, issue a revised visa and take finger prints. A new experience for some. Are we criminals? ;-)


In the afternoon we had a great tour of Caterpillar. It was a huge factory supplying both parts and finished large equipment. We got to see the start to finish process with a great explanation. When we got there we were prepared that we would be videotaped for a feature story of the Visitors Center. He asked for four volunteers to say something at the beginning of the videotape and then three volunteers during the tour for a short comment on how great the tour was. Now to explain this. …… The videographers come in speaking Portuguese. They did three takes of the beginning of the video with a radio caster saying something in Portuguese. Then it came to our students. The comments they wanted the students to say were in Portuguese, not English. They worked with the students on two different statements, four takes of each and then we went on the tour. They videotaped at various spots and then about half through the three other students made their comments. At least those were in English. I am sure the “Americanos” will make a big splash when the video is played.

Today was a review session of questions to ask the Brazilian instructors, lunch, a panel including the instructors and then the exam - four questions. You will have to ask your student how it went. They still will prepare a group project to be presented when we return. It’s time for loading the bus, so new adventure here we come!!

January 23, 2011

Whew!! It’s Sunday evening after an exciting weekend. Everyone is unwinding this afternoon after unpacking and having a huge meal at lunch. Let’s see if I can do a virtual excursion of the week. The week started with the students having class with Shirota. Feedback was great!!. They were interested in what he was teaching and liked his organization. Tuesday we were to do a service project painting three new houses in Piracicaba but it rained on Monday so it was postponed until Wednesday. It rained on Tuesday so it was postponed and rescheduled for tomorrow. The students were really disappointed as they enjoy helping others.


Tuesday evening we decided to go out to dinner at a new Japanese restaurant near the hotel. Shirota joined us and sushi was the most popular pick for the meal and then noodles with chicken, beef and vegetables was a very close second. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in class and then Thursday the Brazilian students took the American students to a dance club.

Friday bright and early we left for Sao Paulo. You could tell they had rain but we did not see the damage that I expected to see. Our first visit was McDonald’s Food Town in Osasco which is a division of Braslow. Apparently between last year and this year Braslow must have been purchased by Seara. The location we toured made hamburgers and chicken for McDonalds. We were able to see the processing plant in action which was very interesting and even had samples of the chicken pieces at the conclusion. Hmmmmm good. We learned how they have to slaughter the animals differently when producing for the Middle Eastern Countries (Muslim/Islam). When producing for these countries it is done first thing in the morning when the equipment is clean and sterile and nothing else can be produced those days. From there we ate lunch at McDonald’s to compare American and Brazilian McDonald’s. You will have to ask your student the results of the comparison.


In the afternoon we went to Rabobank which is a bank that services the agricultural sector originally developed from a group from the Netherlands. It was located in Sao Paulo in a gorgeous, modern, tall building. One speaker discussed the history of the development of Rabobank bank and the other featured Brazil as an agriculture superpower and the limitations hindering Brazil from making greater strides more quickly in agriculture. Excellent presentations. While we there it poured rain. We were several stories high and the conference room looked out over one of the major rivers that runs through Sao Paulo. We could see the water drain into the river and watch 11 lanes of traffic slow to a crawl.







Friday night was samba dancing and the dress rehearsal for Carnival. It was an awesome experience for the students. It got raving reviews last year and was just as much fun this year. In the short version explanation we went to one of the community dance group hall locations. Apparently they meet twice a week throughout the year and prepare for the celebration of Carnival. A theme is picked each year so their costumes change from year to year. Carnival is the beginning of March but Friday night was their dance rehearsal. So this dance club with all their members (several hundred) and all their musicians and dancers, leave the dance hall location, walk out into town and then parade back to the dance hall dancing the samba to their native song that is sung at Carnival. By the time we get back to the dance hall we are exhausted, hot, sore and happy all rolled into one.




Saturday morning we slept in (on the bus at 8:30) and headed to the Sao Paulo zoo. We had a gorgeous morning to visit the zoo. It wasn’t too hot for most of the morning. We saw lots of animals and it was quite relaxing after the samba experience the night before.


Saturday afternoon we visited the Ipiranga (Independence) Museum which highlighted the important years in Brazil’s thrust for independence and then there also is a gorgeous monument which also depicts Brazil’s independence. Then last night we went to a soccer game with Sao Paulo against Independence and Sao Paulo lost . Only one goal was scored the whole evening. It rained between the museum and the soccer game.


Today we loaded the bus at 8:30 am and went to the Hippie Market. This is the best place for buying souvenirs. Again, we had gorgeous weather for an outdoor market. It is a cultural experience to see all the musical instruments, jewelry, blouses, dresses, gem stones, hammocks, leather goods, paintings, trinkets etc that are sold. The diversity of people both buying and selling is remarkable.



Then lunch. The students had already heard so much about this lunch. It is a typical Brazilian Sunday meal. Shirota told the students they had to do better than the Missouri group. No matter how much they heard about it I don’t think it really hits them until they really see it in action. There are 22 different cuts of meat served, plus salad, shrimp, fish, tomatoes, cheese, french fries, bread and then a salad bar. The waiters come to the table serving the meat until you can’t eat any longer. Shirota encourages the students so they eat and eat and eat and eat. Then they sleep all the way home on the bus.

After we returned this afternoon it rained a good bit so at this point we do not know about the service project for tomorrow. Take care.