Dear Brazil,

Obrigada – “Thank you.”

Thank you for welcoming us. One of the first things I noticed way back in January when we stepped off our plane in the São Paulo airport was how immediately I felt welcomed. Throughout the entire six weeks we lived in Brazil I rarely met someone who did not go the extra mile to make me feel welcome and comfortable. The Brazilians we met and tried to communicate with (even with the English/Portuguese language barrier) often tried their hardest to listen, understand and communicate with us. Instead of ignoring us or laughing behind our backs (although we did look funny on many occasions!!) they made an effort to include us, learn about us and teach us about their culture, especially in some of the restaurants we visited often. We were welcomed in and treated like family when we went out to eat dinner, which made saying goodbye difficult to do.

Thank you for immersing us in your culture and opening our eyes to the world around us. Traveling to Brazil was the first time I had ever been abroad and completely submerged in a culture different than my own. Not being able to read the street signs, understand the waiter at dinner or know how to act in different social situations challenged me to focus in and think in a different way. During our time abroad my classmates and I challenged each other to embrace this new culture every chance we could and as a result were able to begin to understand the differences between our cultures and learn so much more about the country we were living in.

Tossing oranges

Thank you for friends and family we will have forever. Before we departed from the Columbus airport more than six weeks ago we were just a group of classmates who hadn’t spent much time together and didn’t know much about each other. However, through the spontaneous adventures we went on, the intentional conversations we had and through all of the experiences we shared we learned to appreciate each other and became closer. The group of classmates that had left the United States together six weeks ago were not the same students that came back home. But instead, the students that landed in the Columbus airport on Friday are a group of great friends, teammates and family. We all have Brazil to thank for bringing us together and tying us closer.

– Not only did we return home knowing we have new friendships in the United States, but also knowing we will always have great friendships and families in Brazil. During our time abroad we met and grew close with many individuals and families and will hold onto the relationships until next time we return back to Brazil.

Obrigada por tudo, Brasil – “Thank you for everything, Brazil.”

Until next time,

Mary

It was the last day of the Carnaval weekend. The day started in a confuse way because the time to leave the hotel was changed to half hour early and some us got late. Also, we were instructed to wear old clothes and bring a change to the end of the day. We were going to a carnaval parade in Piracicaba at Santa Olimpia, a traditional community that is mainly composed of Italian decedents. As soon as we arrived there, we were able to see the strong Italian heritage by the architecture of the church and houses.

We were received by Joyce, the other host student of the program, who is a resident of the neighborhood. She took us to her grandparent’s house where we could leave our backpacks. Mister Geraldo, Joyce’s grandfather, is one of the oldest residents of the community. He proudly says that his family was one of the founders of the community more than 100 years ago. He also told me that just 10 different families used to live in the community until 30 years ago.

Before

Soon we left to the square in front of the church were the celebration would start. The local priest explained the origin of the festivity. The celebration, called “Cucagna”, was a traditional festivity that celebrated the beginning of a new season in Italy. Since the weather is different in the south hemisphere, it became their carnaval celebration. In Italy, the community would get together and cook a special dish, cucagna. To collect the food, they used to paint their faces with ashes and walk in the neighborhood asking for donations in every house. The Cucagna evolved in Brazil and became one of the funniest carnaval celebrations in Piracicaba. The ashes became mud/dirt and the food collection became the parade.

After the explanation, the parade started. We walked around the neighborhood following a band playing carnaval music for hours. Since it was our first time in the celebration, we were baptized. In other words, we had to take a bath of mud/dirt. They served wine during the parade and had some food stops were we could have some sandwiches. The parade was one of the funniest parts of our trip. I was really happy to see the how well our group could interact and communicate with the Brazilians during the celebration. They met many different people and made plenty of new friends.

During

In the end of the parade, we went back to Joyce’s grandparents’ house and took a shower before we ate. Half an hour later, we were back to the square to have the famous cucagna. I loved the cucagna but some of us didn’t like it. I can say it was a great cultural experience. We had the unique opportunity to learn about the tradition, the community and also to have a lot of fun.

Blake getting Sarah back for throwing mud.

After

This is a first ever on this program!  Because of the long carnaval weekend, many businesses were closed and we cut our long trip short.  This resulted in a free day in Piricicaba!  A first in 17 years!

For our final day of the long road trip, we visited the largest hot springs in the world!  They have been turned into a water park with a lot of water slides, pools, and adventuring.  Driving in I noticed that the landscape looked a lot like the topography of the hot springs we used to visit on the College’s first year program in Ecuador.  We were definitely driving into a very old volcanic area, which is typically how hot springs are formed.  It was really beautiful, but had been commercialized including corporate sponsorship by the Cartoon Network.

We started the day with some water aerobics calling out the students from the USA!  They were nice and very enthusiastic for the warm up and one song.  It was then back to camp to go do their independent thing.  Yes, the Americans picked a spot up on the trees on a hill.  We couldn’t find any tables in the shade and someone is always sitting with the bags long term, thus we picked the trees.  Google Hot Park Caladas Novas for more views from the park.  Some students were very adventurous and took on the half pipe and big slides!

After the long day at the park, we jumped on the bus for a 9 hour bus ride home!  It was about 4:30 when we left and 2:30ish when we returned.  Brazilian time is always a little off so this was within the reliability range.  We did stop along the way at a store that makes traditional cast iron and clay pots, as well as our last “truck stop” along the way.  They are actually usually pretty nice stops with decent buffets where you pay by weight, so it is very flexible for the students.

The map, this place was huuuge!

Mary has discovered toucans are her spirit animal.

Toucan

Doing water aerobics upon arrival. They did this at both parks.

The Americans set up camp on a big bench in the trees. Sun is our enemy.

A picture of our camp from the outside.

Lazy River time!

The last time re-boarding the bus after a late night stop. It was about 1:15am.

Lazy river relaxing

The morning started off with a great Brazilian breakfast. A normal breakfast consists of some fresh fruit, lots of bread, ham and turkey slices, chocolate cake, and some fresh squeezed juice. We traveled for about an hour to our detestation for the day – the water park. After eight days of traveling and touring, it was time to spend some time in the sun and enjoy the water park. I have found that Brazilians use English words to describe some places because it makes it sound more “fancy”. The name of the water park was “Water Park.” In a town that thrives on tourism, there were about five different water parks in sight of the one we were enjoying. We all were excited to enjoying some sun, but first we had to apply a lot of sunscreen. I did not want to get burnt like the last time at Honey Island. LOL.

The wild slides!

Before entering the park Alan distributed our tickets to enter making sure that we would not lose them. I went ahead and walked into the park with my ticket and found the rest of the group getting settled in for the day. A few minutes later I was greeted by a frantic Alan. Somehow Landon had lost his ticket to enter the park. We all start searching our pockets and I kept asking Mary and David if they had the ticket in their bags. David looked at me wondering if I had the ticket, but I kept saying I just had my own in my pocket. But the next thing I knew, I found another ticket when I emptied my bag. As Alan and I headed back to the entrance to give the second ticket to Landon we found him standing outside the gate like a child that just dropped their ice cream cone. After a fifteen minute confusion we were all are inside the park and began to enjoy the day of sun and water.

Joel was asked to sing in English, they sang “Happy Birthday to You”

As it was Carnaval weekend everyone was getting into the spirit. Carnaval in Brazil is just like Mardi Gras in the United States, but much bigger. Usually businesses will close and it is a time for spending with family and embracing the culture. The water park was decorated for Carnaval and everyone was enjoying a nice Saturday at the park. There was dancing and loud music playing to get everyone in the spirt of Carnaval. After the day at the park we walked to a shop where they sold Brazilian swim suits. Some of the guys even bought Brazilian speedos to embrace the culture. Overall a great day at the water park and a nice day to relax and enjoy the beginning of Carnaval!

P.S. The sunscreen didn’t help, I got really burnt!
Blake Campbell

Big harvester and sprayer!

The John Deere visit was really great, but no photos were allowed.  We were able to hear from Leo about working across cultures and different Englishes (he had Australians last week).  John Deere does a lot of business in Brazil making sugar cane harvesters and the equipment we are used to in Ohio.  He indicated that because the economy is unpredictable, sales are down.  Sugar cane made a lot of money last year, but since the farmers can’t know how much they’ll make in the future, they are hanging onto their money.

The plant was very high tech with a lot of machinery laser cutting sheets of metal for parts and welding them together.  They were also expanding the plant to incorporate a more high tech painting system.  At this point they are only making 5 sugar cane harvesters a day and 10 or so sprayers.  The seasons are complementary so they switch some people seasonally.  You don’t really realize how big the equipment is until you try to get a group photo!  Wow!

Safety and Rain Gear

Pioneer turned out to be an interesting visit, both for the seeds and the rain.  It was a constant downpour!  They were nice enough to give us special long raincoats, one size fits most…

We saw the lab where they take a sample of seeds to test them for harvesting and bug damage as well as other issues that make them less viable as seeds.  Those beans are sent to the elevator to be in feed or other uses.  The good seeds are cleaned, dried, and sorted by size.  They have a huge capacity for processing, some say it is the largest Pioneer facility in the world.  We saw them load 12 two ton bags while watching for about 15 minutes.  The warehouse was pretty empty as they only had a few late season seeds for the northern most parts of Brazil.  This season’s harvest had just started in the central region.  The capacity was immense!

After Pioneer we headed to a Chopperia, a craft beer brewery.  It was an interesting story of two brothers who were tired of their jobs and opened a brewery.  They get their barley from Argentina and hops from Germany.  The brews were very sweet, but good for a hot Brazilian day.  We also got to see the Fava family again as they came to tour with us!

That night students went out with the younger generation of Favas and had a great time!  They are an amazing family that was more hospitable than anyone could have imagined!  The students really wanted to stay an extra day and take them up on their offer to take us pontooning.  We hope to see Bruno and Mom at the Quarter Horse Congress in October!  We’d love to return the hospitality!

Checking out the seed dryers.

A 1000 kilo bag for soybean seeds. They are the most used means to packaging seeds in Brazil as of 2016.

Coffee harvester

Soy beans, 49,000 acres of beans, soy beans, corn and coffee

We spent the whole day with the Fava family at their Agrofava farm and even at their ranch home. This family perfectly represented the hospitality and welcoming for which Brazilians are known. We started the morning at the main branch of their farm where they have between 110 and 120 employees. This farm produces mainly soybeans, but they do have a second crop of corn. They sell commodity beans aside from their impressive seed production. We learned that farms with over 100 employees are required to have a safety technician on the premises and they must also provide the employees with a free lunch. They also have housing for a large number of their workers on site, and the resident employees pay virtually no rent and all of their meals are provided free of charge. We got to see only a small glimpse into the family’s 49,000 acres, but it was impressive, nonetheless. There were soybeans as far as the eye could see and even a flock of wild emu!

Having snacks in the Fava home.

The Fava’s then welcomed us to their beautiful home where they served us lanches (afternoon snacks) as we waited out the rain. After the skies cleared up we went to the barn to meet some beautiful Quarter Horses. Beatriz owns several impressive horses including two breeding stallions and a month and a half old colt that was conceived as an embryo transplant who is already showing potential to be great. The trainer and vet on the farm got four different horses ready for us to ride and almost everybody took a turn. Most of their horses are trained to barrel race so a few of us even tried our hand at running the pattern, pretty quickly I might add!

Sarah riding a green broke barrel racer.

The horse barn at the home ranch.

The Favas’ children took us to dinner at one of their favorite spots in town where we had some excellent food and listened to a singer play some American favorites. We were so lucky to get to spend the day with this family and are looking forward to having them visit us in Ohio after we recommended that they attend the Quarter Horse Congress in October.

By: Sarah E. Bookman

Breakfast came with surprise instructions this morning- “Put on your swimsuits!” Needless to say, none of us were too distraught at this apparent change of plans.

After driving down back country roads of red dirt and dust, our bus dropped us off in what seemed the middle of nowhere at some run down buildings. It was the perfect example of the saying that you should not judge a book by its cover. After entering this so-called “water park” of sorts, all of us were astounded at the beauty of the waterfalls before us.

We climbed over slippery rocks and sat under the rushing waterfalls all morning. In certain parts of the river there were nature-made water slides where we sat down and power of the waterfalls slid us along the rocks. The sun worked on tanning our skin to make us look more like bronze Brazilians than like the pale Ohio kids we came here as. (To all of the mothers reading this: yes, we did apply lots of sunscreen, no worries.) It was a great way to relax after days full of travel and industry visits.

Running behind schedule due to the fact that we are all on “Brazilian time” now, there wasn’t enough time to stop at the hotel to change before we went on our farm tour this afternoon. As it was, we all piled out of the bus at Laje Farms looking haphazard with athletic shorts and flip-flops. A far cry from the boots and jeans we should have been wearing.

Laje Farms is a family run operation that is spread over three states in Brazil. They have their hands in multiple areas of agriculture, including dairy, grain, beef, coffee, swine, and chickens. In total they own 19,000 hectacres, which equates to roughly 47,500 acres. We visited the dairy farm portion today where they milk 600 Holstein cows three times a day. Each milking takes about 5 hours, so they milk at 5am, 1pm, and then finally at 9pm. In each cow there is a chip in the rumen that tracks that cow. It helps with identifying how much milk that specific cow produced, as well as being able to track that cow 24 hours a day so the farmer knows information about the cow such as how much that cow walked in a given day.

As the day winds down we are very much aware that we only have 8 more days left to enjoy the Brazilian food, culture, and sunshine. The trip has been incredible so far with lots of learning, experimenting, and laughing. We have all definitely become a big ole happy family, each one of us making lifelong memories and friendships.

Tchau for now!

Leah

We learned a great deal from the Secretary of Rural Insurance at the Ministry of Agriculture and then more current affairs issues from the CNA- Brazil’s version of the American Farm Bureau.  More later when wifi permits.

The waterfalls

The river

Breakfast came with surprise instructions this morning- “Put on your swimsuits!” Needless to say, none of us were too distraught at this apparent change of plans.

After driving down back country roads of red dirt and dust, our bus dropped us off in what seemed the middle of nowhere at some run down buildings. It was the perfect example of the saying that you should not judge a book by its cover. After entering this so-called “water park” of sorts, all of us were astounded at the beauty of the waterfalls before us.

We climbed over slippery rocks and sat under the rushing waterfalls all morning. In certain parts of the river there were nature-made water slides where we sat down and power of the waterfalls slid us along the rocks. The sun worked on tanning our skin to make us look more like bronze Brazilians than like the pale Ohio kids we came here as. (To all of the mothers reading this: yes, we did apply lots of sunscreen, no worries.) It was a great way to relax after days full of travel and industry visits.

OHIO at the top of the falls. Dru, risk manager, there was a path around the back of the falls to get to the top.

No time to change as expected, Dairy tour in beach gear!

Running behind schedule due to the fact that we are all on “Brazilian time” now, there wasn’t enough time to stop at the hotel to change before we went on our farm tour this afternoon. As it was, we all piled out of the bus at Laje Farms looking haphazard with athletic shorts and flip-flops. A far cry from the boots and jeans we should have been wearing.

Hoof trimming table. The cow seemed comfortable.

Bottle calves

Laje Farms is a family run operation that is spread over three states in Brazil. They have their hands in multiple areas of agriculture, including dairy, grain, beef, coffee, swine, and chickens. In total they own 19,000 hectacres, which equates to roughly 47,500 acres. We visited the dairy farm portion today where they milk 600 Holstein cows three times a day. Each milking takes about 5 hours, so they milk at 5am, 1pm, and then finally at 9pm. In each cow there is a chip in the rumen that tracks that cow. It helps with identifying how much milk that specific cow produced, as well as being able to track that cow 24 hours a day so the farmer knows information about the cow such as how much that cow walked in a given day.

The cow shed

As the day winds down we are very much aware that we only have 8 more days left to enjoy the Brazilian food, culture, and sunshine. The trip has been incredible so far with lots of learning, experimenting, and laughing. We have all definitely become a big ole happy family, each one of us making lifelong memories and friendships.

Tchau for now!

Leah