My Experience in Brazil

My STEP project entailed traveling to Brazil, and studying in Curitiba, Parana. In March I was forced to leave due to the CEO of Brazilian Experience cancelling the program on zero notice and so I went to live with family in São Paulo.

I had always been told to trust people with authority, power, and position. After this experience, I have completely thrown that out of the window. I have worked with invoices and contracts for years, working in corporate positions and owning my own business. What I have always believed is that our word is our bond, and when two people agree to the terms of the contract, that BOTH sides are bound by those terms. This experience has taught me that there are people who do not operate in such a manner. I have learned that such things are acts of good faith, and unless enforced by legal action they mean nothing. 

I put my life in the hands of this company, the ultimate form of trust, only to be treated as if my health and safety is worthless. I had exchanged emails with Rafaela Rolim several weeks before I left for Brazil. Under her direction I was told to apply for a Brazilian visa, knowing that I am a Brazilian citizen. I trusted her (and didn’t know any better) and ended up wasting a trip to the Brazilian Consulate in Washington D.C. along with $120 worth of processing fees for a visa I´m ineligible to even apply for.

Once I arrived in Brazil, the assurance from Rafaela was almost constant. She assured that whatever I needed that she and her people would help me. I, gave her and her people a second chance when I trusted them to help me obtain a CPF, the brazilian equivalent of a taxpayer ID. They directed me to the agency and told me the documents needed and I followed everything to a T. I woke up at 4 in the morning to be one of the first people in line, per their instruction. I ended up waiting behind a line before me several hours only to get rejected and told that I didn’t have the sufficient documentation.

The last straw was in the weeks leading to the outbreak of the coronavirusRafaela and the people were often asking me if I was “OK.” I found it considerate that they asked about our mental health in a difficult time. Among all the confusion going on, she seemed to be working for us, talking with homestays and OSU, claiming to monitor the status of the outbreak. Then on a random evening in March Rafaela called my homestay and called me after. Rather than be honest about the situation, she claimed that the program would be “paused” and put “on hold.” I had to press her for her to admit that the program was cancelled. She cut the program abruptly and told me I had to get the next flight out of Brazil. I knew she was hesitant to use the word ‘cancel’ because I had read the terms and agreements of the contract that was part of the invoice for the program fee. It was clearly stated that if the program was cancelled by her and her company that students were owed a full refund. When I confronted her about this, Rafaela only said she would try to get the tuition refunded, which was only a small part of the fee. The majority of the program fee went to her and her company, and that was when I realized she completely broke the terms of her own contract and refused to acknowledge it.

This experience has been invaluable to me. It was important for me to understand that at the end of the day, a contract is still a piece of paper. I plan on working with contracts for the rest of my life as a business owner, in my goal to work in real estate and logistics.While it was unfortunate that I have lost a lot of money to slimy business, I now recognize the importance of not only reviewing terms and conditions for myself, but going over it with the other side and confirming all the action that will and won’t be taken should the contract be broken or its requirements not be met.

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