2 week mark

We have reached the 2 week mark and we are now 2 days from being in Brazil longer than we have left. This experience has been amazing for us, definately a once in a lifetime experience. These exchange programs from Rotary are incredible. We have been in Jataí since Sunday and today is our last day here. Jataí has been so great to us. The first day we were here, all of the Rotarians threw us a part at one of the Rotarian's farm. They had a TV reporter there documenting the whole thing and then they interviewed each of us. These towns have gone out of their way to make us feel like celebreties. We also met the mayof Jataí and were interviewed on live radio.
Here we have seen many of the schools including the university campuses, the english schools, and a school for underpriviledged kids. The school for underpriviledged kids was amazing, they made us hand made presents and cooked us an amazing lunch. Like many countries in central and south america, there used to be a lot of children that were on the corners begging for food, washing windows, or doing tricks such as fire blowing. When they described the way it used to be, it sounded alot like Guatemala is, and it made me sad. I remember kids in Guatemala that used to drink gasoline in order to do the fire blowing trick and then used the money to sniff glue, then when they got older they would move from glue to drugs and usually ended up in prison or dead. They said that it used to be like that here in Jataí as well, but then they created programs like this school, and now they have very few problems with the children. The kids here go to school either in the morning or the afternoon, then the wealthier children go to private during the other part of the day to learn english, music or dance. This is where the underpriviledged kids were getting into trouble. So this school is a governement program that takes these kids and teaches them art, dance, music, and other extra-curricular activities.
Another thing that has impressed me about Jataí and Brazil is that they are a self-sufficient country. They do not depend on any other country for energy, gas, ethonol, food, or water. They grow a lot of sugar cane, which is a better product than corn for making ethanol and energy. Their technology in these areas are very advanced and impressive.
We are all enjoying our time here, and everyone is making quick improvements with the language. This has been such an amazing experience and I look forward to all the new areas that we are going to visit. Each area has done something special to add to our trip.

Kevin