Week 6 - Monday – Thursday:

Time is winding down. This week the students spent most of their time preparing for their final exam and group oral presentation. Their exam was Tuesday and the oral presentations were Wednesday. Each group did a great job on their presentations. They were informative, thought provoking, creative and thorough. I could see the relief flowing from each group member as they completed their presentation.

On Monday during class we celebrated Jodi’s 20^th birthday with traditional Brazilian sweets. Tuesday at lunch a group of the girls went dress shopping. Tuesday night a group of us went to a Matsuri Sushi Bar and enjoyed a relaxing evening. Wednesday a group of girls went shoe shopping at lunch and Wednesday night we had a pizza dinner with the host families. The students enjoyed seeing their families again and were able to spend a couple of hours together talking and laughing. The host family memories will remain forever. Thanks to the host families for welcoming home stays. After the pizza dinner the students went out for their last night celebration. Many were pretty tired so it was a quiet night of conversation and sharing. Thursday morning was sleeping in, packing, manicures, last minute shopping and then our closing lunch by the river.

We want to take this time to thank Pedro Mello, Dalcio Caron, Fernando Peres and Cristina Sotelo Fonseca for their patience, time, graciousness and willingness to support AZP. We have learned so much from you and your experiences. Shirota, your energy is never ending and your commitment and passion for AZP extraordinary. We enjoyed you in the classroom and your challenges (whatever they might be) outside of the classroom. You are a special part of the program and we greatly appreciate your support. This is my third year with this program and your selection of students to assist the program has been so on target. A huge thanks goes to Leticia and Henrique for your patience, energy, ability to translate and willingness to assist with the many requests of the students. You enriched the program immensely. I also would like to thank Elisa, Shirota’s wife, for her support and patience since AZP requires much of Shirota’s time for the six weeks we are in Brazil.

Students, you have been great!! You make the program a success. Thanks so much for your commitment, patience, professionalism, humor, and antics. Let’s count!! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1……. United States, here we come!!!

Tchau!!

Week 5 - Thursday – Saturday Morning:

Thursday - All the driving we have done in the last two days led to a spectacular day. We observed two large rivers in Brazil, Panara and Iguacu The day started with a visit to the Itaipu Dam. It is the world’s largest hydroelectric plant in terms of electricity generation and extremely impressive because of its sheer magnitude. It is 5 miles across the top of the dam and 65 stories high. This year’s increased amount of rainfall also added a dimension that most would not even think about. The dam is owned 50/50 by Brazil and Paraguay and shares 50/50 in the production of the electricity. What Paraguay doesn’t use Brazil buys. There are 20 generators to run the hydroelectric dam and three spillways each of different sizes. The two largest spillways were running because of the increased rainfall. To see the water pushed out off the spillway to avoid erosion is magnificent. The dam generates approximately 90% of the electricity for Paraguay and 20% for Brazil. The cities along the river have improved significantly because of money put into the cities as the dam was built. We were able to stand on top of the dam as well as go inside the dam to observe one of its generators in action.

From there we went to Iguacu Falls. I lived about 20 minutes from Niagara Falls and have visited there several times. My anticipation of seeing this natural wonder was great as I had seen several pictures but had never been there. Words cannot describe this breathtaking sight. There are 19 large waterfalls and some 200 waterfalls in total. One picture on the camera could not span the total falls, nor could two. It took about three to get most of it. We saw the waterfalls from every dimension, on top, level and below so those who took pictures have several and each picture has its own personality. Everyone will be excited to show what they observed. The area around the dam is used for recreation, environmental protection, wildlife preservation, reforestation, water education and obviously tourist attractions. After the falls we stopped at a point where the Parana River and Iguacu River meet. This also is the spot where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay intersect. We were able to see the landmarks for each country just standing in one spot. We then drove a couple of hours. The evening was spent having supper at the mall, swimming and just catching up on journals or e-mail.

Friday – We drove to Curitiba, Panara and visited another farm set up by three families located in a gorgeous area. It just seems that no matter where we go you can look off into the horizon and see hills and valleys. It also seems we are on the top looking out. They grow corn and soybeans and have some cows. They are practicing no till and have Round-Up Ready beans. It has just been recent that the state of Panara has approved Round-Up Ready beans. They produce seed corn and are in the process of building a new facility. Once built they could see themselves as strong leaders in the cooperative. The family was so welcoming and so excited to tell us about what they are doing. They had as many questions for us as we had for them. They were so proud to show us the clearing of the land for their “facility”.


From there we went to a farm show much like Farm Science Review. It was not open yet but there was enough in place for us to get a feel for what resources are available to those involved in production agriculture in Panara. Several research plots demonstrated use of chemicals, seed types, etc. while advanced pieces of equipment were also on exhibit. The students had a great time relaxing in the sun, walking, browsing and climbing on equipment. Then we left about 3:30 pm for our long, long ride home. Piracicaba here we come!! Antonio’s, we should be there in time for breakfast!!! We arrived at 7:00 am.

Week 5 - Monday - Wednesday: One thing I forgot to include last night was that after dinner a group of students and Shirota took the long way back to the hotel and walked off their dinner. One of the highlights was seeing a Capybara. A Capybara is a large rodent native to Brazil. There were two of them just chilling down by the river that we walked along. The one that we had clear view of was rather large and pretty tame. It was dark so the pictures weren’t very good. Here is some more info and pictures.

Monday started with a tour of a vegetable, fruit and dairy farmer’s land. He had retired and then started this second career. He had several acres of land but only about five were useable for production because the rest was hills. This part of Brazil is very different than the rest of Brazil. Lots of rock and hills. He grew cucumbers, tomatoes, raspberries, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, blackberries, and had some cows for milk. His goal is to be all organic although being certified at this point is not necessary. He has his own niche of buyers and really has no plans to grow larger because labor is not available. No one wants to farm in this area of the country. His wife, daughter and he are the labor for the farm. During peak times they are spending 18 hours a day reaping or processing their produce. I enjoyed watching the butterflies and we were able to buy some of his produce.

From there we went to Momento Ambiental which is a huge privately owned waste management facility focusing primarily on Class 1 and 2 waste. Most of us have never seen a facility this large. The process for handling solid and liquid waste was discussed and we were able to see much of it in action. Quite eye opening.


We drove for a while and then toured Eisenbaun Draft Brewery. The guys were pretty excited about this visit. We were able to see how beer is brewed, what ingredients are used and what makes each of their 14 types of beer different. They brewed both light and dark beers as well as a beer that was even mixed with Champagne. At the conclusion we were able to taste the different types and purchase any gifts from their shop.

We drove a couple of hours to the state of Sao Joaquim. Sao Joaquim (SJ) is the only state in Brazil that has a significant variance in temperature which allows for the growth of fruits like apples, kiwi, grapes and pears. They need the lower temperatures (frost) to germinate. Tuesday began with visiting Hiragami farm and packing plant. He grows Fuji and Gala apples, kiwi, plums and grapes for wine. The packing plant was for the apples and all the apples are sold as whole fruit. Apples are a very important fruit in SJ and across the country. Since the apples are sold as whole fruit there is much time and effort to make the perfect fruit and all of the apples we saw look so much better than what we find in the states. We were able to visit the orchards and see apples, plums, kiwi, grapes and pears in their environment. This was the first we had ever seen kiwi and to be honest I had never really thought about how they are grown. They are trained to grow up and then across a support system so that the fruit hang down and then are manually picked. All the fruit we saw looked amazing. Very attractive to the consumer and those we sampled were very tasty too.

The next visit was amazing!! We visited Villa Francione which was a winery totally designed by a dreamer by the name of Dilor. He came from a very poor family and was able to be successful in several businesses including farming and selling ceramics. Over time he built this winery which exemplifies the beauty and love of wine. The winery sits on a large hill looking over several hectors of vineyards. He collected antiques from all the places he visited as he developed the plans for the winery. You could see the colorful ceramics as we moved through the winery. There are no words that describe what we saw. He thought about everything necessary to make a fine wine. After the winery we drove for six hours to get to our next destination which was the city of Chapeco which is still in the state of Santa Catalina.. Up until now internet has been very unreliable. It was midnight by the time we got there and many of us tried to contact friends and family members.

On Wednesday we then toured Aurora which is a cooperative but it’s primary products are hogs, chickens and milk. We watch the slaughtering of hogs from start to finish. This was the headquarters of Aurora. They process 4600 pigs a day. At this location there 2200 employees. Aurora has 22,000 employees total. For those students who have never seen a slaughtering plant, the experience was extremely thought provocking and sometimes uncomfortable and it was a great experience for everyone. From there we made an expected trip to a farm show which was a small version of Farm Science Review. The farm show was sponsored by the Aurora Cooperative. Several companies were represented even those like Dow, Syngenta, Dekalb, Dupont, Pioneer and of course those that are unfamiliar. We then drove for eight hours to arrive at the much anticipated destination of Foz do Iguacu.

Week 4 – Thursday-Sunday: It’s Sunday night and we just returned from supper. We have a slight breather. Unfortunately the internet is down, which we have found to be the case a lot the last few days. I am going to try to get this written and then load it the next time we have a connection. We left Piracicaba Thursday night at 10:15 pm after we got Kip and Dan’s room unlocked so they could get their luggage out. You will need to ask them to fill in the blanks. It could only happen to Kip. We drove all night and arrived at our next destination at 8:30 am, two hours late. In the middle of the night we drove through a rainstorm and we came across a tree across the road to signify a bridge was out ahead......an interesting way to notify drivers on the road. The detour we used was an extra 110 miles. Bet you haven’t had a detour that long before!! After a quick breakfast, since we were so late in arriving, we visited a co-op, Castrolanda that was started by the Dutch in the 1950’s. It was quite interesting to hear about the history of the co-op and the 15 families that came from the Netherlands and who built their own community in the state of Paranara . Paranara represents 3% of the population in Brazil but 25% of the agriculture production so we could see the importance of the state to Brazil. The co-op handled milk, swine, grain, sweet potato, animal feed, and potato chips. A majority of the revenue was from grain and fertilizer. In the afternoon we visited a research station which focused on crops, plant propagation and primarily no-till farming. We were able to see the equipment they have developed based on the issues and concerns from farmers and how the equipment was improved. In the pictures you can see that the equipment was built to be pulled by horses and we just tried it out. We saw grasses, corn and beans. That night we had a wonderful Italian meal in the Italian community of Santa Felicidade.

On Saturday we drove to CPPOM which was a catholic university on the coast in Morretes. There they did research on clams, oysters and other marine life. We were able to see fish and hear about the practices they were doing to encourage oyster production in Brazil. We then traveled to Camboriu, Santa Catalina and arrived about 5:30 to the beach. We stayed there until 8:30, swam and watched a beautiful sunset. The students experienced the beach nightlife and this morning we went back to the beach and stayed from 9:30 am until 1:45 pm. The beach water yesterday was dirtier than today and warmer. Since we arrived late it was not crowded. Today we were on the other side of the inlet and the water was cooler and cleaner and the beach was very crowded. It was a gorgeous day. We had a great time relaxing in the sun. We returned to the hotel, got cleaned up and traveled to where we will start our day tomorrow.