Sunday April 30 Update
April 28-29: From Indiana to Paraná
“Hurry up and wait” best describes the trip from Indiana to Paraná.
For me, Doug, the trip started from Goshen at 7:15 am with Sharon taking me to Warsaw to pick up a rented minivan from Avis at 8:00 and then picking up Kirsten, Justin, and Lisa at the Aboite Branch of the ACPL. By shortly after 11:00 am, we arrived at the Indianapolis Airport where we met Roz.
After a quick check-in with Delta, we ate lunch and waited for our Comair flight at 1:51 pm to New York—Kennedy. Our original plan was to head over the next terminal to TAM to get checked in, see if we could improve our center section seats, for Roz to see if she could change her return date, and then hang out at the Delta Crown Room until our flight left at 8:00 pm.
That didn’t work out since once we left the Delta Terminal, we could not return without a Delta boarding pass. We spent a hour or two in the Crown Room and Doug and Roz went over to TAM around 5:30 to work on the seats and make Roz’s changes (neither one happened).
Even then, the line to check in was quite long so we waited for that and then called the others to come over and get in line. They got there after 6:30 pm and the wait to check in was about an hour, putting us close to departure. Fortunately, the line for security went quickly and we were onboard by 7:40pm.
We were not able to get out of the center section (seating on the Airbus was 2-4-2). Lisa and Doug took the middle seats and we were off for the long flight, scheduled to arrive at 6:30 am in São Paulo.
We arrived at 7:00 am with over two hours to make our 9:15 am TAM connection to Londrina. Our bags had been checked through, but we knew that Guarulhos could take a long time to clear immigration and customs at time. We were fortunate and that went quickly. Several of us changed currency in the airport (got a terrible rate!) and then we needed to take our luggage to the TAM re-check counter. No fear—we had checked our bags all the way through and it should be quick, right? That line took about an hour and we were close to missing our flight. Once we got checked in, the agent said, “Upstairs, Gate 1, Now!” and we were off with at least five minutes to spare. Even then the flight left about 15 minutes late.
Great flight to Londrina with an intermediate stop in Curitiba, and arrived right on time.
We had planned to take time in the São Paulo airport to change into our official uniform, brush our teeth, and make a decent first impression. That delay in rechecking our bags took its toll, so we looked less than fresh but we had our blazers on!) as we met the inbound GSE leader Luis Octavio da Costa, District 4710 Governor Alvaro Claudio Brochado, and Governor-Elect Oswaldo Fávaro who came into the baggage claim area. Upon exiting, we were welcomed with applause and met the rest of the delegation with the welcome banner ready for picture-taking.
Each team member met his or her host family and loaded up the cars and headed to Arapongas, our host city for our first week. I and my two carry-on size bags had no problems, but it appeared that Kirsten and Roz shared a ride and hardly had enough room.
My first host family, Amaury Gomes and Luzia Poliselli, welcomed me, introduced me to their family, provided a nice lunch, allowed me time to unpack, rest a while, and get cleaned up. Amaury and Luzia have a home created for entertaining and we enjoyed a nice dinner around 8:30 that lasted until late, sitting around and chatting with their friends.
I think the favorite topics throughout the world are politics, the economy, and sports (at least with the men folk). Made it to bed just after midnight and slept well, despite coming down with a cold.
Sunday, April 30—A Day of Rest
After breakfast, Amaury and his son-in-law, took me to see his son-in-law’s home across the street and then a tour of the city. Arapongas is a city of about 100,000 residents and has grown by around 40,000 in the last 20 years. There many fine homes, including Amaury’s, as well as some older ones. The city was founded about 60 years ago. Everything except the Sunday market was closed today for Sunday and will be closed again tomorrow for a national holiday, Labor Day.
After an afternoon of rest, evening plans call for the team and host families to meet for orientation in the home of the President of District 4710 GSE/IGE Luis Octavio da Costa.
“Hurry up and wait” best describes the trip from Indiana to Paraná.
For me, Doug, the trip started from Goshen at 7:15 am with Sharon taking me to Warsaw to pick up a rented minivan from Avis at 8:00 and then picking up Kirsten, Justin, and Lisa at the Aboite Branch of the ACPL. By shortly after 11:00 am, we arrived at the Indianapolis Airport where we met Roz.
After a quick check-in with Delta, we ate lunch and waited for our Comair flight at 1:51 pm to New York—Kennedy. Our original plan was to head over the next terminal to TAM to get checked in, see if we could improve our center section seats, for Roz to see if she could change her return date, and then hang out at the Delta Crown Room until our flight left at 8:00 pm.
That didn’t work out since once we left the Delta Terminal, we could not return without a Delta boarding pass. We spent a hour or two in the Crown Room and Doug and Roz went over to TAM around 5:30 to work on the seats and make Roz’s changes (neither one happened).
Even then, the line to check in was quite long so we waited for that and then called the others to come over and get in line. They got there after 6:30 pm and the wait to check in was about an hour, putting us close to departure. Fortunately, the line for security went quickly and we were onboard by 7:40pm.
We were not able to get out of the center section (seating on the Airbus was 2-4-2). Lisa and Doug took the middle seats and we were off for the long flight, scheduled to arrive at 6:30 am in São Paulo.
We arrived at 7:00 am with over two hours to make our 9:15 am TAM connection to Londrina. Our bags had been checked through, but we knew that Guarulhos could take a long time to clear immigration and customs at time. We were fortunate and that went quickly. Several of us changed currency in the airport (got a terrible rate!) and then we needed to take our luggage to the TAM re-check counter. No fear—we had checked our bags all the way through and it should be quick, right? That line took about an hour and we were close to missing our flight. Once we got checked in, the agent said, “Upstairs, Gate 1, Now!” and we were off with at least five minutes to spare. Even then the flight left about 15 minutes late.
Great flight to Londrina with an intermediate stop in Curitiba, and arrived right on time.
We had planned to take time in the São Paulo airport to change into our official uniform, brush our teeth, and make a decent first impression. That delay in rechecking our bags took its toll, so we looked less than fresh but we had our blazers on!) as we met the inbound GSE leader Luis Octavio da Costa, District 4710 Governor Alvaro Claudio Brochado, and Governor-Elect Oswaldo Fávaro who came into the baggage claim area. Upon exiting, we were welcomed with applause and met the rest of the delegation with the welcome banner ready for picture-taking.
Each team member met his or her host family and loaded up the cars and headed to Arapongas, our host city for our first week. I and my two carry-on size bags had no problems, but it appeared that Kirsten and Roz shared a ride and hardly had enough room.
My first host family, Amaury Gomes and Luzia Poliselli, welcomed me, introduced me to their family, provided a nice lunch, allowed me time to unpack, rest a while, and get cleaned up. Amaury and Luzia have a home created for entertaining and we enjoyed a nice dinner around 8:30 that lasted until late, sitting around and chatting with their friends.
I think the favorite topics throughout the world are politics, the economy, and sports (at least with the men folk). Made it to bed just after midnight and slept well, despite coming down with a cold.
Sunday, April 30—A Day of Rest
After breakfast, Amaury and his son-in-law, took me to see his son-in-law’s home across the street and then a tour of the city. Arapongas is a city of about 100,000 residents and has grown by around 40,000 in the last 20 years. There many fine homes, including Amaury’s, as well as some older ones. The city was founded about 60 years ago. Everything except the Sunday market was closed today for Sunday and will be closed again tomorrow for a national holiday, Labor Day.
After an afternoon of rest, evening plans call for the team and host families to meet for orientation in the home of the President of District 4710 GSE/IGE Luis Octavio da Costa.
posted by Doug Risser at 11:32 AM
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