More Wednesday May 10

A rather leisurely day. For the morning visit, we toured the mineral water bottling plant of Safira in Iraguaçu, about 15 minutes from Astorga. It was mostly closed down as the town of Maringa is celebrating their anniversary of founding.

After that, we toured a new water park in Iraguaçu but it also was closed for the season. Quite nice, however. Lunch was with our host families back in Astorga.

The afternoon was kind of fun as we visited another fazenda, again one with cattle and grain but we enjoyed the beautiful day in the country. The trip was great and off in the distance you could see the skyline of Maringa. Nice people, beautiful home, great snacks. It was the first time for Roz, Justin, Lisa, or Kirsten to drink fresh coconut water. Lisa wanted to get the recipe for the "cheese bread" but not sure we have the right kind of manioc flour in the US. Also great dessert made from mango, cream, and a bit of gelatin.

Kirsten showed off her new necklace she received from her host family for her 28th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

Got home around 5:00 pm s we all had time to either rest or go shopping before our club presentation tonight at the Rainha de Amizade Rotary Club. Going to try something different tonight. I´ll let the team members speak in English if they add something to their talk about something they have learned while here in Brazil. The club president speaks good English and should be able to translate for us. We´ll report tomorrow on how it all works out.

Tomorrow is our vocational day. I (Doug) will visit a tour company in Maringa with Rosana, a former GSE participant who spent a month in Delaware and Maryland several years ago. Since a Rotarian family member can not participate in GSE, her father had to drop out of Rotary for three years so she could participate and then rejoin later.

Wish us well!