Home at last

Well eventually after about 24 hours on the go we arrived at Heathrow to be greeted by some trusty supporters. It was good to be back but what an experience - unbelieveable

Thank you 1110

Up Up and Away

Last view of Port Alegre from the airport

Well it's finally arrived our last taste of Brazil before the long flight home.

We spent the morning having a quick trip into Gramado and then lunch - barbeque! but very tasty. Then the trip back to Port Alegre for the flight.

We were met at the airport by Ingo the GSE co-ordinator and we said our last farewells and flew from Port Alegre to Rio a 2 hour flight.

The change to the international flight at Rio was a lot easier than it had been coming in as our baggage was loaded in Port Alegre and would go all the way through to Heathrow (we hoped) and we only had to find the right gate. The airport was pretty devoid of shops and anywhere to get anything to eat only one food outlet and a little expensive £5.00 for an iced tea. It was dark so we could see little of Rio only the lights. Then on to the plane for the 11.5 hour flight home.

Good bye Brazil its been great.

Oh no - last day

Home James

Our final dinner

The runaway train

The distillery

Entry to Canela

Today we were to go to a post conference lunch event organised by the RC Canela - well that's what we found out when we got there. A pretty miserable day - rain and drizzle.

We had some time to look round Canela there were a few strange 'statues' placed arround the ton as they had had a recent conference about children's issues.

The lunch was good - barbequed meat but good all done by the club for about 100. Lunch over some entertainment a few musical moments by Rotarians - pretty professional.

After lunch we went to a cashasa distillery and a few samples - hic! Like many new businesses this was way out in the sticks but seemed to be happy with their location and producing some excellent cashasa.

Back to Gramado and on the way we saw the runaway train coming through a building which was a great tourist attraction.

Back to the hotel until we went to a restaurant for the DG's farewell dinner - a small ffair with the team, the DG, the RI Presidents Represenative from Portugal and the President of Gramado Rc and one of the conference organisers in a very up market Portuguese establishment. A great meal and a fitting end to our visit and our culinary experience.

The icing of this final event was the ride from the restaurant to our hotel in a stretch limo - we tried for the disco and bar but they weren't there.

To bed and to pack

Conference

Being presented at Conference with the banner from RC Canela

We had a reasonably easy start to the day then off to Canela to the District conference - work on the presentation - panic no one to translate our experiences - ok someone will translate as we speak on the experience.

Lunch was good but a bit of a scrum and then have a quick look in the conference hall - oh lots of people - it will all be ok. After tea break in the afternoon it's us

It went extremely well with Richard starting the crowd reaction off with the football team support - Grameo (one of the 2 premier teams in Rio Grand Du Sol - the other being Internacional) The presentations were well received and there were congratulations being offer by Rotarians - they may have been being nice! We were each presented with a chocolate bar for presenting - does that say anything!!

Another part of the great experience

Later there was the DG's dinner which was a much more sedate affair to lunch and very enjoyable and then back toe the hotel in Gramado for our penultimate night.

A rest day !!!!!!!!!!!

The entry to Gramado

The park

The cinema where there is film festival later in the year

Today we had a some time to ourselves - some did a little shopping - but in true Brazilian style our hosts the RC of Gramado didn't want to leave alone for too long so they came and collected us for lunch which was at the hotel (Hotel Bangalos Serra) we visited the previous day - excellent meal and the weather was better than the previous day so could see the magificent views.

After lunch we visited the city 'park' Lago Negro an area with a lake with even pedalos.

We then went back to the hotel we were staying out for a while - packed as we thought to move to the conference hotel in Canela - wrong - were only being taken there for the cocktail party - doh!!!

12th May - On the home stretch now

Time at the Zoo

The newspaper press

Today we moved on to Gramado where you can see a very clear European influence in the layout and buildings which look Tyrolean - very pretty, but starting to move to higher ground and it certainly was cooler

We arrived and went to the local school where the head teacher was a Rotarian and we spoke to about 120 children about us, England and whether we had met the Queen. The scholl had a project where they were harvesting the rainwater for the toilets etc. We then had lunch at a small hotel whose selling point was that they did all they could to ensure they were as environmentally friendly as they could be with their own cows, chickens and blankets made from recycled material.

We visited the Mayor's office and met the Environment Secretary who explained what they were doing and they seemed to be ahead of many other 'cities' we had visited and wanted to progress further. Then off to one of the local papers for a interview and from there to another where we saw the paper presses - this one seemed to be a 5 or 6 man operation but behold the next day we were in their publication.

Then it was off to the Zoo a fairly small zoo but well stocked with a variety of indigenous animals. It seemed some of the nclosures may have been a little small but the animals seemed healthy and an all round enjoyable visit.

Taquara 11th May

We collected by RC Taquara and were starting to get into the higher ground and it was getting cooler. Firstly we visited the local radio station and did an inteview for both the radio and newspaper. The interview asked the standard question about the Wedding and which footbal team would win but a reasonably pleasant experience with an American who translated.

A pretty damp and dismal day from the weather point of view. WE visited the University which was small and talked to the Principal who had been a GSE member a while ago but he was very open about many parts of Brazilian life.

Then it was the Mayor a very pleasant lady where Paul M tried very hard to talk about strategy and plans and made a little progress

The we went higher after a storm to a Buddhist temple which had some magnifient views and was a very serene place.

We then moved on to the water treatment plant where we met a great guy who explained in detail all the processes and how they are looking to the future requirements

10th May 2011 - Ivoti

The first house in Invoti

We were met in Parobe by some members of the Ivoti Rotary Club and taken to the City (the City of Flowers) a small one by comparison to the others we had seen - it was a settlement founded by the Germans in 1824 and later there were a considerable number of Japanese people who settled in the 20th century.

We visited a play project supported by the local Club for children of working parents - children go to chool either morning or afternoon and this project helped plug the gap. We were treated to a dnace display by some of the students and saw the facilities which were available including an indoor football pitch.

Next it was off to see the Mayor - another but a very nice lady who we met again at Rio airport who recognised us so we must have made some sort of impression.

Our next visit was to a private school which had a great orchestra who had travelled through Europe and they gave a us a rendition of their catalogue, which was excellent.

After lunch we went to a 'project' where the guys who had originally collected recycling and sold it to various merchants had set up with help from the council a cooperative where they took material and shared the profits as a salary which for them was better than their totting type activity.

We with the Environment Manager went to a nursery where trees were grown and householders could come and collect up to 5 trees a year which they planted in the city. The next visit was an incentive scheme where householders could take their recycling on a Wednesday and exchange it for plants - perhaps we could learn something.

We went to a hydroponic farm next where they grew lettuce and other plants but the owner also have a collection of exotic birds which initially he had imported but now bred.

Monday 9th May

Today...Visited a waste landfill site, where there was again sorting of the rubbish by hand. The site deals with about 26,000 tonnes per day or about 800kg per person. They do not collect the landfill gas, but they are trying to increase the recycling rate. There was discussion over targets, and strategies, it seems fronm an outside point of view that the public service operates on a project basis - and that they do not have overarching strategies so much as in the UK. However this may not be a critiscism because there are many strategies in the UK which are not actioned! One point which I pressed our rep from the council on was if they saw a conflict between the private company in this case gaining money from the sorting of the waste and promoting increased recyclign which would decrease the income, I was told that I had a point - but that the situation is reviewed on a regular basis.Wages are apparently better than the shoe factories for the jobs in sorting... about 800 REAL a month.
The Rio Grande de Sul area is a relatively progressive area with increasing recycling.... the rest of Brazil is learning from their example - they seem to be someway behind the UK. Reasons for this perhaps are a better climate, not so dry as other parts of Brazil, less social issues, and more development. Also they seem to have a real cultural problem - with people not respecting the environment and little understanding about the value of recycling anongst the population. There is much fly-tipping with the council being expected to clear it all up - perhaps not that much different!
Visit to Augusto Kampff Centre for the Environment in Igrejinha.
Next we visited an environmental centre next to a large Brewery... after meeting the Mayor.
We had a welcome with some children doing a traditional dance - which was very pleasent! In this area they speak German in the schools and there is a heavy German influence. This NGO had been going for a about 15 years, and they run a number of projects... promoting the reduction in plastic bag use, since 2007 collecting vegatable oil from over 100 collection sites to be reused in heating systems, taking tyres out of the environment, collecting flourescent tubes and bulbs, planting native species of trees and educating people on proper care of trees.The Counsel o Municiple de Meio Ambiente de lgrejinha, is a forum made up of NGOs industry and other representatives... they undertake these projects... although the relationship with the centre was a little unclear..... another lovely meal, and some more lovely people to say an all to brief goodbye to!..
We then visited the Education Centre in Parobe and saw the distribution of organic local food being undertaken to 23 schools in the area serving 8,900 students with meals which are changed daily to add variety and overseen by a nutritionist - sounds really good!
Then we visited another environmental centre the espaco socio ambiental which is a really brilliant centre - catering for 9,000 children a year with each child visiting 1 day per year. We undertook a walk with the children collecting samples of species, it was nice to get out and about. The children compared two areas one a ecuolpytus plantation and another native forest, the plantation was visably less diverse than the native forest, and the plantations are not well liked for this reason - similar to our pine forests.....
We then visited a similar environmental project in Sapiranga, the federal goverment has apparently instigated that each municipality must teach environmetnal education. The site had a herbal medicine ´clock´ and numerous herbs and varieties of plants to help with the eductation process. Also * Climate change is not a debate in Brazil according to people we have spoken to - unlike the UK* The cities here are new - abotu 30/40 years following the shoe factories, some are unplanned but there are some planned cities such as ararica.
We then went to a Rotary Club evening meeting, which was as friendly as ever

Sunday 8th May - another day another city

We had a restful start to the day with lunch with hosts (more meat for our tester and some of Vanessa's sausage) before we moved to Parobe - a city where they make shoes. I was taken by my host to his children's shoe factory - where we looked at the factory floor in near darkness but like many things and places we have been to they are proud of what they have done and do.

Another selection of friendly hosts but the only point of concern here is we didn't have a programme for us to know aht we are doing but even so they did us proud.

Saturday 7th May

Vanessa's prize sausage

We have had a free-ish day and taken places by our hosts - Paul and I went to the cathedral and it was magnificent. For those who have that fetish this is shoe heaven with shop after shop of shoes.

In the evening we went to a Sausage Ball - a Rotary event which had 280 people attending and raising a lot of funds for one of their projects. We all had a entry card and there was a draw and Vanessa won a metre of sausage but she didn't want to collect it so as many time Team Leader was put up fron. If we had won the top prize it would have been a suckling pig.

We are still alive

Sorry there has been a lack of posts but we have been busy and having problems with internet acce

Friday 6th May

The processing of waste from the tanning industry

Central Novo Hamburgo

The water flowing into the waterworks

Today a slighter later start at 9.00 which was welcome - then off to the the water purification works in Novo Hamburgo which turns what looks like dirty water from the River Sinos into water to a drinkable standard - the site produces the water for the city (approx 250,000 population so smaller than other we have been to). The city is also working towards providing main drainage to all households about 5% at present.

Another day another interview for a monthly magazine.

A quick stroll round the city before lunch at a Mexican restaurant - although the food wasn't too different to what we had had most days but very appetising.

After lunch and a chat with the President of one of the four clubs in the city it was off to one of the largest tanneries in Brazil who process about 1,000 hides a day. They received them in blue-water format (part tanned) and they finish the leather generally for upholstery for furniture and cars. There are smaller tanneries in the area which do more specialist work for shoes, bags etc. The industry is suffering as one company is becoming an monolopy and they are controlling bto flow of hides. The company controls slaughter houses and so the complete chain.

As I said earlier in the week there are different ways of dealing with the waste from tanning and this tannery has set up a company ISLA who take the material heat it to 180C and the material is then dried and forms a fertiliser which is sold predominately to Italy as it still has to gain a licence for use in Brazil?? There were a few questions asked as one of the main chemicals used in tanning is chronium - the answer given was that there was Chronium 3 in the fertilser and that can be placed on land and they have had no instances of Chronium 6 which is appartently the hazardeous one.

Finally the team and hosts went to a club? which has 10 pin bowling, food and a live band who start to play at about 0.15 - we didn't last too long but it was helped by the

fact we had no specific activity on Saturday.

Montenegro - 5th May 2011

Just a small serving of meat

Tanac's site

Ecocitrus

We spent today with Rotarians from Montenegro about 30 miles from Novo Hamburgo where we visited the new John Deere factory where they produce 3 of their 17 brands of farm machinery - here they only do tractors. The plant is new and is out in the countryside which seems to happen in that much land is owned by the governement and they offer firms incentives to go to new areas.We had to wear the full range of PPE - shoes, gloves, earplugs and glasses. They manufacture about 50 tractors per day and have introduced a small tractor for farms with little land who can pay for the tractor over 10 years.

We then moved on a cooperative which takes oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruit from smallproducers and markets the produce. They have recently started to produce both fresh and concentrated juice which they are exporting to many countries including some in Europe. They have set a composting facility which takes waste material from their process and others including animal waste which would not be allowed in UK.

Then it was lunch with the Rotary club but this included a TV interview and 2 newspaper ones - all this publicity we will be more famous here than at home - perhaps we'll stay I sure Ron will fund it.

We visit Tanac who produce vegetable tanning from Acacia wood and also a fertiliser from what is the waste material. This is the largest producer of tanning in Brazil.

Then back to Novo Hamburgo for dinner with a small serving of meat and some strange pizzas - chocolate and strawberrys and ice cream - sounds and look awful and according to our tester Richard is not so appetising.

New day new city

We moved . on Wednesday to Novo Hamburgo where we meet more great Rotarians who have yet again hosted us very well. We visited the Feevale University and an organisation which is a sort of cooperative of businesses who have joined together to dispose of their harzardous waste from the tanning industry. We visited their site and saw their rotting leather offcuts etc. They seem to have a good sytem but more later in the week and a different option. We also visited a tannery college where they teach tanning techniques and carry out testing of processes. Then it was a night with hosts

More Tuesday 3rd May

We had a great evening at a Gaucho venue with people dressed in their traditional dress. There was dancing to a live Gaucho band. The picture shows my host the next District Governor of 4670 - not sure what the Millmans would wear. Only one of us was brave enough to have a go - well done Paul. It is all very serious stuff

Tuesday 3rd May

Today was our second day in Sao Leopoldo... a good summary of the city is avaliable here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Leopoldo

An early start today at 8am - we visited a large reserve in the centre of the city which was the site of a large amount of rubbish and settlement by very poor people who lived off the collection and sorting of it..... A resulting 5,000,000 Brazillian Real project was undertaken the majority of the funds to rehouse the poor people to a new settlement and to build a new recylcing facility. There was 5,000 tonnes of waste on the site, of which aboutu 3,000 tonnes has been removed.

This picture was taken when the park had a number of poor people living on it with the associated rubbish from which they made there living.... the council were keen to point out that a major part of this project was the social issues surrounding the reolocation of these residents and the provision of employment and housing.....

This video shows bits of the park site... with facilities...

Meeting with the President of the Sao Leopolodo City Council.

The Rotarians in Sao Leopoldo seem very well connected! So today we had a conversation with the President of the council in the city. The public setup in Brazil is a little complicated, but the President did his best to explain, there are at least 3 levels of legislation... althrough it is hierarchical... this means that there are many regulations... but not all are adhered to if one has funds. One local law introduced was to force the train to be suspended above the roads.. whereas in Canoas it divides the city by running on the ground.

 It cannot be help in decision making that there are 13 members of the council from 6 different parties! There apparently are more than 30 parties in Brazil, with only 5 or so of significance - apparently some are setup in order to take advantage of funding and promotional tine... so called ´rent´ parties....
The public bodies have a budget of 460,000,000 Brazillian real - a not insubstancial sum for a city of about 210,000 people. This money goes into projects which are agreed by the council, and which can also be suggested by members of the public - althrough this has never happened.

We keep hearing about many projects not happening... but it is really unclear how things work when you get to this stage!

.. had lunch... where we did our presentation.. in well recieved portuguese!

... visit to the RS daily newspaper editor...

We then visited the main municipal landfill site for the city which recieves 140 tonnes of waste a day, the rubbish is also sorted by a workers co-operative under contract by a company which owns and maintains the site.... some videos below....

This arrangement means that the co-operative is responsible for the Health and Saftey of the workers, the sorted waste going to the co-operative. This is an interesting arrangement - the service agreement between the co-operative and the company would be interesting to have a look through... this is the same co-operative I think that the workers who were displaced from the site we visited in the morning work for.

We in the UK would use a greater amount of mechanisation, and thats in recycling, I dont think we would ever try and seperate household waste manually.

These cars are very common along with the VW ´combis´or classic camper vans which we call them in the UK.

We then visited a plastics recycling plant... the fumes within one of the buildings were quite sufficating... i must admit i was concerned for the long term well being of the workers... both at this plant and also those who are sorting the municiple waste...

Another Goucho night out! With some interesting variations of dress...

A mini-case study could be written about all that we learnt today! Disseminating this information is going to be an interesting excercise... both for the final presentation at the conference - where we are asked to pick out some of our highlights and observations and also of course debriefing on our return.

.. up in 6 hours! bed!

Monday 2nd May

Today we had an early start for a City Tour - some of the highlights.....

Visit to Sanuraio do S. Coraçao de Jesus. This is a Santuary which is very important to the region.... it is not a cathedral but may be named one following the end of the process of beautification for Padre Reus - who will become a saint. Many people believe that the Padre heals them... and the sanuraio is full of benches which have been made as presents by believers as a symbol of their thanks.

We visited the centre of the city - including a monument commemorating the first Germanic settlement - the city has this influence still althrough it seems to be more prominant in the neighbouring city of Novo Hamburgo.

Outside the Sanctuary

Panning video inside the Church... with a very striking crucifiction



It was taking too long - so we had to move on in the end....

 After a tour of the Church we visited the site of the first Germanic settlement.. 1824. Around this period there was about 10 or so years of independance of Rio Grande de Sul from the rest of Brazil. It is becoming more apparent this state is very much independantly minded and has connections with Northern Argentina and Uruyaguy.... Brazil as we have been told a number of times is a nations within nations.

The historic centre of Sao Leopoldo

The badges have been very well recieved

Chat with the Mayor of Sao Leopoldo

We visited City hall and an audience with the Mayor of the city where we talked about the issues of pollution which have blighted the River Sinos, and the efforts that the city is taking to preserve a large parkland and reduce industrial pollution. There is still a considerable amount of sewage going into the river - Brazil has only relatively recently introduced legislation in this area (think it was last 10 years) but the situation is improving (according to the mayor)

There was some conflicting information regarding industries contribution... the mayor indicating the there is now 0% pollution from industries... whereas our later presentation indicated that there were still issues with pollution on the river... perhaps the mayor referring to compliance with legislation which perhaps is not as strong as some might like.

Before all of this we had a presentation by CENTL SENAI an NGO working with industry to promote cleaner production, training experts in environmental technologies and methodologies, capacity building and other such projects. The organisation has worked with a number of international partners including some in the UK. We questioned her about various issues, including water use, and the relatively low uptake of Solar technology which has been really notable from my point of view, apparently the technology is still expensive in Latin America and it seems that simple solar water heating systems have simply not taken off.... and there is no manafacturing.

After lunch at Sociedade Orpheu - apparently the oldest society in the whole of Brazil, we visited the University for a talk on the Comitesinos project. This is a partnership of NGOs, civil society, Public Bodies and Industry who have interests in the River Sinos Basin which runs about 200km long, with a total of 3,400km of tributies, covering a watershed area of 4,000km2. There are many issues affecting this River Basin including:

• Public Water Supply
• 1.2 million people are dependant on extraction for the water source
• Rice intensive farming is common
• The rivers within the state are the states responsibility - so The River Sinos is the responsability of R Grande de Sul - whereas perhaps the Amazon which covers a number if states recieve help from the federal government (not sur  about this)

We head about a number of impressive projects, including mapping of impacts along the whole basin - by a team of volunteers with GPS devices. There are almost 2,000 mapped Sewage effects... with this and clearence of vegetation close to the river (the regulations are 30m of vegatation must be left between the river bank and the cleared fields) are the most pressing issues... amongst many.

We recieved a copy of the presentation.

http://www.comitesinos.com.br/

In the evening we were presented and were really well looked after by the Rotary Clube whose name escapes me! Then I went and had a chat with one of our Translators who worked for an NGO for a period of time... he outlined some of their concerns with the plantations of Euculyptus and some of the other environmental issues... giving a different perspective from that which we have recieved - althrough companies have been very honest with us in my opinion with their issues... namely because we have visited those who have done much to address environmental concerns...

Coffee will never be the same again after this trip... not a costa or american chain in site and all the better for it!

This is the oldest Environmental NGO in Brazil apparently, we met a former president Tiago who translated for us...

 

Arrival in Sao Leopoldo

Today we arrived in Sao Leopoldo after saying our goodbyes to the wonderfull people of Canoas.

We ate another great lunch after meeting our hosts, and visited a orphan project being developed on some land donated by the city council. There is a big problem with street children being used by drug gangs for ferrying drugs around due to the fact that they are unlikely to face jail... we visited just part of a planned centre with school / health and other facilities part of a wider plan. The building was partially completed - with 20% of the funding still needing to be found. A popular way of raising funds apparently is the selling of chickens - it also seems to be harder here to raise capital costs than to fund revenue - which seems to be slightly different than home where capital is sometimes easier to come by rather than long term running costs. if the centre gets off the ground the city council will cover the costs of professionals with volunteers performing alot of the the basic tasks.

The full site vision - number 10 (the blue building is where we visited and what has been partially completed)

Artists impression of site at completion

More information on the project is avaliable here

http://casaberta.blog.terra.com.br/
With photos of progress here http://casaberta.nafoto.net/

People still seemed to be standing after a traditional sunday roast prepared by the team yesterday

lunch at Sao Leopoldo

Again outside the project