Putting it all together - Week 3 - Sep 23 - 27

A week of heads-down work. A few meetings to close out the development of our viewpoint. Distilling what we saw, heard, observed, looked up, learnt and experienced into a coherent guidebook for tourism development in the city. Cranked way down on the after-work activities in order to find time to think, write and rewrite. Here are my highlights of the week.

I walked to work most days of the week, and this gave me a good sense of the daily weather changes. Monday was very warm, light showers on Tuesday, Wednesday was chilly enough to need a jacket, and Friday was hot. I guess this is typical springtime weather here.

We had a few key meetings this week. A visit to Algar, a big local conglomerate, was Monday's highlight. With business interests in Telecom, Services, Agribusiness, Hotels and many others, and revenues last year of $2 bn, they are a big presence in the city. This Uberlandia-based  company is now run by the third generation of the founder's family. Impressively professional operations, with world-class corporate governance practices - especially impressive given that the company is not publicly-listed. We heard about Algar Institute's (the charitable arm of the group) programs on education and sustainability. Coincidentally, Cristiane, one of the UFU interns working with us, started her job with Algar last week.

 At Algar's Headquarters

The corporate campus is on the edge of town, and contained a number of buildings. Our meeting was at the Corporate Headquarters, from where you could see the founder's farmhouse, which was the only building on the land till a few years ago. Leonardo, who escorted us from the Municipal Tourism Department, grew up with Algar's CEO and told us about the time they used to ride horses here. As we were leaving, we met Luiz, the CEO for a brief chat. Word of our group and our activities in the city had already reached him - news travel quickly here !

Indoor greenery at Algar's CHQ

Then on at a meeting with the "G7", a grouping of Uberlandia's most prominent business leaders, at ACIUB. The meeting gets a bit contentious - the G7 wants to know how we could expect to grasp how the city operates and provide recommendations in 4 weeks, and how IBM expects to benefit in the process. Fair questions, to be sure, and we try to answer in a matter-of-fact manner. Paulo & Marise from the Tourism Department step in clarify several points, and I get the sense that we eventually gained a modicum of acceptance from the group.

At the G7 meeting

Monday evening we had the standing meeting of all the teams. Visibly tired faces around the room. The meeting is much shorter than the previous ones. I head out to dinner with Terumine to Tulipas, and learn more about his life in Tokyo.

Tuesday's heads-down work was interrupted late in the day by a chance meeting with visitors from Belo Horizonte who'd come to meet Marise, who suggested that we take advantage of their presence in town. Baques & Carlos, from Instituto Estrada Real, an organization that promotes tourism along a large area covering the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo & Rio De Janeiro along a colonial "Royal Road" that led from the gold mines of Ouro Prieto to the port of Paraty, where the gold headed on to European destinations. Baques was a fount of knowledge, and additionally, spoke fluent English. He told us about his organization and how they have been promoting tourism in 200 municipalities in the area they cover and gave us solid tips on how to position Uberlandia.

Talking with Carlos (left) and Baques from the Instituto Estrada Real, Belo Horizonte

A reminder of work from back home - I had a 9 PM check-in call with the "study group" from the Cornerstone course I had recently attended at IBM Armonk. I am way behind on what I was supposed to have done - a lot of catching up is in order when I get back home,

Intense work on Wednesday. Highlight was lunch at the weekly farmer's market - a pastel and fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice, and a yummy tapioca crepe with coconut & condensed milk filling. Gym, followed by room-service (my first time) chicken soup, as I attempt to conserve time to finish my work. A group head out for the weekly Samba lesson and land up at a club afterwards to try out their newly acquired moves, which I hear, caused no injuries to anyone - so good job teaching us, Leandro.

Thursday morning walk to work was marked by attempts to converse in Portuguese with the laundry lady (went swimmingly well) and three different gas station store clerks to add minutes to my cell phone (didn't work all that well). Lunch at the mall at a risotto place with Marc. In an attempt to blend in with the crowd, I pick up a Brazilian football jersey.

I am amongst the first in at the office on Friday. We thanks our 4 UFU interns for their dedication and hard work by taking them out to lunch. Capital (pronounced "Capitao") Steakhouse at the nearby mall is fashioned less like a classic American steakhouse, and more like a Chili's or  Applebee's. All the interns opt for the rack of BBQ ribs. I tried the filet mignon, which is predictably good, and wash it down with a dark Brahma lager, which turned out to be better than the pale lager that I'd exclusively patronized to date.

The charming Municipal Museum was the Mayor's office till about 20 years ago

 Looking at a scale model of the city in its early days

Then straight on to a city tour organized by the Cecilia and Luciano of the Municipality on the occasion of World Tourism Day (September 27th). We are ensconced in a comfortable bus and taken to Parque do Sabia, where we go on a trip around on the "bus train". I spot fruit-laden mango trees and coconut water stands, which bring back memories of Kerala. Then on to the Municipal Museum, where we see farm implements from two centuries ago, at the time of the city's founding, and a reconstructed merchant's store with all sorts of early 20th century essentials (ant killing contraption, meat grinding things, things to press sugarcane juice). A stroll through the Municipal Market proves lucky, as I see a shop selling curry powder, cloves, cardamom and other spices, which would come in very handy for what I intend to try for Sunday's potluck at Larissa's father's place. I make a note to come back over the weekend to shop for my recipe.

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Pictures from here and there - Part 3

 A seriema walking by the office

View from Algar's (a conglomerate based in Uberlandia) Corporate Headquarters

Algar founder's farmhouse - part of the company's vast campus in Uberlandia

 Psychedelic Mickey Mouse bus train

 That's $72,000 for a Chrysler 300C !  No wonder people here prefer driving compacts !

Por que não em Português?

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Some quiet time - Weekend of Sep 21 - 22

Friday evening after work, my team headed off to Cajuba Club  for some decompression. I ran while the others swam. When we reassembled, we saw a grill near the pool, and delicious smells wafting from it, so we settled in with a cerveza and some grilled meat on sticks. They served it with mandioca flour and boiled mandioca, but I stuck with the good stuff. The club had a buffet going as well, and we all sampled that. Hit or miss on the buffet was the general consensus. The rest of the teams had assembled for libations at Chopp Time, near our hotel, and we joined them. I sampled kiwi and mango caipirinhas - fresh fruits in caipirinhas is quite a good addition.

Plans were being made for later on in the night, and a sub-group headed out to Sibipiruna, the place we'd stopped off for a drink after our last Samba lesson. On that occasion, we were the only customers there, but Friday night, the place was buzzing. No room to move, loud music and the young and the restless in their best club-going attire. We bumped into Tony and some of the crew from Ipe, and I chatted with a couple of others before calling it a night.

I slept in on Saturday. The rest of the crew, save for Joel and I, headed out to Caldas Novas, a hot spring about 3 hours away. I elected to skip, as I sorely needed some alone time after all of the intense socialization of the past two weeks. I had some hazy plans for the weekend, but mostly my intent was to doing nothing and catch up on things long pending. A welcome respite from the non-stop action.

When I finally awoke, I had to scramble down to grab some breakfast before the place closed. I got working on getting my blog au courant - daunting task, given all the stuff that took place over the past two weeks. Fortunately, I'd noted down daily highlights, so reconstructing the events, once I was in full flow, came easily enough. Around noon, I called Joel and we headed out to lunch, with a detour to the drycleaners. They weigh your clothes here and charge per kilo - not like back home, where the rate is by the article of clothing and the number of pieces. We headed to Marlao, a place I am quickly becoming quite familiar with. Ronildo, the beer bottle juggling waiter was around, and came over to say hello and do a bit of his juggling shtick.

Back in my room, more writing. Then off on a quest to buy some bottles of cachaca. I head to the other end of town, to Cachaceria do Dede, the place we went for the business networking lunch earlier. The front desk person at the hotel suggest a couple of alternatives that I note down - due for a visit next week. At the shop, I find an assistant who spoke English, and he recommended a few local cachacas. I also picked up assorted jams and jellies in interesting flavors and made of unusual fruits. I spotted a Walmart nearby, and picked up a few essentials. Back to my room, and off to Cajuba for a workout. Skipped dinner and worked on my writing some more. I'm feeling a lot more relaxed after all of the  alone time. I make some more progress on reading "Randamoozham". It has been riveting so far.

Sunday is pretty much a repeat of Saturday. I down a substantial breakfast, so skip lunch. Catch up with parents in Trivandrum, India. Write some more. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and  have made a serious dent in the backlog. At Cajuba, I have the whole gym to myself. I realize the gym closes at 5 PM, so I barely manage to squeeze in my workout before closing time. Leisurely stroll back. It is pretty warm out today. More writing. A bit of work for tomorrow's project status meeting.

Larissa calls to suggest dinner plans, and Christy pops in to announce that the hot springs group is back. We head down at 8 PM and Larissa recommends a pizzeria. All-you-can-eat pizza, accompanied by a couple of drinks. My pina colada is like nothing on earth, but the caipirinha that follows is as good as it gets. Cautionary tale - stick with the local stuff.  The pizza is heavy on the mozzarella, and feature offbeat toppings like salmon, shrimp and arugula. We end the meal with a couple of Nutella and strawberry pizzas. Now off to bed with a sense of accomplishment - caught up on my reportage. Mahi, you better be reading every word I write, for it is for you (and your mom) that I am spending all of this time writing down the quotidian details of my life in Uberlandia.

 The pool at Cajuba Country Club, my haunt for the weekend

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The struggles, to date

My experiences here have been overwhelmingly positive - but if I were to be hyper-critical and find a nit to pick, then that nit would be team work. While we all knew before we started out that the group of people here represented a mishmash of countries, cultures, age ranges, experiences and job functions, what took me a bit unawares were the diversity of viewpoints on any given topic. 

Much of the difference of opinions between the team could be directly traced to a cultural or country-specific "tic" - for instance, the style of asking questions - but what I assumed to be inviolable axioms of professional conduct (for example, being on time and remembering clients' and coworkers' names) turn out to be open to personal interpretation as well. Each team acts as a self-managed unit, with no assigned leader - and "rule by consensus" is much harder that "rule by decree". Differences in language, mannerisms and communication styles seem to get amplified, as we have been doing an intense amount of working and socializing with no prior acclimatization period. Many of the team have no prior experience providing consulting services to clients, so what appears glaringly obvious to me does not appear at all obvious to them, and this frustrates me sometimes. 

I consider this an opportunity to get used to working with such a diverse bunch of people, and learn to be patient, listen and not shoot off my mouth at the first chance. But it sure ain't easy !

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Nose to the grindstone, yet finding time for fun - our second work week - Sep 16 - 20

Week 2, Monday, Sep 16, we start the day with a meeting with the Marise and Pedro to review the revised scope of work. We added a section on helping them with an assessment of tourism potential and clarified what the tourism information system would encompass. Agreement all around !

We start looking up comparable cities in Brazil that would serve as case studies. Pedro supplies us with information from Sao Paulo - very nice reports on all sorts of tourism-related activity. We look up Curitiba, Florianopolis, Petropolis, Belo Horizonte, Goiania and a bunch of other cities to assess their tourism information management systems and what data they collect on tourism.

We meet the Secretary of Culture, and he briefs us on the resources his team manages, including theaters, art galleries, libraries and performance venues.

The Secretary of Culture, Gilberto, talks to us on the cultural assets of Uberlandia

We have an all-hands meeting in the evening with Bruno and Larissa. Many of us distribute candy and goodies - I now have an overflowing bag filled with gifts, including a large Brazilian flag (thanks, Pedro) and I Heart NYC keychains (courtesy of Leslie). The teams share their progress and frustrations. All in all, everyone seems to be on track. After-work plans for the week and the weekend are discussed. A trip to a resort in nearby Caldas Novas, featuring a hot spring, is under discussion with Sylvie in the lead.

Tuesday, we start the day with the inauguration of MOSTRACON, a construction industry fair at Center Convention. The Mayor and the Secretary of Tourism are in attendance, as are a number of industry leaders. 

At the Tourism Department booth at MOSTRACON industry fair

Cairo & Cristiane gamely posing with a MOSTRACON company mascot (stethoscope around his neck - why ?)

 This house mascot guy was walking around, and I made poor Cairo & Cristiane pose for a photo with him (her?) as well

 With a dapper Paulo and laughing Marise at MOSTRACON

 The Mayor inaugurating MOSTRACON

In the afternoon, we notice storm clouds moving in. Jill prays fervently for rain - she is missing the daily Irish showers, and soon enough, we get a nice breeze and rain. The storm knocks off a large nameboard from a nearby hotel and brings it tumbling down on the road - fortunately, no one is hurt and nothing is damaged. After work, I go for a run and do a late solo dinner, and am joined by Paul just as I am pondering how to dispose of the other half of my huge sandwich. He downs the half sandwich and we have a nice chat over a cerveza.

Wednesday, we lose one of our translators. The team from ONG CASA is down to no translators, and Bruno asks us to help out by sending Gustavo to help them out. After a bit of haggling, we come up with an acceptable solution. We meet the PRODAUB IT team to understand how any system that we propose would be supported. We also speak with Danilo from IBM - thanks to Shannon and Carlos for the contact - to know more about survey research tools in the market.

Ruser and Cristiano from PRODAUB answering out question about their database systems

We then meet Luisa from SEBRAE, the equivalent of the US Small Business Administration. I'd already bumped into her twice before, and this time she explains the programs that SEBRAE offer to entrepreneurs to create business and financial plans and raise funds. She turns out to be a foodie, and tells me that she cooks biriyani. I need to wangle an invitation to a meal ! 

Luisa from SEBRAE helps entrepreneurs and also cooks biriyani !

We have the cheapest lunch to date - R$ 4.50 for fresh sugarcane juice and pastels (a sort of giant samosa with various fillings) - at a farmer's market. Jill & May work to complete a questionnaire to collect information from the attendees at the MOSTRACON event. 

After work, it is time for Samba lessons. I find the pace too fast, and struggle to keep up with the rest of the group. After the lesson, we head out for a drink at Sibipiruna, and then a nightcap at Thalia, where Sylvie and I have a nice long chat.

Thursday, we start with a meeting with Nelson, an event organizer from Belo Horizonte. He gives us good information on what the city has and what it lacks in terms of attracting events. As one of our project success measures is the increase in the number of events held here, I find his thoughts very interesting. He also gives us the names of the Brazilian industry associations for trade fair promoters and event organizers.

Nelson explains what Uberlandia has going for it and what the city needs to do to attract more events

We then have a conference call with Beatriz and Fabio, from Sao Paulo Tourism. They give us tons of information on what Sao Paulo does to collect tourism data, and we frantically note it all down. Ciro and I then head out to UFU to meet a couple of Geography professors whom I'd heard about through the adventure tourism company, Trilhas Interpretivas, who'd arranged our waterfall abseiling trip the previous weekend.  Someone at the Geography department had apparently cataloged over 300 waterfalls in the area, and I am trying to see if I could get that info. I meet four faculty members from there, and they are incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. I am presented a couple of reference books with details of rivers and waterfalls in the area. 

 The UFU Geography professors - (Beatriz & Silvio in the middle) very knowledgeable and eager to share

Ciro gives me a quick tour of the campus. Nice buildings, and obvious evidence of a recent inflow of federal funds in the number of under-construction facilities.

We then head out to a round table that Pedro, the president of FIEMG, had arranged with the heads of six industry associations. They share their views on the economic opportunities from tourism, what must be done to create tourism infrastructure and how to promote tourism in Uberlandia. I am gladdened by the level of public-private cooperation here - they seem to work hand in hand in organizing events and promoting the city. I go out to a solo dinner and then meet up for a drink to celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival with a glorious full moon on a cloudless night.

At the FIEMG round table with heads of different industry associations of the "High Paranaiba" region

Friday, our plans to talk with city tourism officials from other cities are dashed by an unexpected discovery - it is a holiday in Southern Brazil (Farroupilhas, to commemorate a long-ago battle). We decide to work on our final deliverable, and after a healthy debate, reach agreement on several things and leave some items to be slept on.  

The weekend is going to be quite a change from the past two, as most of the group are heading out to Caldas Novas, a nearby hot spring and I'm staying behind. To catch up on sleep, blogging, email, work, family, solitude. As a former introvert who has willed himself to become social, I find that I do best when I intersperse intense socialization with breaks to be by myself - and the weekend promises to be restorative.

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Great inauguration event and an exhilarating first week of work - Sep 9 - 13

After a hectic 2.5 days of orienting ourselves to the newness of our temporary home, it is time to get down to the purpose of our visit - our month-long projects with local organizations. Monday, September 9 morning, we are all in spiffy business garb. The inaugural event is at the city Mayor's office, and it is a biggie. While waiting at the foyer of the Mayor's conference room, the teams make initial contact with their clients. We are heralded in to a nice conference room and take our assigned seats. Around the main table, we have the who's who of Uberlandia - the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Secretary for Tourism, heads of each of the NGOs, IBM Corporate Citizenship and Community Relations executives from Sao Paulo. The mayor welcomes us all warmly, and each of the NGOs talk about their mission. Bruno does a good job stepping into translate. A few from our team are interviewed by the local TV news station. We are on the local news that evening !
 

The team taking its place at the inaugural event

Mauro and Alcely from IBM at the kickoff event

 Photo coverage of the TV coverage 

 

The Mayor, Hon. Gilmar Machado, speaking at the event

Looking fine, y'all

After the event, the teams disperse with their respective clients. It is easy for my team, as we just have to go up a flight of spiral stairs to the Municipal Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
 

The office of the Secretary of Economic Development and Tourism

That's how you say Economic Development and Tourism in Portuguese

The Mayor's office - we work on the third floor

We have our first in a series of meetings, with Marise, the Director of Tourism, and Pedro, the Project Manager. Our two morning-shift interns from the International Relations class at the Federal University of Uberlandia (UFU) join us. Marise and Pedro explain the background and their expectations from the project. They need a system to collect and store data on tourism - the origins of the visitors to Uberlandia, what they did while they were here, where they stayed etc. They currently have very little info - and are seeking to remedy that situation, so that future investment decisions that affect tourism can be based on solid data. They are also looking for supply-side info - the catalog of hotels, restaurants, bars etc.

Pedro is very competent - he's already arranged a comprehensive agenda of meetings and visits for the week. Monday afternoon, we visit the IT support group within the Municipality. The Tourism Department's IT support person, Lazaro, is self-taught, and has done a great job collecting publicly available info and putting together a neat Excel / Access application to query the data. The formal IT support organization for the municipality (PRODAUB) is quite professional. We visit their data center, and several eyes light up on spotting racks of IBM gear.

After work, a few of us head out to a local gym that offers CrossFit classes. The instructor is intimidating - tattoos, heavily muscled, no-nonsense attitude. He puts us through a circuit of a dozen workouts, including sledgehammering a truck tire, creating waves with heavy ropes and the trickiest of all, a combination push-up and crunch on a contraption that resembles the "stirrups" used in labor rooms.  In just 30 minutes, I am reduced to quivering jelly. Rodrigo promises that the soreness to surely follow the next day will be equally memorable. We limp off to dinner at a nearby health food place, and recover with crepes and acai smoothies.

Tuesday, we attend the kickoff of the "Marathon of Tourism" at the Mayor's conference room. Paulo, the Secretary and Marise, the Director launch the event, which is a 2-week gala covering culture, gastronomy, sports and other activities.

The poster for the Marathon  of Tourism - designed by the Municipality staff

The Mayor launches the Marathon of Tourism

A series of meetings follow with people in the know and with a say on tourism in the city. We meet Paulo and Alexandre, professors of Geography and Music from UFU. Then on to a tour with Gustavo, the Secretary of Communications a floor below.
 

The UFU professors sharing their opinions about tourism development in the city

At the Department of  Communications. They have a group  of journalists and web news specialists

We then get the lowdown on the potential for agro-tourism from Juliano, who has the dream job of visiting local farms and documenting their attractions.

Juliano, with Mayla translating for us

Many farms ("fazenda" in Portuguese) here have lakes, rivers and waterfalls and we are told of the potential to develop them as weekend destinations. Here are a few examples.

We then meet Gustavo, the President of the Uberlandia Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Bureau provides services to organizations looking to host events and conferences in the city. Business and event tourism is the city's current mainstay and Gustavo speaks on behalf of the hotels, restaurants, caterers and other service providers in the city.

Gustavo (center, seated) gives us his perspective on business and event tourism

Tuesday afternoon, Tatiana takes us on a tour of the sports facilities in Uberlandia. She explains that the city is trying to attract 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics teams to use the city as a training base. Unfortunately, the city was not selected to host any World Cup football games, but they are pitching their case as a training base to various teams, and the Irish have already visited to scope out the facilities.

Tatiana's arranged for us to check out the major sports facilities that they are using to attract the teams. SESI Gravatas, a training facility for local and national athletes, swimmers, court sports with dedicated coaches and facilities for paraplegics, is of international standard. The Sabiazinho facilities adjoin Parque do Sabia, and include an indoor basketball facility, a football stadium and an under-construction aquatics center.  Then on to Praia Clube, which is privately owned, and is the largest country club in South America, I'm told. The club is expansive, and seems to be well used, going by the number of joggers, swimmers and walkers.

The largest country club in South America

 

A river runs through it ! Praia Clube, Uberlandia

Tatiana, our host for the afternoon sports facility tour, in yellow jeans

After work, we have an all-hands meeting with Bruno and Vanessa to report back on our first couple of days of work, and raise any issues needing intervention. Everyone seems well on the way by end of Day 2, and the teams report just a few minor hitches. Vanessa suggests dinner at a neighborhood place, and we share a nice bacalhau mexido - cod with rice and assorted veggies.

Day 3 is again filled with meetings. We meet the leadership of ACIUB, which is a local chamber of commerce. We also meet the Tourism Secretary of the nearby town of Araguari, who chairs an organization called the Tourism Circuit of the Minas Triangle. They are promoting camping, fishing and other activities in the larger region called the Triangulo Mineiro (Minas Traingle).

Meeting Jose Ricardo at ACIUB, a leading organization representing Uberlandia's commerce & industry 

The team with Clesio, the head of the Tourism Circuit of the Minas Triangle. Arrow says Mayla's it !

In the afternoon, we visit the Center Convention, a short walk from our office. The Center Convention is part of a multi-use complex that includes the mall we visited many times for lunch (Center Shopping) and a hotel (Plaza Shopping Hotel). There are two shopping malls at the opposite ends of town, and they are big attractions for people from nearby cities. We meet Eli, the head of the Convention Center and he explains the drivers for event tourism and the facilities they offer. We are then taken on a tour of the convention center, where the InterLeite milk industry fair is in full swing. Turns out that the local family that owns the business also owns the churrascaria Chima in Washington, DC !

We then go to the top of the under-construction Uberlandia Business Tower, which, when completed next year, will be the tallest building in the city. You can see clear to the next city, Araguari, from here. The roop-top offers an amazing panoramic view of the city, and the gentle breeze and the setting sun offer the prefect backdrop. Only wish I had a caipirinha, an arm chair and a good book. Omar  Khayyam must've known how I felt when he wrote his famous ruba'i.

Meeting Eli at the Center Convention to learn about event tourism in Uberlandia

The speaker at InterLeite making a point about FDR to the Brazilian milk industry people - I didn't get what it was, though

On top of Uberlandia - at the roof of the under-construction 30-story business tower, which will be the tallest building in the city

That evening, we head out for Samba lessons courtesy of Larissa, the subject of a separate post. After the lesson, we head for caipirinhas and finger foods to the nearby town square. As you can no doubt see, caipirinhas feature prominently in our diet here.

Thursday morning, Day 4, we are picked up at the hotel and taken straight to a municipal school, Escola Municipal Otavio Batista. We meet the Principal who gives us a tour, and then we are taken to a classroom where two groups of seventh graders come by to meet us. The event is the launch of Project EducaTur, coordinated by Cecilia, that aims to teach school children about the benefits of tourism and then give them small tourism-related projects to work on.

Luciano and Cecilia explaining Project EducaTur and handing out the specially commissioned bags and teaching material

The school kids were around the same age as my daughter Mahi, and they were a curious about our diverse team. We each introduced ourselves in our mother tongues - Marc in German, May in Mandarin, Jill in Irish and me in Malayalam. We answered their perceptive questions about what we liked about Brazil and what we have learned from visiting other places around the globe. Such a pleasure to be able to interact with them.

The kids giggling at my speech in Malayalam

 Our team with the student representatives (kneeling) for the school tourism project

We then visit with Pedro, the President of FIEMG, an association of various industry groups. Pedro explained that FIEMG runs many programs to develop businesses, provide vocational training, sponsor sports and tourism events and many other activities besides. He gives us his frank opinion on the challenges to developing tourism in the city.

 Pedro of FIEMG shares his views. 

Then on to a business networking lunch sponsored by ACIUB. The venue is the Cachaceria do Dede at the Uberlandia Shopping Mall on the other end of town. The place has a huge selection of cachacas and jams, including caipirinha and chilly flavored jam, so I make a mental note to come back to pick up goodies to take back with me. At the lunch, I realize that the business circle in the city is quite intimate - we bump to several people we had met in the past 3 days. We have lunch with Tomaides, a 9-time marathoner who's next one will be the Great Wall Marathon in China.

 Tomaides, the 9-time marathoner. Her toughest marathon - Santiago, Chile. Easiest - Berlin, Germany

We decide to work from the hotel that afternoon, and sort out many things, including the scope of our work, focus areas and responsibilities. Then farewell dinner for Vanessa at the Mercado Municipal (Municipal Market). Vanessa's heading back home to Recife, and we don't know if she'll be back.  What a terrific job she did of selecting the NGOs, defining the projects and getting us set up. I'll miss her. 

Friday, Day 5, starts with great excitement. The President of Brazil, Dilma Rouseff, is visiting Uberlandia for the first time, for the graduation ceremony of the first batch of students from a vocational training program called PRONATEC, and we are invited to the event. We are super-thrilled at the prospect. The details here.

At Sabiazinho, attending the event featuring Presidenta Dilma

Lunch at the mall followed by a quick trip to the Havaianas store to pick up a pair of the famed Brazilian flip-flop brand. In the afternoon, we tour TV Integracao, a leading local TV station. Paulo, the Head of Journalism, briefs us on the history of TV in Uberlandia, and takes us through their archives. We visit the studio where many of the daily local news, sports and lifestyle shows are shot. Then a visit to the newsroom and Q&A with him, accompanied by delicious, fresh-baked Pao de Queijo.

Paulo and in the background, Clueless

 

At the TV Itegracao studio. The backdrop is the one used for their nightly newscast

Thus ended Week  1. So many highlights from just the first week - Presidenta Dilma, the program kick-off with the Mayor, meeting the school children. What a week. And an action-packed weekend to follow.

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