Brasilia

Today we had a meeting at the Ministry of Education with Luciano Toledo, who earlier this year spent 6 months at Niagara College on a study sabbatical (see some of my posts during the February to May 2014 period). Afterwards Luciano's wife Giordana - who spend a year and half at NC studying - joined us for lunch at Magai Restaurant, where my dish from the buffet turned out very colorful...

Afterwards I joined an event organized by the Canadian Embassy where I met with Renata, one of my new colleagues at Seneca College (Renata travels all over Latin America for student recruitment and she is a Brazilian who studied and worked at Red River College in Winnipeg before joining the Seneca International team in 2013). She allowed me to still wear my NC shirt today since it is my last work day at Niagara, but expects me to wear the Seneca colors when we meet again in Toronto!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I fly back to Sao Paulo followed by an overnight flight back to Toronto arriving at home in time for my wife Mary's birthday (and our 24st wedding anniversary).

To close off this series of blog posts two more photos from our visits at IFPE in Recife. Next travel will be for Seneca to China (Oct 21 - Nov 2), so - time permitting - some more posts then.

Instituto Federal do Pernambuco

Today and yesterday we visited the IF in the Pernambuco State. They have 16 campuses, a few in and around the State's capital Recife and most of them throughout the State. Yesterday we visited one of the campuses where they deliver agricultural and food technology programs. Today we visited a new campus built in an industrial zone with programs for the petro-chemical  and ship-building industry.

Every time we have interesting discussions comparing the systems of Brazil, Peru and Canada. Here a few photos of the industrial  programs campus (in the background one of the industry building which are located all around this specific campus built in a new economic development zone)...

Chemistry labs and computer aided design labs next to a variety of industrial control labs...

An interesting program to have explained was the industrial safety diploma program which scores a 100 % graduation rate and responds very well to modern local labor market needs.

The treat for us today was lunch in one of the main beach areas of  Recife called "Porto de Galinhas". The story behind this name comes from the slavery time when locals would say - when a ship with slaves from Africa arrived - that "Galinhas estao en o porto" (the chicken are in the harbor). The slavery thankfully ended but the name of the small port remained. A local artist has made funny chicken statues everywhere in town to give the name more modern meaning...

Bikes for rent for the tourists and also the (in)famous sand dune "buggies" (the drivers drive you through the dunes with or without "emocao" (= emotion) which means in a quiet way or a pretty crazy rollercoaster kind of way).  We had no time for that, but I remember this from years ago when I was a few days in nearby Natal...

We had lunch in a lovely fish restaurant and enjoyed the views for a while... and dragged ourselves back to the work meetings.....

Tomorrow morning very early on our way to Brasilia (2 hour flight from Recife) for the last 2 days

Instituto Federal do Ceara

Today we spent all day with our colleagues of the IFCE, a Brazilian college with whom Niagara College has successfully worked during the  past 10 years. The institution has 23 campuses throughout the State of Ceara, but we limited our visit to their main campus in Fortaleza. We received a few presentations on the IFCE from the General Director and some of the staff.

The International Relations Manager Gutenberg, who had organized today for us, with one of his student assistants. Afterwards Gaby and Alfredo gave presentations on their institution ISUR.

We had discussions on ideas how to make staff and student exchanges possible and how to possibly do (virtual) applied research between IFCE, ISUR and NC/Seneca. After a long day of talking and thinking "out of the box", Gutenberg showed us one of Fortaleza's beach areas, Praya do Futuro.

It was very windy and on a Monday there were not a lot of people at the beach. But the scenery was still very nice and the IFCE colleagues are lucky to have this in their "backyard"....

Tomorrow morning an early start for a 6 AM flight to Recife.

Futebol in Fortaleza

Today we arrived in the north-east city of Fortaleza, one of my favorite spots in Brazil. Our good friend Gutenberg took Alfredo and me to a game of his favorite "futebol" team. So much fun!

The supporters cheered and sang and made samba music for this 3rd division game as if it was the world cup itself. It was a 0-0 tie but nevertheless such great entertainment....

Tomorrow all day meetings at the IFCE of Gutenberg and colleagues. Ate logo....

In and around Sao Paulo

Today we visited a large cathedral in a small town about two hours outside of Sao Paulo. It has become a pilgrimage place since hundreds of years ago a religious event took place (around the "Virgin de Aparecida"). The cathedral welcomes around 200,000 catholic visitors each weekend.....

The original very small village grew over time in an important religious tourism destination, including some boat rides at the river where the religious event took place long time ago...

Yesterday we were in Sao Carlos about three hours on the other side Sao Carlos visiting a very new campus of the IFSP where they will  be launching a unique aircraft maintenance training program.

This might be a program we can partner with together with the aviation applied degree program of Seneca College. Something to investigate during the coming months.

Yryapu

One of the activities of today was to visit the community of YRYAPU, one of the Guarani First Nations communities who have lived in the region (covering areas of northern Argentina, southern Brazil and most of Paraquay) for hundreds of years.  They lived -  before the European settlers arrived - as gatherers and hunters and their communities lived as nomads. In today's world it is not always easy for these communities to adjust. With the Niagara College international team, a few Rotary clubs in Niagara and a variety of other people, we have supported this community with a small project based on creating capacity to self-support and adjust.  During a project we had with the neighboring college ITEC Iguazu we included the Guarani and this resulted in building a simple small school in their own community focusing on training their youth as tourist guides.

The construction of this one-room school was fully financed by Rotary Clubs, so it was - as my T-shirt of today says - an example of "Rotarians at work". I made the visit with Mary Kilmer who recently retired from Niagara College and who made very significant personal contributions to this school  project in Yryapu. She was very happy to see the positive changes after being here for her last visit about four years ago:

Mary picked up a brush and added a nice butterfly to the mural which was made today:

Rodrigo, who spend 6 months 5 years ago as a volunteer in Iguazu and who helped us the past years with the "Friends of Yryapu" fundraising activities, was with us here today as well.... and painted.

This second room was constructed a few years ago (and its construction was fully financed by Mary) and now offers the opportunity to also do adult literacy training in the little school. On the wall is a map of Argentina visible. Below that map in close-up. Iguazu (and the Yryapu village) are located in the green area in the most north-east of the country bordering Brazil and Paraquay).

The word "AGUYJEVETE"  is Guarani for "Bienvenidos" which is Spanish for "Welcome"

It is also on the wall  in the first room and of course is a constant reminder for people who are being trained to work in the tourism industry. This room obviously stays thankful for the assistance and solidarity that has arrived all these years from Canada....

It was nice to see a number of new computers (donated from a company in the USA from which a number of employees had visited and volunteered in Yryapu a year ago). The electrical system was also much improved including an air-conditioning unit. What was new as well since my last visit here two years ago were two bathrooms. Water supply is still a challenge and one of the projects to come is a rain water collection tank for this...

Afterwards we took a walk on one of the tourist paths in the jungle. The tours are all given by graduates from the tourism program of the little school:

 

The trees in this forest area are hundreds of years old. It is always such an amazing sight.....
The last activity in Yryapu was to enjoy one of the local dishes the villagers offer to visitors:

Carmen Virasoro, one of our supporters and advisors from Buenos Aires, was also present. All of us listened to the wise words of Francisco, the spiritual leader of the community (with his mother Clemencia behind him; the tourism school is named after her). Francisco was able to visit Canada 7 years ago as part of our project and he visited First Nation communities in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. His ongoing guidance for the community is essential.

Mary also spoke a few emotional words on behalf of the "Friends of Yryapu". One of the local traditions is to pass around a cup with "MATE" shown on the photo below by one of the guides

The busy day ended with an informal meeting with the current Minister of Tourism, Sergio Dubrosin, who has been involved from the beginning of our work here in a variety of positions.

Tomorrow on my way again to Sao Paulo to start a four city tour of work in Brazil....