BRAZIL, SEPTEMBER 2010

18 September 2010
I was invited to the international goat meeting. They even offered me a first class ticket to Sao Paulo. Had to catch an early flight at 6 am to Amsterdam and then off to Sao Paulo in Brazil. Trouble was 6 hours waiting in Sao Paulo. Could have been two hours less but somebody was waiting for me. So here I am in a 5 star hotel; two big rooms. Fortunately not paying myself. The meeting will only start from Monday but tonight Jose will take me out for dinner. I have some computer problems to deal with today. Food price in this hotel is more than I have ever had to pay. Hope it will be a nice meeting.

22 September 2010
Today is Wednesday and I was going to have dinner with one of the organisers but she did not turn up. She was not feeling good so I went to a small restaurant, about 5 mins walk with four other people. As we sat down I saw a group of people and found them with a Rotary badge. I immediately told that I was a Rotary member and then I was invited to be there. Then had to give a speech etc and as a result, tomorrow I have to speak on TV as one of the leaders in a TV presenter.

I have to go to a meeting next Monday too. Meetings are quite good most of the time but sometimes the Portuguese language is not so easy and many do not speak English. Many people liked to be photographed with me. Last night outside was an event where girls dressed in goat skin clothes; very colourful and good music. Met a girl from Japan, one of Fujiharu’s students. In fact we rang him in Japan from a mobile. My paper I was told went down very well. Some interesting papers about goats and their place in different regions were discussed. Tomorrow I leave this hotel to go to another new one near the University after being met by a Rotarian who will take me to the centre. Food is not bad here. I am going to gala dinner tonight; should be good.

24 September 2010
The gala dinner was very nice with dancing last night. Day before yesterday the programme where I spoke was on TV which was very nice but I have not seen the broadcast yet. Then I went to meet an old and famous Rotarian who had been the leader for Brazil for several years. It was nice event and then going round again with Rotarians.

Yesterday we went to see the University facilities for lectures which are going to commence from Monday. Today went shopping in an old prison which was turned into a shop. We also went to Adogaza’s house and then back but eating out tonight. Tomorrow I was going to a beach but this has been cancelled. So Jose will take me for dinner at 12:30. Hope it will be more interesting tomorrow.

3 October 2010
This week has gone. It has been a busy week with 5 days of lecturing to about 50 postgraduate students from four provinces of Brazil. It has been busy but nice with good students. The system was to give some technical lectures and have as many questions as possible. I then also gave them some more technical but philosophical and also a few interesting ones like Vietnam transport. Also showed the Vietnam and China videos. It was a nice occasion and they gave me a hammock cloth to set up at home, I hope. Yesterday we went on a bus out to visit some farmers about 100 km from Recife. Two of them were goat farmers. Very nice to meet them and see what they were doing. In both farms they were milking goats yielding 3-4 l of milk per day. Milk was used mainly to produce cheese. The last farm was a cactus farm. So much of food is grazing cactus for animal feed and pineapple for human. Recife Pernamuta province is largely semi arid except for closer to the coast where they grow large amount of sugarcane. Much of the area is planted with trees and stone mountains. Last night we went to Jose Dubeux’s home who has organised the programme. This week I attended two Rotary Club meetings. First one was on Monday and the second one was in another club where the old famous Rotarian came from. I had to speak at both events. On Monday I also showed slides from Indonesian projects along with Vietnam and Kenya projects. Tonight I am meeting one of them again who will take me to his home but before that Arlanda, a professor at the University will take me to the beach with her family. Tomorrow morning off to home again but planning to meet up with Carol Tobias who came to our meeting in Fortalesa three years ago and was my MSc student some years ago. I should have written every day but got sleepy so need activity. Lecturing, visiting friends and good food. Very friendly people. The hotel called Pousada Care Forte is very nice and not too expensive which was less than 50 USD per day.

5 October 2010
Now back. Travelled all day, met up with my former student Carol Tobias at Sao Paulo airport and then last night in Recife I went out with Helio the Rotarian who also took me to both Rotary clubs I had visited. He and his wife took me to Olivio the old town outside Recife, such a wonderful old place old churches etc. It was a place where the Dutch came in 16th century. So now back looking back at the meeting it has been a very useful one both the international goat meeting and the course for the student and connection up with Rotary international. The food I feel was very good I feel I could have prepared it better but the students gave me a lovely present, a hammock and a lovely letter of thanks to go with it. Also nice to meet up with farmers. One of them gave me a bottle of honey he was the most interesting academically. His use of cactus for animal feed in the semi arid zone and the large field of pineapples. The cactus contains 90 % water so they can accumulate water for the animals. So on the whole, an excellent meeting. I learnt a lot, got to know many people and have photographed with many students as usual.