Day 6: Last Full Day in Manaus

We have been going, going, and going. The Manaus Rotarians have been excellent hosts the entire time we have been here. They have scheduled several meetings with various people in our fields of study/profession. The Brazilians have been so kind and gracious to our team. It will be difficult for us to leave such a great group of people in Manaus.

A few highlights from the past several days:

• We visited SAMU (the equivalent of our 911 medical service in the US) a couple of days. They have been able to go from a run-down system to an elite system within one year. They have some great things happening in the medical services including very cool first-responding motorcyclist and a boat ambulance that serves several riverside villages on the Amazon.
• We visited with the Secretary of Health for Manaus, who has really helped expand medical services and pushed to revamp the SAMU system as well.
• We witnessed an incredible program that serves over 300 children to adults with disabilities that was started by a Rotarian several years ago, designed to provide adaptive mobility for people with physical and mental deficits.
• We also visited the integrated central military security communications center that oversees the police & fire departments. They monitor hundreds of cameras around the city of Manaus and we were able to observe their activities in action around the city.
• We also took a boat tour and saw the "Meeting of the Waters" where the Rio Negro (black water) & Solimoes (brown water) rivers converge. These waters do not mix for several miles, an incredible sight to see as the waters flow side-by-side as far as the eye can see. Also went on the tour of the channels (igarapes) where we we saw giant lilly pads (Victoria Regias) and several river villages where many people have their homes on the river and live their lives everyday on the river.

A couple of us have experienced the universal health care program in Brazil with unforseen visits to their urgent care center... everyone is doing fine. Gaelynn had a really bad cough and Eric had heat stroke but the Brazilian hosts wanted to make sure everything was okay, so both Gaelynn & Eric now have a Brazilian medical record.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Santarem by river boat (33-hour journey). We will be on the boat until late Tuesday night so we will not be able to update the blog until Wednesday or later. Thanks for sharing in our adventure by reading our blog!!