End of Week 4 and Rotary District 4720 Annual Conference

Today is the last day of the Rotary District 4720 Annual Conference presentations. The GSE Team is scheduled to make a presentation to the assembly and have prepared a summary presentation for this event. The openning ceremonies were held on Thursday, April 29th at night and the programming has been half days since then. Last evening the program included a talent show with several Rotarians volunteering to sing, play instruments and share other talents with the participants. The program ended at 1:00 a.m. making for a short night sleep. We have been able to meet several Rotarians from our earlier visits to Manaus and Santarem. These reunions have been very enjoyable and rewarding.

Our week has been filled with professional visits and tours of the city sites. Yesterday we enjoyed an hour and half boat excursion around Belem, enjoying the sunset and evening city lights. The boat ride included performances of regional dances and music, which added to the festive flavor. We had toured the botanical gardens earlier in the day, mesmorized by the abundance of life and beauty of the virgin forest.

This week marks the culmination of a wonderful cultural and professional experience for each of our team members. The trip wasn't without its unforseen events, but in the end can be viewed with great success and satisfaction. The team learned a great deal and the host district provided a wonderful experience for our members. Our host families went out of their way to make the visit enjoyable and provided a wonderful opportunity for personal growth and understanding of Rotary International's service above self mission.

During the three-city visits our team has presented to eleven Rotary clubs and the District conference, we have visited universities, churches, theaters, emergency communication centers, hospitals, ambulance services, fire and police headquarters, nature centers, social service agencies, performance arts centers, pre-schools, schools, open air markets, parks, beaches, artesan and craft shops, aviaries, museums, rivers, boats, jewelry makers, public health centers, secretaries of health, laboratories, ports and docks, sacred art centers, theological seminaries, live butterfly exhibits, farm houses, rubber plantations, islands, resorts, medical clinics and dance studios. We have traveled over 15,000 miles by plane, boat, car, bus, van and by foot. We have visited villages, towns and cities up to 3 million population. The foods we have savored run the full range of typical native Brazilian culinary offerings. It's difficult to capture the immensity of natural beauty we have witnessed during this Amazon trip. The people and generous Brazilian spirit have been a delightful presence everywhere we have roamed.

As we prepare our bags for departure on Monday and return to the USA, our hope is to reflect on this month-long experience and share the things we have learned with the Rotary District 5710 upon our arrival in Kansas.

Beginning the Final Week

Last weekend we spent two days at the northern town of Salinopolis, which is a beach resort community for the residents of Belem. The shore community is located about 100 miles northeast of Belem and about a three-hour drive away. The beautiful white sandy Atlantic Ocean beaches and dunes are bathed by the diluted Amazon River waters. This phenomenon of reduced salinity is influenced by the annual variation of water flow from the Amazon River, which reaches its peak in June and ebbs to its lowest level in November. During the lowest period of river effluence the increased salinity results in a large fish kill when the fish from the Amazon reach the Atlantic waters.

The GSE Team members enjoyed the opportunity to relax, swim and hunt for shells on the beach. The vacation home of our host family was a delightful retreat and the home-cooked food was delicious.

After our return to Belem we began our week with a tour on Monday of the local island of Mosqueiro. It rained very hard on Monday evening knocking out the electricity in parts of the city.

Last week we also visited the campus of the Federal Rural University of the Amazon (UFRA) the regional equivalent of our land-grant universities, such as K-State. This university offers programs in forestry, land management, fishery, veterinary medicine, agricultural engineering, botany, animal husbandry, and ecological sciences. Yesterday we visited the state historical museum and a famous flora and fauna research institute, founded by a Swiss scientist for which it is named, Emilio Goeldi.

Today and tomorrow the team members will be conducting individual professional visits to various organizations, including the emergency management agencies, universities, tropical disease institute Evandro Chagas, the theater, churches and art centers. The week will conclude with the annual district conference and a special presentation by the GSE Team to the district membership of 1,100 Rotarians.

The team will depart via Rio de Janeiro for the US on Monday, May 3rd and arrive in Kansas City on Tuesday, May 4th.