Many peopl e have asked how my trip to Brazil wrapped up. The column (below) ran in the print edition of the Prior Lake American back in June, but I forgot to post it here for people who check our online edition.

The trip, as it explains, was an amazing experience. I wish I would have known about Rotary and the many exchange options it offers as a student in high school and college, as well.

Last week, I had the opportunity to interview Sarah Gontarek, a Prior Lake High School graduate heading off on a Rotary trip to Bolivia for a full year. I am so excited for her to get the opportunity to experience life in another country for that duration of time. I can't wait to hear about her exchange experience when she returns home.

Anyway, below is the final installment of my Brazil columns (otherwise, we'd soon be the Prior Lake International, instead of the Prior Lake American.):

“Tudo azul?”

This is my favorite saying from a month-long exchange in Espirito Santo, Brazil with the Rotary Foundation.

In Portuguese, it literally translates as, “Everything blue?”

It means “Blue skies?” or “Is everything going well?”

Everyone who was asked this question affirmed that everything was “blue” or “great,” much like Minnesotans greet each other with “How are you?” “Fine, and you?”

True to the saying, our trip was blue skies all the way.

Our five-member team couldn’t have asked for a more comprehensive tour of the state and its culture, service projects, major industries, natural resources and entertainment.

After a sleepless international flight – I even tested out the dorky sleep masks on the plane, but to no avail – we landed in Sao Paulo just in time to miss our connection to Vitoria. A short bus ride to the other Sao Paulo airport later, we caught a flight to Vitoria and were greeted by Rotary hosts and a driver, who patiently shuttled us around the state for our entire trip. I was glad to leave the driving up to him, as the rules of the road are more lax in Brazil than Prior Lake (even with everyone’s rants and raves about crazy drivers here).

We eased into some cultural differences more easily than others.

It took our entire team a few days to figure out how to get anything hotter than a lukewarm shower. We learned the correct amount of liquid sweetener to add to natural fruit juices and coffee and how to greet everyone with a hug and a few kisses on the cheek without faking right or left at the wrong time.

A few ice-cold showers, really, really sweet glasses of juice and awkward hugs into our trip, we’d adapted and were off to give presentations about Minnesota in other cities.

It’s the closest to rock-star treatment we’ve had. We had a tour bus with the Rotary logo, speaking engagements and, when we arrived in each city, chaperones who showed us the best of the best.

Each host family welcomed us with open arms. They offered us regional cuisine, from Moqueca Capixaba, a seafood stew unique to the state served with rice, to coconut and sweetened-condensed milk desserts (“sobremesas”).

It was the trip of a lifetime. There were only a few beach days on the itinerary, and I couldn’t have been happier. The beaches are beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but the Rotary tour took us to see what truly drives the state of Espirito Santo, from its people to its thriving industries.

These are experiences I couldn’t book through a travel agent.

Our tour brought us to the cities of Vitoria, Domingo Martins, Cariacica, Linhares, Colatina, Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Guarapiri and finally, we ventured outside of the state to see Rio de Janeiro before heading home.

There were major companies, grass-roots projects and tastes of home life along the way.

We toured VALE, a diversified multinational mining corporation and one of the largest logistics operators in Brazil. VALE also supports environmental sites, where we experienced a few mosquito bites, monkeys, wild vegetation we only get as house plants in Minnesota, and breathtaking views.

We saw cultural sites, historic buildings, churches, convents and a Buddhist monastery.

Social projects on the trip included Acacci – similar to the Ronald McDonald House – which supports children with cancer and their families during treatment; Hope Mountain, a program that works with at-risk youth; and multiple Rotary-supported schools that provide education and after-school activities to underprivileged children.

At a rural eco-tourism site in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, we met children who had no concept of snow. Answering their questions was one of my personal trip highlights, as they poured over the maps we gave them and asked if we lived in the ice when they saw our group photo taken last winter.

One older boy, after a bit of hesitation, asked if his hand-embroidered aprons and potholders met American standards of workmanship. When we left, they cheered and ran after the bus as we drove away.

We’ll probably never see those children again, but they left an imprint on us all.

At a Rotary after-school project, we met a boy who was sick after eating handfuls of sand. His father had killed his mother just days earlier, a few days before Mother’s Day, and he said he wanted to die. Other children there waited for their parents to return from their bus rides home from work.

We never knew where our daily experiences would take us, or what we’d encounter, but we worked to serve as positive ambassadors from the United States and Minnesota.

The division between social classes was far more pronounced than in the United States, and we saw both the highest and lowest income areas in the state.

Despite a large divide in social classes, the country seemed ahead of the United States in its division between people and race. Our team noticed the diversity in Brazil. We toured towns with German heritage and met families with strong Italian roots. I couldn’t tell you what someone from Brazil looks like, as it is a literal rainbow of skin tones, builds, accents, clothing choices, educational backgrounds and personalities. Prejudice and racism seemed less pronounced there.

In Linhares, we toured the Project TAMAR sea turtle preservation area, where scientists work to maintain and bolster the sea turtle population, and spent time on one of the country’s largest freshwater lakes. We also experienced a Brazilian farm that produced coffee, multiple types of bananas, beans and more. I sampled tropical fruits that I had never seen.

When we arrived in Colatina, our host families handed us vintage clothing to wear to one of the state’s largest festivals, called Festa do Cafona, a ’60s- and ’70s-inspired festival started by a small group to show off out-of-fashion clothing that has turned into an event that draws tens of thousands to the state annually.

Colatina wasn’t just about parties. The hosts there showed us post-secondary and secondary schools, city government and judicial buildings, a new medical facility and medical student classrooms that included viewing cadavers (something I’ve never experienced at home). In the same day, we found ourselves on a tour of one of the state’s largest meat-packing facilities, where racks of meat ran down an assembly line as workers sliced off specific cuts for packaging and production purposes.

Another trip gave us firsthand experience with clothing factories. I now know how my designer denim gets that “distressed” look and have met the people doing this work.

It’s impossible to compile our month-long journey and experiences into one column of newsprint. If it sounds like a whirlwind, it was.

I spent time working with journalists there, too, and was heartened to find that media ethics and the watchdog role of the press is supported by the state’s major news organizations.

Overall, the trip showcased the differences between our countries but also the overall kindness and humanity we share.

Now that we’re home, our job for the Rotary Foundation is to extend these experiences to you as best we can. We’ll give a series of lectures at Rotary Club meetings in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and we are also open to presenting at area schools or organizations.

If you’re interested in learning more about the trip, look for additional photos and video on my blog at www.plamerican.com, or e-mail me with any questions and I’ll do my best to reply.

And, if any local business professionals ages 25 to 40 are inspired to apply for a vocational or cultural experience, the Rotary District 5960 is always accepting applications through local Rotary Clubs for future exchange opportunities. Applicants can look for more details at www.rotary5960.org.

  Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com.