Sea turtles, coffee and moqueca – oh my!

Much unlike Dorothy’s trip down the Yellow Brick Road, pleasant items popped up as I got a snippet of information as to what’s down the path for the Rotary International Group Study Exchange to Vitoria in Brazil next month.

T minus one month and one day as I write this – but who’s counting?

Our contact, Helvio, e-mailed the team its first glimpse of what’s in store for our itinerary this week.

So, of course, I’m going to tell you all about it.

Our team’s jam-packed month includes 11 presentations to Rotary Club members in Vitoria and neighboring cities about life in Minnesota – in Portuguese (which I continue my love-hate battle with, as I don’t speak Spanish, either).

The team is currently crafting a PowerPoint presentation with slides that detail Minnesota and all it has to offer, along with a bit about us and our work and home life here.

I’m having a heck of a time writing my portion of the presentation and explaining our strange habits in Prior Lake, not to mention converting those explanations to Portuguese.

How do I explain ice fishing, for example?

Snow-mobiling?

Our traditional Minnesotan foods? Hot dish? Lutefisk? Lefse?

As foreign as moqueca (a Brazilian seafood stew) sounds to me, I’m sure that explaining pickled fish or tater tot casserole will sound just as odd to them.

I’ll get a chance to sample the Brazilian traditional fish dish on April 30 for lunch, according to my detailed itinerary. I’m a planner, and I love knowing what’s coming up – although I’m trying to leave my “type A” personality behind, as I’ve heard from past trip-goers that “what’s in store” can change quickly each day.

Different from vacationing in Brazil, the Rotary works to expose its travelers to the major industries of the country, along with pairing participants with people in parallel professions.

So, along with meeting members of the media for at least 10 days of my trip, I’ll tour other major businesses and companies with the team.

The list shows a huge range. We’ll visit a mining company, a coffee and cattle farm, a bleached pulp plant (not yet sure what type of bleached pulp we’re talkin’ about here), a milk cooperative plant, marble and granite facilities and a siderurgical company (I had to Google this one – it looks like some sort of steel production processing company. It will be a surprise).

And you’re probably wondering where the sea turtles I mentioned come into play. Also on deck is a sea-turtle preservation project visit, along with a cultural trip to a Buddhist monastery.

Rotary, which touts the slogan “service above self,” would not want us to miss out on highlighting the country’s social programs, as well. We’ll visit a social project site for children with cancer, as well as the Rotary’s Hope Mountain program for children at social risk.

I look forward to reporting back to Prior Lake about all of these experiences and whatever else our team discovers along the way.

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