After our stay in Conceição de Macabu the team headed to Macaé and were met at Petrobras by Various Rotarians and a german girl, Sabrina who was living locally. The tour of the Petrobras site was very good, we saw their admin building, heard about the scale of their operations, and saw their control room.

Lunch was a Rotary Meeting put on so that we could do our presentation. Dulce, our host from Conceição had also come to Macae and so we were able to share the presentation with her. After lunch we were taken on a tour of the city including seeing a church on the top of the hill with amazing views of the city and out to sea. There was even a miniature version of the Corcovado here.

On Saturday the team went to Rio das Ostras and saw the beautiful beaches. Our guides were 2 Rotarians from Macae as well as the daughter of a previous GSE team, and a Canadian Youth Exchange member. The beaches were beautiful and we also saw a craft market. Lunch was at an all you can eat restaurant and then the team headed to Campos for our next stay.

In Campos we met at Ligia’s house who has co-ordinated our programme for this city. We met our hosts and heard about the programme for the next few days – it sounds really interesting and well planned. In the evening we had a birthday party at my host, Conceição’s house as it is her twin daughter’s birthday and also mine so they had arranged a joint birthday party and a beautiful cake! A good evening was had by all.

On Sunday we had a rest day and the team spent time at a local country club and played some tennis (well attempted to!), swam and used the Sauna. Our hosts joined us for lunch. In the evening we had a Rodoviso de Pizza – basically all you can eat pizza – the waitress keeps coming round with lots of different types. They even have chocolate and banana varieties – yum! After Pizza the team went bowling and saw a little of the Campos nightlife.

Yesterday we met some council members as the mayor unfortunately couldn’t meet with us, but the visit was very interesting and we all learnt a lot more about the local and national government systems here. The team also visited Record TV (channel 801 on Sky TV) and were interviewed by one of the hosts, as well as having a tour of the site. Our clip was on TV yesterday, and will be repeated at midday today (4pm UK time).

In the afternoon we had a city tour courtesy of my host Juliana, and saw the theatre, the cathedral, the market, the bridge over the river and many other sites before looking at shopping centre here. In the evening we had our first presentation which was at the club where my host is President. A good evening was had by all.

Tomorrow we have our vocational day and another presentation! A big thank you to all of our hosts here for making the first couple of days of our stay so interesting. A special thank you to my hosts, Conceição, Juliana and Tatiana for welcoming me into their home and making me feel like part of the family.