A Week in Brazil (Brasil)

So I am waiting at the airport after a week of work in Brazil (Brasil - Portug). It is always difficult to be away from home for a week, but sometimes the job demands it. The flight "down" to Sao Paulo was uneventful even if American Airlines managed to serve dry salmon (I don't know how you can do this with a fish with as much oil content as salmon!). It never ceaess to amaze me just how much traffic there is in Sao Paulo, even with the restriction on driving days that they have for the citizens. It is an interesting ride from the international airport over to our business offices and my hotel (just across the street). The sights are like nothing that you see in large American cities. This is especially true of the motorcycle riders who navigate the traffic quickly by passing between lanes of traffic and beeping their horns. These are a resourceful people who treat traffic "laws" more as general guidelines when it comes to motorcycles.

The hotel was a welcome site as I could shower and refresh myself from the long flight. The hotel is very nice, yet, with the currency exchange rate, it is very inexpensive for such a large, cosmopolitan city. The only issue I have is that my stupid company computer cannot hook up to the internet no matter if I use the Wifi, the aircard, or the direct lan connection in the hotel room.

My colleagues picked me up and we had lunch at a Churrascurria (Brazilian barbecue) restaurant called Fogo de Chiao. This is some of the most flavorful and tender meat that I have ever eaten. Interestingly, there are more of these restaurants (by the same owners) in the USA than in Brazil, although several more have opened in Brazil and other South American countries in the last 6 months.

The trip over to the office for my afternoon meetings was short and I was warmly greeted by my colleagues. The warm greetings are not typical of American companies. These folks don't know me all that well yet I feel like they are long-time friends and they make me feel very much at home. After a late day of meetings, we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. There is a large population of Japanese in Sao Paulo and this restaurant served very, very good Sushi and Sashimi, as well as Tepenyaki and Tempura. It is not the same as the authentic Japanese food I had in Japan, but the dishes that they do serve are quite good and very reasonably priced. The restaurant has an interesting business model that provides a number of courses for a base price, which is not the case for Japanese restaurants in the USA.

My second day started with a trip to the countryside north of the city. We visited Eucalyptus farms. These trees are amazing in that their average growth is about 1 cm per day. Thery are very large in a short time and, due to the density of planting for paper companies, they are bare from the ground up to about 50 feet and then they have a pear-shaped canopy that moves genly with the wind.

There are not so many super highways outside of the city. It seems that everyone who is moving anywhere outside the city, many for business, use the few roads, resulting in slow traffic. Our trip was slowed by one hour, but it did not matter. The potential customers are very flexible, unlike some in the US, and accomodate our late arrival. The folks there are just as friendly as my office colleagues and patiently put up with my lack of ability to communicate in Portugese. The afternoon was a trip to another potential customer in a different business fairly far away. The roads for part of the trip were what we would call country roads and there were many speed bumps that slowed our progress. Again, though, even with us being late, the people were so friendly and eager to meet with us and spend time well past the time that most US companies would say it was time to go home.

We finished up after dark (it is winter here - although the temperature is warm by North Carolina standards) and started to drive over to our plant site, some four hours away. I tried to spot stars and constellations outside since we were in the countryside where it is quite dark. I did see many stars, but could not really recongnize constellations. It seemed that many were unfamiliar (even though the southern sky is in all my star guides) and for those nearer the zenith that I should be able to see from the northern hemisphere, they were upside down and unfamiliar.

We were not far from our hotel when there was a horrendous traffic accident that resulted in a 3 hour delay and a traffic jam of more than 75 kilometers. When we finally got moving, the site of the trucks that were still wrecked on the side of the road was devastating, with debris everywhere and evidence of fire and oil. We found out later that the truck drivers survived, but that a motorcycle rider, one of those who goes between the cars, was killed. We finally arrived at the hotel at 2 in the morning, after a 750 kilometer day.

The next two days were spent at our plant with my lab team. These are really talented folks who also displayed the same friendliness and acceptance of me that I found everywhere I went in this country. We spent time reviewing how we do work in our two regions (the US and Brazil) and what we can learn from each other. I always learn many new things every time I visit this lab and the customers in this region. No matter how much I think I know, I can always learn more. [I think this is one of the most important things I have learned in business: always be open to new things no matter how much you think you know and be accepting of the opinions and thoughts of others].

My host for the week took me back to the airport tonight. I had to laugh a bit more about driving in Brazil. All week, in the city where our plant is, every driver does the same thing. There are traffic circles and intersections throughout the city that are marked with signage and street painting that states "PARE" (stop). Well, the Brazilians look at this as more of a "yield" sign for us Americans and it makes for an interesting ride. It always seems to work, though.

This is my 9th or 10th trip to Brazil. Each time in Sao Paulo, sometimes in outer cities such as Rio, Salvador, or Blumenau (to mention only a few). The one constant is the attitude of the people I meet. They are exceptionally friendly and accepting of people and they have an attitude that could help us all grow old ... "it's ok, things will work out".

Even so, I am really looking forward to going home, because (see "The Wizard of Oz") ther is no place like home.