Day 2

I. AM. EXHAUSTED! and apparently seriously out of shape (no shocker there). Today was basically 'logistics' day, where Vanessa, our Brazil guide/super mom/jack of all trades contact took us through a walking tour of Recife to get ourselves situated with the basics - grocery store, pharmacy, ATM, bank, lunch/dinner spots, laundry, haircut, etc. It was a very long, long walk (about 3.5 hours) on a very, very hot day. You forget how much you may needs these things when we are here for 4 weeks.

Our afternoon consisted of having our first team building exercise – basically an ice breaker for all us to get to know each other better. It was a very interesting exercise where each of us had to do a timeline of our lives and highlight the major milestones of our lives. It was interesting in getting to know our team members, their personal backgrounds, and interesting facts about them. We have people from all parts of the world – US, Ireland, UK, Spain, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, China, and South Africa (I think I got everyone there). Just unbelievable on how much we learn from not only experiencing the Brazilian culture, but also the cultures of each of our team members. 

So lesson of the day: I apparently did not learn my lesson from Day 1 to apply liberal amounts of sunblock – I look like a red lobster and hoping the redness goes down by the time we meet with our clients tomorrow. So I am repeating that lesson here as it is worth mentioning.

Pictures will be forthcoming, I just can’t load them in the blog unless it’s midnight or 6AM when there is little to no traffic on the wifi.