How can there NOT be Speech recognition in Portuguese?

REALLY???!! There is not a single accessible technology solution for speech recognition in Portuguese?? The world should be ashamed.

As mentioned before, Santhosh and I are working for the Instituto Rodrigo Mendes, which has 2 programs: to serve the community through art and education - allowing art instruction for those with disabilities, and to increase the skills of public school teachers to instruct those with disabilities. We are outlining a software solution for both sides. And the ONE product that would make many students more productive, and quite honestly the one product that would make Rodrigo Mendes's life a little easier is speech recognition. Instead of using a mouth pointer to hunt and peck on a keyboard for emails and word processing, those with dexterity challenges and limited use of their limbs can just speak and the computer will recognize the speech and translate it into text. There are a couple of marvelous products out there, the industry standard recommended by all in the disabled community is Dragon........ BUT, Dragon does not have Portuguese support. Philips used to have a really good speech recognition program that used Portuguese and was specific to the medical profession. So that Doctors could dictate their patient's notes into a computer instead of typing them, making them significantly more efficient. Guess what?? Philips sold their voice technology division to Nuance in 2008 - and Nuance is..... wait for it... the makers of Dragon. I contacted Nuance to ask if they had plans for Portuguese support in future releases, and they don't.

(a photo of me and Santhosh with Rodrigo Mendes)

So I have feelers out in all sorts of directions looking for someone, anyone that is doing work in this field. I have my IBM instructor for all things Voice sending emails to the developers of WebSphere Voice Server/Via Voice in both Hursley and Boca Raton. I have my new (and wonderful) SDM Katherine sending emails to previous coworkers at Siemens and Philips to see if they still have a residual product. I took advantage of my conversation at IBM on Wednesday to ask the technology professor from USP (University of Sao Paulo) to dig around with his staff, and I met a fantastic Dr. across from Estacion Ciencia, to have his Occupational Therapy staff contact me with any information. So, if anyone out there has any information - Please, please send it my way!

*** and on a more conversational note, Selda, Carol, Mo and I had a fantastic dinner at Ritz, near our hotel. Wierd but true, it was recommended for us by our advisor as a good place to man-watch, it's a gay man's hangout?? None of us are even slightly interested in beautiful boys, but we like to look. Actually, I am the only woman on the trip that is married. Ambretta and Selda never have been married and are really happy with their independent lives. Mo is recently divorced and Carol divorced awhile back. But while there were some servers that were really cute and a couple of patrons, and how sad is it that the dinner was absolutely fantastic and that's more important to me than the eye candy. Actually, we have some really attractive men working with us, so that works too. Then after dinner we walked down the hill and had a fulfilling experience at Haagen Daz, so God bless the icecream people, and go Girl Power!

The rest of "a day in the life"...

Sorry, I got bogged down last week and didn't finish my full day. Santhosh and I are at the office from 9-5:30ish, although our cab always seems to arrive well before 5:30. We glance out of the windows and see it there, and then scramble to pack up and get out there!! Here's a photo of the office.

We sit on the second floor and look out over the parking area and the set of gates. Depending on how many people are working, there can be up to 6 cars parked inside the gates downstairs. Franklin is the "all around guy", he's handy and he constantly sweeps up the leaves and he opens and closes the gates to let cars in and out.
So, we work steadily until about noon, that's when Joice arrives, and we go to lunch. There's a mall a couple of streets away from the office and almost always we walk over to the food court there to eat. The Giraffas place makes me laugh, and when Santhosh ate there, he got a kid's toy.

We stay out for 45 minutes or so eating and come back to the office for the rest of the afternoon. Rodrigo Mendes is such a busy man that he usually has at least 2 or 3 meetings or phone calls from his home before he arrives in the office in the afternoon and then has meetings here. With as much energy and intensity as he puts into his Instituto, if it were me, I would be conked out by midmorning and still, he keeps going strong until about 6pm. WOW!
We meet with Rodrigo about once a day just to keep him up to date on our progress. And we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in research. When the cab pulls up, we rush to pack our laptops and run down and drive back to the hotel. We've seen some of the traffic in Sao Paulo and it can be really ugly, backed up, waiting to start up, but we have a really quick commute both morning and night, so we're lucky.
Then every evening we have something going on. It's rare not to meet someone for dinner, or have a team meeting, or a outing to the bar with the IBM-Brazil people. BTW, we LOVE Juliana!

Tonight Santhosh and I are having dinner at Katherine's house. She's my SDM (project manager) from my account when I'm doing my *real* job from Boulder. She's new to the account and I sent alot of questions her way when preparing to come to Brazil: "Do you address a man by Senhor?", "How do you pronounce Mendes? Is it like it would be in Spanish?". She and her husband Max took me to a sushi lunch on Saturday and then invited us to their home for dinner.... Have I said how welcoming and warm Brazilians are?? So, we are meeting them at the mall later, and they'll drive us to their place and we'll taxi home. The rest of our CSC team (15 people from all over the world from IBM) is planning a big dinner at a Korean place. CheunWoo is from South Korea and he found a nice restaurant and wants to host an authentic meal.
Later in the week, the guys from Japan are supposed to take us all out for Japanese. And then sometime, Santosh (not my Santhosh, but the other one) is going to cook Indian for us since he's not impressed with the Indian restaurants that he's tried already.
Tomorrow night is a team meeting, we are ordering Pizza and takeout chinese, Wednesday is the mentioned Japanese meal, Thursday we are going to a place that has a great Samba night, and Friday part of the team is going to fly to Salvador, up in the NE corner of the country, on the ocean. See? Booked solid.
***
So, Selda, Carol and I walked down from our hotel to the fancy street Oscar Freire(sp?). It's where all of the designers have their shops: Armani, Rosa Cha, Bulgari, Ferragamo.... We poked our heads into almost every place, but bought virtually nothing. I bought a handful of the famous Brazilian flipflops: Havaianas, they are pretty cute. Selda did some serious shopping for huge gemstones at H.Stern. I was completely overwhelmed by the size of the stones. I guess my husband is glad that I'm a cheapskate, cuz I wasn't tempted by the 5 carat pink quartz that looked awfully good on my finger, but cost US$1500.00. And then, the piece de resistance : The Osklen shop, it's a local designer, really expensive, and there is a troop of salesboys that are the most gorgeous things on the face of the earth. I made Selda pose with them, so that you all can appreciate their beauty as well. Igor was our sales-lad, he's behind Selda on the right.

Remember, Osklen, yummy.

Time is flying by

I'm so sorry to everyone, it's incredibly busy and every moment is scheduled so it's hard to keep up with the blogging.
It's Monday again and I'm running out of time and getting a little anxious. We only have 7 more days in the office to finish our project and make sure that it's tidy enough to pass along and justify our presence for the last couple of weeks. We are taking this Wednesday off to visit the giant IBM site down here - Hortolandia. And then it turns out that the last 2 days of the week that we are in Brazil, next Thursday/Friday, are a national holiday and the offices close, so we have to have our package completed and present it next Wednesday.
I'm using Skype alot to call landlines, it's a heck of a deal. Most of the time if I call from my computer to someone's landline, it's only $0.02/minute. So, I just spoke to a really nice gentlemen in Iceland. There's like a little utopian place there called Solheimer, a community of people who are devoted to sustainability, so they farm their own food, create things to sell and the part of their program that I'm interested in, is that they have a population of disabled people who contribute greatly. Anyway, the website is entirely in Icelandic, so I couldn't figure it out, but the guy on the main phone line was really helpful.
Oh, I haven't told my stories about visiting and spending the night with my friend from the office. We left the office together and drove to her daughter's school. The girls are young, 5 and 6 years old, and it's common in the city to start them at a school when they are 1 year old. The school is beautiful, large gardens behind a wall. They have farm animals - the girls told me all of the names in english because they are learning english. We went to dinner at their neighborhood pizza restaurant, really good pizza. And since it's up the street from their home, and they eat there quite often, the girls know all of the staff and have a great time playing on the lawn and visiting the girl behind the counter and keeping busy. Then we went back to the house, a fantastically beautiful home, completely livable with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, a roomy living area and a big back yard. It was already after dark, and the girls immediately began coloring their books in the dining room. Joice speaks pretty good english and the girls have a few words here and there. I was worried that since my portuguese is shaky at best, that I'd be putting Joice in a difficult position by forcing her to translate constantly. But I had a few questions that free Joice up and give me and the girls something to do. So, we looked through photo albums for a little bit and then they wanted to show me their bedroom (they share). That was fun, I was introduced to all of the stuffed animals and then the game began where they piled the stuffed animal on top of me. We put on some costumes that they had and then did all of the colors of every toy in english. The older girl knows all of her colors, animals and moods (happy, sad, angry) in english and really wanted to practice. Then their mom came in and announced bedtime and she read to them. Their dad is a pilot and was flying, so only girl's night. I'm not using their names or their photos just to keep them safe. Here's a picture of the restaurant with just Joice and our server. We ate outside underneath a beautiful giant tree.

I got to sleep in a guest room with it's own bathroom, so I was incredibly comfortable. The house is a ranch style, so only 1 story, but the roof is pitched. However, and I really like this. They have skylights throughout the house, but they are really high up, so like vaults upward. In my shower was a skylight and during the night it started to rain, so I could hear it and it was really nice. In the morning, Joice prepared a really elaborate meal, toast, cereal, fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, tea, yogurt, fruit. And then the girls got their shower. Just before we left for school and the office again, me and the girls had a really fun game going. From what I can determine, they were book salesgirls. They gave me a bundle of fake money and they'd bring up a book and point out all of the features, and read a little bit to me and then ask if I wanted to buy it. If yes, they'd run over to the curtain rods and call someone up and tell them, and then they'd come over to me and ask for the money. Who says that you need to speak a common language to communicate?
It was really fantastic, a never to be missed opportunity to see a family in Brazil. It's not so different from a busy family in the U.S.

A day in the life...

Well, it's Wednesday of my second week, so I can give you an idea of what our day usually looks like. I'm up around 7am because I like to piddle around my hotel/apartment, watch a little CNN and just move slowly. We have a free breakfast buffet down in the hotel restaurant, so I'm one of the first down at 8am-ish and I kinda hang around just to chat with my team. Some teams have their taxi pick them up at 8:30, the rest of us have a cab at 9am, so if I'm in the restaurant for 30-45 minutes, I can usually chat with everyone. The food is plentiful and I just don't get the whole BREAD thing. This is the country of beautiful skinny women, but bread is EVERYWHERE!!! The national snack is Pao de Queijo (Pon de Kay-zhuuu) which is like a little bite-size popover full of cheese. There are quite a few variations, but it's on every buffet, in every shop, at every restaurant. Also fried breads and rolls of every shape and size. If you eat at a corner stand, it'll be mostly bread.... ??? And the fruit is amazing. As you know, I'm not really a fruit person, but I know that you are. Mangos to die for, I've discovered a liking for Papaya, cuz it's so good here, melons, acai, bananas of every shape and size and one that is yummy because it tastes like apples. Lots of fruit that I've never seen and is amazing. So that also translates to fresh fruit juices everywhere, stands, at every restaurant..... Sucos. If you order sucos vitamina, it's fruit juice with milk and ice, and blended up like a smoothie, if you order sucos laranja, it's the fruit of your choice with orange juice. I work with Santhosh at my NGO, and our cab arrives around 9am with our names on a little screen inside the cab. Our worksite is about 20-30 minutes drive, the traffic is insane, I'm always astonished. We get dropped off outside our security fence and buzz in with "Hoochy", OK, that is funny. They call her Hoochy, and she's the receptionist, on the younger side, maybe 22? I thought to myself, "wow, what an unfortunate name, at least in english", but then I saw it spelled out and it's spelled Rute. Ha ha, portuguese is a giant puzzle. Unlike Spanish with one sound for every letter, portuguese can be almost anything, and when I think that I have a word mastered, I don't, cuz they completely drop syllables.... Thank you is "obrigata" for women, "obrigado" if you are a man. But rarely does a native speaker say the "O".
So, we are mostly alone in the mornings, in the office. There's 4 work stations and we stole 2 of the 4, the art classroom is giant on the end and utterly cool, and then there's a little office for the coordinators who design the programs - Ana Maria and Jose (you pronounced the "j" in portuguese). There are 2 art classes per day for 3 - 3 1/2 hours each, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We've begun to see the same students on the second week because Monday morning students come, you guessed it, Monday mornings, and then Tuesday afternoon students come on Tuesday afternoons. But next week on July 1st, the whole country goes on vacation for their "winter" break. It's winter here, and even though the ambient temperature outside doesn't usually get below 50`F, none of the buildings are heated, heaters just don't exist, so sitting and typing at 52`F gets kinda cold. I have a rotation of 4 blazers, 2 nicer coats and scarves have saved my life. Everyone down here wears scarves, cuz they are cold too. Anyway, classes stop next week for a month and we won't see students again before we leave for home.
Yesterday we met the Tuesday morning class, last week we didn't see them because they went on a field trip to a horse farm.

Most of them are underprivileged and hadn't seen horses before. But they were onsite yesterday and 7 of the 8 students were in wheelchairs! They are truly talented and I helped them tie their sketchbooks onto the railing along the ramp for a display, like their own gallery. One girl, Tulia, wanted to have a complete conversation but I only understood about 2% of the words. I really need to master this language! Alini is their instructor, beautiful, beautiful girl. She's finishing her masters in art and will leave next week to visit Vienna, Austria. I'll include the photo of Alini and the students,she's the one on the right.

But my job isn't with the students, my tasks are to research software and IT solutions for those with disabilities. The Instituto Rodrigo Mendes does a brilliant job with the traditional art, and I'm still impressed with the variety of projects they are doing even in the same class: wood working, cardboard and lumber, clay, plastic wrap, tie dying, print making, canvas and paint, canvas and charcoal.... it goes on and on. And I was surprised by the amount of mentally challenged students. Before I arrived, I was under the impression that the students might face only physical challenges, but there are a significant portion of students who have Down's Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. This totally doesn't affect their talent, one of the students who has had his art purchased and displayed in a gallery is Autistic, and his paintings are simple but fantastic. Anyway, while the students are being brilliant, I am surfing the internet, looking for recommendations for particular software, sending emails to institutions world-wide that provide similar services. This morning I talked to a gentleman from the Tate Gallery in London about the accomodations that they make for people with disabilities. Santhosh and I have deliverables to finish up in our remaining 2 1/2 weeks to recommend the "best of breed" disability software for a brand new art lab. One another aspect of our deliverable is that Brazil only legislated that public education be offered even to those students with disabilities. So, until 2002, "special" students weren't in the public schools. Now they are and the teachers have no idea of how to handle that. So, the Instituto Rodrigo Mendes also holds training for teachers in inclusivity. So, we are trying to find curriculums and reference materials for public schools who may or may not have computers, who may or may not be able to fund our recommendations. Money is a huge problem, all of our organizations, of course, have financial constraints.

The others on our larger team here, we are 15, have 4 other NGOs that they are serving. Theirs are equally as cool. Sou de Paz is portuguese for "I am for Peace" and works toward helping poor communities disarm and creates public spaces. Aprendiz does community support for stressed neighborhoods and childcare. Estacio Ciencia is the Science Museum affiliated with the University, I guess that it's really cool. And last is the Instituto of Educacio & Esporte, run by a former olympic volleyball medalist. She uses volleyball as a way to attract kids to after school programs throughout Brazil, and teaches them volleyball to encourage empathy and teamwork. So, we are all crazy-busy. Add to that, that the brazilians are incredibly hospitable and want to show us their city and homes, and we have invitations to do ALOT of things in the evenings and weekends. I'm invited to Joice's house to spend the night tonight with her and her young daughters. She's the office manager and we have a close relationship, she speaks some english. Her husband is a pilot and will be flying, so she wants to show me a day in the life of a Sao Paulo mom, we'll pick the girls up from daycare and she'll feed me and we'll have our evening together and I'll spend the night and she'll bring me back in the morning.
We are invited to 2 "saints" festivals this Saturday and will be renting a bus to drive out. We visited Rio de Janeiro as a team last weekend, flew out Friday night, came back Sunday night. It's fantastic and exhausting.

Well, I need to get to work, have to call the big museums in NYC, see what they are using for their disabled. Thank God for Skype, free phone calls rock!

Saturday, busy day in Rio de Janeiro

So, Saturday we needed to get an early start, because we had tons to do and rented a mini-bus that was supposed to arrive at the boy's hotel at 8am. After getting back at 2:30am, it was a short night. Ambretta, Mo (Maureen) and I shared a room. Carol was supposed to share with Selda, but like I said, Carol missed her plane and wasn't able to reschedule a flight for the same money - bummer, cuz Carol is alot of fun and it's sad that she missed the big trip. Rodrigo Barbosa (the IBM guy, great name by the way, I think that he should be a pirate) had a meeting but had already communicated with our driver about the exact itinerary that we supposed to keep. It was going to be jam-packed with fun. So, we met at 8am, boarded our bus and drove up to Corcovado.

Corcovado is the mountain, the statue is Christo Redemptor, Christ the Redeemer. Oh my, how much cooler could it be? The drive up is steep and winding with breathtaking views from each cliffside. There's quite a hike up the stairway to get to the statue, and unlike Sao Paulo, it's plenty warm here, steamy too. So, I'm all sweaty. The statue is fantastic, if you look up at it and there's clouds moving, it makes you dizzy, looks like Christ is spinning, or swaying. Spectacular workmanship, phenomenal experience. We got back down and boarded our bus again and drove down the mountain to the big soccer stadium - Maracana stadium.

I guess that Rio hosted the World Cup here in 1950, and then they've been picked to host again in 2014. And then Rio has bid to host for 2016 games, along with Madrid, Chicago, Tokyo and probably a couple of other places? We didn't want to pay R$20 to visit both the museum and the stadium, so we played for a little bit in the footsteps of all of the great players. Then our next stop was a square that was built in the 1900s, just to blow time and allow Rodrigo to finish his meeting. Have I said that juice (sucos) are everywhere in Brazil? Sucos vitamina are fruit juices with milk (leite - pronouced the same as "milk" in spanish, leche, but spelled completely differently) or you can get fruit juice mixed with Naranja (O.J.), so we had melon/mango juice in the square.
Next was to meet Rodrigo downtown. He had us standing in line somewhere, and wouldn't tell us what it was. Turns out that there's this really old trolley car that runs on rails up one of the mountains, it's R$0.25 apiece, so really inexpensive. It's only one car, and we had a group of 14, and we were only a fraction of the amount of people that they crammed on this poor little car. We had people in our group hanging off the sides and clutching the rails. There were 2 points along the way that these hangers had to be really careful or get scraped off of the side of the car. And we were going through neighborhoods that aren't very nice. In Brazil, the poverty stricken areas are higher up on the mountains and hills are are called Favelas. So we had to tuck all bags and cameras well inside the car, I guess that some of the poor little boys run along-side the trolley and try to knock off sunglasses and they'll grab any bag or camera. We didn't see any of them. At the top of the trolley, we got off in the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, which is a artist community, so lots of arts and crafts for sale. We ate lunch at a very local, highly recommended cafe, and had the local favorite dish - Fejoada (Fay-juu-ahda), which is just black beans and rice. It's a slave dish and the beans and stew has pieces of the cheapest cuts of meats, although now for people who pay, they use the nicer cuts. It's served with collard greens. It's good, really salty, but I love salt, so really good. Then we rode the trolley back down, not as crowded where we walked to the center of downtown Rio. Rodrigo had to run off a teenaged boy who was trying to engage us. R thought that the boy was waiting for one of us to turn away and he'd grab a bag or backpack from us abruptly and run away. We went to an emporium for sweets, a chocolate lovers paradise! It's decorated like an old-fashioned brass and wood icecream parlor, but much bigger. We each ordered some creamy delight. The specialty is brigadeiro, it's like the center of a truffle, a really creamy decadent ball of chocolate that's rolled in jimmies. A small ball of only 1 1/2 inches is almost TOO much chocolate - can that be? But it was getting late, and we had to skip one of the plans because we were supposed to be at SugarLoaf (the gigantic, odd shaped rock that juts out of the ocean) for sunset and it was getting close. Rodrigo got us on our bus and said goodbye, he had a couple more things to complete. Then we drove to Pao de Acucar (SugarLoaf), or the parking lot at the bottom of the funicular (tram). We thought that we might miss sunset cuz it looked as though there was a big line, but a gentleman came back and asked if we were going up, we said yes, and he led us to another line with no wait. We all paid our way through, and walked up to the tram and entered. There's actually 2 funiculars, one to the top of the first mountain, it's bigger and has restaurants and gardens. Then there's the next tram to actual Pao de Acucar, which it turns out that we wouldn't be able to do. The tram is under some service project and no one is allowed to go forward. Too bad. So we got to the top and took up positions along the railing to watch the sunset. There's a heli-pad up there, and people pay enormous amounts of money to have a 10 minute tour, so we got to see the helicopter arrive and land a couple of times. And the sun set and it was all that it is supposed to be - Really, really sensational. We stayed around for awhile, found a corner to sit in and chatted and took lots of photos. The asian boys have several expensive cameras apiece, it's astonishing! Jumpei even has several expanding tripods and whips them out to get team pictures here and there. Santosh has a really fantastic 'bells and whistles' camera, so I'm sure that even my nice camera didn't capture the images that they got. I might have to borrow them and claim them as my own? Rio is SO BEAUTIFUL by night and especially from that vantage point.
We descended and sent our poor bus driver home after a 10 hour day, one which largely he did nothing. We were fairly full still of chocolate, and some of the partyers wanted to catch a nap before the next round of parties began. But some of the team missed out on the churrascuria the night before, so we ended up BACK at the meat place, for more MEAT!!! Oh boy. I bowed out of another round of partying in Lapa. The gang ended up at a Brazilian rock concert and got home at 3am again. Those younguns.

First night in Rio!

So, we left for Rio de Janeiro from the local Sao Paulo airport, there are 2 and this is important because 2 members of our team took a taxi to the wrong airport. Poor Carol couldn't reschedule her flight without a serious change in the amount of money, so she just didn't come and was crushed, but Jumpei found another flight and arrived late on Friday. Congonhas (pronouced Con-goy-as) is the local airport, right in the middle of Sao Paulo, so the runways are short and the skyscrapers around are high, so you take off fast and at a big angle. We flew into Rio (only a 40 minute flight, with FANTASTIC in-flight cheeseburgers... go figure?) just after dark, and since we flew into the local airport there (they also have 2, refer to problems back in the first sentence), we came in over the water and could see the statue of Christ in the clouds but well lit on the top of the mountain - really cool landing! We grabbed a cab with Maureen and drove to the girls hotel. The boys booked a better and more expensive hotel right on the beach, because I was dumb and didn't realize a miscommunication, I booked a hotel further from the beach but it had 3 beds for 3 girls and was a really nice hotel, just a longer walk. Rio is supposed to be pretty dangerous, just with robberies, so you aren't supposed to wear a watch, or carry a bag or camera. So, my pockets got well used carrying kleenex, multiple amounts of money just in case of robbery, I'd lose just one-pocket full, and hotel key yada yada. This was planned to be a big night out, partying, and a late dinner so that all of our team that came in seperately, would have time to check in and then meet for dinner. We ate at a churrascuria, it's a meat place, I guess that there's one in Denver (Rodizio Grill)? The kitchen cooks vast amounts of meet on swords over open flames: chicken, sausage, pork roast, 8 different kinds of beef, turkey, lamb and then strolling waiters walk around and if you are hungry, you flip your little circular "coaster" that has a stop sign on one side and green "go" on the other, and they slice meat off of the skewer onto your plate. You get little pincher silverware, so to catch the slicing meat to help the guy cutting it and also so that it doesn't flop off into your lap. It's a HUGE meal, but only R$35 (which is about $17 US). They bring plates of french fries, onion rings, bread, rice and some wierd breadcrumb/salty mix that you can sprinkle the meat with to the table. Then there's other waiters (usually the girls) that wander around with grilled vegetables: zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms, and little onions. The onions are practically un-cuttable and round little suckers and I tend to send them careening at my dining neighbors. As if that is not enough food, there's quite the salad bar too! Woohoo.

So, we ate and then dropped a couple of people off at the hotel to sleep and the rest of us went to a neighborhood called Lapa (lah-pah). I guess that it's the party place, but not for tourists, just locals. They have music and dancing and people spilling out into the streets and it's supposed to be fun. And it was, we tried to get into one place that had live music upstairs, but I guess that they'd reached their maximum and we couldn't get in. So we went across the street to another place and went in. It was a R$25 cover charge.

--Side note: Reais is the currency in Brazil, but the language is challenging and any word that begins with "R" actually sounds like "H" and most s's are pronouced "sh". So, Reais sounds like Hay- eye -sh (long i sound). And for the exchange rate, it's about 2:1 Reais to USD. --

But you don't pay when you enter, it's wierd. You have to sign in and they take a photo (??? don't know why) and then they give you a card with a price list of all of the drinks and food, and you'd better not lose it, cuz if you try to exit without a card, you get charged a minimum amount of R$100. Then any time that you go up to the bar, you won't use cash, you just present your card, they mark it off and you pay as you leave. So, it was a gigantic place, and in the initial 3 story room, they had a Samba band, with a well known singer/performer and 4 people playing different drums, one playing flute, a woman singing backup and a couple of guitars. So, we jammed ourselves onto the dance floor and danced for about 4 songs. Ambretta and I were the only girls, so we made stick-in-the-mud guys like Nader (originally from Cairo, but lives in Manhattan with his family now) dance with us. Rodrigo (MY 3rd Rodrigo on this trip, sheesh) from IBM was our guide all weekend, and he's the one that found the club and instructed us what to do. He lives in Sao Paulo but visits Rio often to play. But he's a good dancer, AND a good drinker. I finally overheated and went to find the rest of our group. Antonio, cute as a button hispanic guy, had the Asian contingent upstairs. Hocktoh is originally Malaysian, but has been in Japan for almost 10 years now, Jumpei is Japanese (also cute) and Cheun-Woo (pronounced Chaun-OO) is from South Korea. They had some beers and were just enjoying themselves. I sat with them and laughed for hours before we went to find the dancers. It turns out that there was an adjacent space with a DJ and hiphop and a younger crowd. I stayed there for a couple of songs. But then when a group formed to get a cab back to the hotel, I chose to go. It was a long week and 2am is just about my limit.

Got sick, made me crazy

It's true, I go a little loopy when I get sick and have anxiety attacks. It scares me alot. BUT - I had the help and prayers of my friends back in Colorado, so that (and God) makes me feel better. Here's some gems from my friends:
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9).
Remember, greater is He (the Lord) who is in you, than Satan who is in this world (1 John 4:4)
Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell GOD what you need and thank him for all he’s done. If you do this, you will experience GOD’s peace which is far more greater than the human mind can understand. He will guard your hearts and mind as you live in Christ Jesus. Phillipans 4:7
I love you all for your faithful prayers on my behalf!

So here's an unusual thing for someone like me. Like in most countries other than the U.S., servants are common and fairly cheap. The Instituto has a woman named Francelini who takes care of everyone and everything. She's constantly cleaning, she does laundry by hand, and they have lots and lots of laundry from the art studio: rags used to clean up the paint messes have to be the worst to wash. She also makes lunch for Rodrigo each day and she constantly asks if me and Santhosh would like coffee or tea. Then she brings a large bottle of water each day with 2 glasses on a tray for us, and just a second ago, she popped microwave popcorn (Pipoca, my new word for the day) and brought us each a bowl. I feel guilty accepting her kindness.
OK, so the food here is wonderful and plentiful, it seems like every restaurant is some sort of buffet, all that you can eat for one price (Rodizio) or a "kilo" restaurant, where you fill your plate off of the buffet and they weigh it at the cashier's stand and you pay for the weight (in kilos) of food that you put on your plate. The food has been terrific and we've eaten almost entirely at these restaurants. Monday we went to one in the food court of the mall next to our workplace and it had several dishes that were indian inspired. Then yesterday we went with our coworkers to one that was more mediterranean - pita, hummus Pastistio. Because Sao Paulo is such a diverse city, they have the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan, we don't look much different than the Brazileiros, even though Cheun-Woo is South Korean, Hocktoh is Malaysian and Jumpei is Japanese. Schahab is German by nationality but Iranian by birth. We have a good mix on the IBM team, it's really fun. I'll start taking photos of the food to show off here.
Here's a few of the students here at the instituto, they are a mix of disabled and abled, and those with mental handicaps. All are incredibly gifted as you'll see with their projects: