We have arrived! - Amanda

After over 24 hours in transit (including a cancelled flight, a 10+-hour layover in snowy Atlanta, a missed flight and free buffet lunch in Brasilia), we have finally arrived in sunny and warm Belo Horizonte (BH to the locals) in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Today is our third day in the country - but first, an overcap about why we're here.

In the spring of 2009, LTI was contacted by a college student in BH who was interested in starting up a leadership program in his hometown. After months of communication and planning, a plan was finally formulated to create a chapter of LTI to Brazil with the help of the PESSOA organization, a program that aims to bring together the fields of entrepreneurship, social activism, environmentalism, and leadership. For the next two weeks, members of LTI (Amanda, Susan, Tina, Michaela, and David) will be training members of PESSOA in the LTI curriculum and working one-on-one in order to create the organizational infrastructure. In addition, we will also be traveling to Rio de Janeiro to communicate with other interested college students about starting LTI.

And now about what has happened so far. We arrived Friday afternoon at the BH airport and were received by representatives of PESSOA. We moved into the administrator's home in the city, and promptly were introduced to Brazilian culture with a lunch of chicken casserole and rice (absolutely delicious). Next, Arnobio and Yuri took us to a mountaintop to view the sunset over the city, complete with fresh coconut juice and coo-ing of wild birds. We then met Anna, another member of PESSOA, and jetted off to a Japanese restaurant/bar at the top of a tower (also overlooking the city) for after-dinner drinks. Everybody was very friendly, even though not everyone understood each other - at some point, Dave and Yuri started talking in Spanish, their only common language. So much for the first day!

On Saturday, Arnobio and Yuri introduced us to some more members of PESSOA and then we went to Topo do Mundo (a restuarant/bar at the top of a hill). From there, we could watch parachuters and paragliders take off from the hill and float into the distance. A group of us went onto a hike along the top of the mountain range, and from there we could see at least 20 miles into the distance in all directions. When we came back, Arnobio taught us how to play Truco (a Brazilian card game with absolutely confusing rules) and in return, we taught him how to play Set. We then accompanied Arnobio to a samba club with live music, where we enjoyed the dancing atmosphere as we played pool (note: the pool tables have really small pockets).

Today, Susan arrived (she had been in Rio since the end of finals)! We discussed the goals of the next two weeks with members of PESSOA (Romario, Arnobio, Gabriel, and Mateo). We spent FIVE HOURS finalizing all of our materials and curriculum, as our host family taught each other how to play Set in the living room next door. It's about dinnertime right now (we're having pizza tonight!) and we'll soon be off to our other host families!

Tomorrow's the big day - our first session with the 23 members of PESSOA that we will be training. I can personally say that I am definitely excited for this first meeting, and will be looking forward to working with everyone for the next two weeks!

Stay in touch, and you'll be hearing from others of LTI soon!

Live, Laugh, and Lead =)