Preface 1:  Click View Photo Album on the left to see the pictures.  There are several folders of photos from Brasil.  If you are in any of them, you may want to download the ones you want because I'm running short of storage space, and I may have to do some deleting before I go home. 

Preface 2:  My cell phone number is 55-62-9922-2527.  If you try to call and I don't answer or it goes to my voice mail and I don't call you back or some other crazy situation, it may be because I'm traveling and the message didn't get to me.  My cell phone doesn't work in some areas and the voice mail isn't the most consistent in the world.  I'm not ignoring you!  Try again in about a week or send me an email or call Dante's house and ask where you can reach me.  Their number is 55-62-214-1506.  Everyone there speaks English, and they will understand you if you speak clearly and slowly. 

************************************

At the end of my last journal, many of you read about my turmoil caused by my 90 day non-extendable plane ticket.  I had purchased my ticket to Brazil with a return date of March 9 with the understanding that I would change it after the Brazilian government approved an extension of my visa for an additional 3 months.  United Airlines told me last week that I can't extend my ticket it even by paying a fee. 

After several days of consternation and searching, I just booked a round trip ticket on the internet from São Paulo to Chicago for MAY 16, arriving in Chicago on the morning of May 17.  It's a round trip ticket returning to Brazil on May 23.  Here's my plan: 

Andy's Green Beret ceremony is scheduled for May 21 at this point.  Hopefully he will pass everything on time and the date won't change!  I'll drive to North Carolina for the ceremony and return to Chicago in time to fly back to Brazil with Andy on May 23 (he wants to go to Brazil for 2 weeks following his ceremony).  If anyone wants to go with me to the ceremony, I will have room in my new Subaru!

If Andy doesn't graduate on time, or if they change the date for the ceremony, that's still about the time I wanted to return from Brazil anyway.  In that case, I'll head back to Minnesota and throw away the other half of the ticket.  If Andy does graduate on schedule, we will both go to Brazil for about 2 weeks.  If I do this, I will still have to figure out a way to get back to the US, but I will have several months from now to figure it out.  I want to be in Boston by June 9 for Dani's graduation from Harvard with her master's degree in Architecture and Planning. 

I went to the Brasilian visa office this morning and they want me to come back closer to the date of my visa expiration.  They told me that they will extend the visa and that I should go ahead and buy the ticket.  So there's a little trust involved there too, but now I feel that I've done everything I can do. 

I've even decided what I can do with the ticket I would otherwise be throwing away.  It's a two-flight arrangement.  I'm booked on March 9 from Goiânia to the domestic airport in São Paulo, where I would be taking a bus to the international airport.  Instead, I'll take the metro to Dante's apartment and spend a long weekend with him.  I'll miss the plane to Chicago!  At least I'll be able to get some use out of that ticket!

Keep watching for more pictures.  I'm almost finished with the ones from Minas Gerais, and after that I'll go on to the São Paulo pictures.  Then it will be time for another trip. 

I'm probably staying here for about another week and a half before I go anywhere else.  I'm participating in a Rotary Peace Walk next weekend, and a Rotary 100 Year Anniversary Celebration.  I think I'll go back to Minas Gerais the following week. 

Anyway, I won't see any of you in Chicago in March (unless I get evicted from the country), but I will be back in May!