On the Farm

Hi everyone! I must apologize for not finishing my Brazil updates until now. I have had SO much homework since I got back. And Kristin has been so busy with her computer that she hasn't had time to help me with photos. So please accept our apologies.

The same day we rode on the boat in Santos, we got on a plane and flew to Brasilia. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil (I guess that makes sense). See if you can find it on the map.

Brasilia is a very interesting place. All of the buildings and bridges look very modern. Kristin says that's because the city was built in the 1950's by "modernist" architects. I'm not sure what Kristin means by "modernist" but I can tell you that many of the buildings look like they were taken straight from the Jetson's cartoons.

I also learned that Brasilia is something called a "planned' community. That means there are specific places for everything in the entire city. For example, ALL of the drug stores were in one block. How strange is that?

Like in Sao Paulo, we spent more time in our van than actually visiting the cool buildings, so I only have a few photos to show you. This is a really cool bridge that goes across a lake that was built when the town was built.

And this is one of the many interesting buildings I saw from the van.

The morning after we arrived in Brasilia, Kristin told me we were going to drive outside of Brasilia to visit a farm. At first I thought Kristin was kidding, but then I started to see this as we got further away from Brasilia.

Can you tell what's growing in that field? If you guessed soybeans, you are correct! I didn't need to fly all the way to Brazil to see soybean fields. I see them everyday in the summer back in Iowa. I even saw the same seed corn signs I see in Iowa. Can you believe it? Look closely and you will see Kristin is holding me in the photo below.

I could tell Kristin didn't think I was too impressed with the soybean fields. So she asked me to look closely and tell her what was different about the fields here in Brazil. Hmmm....they look the same to me. That's when she pointed out that many of the fields we saw were brown and ready to harvest. So? Then Kristin reminded me that the farmers in Iowa had NOT planted yet this year. She's right! Now I was really confused! Kristin smiled and told me that because Brazil is south of the equator, it is fall here right now. And because Iowa is north of the equator, it is spring at home. Who knew?!

Kristin also told me that Brazil is the largest "exporter" of soybeans in the world. That means Brazil sends more soybeans to other countries than any other country in the world...including the US. I had no idea!

The first place we stopped was something Kristin called a "farming cooperative." That means several farmers were working together to make as much money as possible. Don't tell Kristin, but it was kind of boring at this place. No one was really working. I did get to see an interesting "elevator" or place where grain is stored.

A few miles up the road we visited the site of something called "AgroBrasilia 2008." It wasn't open yet, but workers were setting up all sorts of displays including small fields of different crops. I could also see where tractors were going to be on display (but they weren't there yet).

I told Kristin that "AgroBrasilia 2008" looked similar to something I've seen before...I just couldn't name it. Kristin told me it reminded her of the Muscatine County Fair. YES! That's exactly what it reminds me of! I had no idea they had fairs here in Brazil.

Since there wasn't much for me to do at the ag fair (there were no rides for kids), I was bored again. But Kristin told me to be patient. She told me we were going to visiting a working farm in a few hours. Plus, she said I might even get to ride a combine if I was good. I promised to be REALLY good.

Well I must have been good, because Kristin kept her promise. Soon we visited a farm not far from the ag fair location. Here they were harvesting soybeans.

I was really exited to get to ride on the combine....but I'm not sure my friend Flat Gabby was excited. I convinced her it would be OK to ride with Kristin. Flat Gabby still wasn't convinced so I told her I would even hold her hand. She agreed. Now before you say anything...I don't like to hold hands with a GIRL, but it was the only way Flat Gabby would ride with me. In the end, it wasn't SO bad to hold her hand.

Kristin would only let us ride in her pocket because she was worried we would blow away. At first I was upset, but it really was windy on the combine since the driver had the door open so Kristin and Steve could tape the ride. Don't worry, Flat Gabby and I did get to see through the top of Kristin's pocket. Here you can see a photo Keith took while we were riding the combine.


And here I am with Kristin and Flat Gabby after we got off. It's a good thing I have some spare clothes because we were COVERED in dust!


Here you can see the combine transferring the harvested soybeans to a truck that will take them to an elevator like the one we saw earlier in the day.

If you look closely in the photo above, you will see Kristin near the rear of the truck with her recorder and microphones. She sure looks funny there, doesn't she?!

Here's what the field looked like after the combine was done.

Kristin says the sky looked amazing. Well I'm not so sure about that, but it did look interesting. What I thought was amazing was the farmer's truck. It's a small Chevy truck. How cool is that?!


Well that's my review of my visit to the soybean farms near Brasilia.

Until next time.....

Port of Santos

Hi everyone. Here's another update on my many adventures in Brazil.

Today (Sunday, April 6), Kristin woke me up early and told me to pack my bags because we were going to be leaving Sao Paulo later in the day. But first she said we were going on another great adventure.

After we piled all of our bags into the van, we drove to a place called Santos. We have to drive down a steep and winding road to reach Santos. Here you can see the city from the winding road.

Kristin says Santos is important because the largest "port" in Latin America is located there. I had no idea! I wasn't sure I understood what a port was. Kristin told me to be patient. She said we were going to visit the port. Man, it is SO hard to be patient.

It seemed to take forever to get to Santos, so I was really excited when we finally stopped. First, I got to get out of the car. More importantly, I saw this really cool boat. That's when Kristin told me that we were going to take a ride on the boat. How cool is that?!

The boat was named "Master of the Seas." Don't believe me? Check out the pirate on the front of the boat.


How awesome is that pirate?! Once we got on the boat, I noticed that no one outside of our group got on. That's right. We had this HUGE boat all to ourselves.

There was one new person in our group today. His name is David Brown. He is going to host the new radio program (my friend Mr. B in New York was busy). The new Mr. B is really, really nice. I'm really glad he was able to join us in Brazil.

The boat ride was really neat. There were other boats like ours out on the water (except they were full of people...and we had our boat all to ourselves).

At first it seemed like we were boating through a lake. But then the captain told us we were actually going to go through the port! He also told me the port leads straight to the Atlantic Ocean. I had no idea!

It was really cool. I saw some of the biggest boats I have ever seen!

I asked Kristin why the boats were so big. That's when she told me the boats..or ships...carry items like food, cars, televisions and other electronics, and even toys from one part of the world to another. Who knew?

I learned that the items are put into these HUGE colorful boxes that Keith calls "containers."

The containers remind me of the trailers I see on the back of semi-trucks on the highways in America. Keith agreed and told me that sometimes the containers are used with big highway trucks or are placed on trains. But in the port, the "containers" are loaded onto the ships using cranes and other big machines.


Do you see how big the cranes are in the port? I don't think I've ever seen cranes this big in my entire life!

Here you can see me with Keith. Look closely and you will see some big cranes behind us.

Since the Port of Santos is the largest in Latin America, Kristin pointed out there were ships from all over the world in the docks. This one has a flag that I've seen before. Can you tell which country this ship is from?

If you guessed North Korea...you are right! I had no idea ships from North Korea visited places like Brazil. Did you?

It was cloudy during our boat ride. It was also VERY windy. So I spent most of my time looking at the port from my special place inside Kristin's purse. I was too afraid I was going to blow away!

Halfway through our boat ride, I saw something that looked like the large buildings farmers store grain in. Kristin said I was right. There were several "grain elevators" in the port like this one.
Kristin told me that Brazil sends more soybeans to other countries than any other country in the world and that's why there were are grain elevators in the port. Who knew?

I saw a few other interesting ships. This one is something Kristin calls a "cruise liner." That's a HUGE boat that takes people on overnight trips on the ocean. Cool!

I wanted to take a cruise on a big ship like the one in the photo above, but Kristin told me we didn't have time. :( Oh well, at least I got to spend some time on the "Master of the Seas" in Santos.

Just before we got off the boat, I noticed a huge Brazil flag.

I told Kristin I really liked the flag because it was so colorful. Kristin told me she was glad I liked the flag because we were leaving Santos to head to the airport so we could fly to a placed called "Brasilia." Brasilia is the capital of Brazil. See if you can find it on the map.

That's all for now. I'll update you again once I get to Brasilia.

Bye for now...

Riding with the Police of Sao Paulo

Hi everyone. I have had another very exciting day.

Today (Saturday, April 5) Kristin woke me up early and told me to be ready to spend most of the day "out in the field."

Our first stop of the day was a small police station and community center in a neighborhood called "Jardim Ranieri."

I was really excited when we arrived. I think police stations are cool. Kristin told me if I was really good, I would get to watch the police officers in action. Awesome!

But then I heard the commander tell Kristin that this neighborhood was, "the most violent neighborhood in the world," in 1999. Oh no! Suddenly I didn't feel very safe. Kristin must have seen the look on my face because she told me that we were going to be fine. She said the police have helped the neighborhood become much more safe. I still wasn't so sure, but then I saw how many police officers were working and I felt a little better.

Here you can see me and my friend Flat Gabby with Kristin standing near the police station.


The police station is on a very busy street. It looked like another busy street to me.

So I asked Kristin why this neighborhood used to be so scary. She says in the past 50 years, millions of people have moved from the rural areas of Brazil to big cities like Sao Paulo. Who knew? She says many of the people who moved here were very poor and sometimes people would fight over money, food, and property. I have seen many poor places on my adventures with Kristin and it makes me sad when I find out some people don't have enough money to buy food and have a safe house.

Kristin always tells me it is OK to be sad. But she reminds me that I should be grateful that I have a nice house and a loving family. She is right.

While we were visiting the police station, I learned that the people in this neighborhood didn't always like the police. But when criminals moved in and made Jardim Ranieri a scary place, the community asked the police for help. The community and the police worked together to build this police station and a library. The station commander says the police then put many bad people in jail and that's why Jardim Ranieri is much safer today.

Kristin says the way the neighborhood and the police worked together reminds her of the community police program in Muscatine. That's pretty cool.

After Kristin, Keith, Simon, and Steve interviewed the police commander and some people who live in the neighborhood, we got to see the police officers in action. There wasn't enough room for people to ride in the police cars (darn...that would have been really cool!) so we rode in the van.

I was still worried that some bad people would see us, but then I saw we had at least three police cars full of police officers around us at all times (sometimes there were even more police vehicles). We also had a police officer riding with us in our van.

I noticed the streets here are very narrow.

At first I thought the houses were narrow apartment-like buildings, but then I realized that some houses were built on top of other houses. Very interesting.


I was busy looking at the different houses when the van suddenly stopped. The police officer jumped out. Before I could figure out what was going on, Steve jumped out of the van with the video camera and Kristin jumped out with her digital camera. That's when I saw the police had stopped some men who were walking on the street.

The police made the men stand against the wall until they checked their identification cards. The police officers actually had their guns out, so I decided to stay inside of Kristin's bag. I watched the action through a small opening.

Then just as quickly as the men were stopped, everyone got back in the van and we continued driving through the neighborhood. Five minutes later, we stopped again. This time, the police stopped a man riding a motorcycle.

Here you can see one of the police officers calling the police station to check the man's license.


And here you can see an officer making sure the man didn't have anything bad in his pockets.

I noticed while the officers were checking the man's pockets that they also made him show his tattoos. The police officer riding in our van said certain tattoos would tell the police if the man was a gang member of had been in prison.

I was so busy watching the police officers that I didn't realize that we were attracting a crowd.


I was starting to worry about the crowd when the police officers let the man on the motorcycle go. Whew!

Next, the officers took us to a place where we could get a better view of the neighborhood. Wow! I knew I had counted a lot of houses, but I had no idea how many houses were in the neighborhood.



Here are a few more shots of the neighborhood.

Did you see the painting on the wall in one of the photos above? I've seen just about every place we have visited in Brazil. I asked Kristin why I kept seeing the same image and she told me that it is Brazil's flag. Who knew?

After spending another hour (or so) with the police officers, we left the neighborhood and our driver took us to another neighborhood about an hour away. This neighborhood is called "Parelheiros." I could tell right away the people who live in this neighborhood don't have very much money. The streets weren't even paved...and we were still in town. I thought everyone who lived in a city had paved streets.

We were visiting this neighborhood to meet Deise and her daughter Silvia. They own a beauty salon.

The salon is located in a converted garage. It sure doesn't look like a salon in Muscatine. Kristin agreed but she told me the salon is really important. That's because Deise (pronounced "Daisy") and Silvia got money from the local government to go to school so they could open the salon. Now they make their own money and soon they will not need aid from the government to buy groceries and the things they need for their family. How cool is that?! The salon was busy the entire time we were there, so Deise and Silvia must be good.

We left the salon just before dusk and went back to the hotel. I must have been really tired because I fell asleep in the van!

That's all for now. Until next time....

Meet My Friend Flat Gabby!

Hi everyone! I have exciting news! I have a new Flat friend! Her name is Gabby and she is friends with Keith.

Flat Gabby is SO flat that she arrived by e-mail this morning (April 4).. How awesome is that?! Even though Flat Gabby is a girl, it is nice to be able to share my adventures with another flat person.

I first met Flat Gabby at a place called the Brazil Mercantile and Futures Exchange.

Kristin says the Brazil Mercantile and Futures Exchange is very similar to BOVESPA, the stock exchange I visited earlier this week. The only difference is that instead of trading stocks, people at the Brazil Mercantile and Futures Exchange trade "commodities." Kristin says corn, soybeans, sugar, and ethanol are some of the "commodities" traded here.

Kristin tried to explain that commodities are traded differently than stocks, but I forgot what she told me because I was too busy watching the trading floor. It is a CRAZY place. There were hundreds of men in several circles screaming, shouting, and watching electronic boards like this one.

Kristin says the prices for the commodities like corn and soybeans are displayed on the big boards. I couldn't really read them so I am going to have to trust her on this.

The men on the floor sounded angry, but Kristin told me they were just doing their job. Hmm...I think it is cool that the floor traders here get to scream and shout. Maybe I should become a commodities trader?!

That's all for now...bye!

Sugar is Sweet!

Hi everyone. I hope all is well.

Today (April 3) Kristin woke me up early and told me we were going on a long van ride. Yuck! It seems like it takes FOREVER to get anywhere in Brazil. Kristin must have seen the look on my face because she told me that the van ride would be worth it. I'm not sure how she can top Embraer, but I decided not to complain.

In the end, the day was pretty cool! I got to visit a sugar farm. I LOVE sugar!

At first I was very confused about the sugar farm. I didn't know sugar came from a farm. I told Kristin I thought sugar came from bags at the grocery store.

That's when Kristin told me to look closely at the tall, green leafy plants growing in the fields. It is a plant called "sugar cane" and it was everywhere!

Kristin told me that sugar comes from "sugar cane." Who knew? But I quickly learned it isn't easy to make the sugar that my Aunt Lynn buys at the store.

Kristin says when the sugar cane is ready to harvest, each stalk (like the one in the photo below) is taken from the field.

Here I am with Keith "tasting" a stalk that was cut down in the field. It does NOT taste like sugar. It tasted more like dirt than anything else!

Once the stalks are harvested at this farm, they are taken to a processing facility like this one.

The stalks then get put into big machines that squeeze the stalks so all of the liquid comes out. Kristin says this sugar liquid can then be turned into many different things including the sugar that my Aunt Lynn makes cakes with.

I really wanted to see this process but Kristin says it isn't the right time of year for harvesting the sugar cane. :( At least I got to see one of the sugar processing facilities.

I really liked visiting the sugar farm, but I wasn't really sure why we were there. That's when Keith told me that one of the things made from sugar cane is something people in Brazil call "alcool." He says "alcool" is called "ethanol" in the United States. He also told me that most "ethanol" in the United States is made from corn (not sugar cane). I had no idea!

I also didn't realize that "ethanol" can be used as a fuel in cars. Keith says many cars in Brazil run on ethanol made from sugar cane instead of gasoline. Very interesting. Kristin says the gasoline she puts in her car at home is a mix of gasoline and corn ethanol. I'll have to ask Aunt Lynn if she uses this ethanol stuff in her gasoline.

That's all for now. Bye!