I'm learning quickly that the way things work in Brazil, or at least in this little area between Belisario and Limeira, is not what I'm used to. I come from a world of contracts and meetings and deadlines. This world seems to work fine without any of those.
For example, before I come up with a communications plan for Iracambi's education program, I actually need to help them set the program up again. Minor set-back, but I'm rolling with it. It then took 3 days to find out who was in charge of setting up the program before, who handled the budgets, who brought in the teachers and set up the courses (some of this information I'm still trying to hunt down). Then came the talk of "are we sure these people will want to do this again starting in January." The response was "Of course" but I remained skeptical. So I asked that we talk to the former organizer. We invited him to come to dinner last night, but he was too busy building his house, so we drove up to his house this morning to talk to him. When we got there, he was working on his roof and slightly reluctant to come down and talk since he had so much work to do. The rainy season is coming. When we discussed him coming back to do the program next year and to organize it all, his response was "Of course." Guess I was wrong to doubt. A quick chat, a hug and we were off all feeling pleased that we had nailed him down. No contracts, no discussion of next steps, no follow-up meeting scheduled. But at this point, it seems like it will all work out.
Now on to the next tasks of finding students for the program and interest from one of the local schools.
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