Out of Office... working!

In Switzerland we would do LC visits inbetween the work. The furthest was Lugano (4hrs away).

In Brazil I have 3 LCs to coach and they are much further away. So yesterday I board a coach bound for Vitoria (16hrs on the coach!).

I manage to actually sleep OK and the time passes quicker than expected and so I am in Vitoria, again the beaches, hot weather, friendly people (great LC office) etc. I really like LC visits!

Conference -
I am a bit of a meglomanic really and I like controlling the agendas of Brazils conferences (well chairing the MC Conf. Task Force anyway). But the last few weeks have been manic, we have 4 regional conferences (each happening one week after another). The organisation (OC) is done in the regions, the content done by the National Team (MC) (I was told by some former AI who were visiting Sao Paulo people that it is very similar to managing Expros!). So we had to select 4 different Chairs, coordinate and prepare 21 different facis (from 28 applications!), organise 4 suited Regional Days (similar to GN day), prepare all the sessions (involving the facis from different regions etc.). Check on 4 different OCs etc. Across 4 different conferences!

Will it work... well see in 1 week when the first one starts!

The benefit of this - I get to go to 2 of the 4 (yes half!) of the conferences. So now I am in Vitoria (16hrs bus) - Belo Horizonte (8hrs bus) - Goiania (14hrs) then back home (15hrs)... see you on a bus seat soon!

How does Brazil Compare?

Having being in Brazil for 3 months now it is perhaps time to share some insights:

Poverty - is apparent here, but not as obvious and open as one might expect. But you do get some scary images, to see a bearded man walking around the streets wearing dustbin bags (really, just bags), then to see another man eating rice someone split on the wet pavement as the pigeons also eat the same meal, does make me think. Then sometimes you see things you do not expect. The 3 year old street child or the 60 year old woman sleeping near the rubbish bins. When we discuss these issues with Brazilian's they are rather blase towards them. In many cases they do not see the poverty as they have grown up with it and so it is not anything important to consider.

Divide - Compared to South Africa the phyiscal divide is not as great. Of course, the wealthy go to their posh-places and the poor pick up the trash and scraps of food from the posh-places. However, the divide is well maintained in Brazilian society. It is just expected. In South Africa they needed armed guards and big fences to tell people on which side of the fence they should be (and stay, probably). In Brazil, each side happily stays on their side by their own choice. The poor almost never consider entering a shopping mall etc. Crime is also lower. Brazil respects authority and so the poor know their place, the rich know there place and so no-one needs to pass the hidden wall. This device is much more effective in maintaining the current social fabric than armed guards and high walls will ever be!

Authority - The Brazilian respect authority and rarely question things. They do not think critically (in the sense that British do) and so it is actually scary, when as a foreigner and/or an MC member I say things, they take it as Solid. I often have to tell them "hey, what I say might not be right! Think about it a bit."

Leadership - Leadership in Brazil (of course this is a general view to summarise!): ideas matter more than processes (vice-versa to Switzerland), leaders generate the ideas here and find solutions to problems. Leaders who listen and ask the right questions are highly respected highly. Leaders have potentially too much power (see note on authority) and could miss any form of democracy if they wanted to and few would complain! So they should (I feel) be careful and open the topics to democracy scrutiny, especially as the leaders need to ensure that the members themselves are involved and help implementation (implementation and delivery is minimal in Brazil - probably because of the lack of understanding and democratic empowerment).

I represent Switzerland (with Verena) to the Brazilian MC

A few events

Marcelo celebrates in Brazilian style

Dean (me, British man) having a talk in a beer garden of the local bar with young people. The topic: Leadership Development. Actually very interesting to compare perspectives on the much talked of concept as I reflect on leadership in the UK, Switzerland and Brazil. (More on that in a later blog!).

Then we go to a Karoke bar (I don't sing). Me in a car with 4 Brazilian students and a French student sat on my lap... such is life for a young British man in Brazil.

But it is not all party and drinking (and bad singing). I must also work -

Wednesday, 10am go to School on a business park to meet a German AIESEC trainee and the TN taker (a school funded by the business park for children from poverty families). Discuss the policies and hopes of the school with the teachers and co-ordinator over lunch and show the children a little bit of my culture and more singing (head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes...)

Then, meet the Director for international relations at the Federal university. The LC here needs an office (they have no office, no phone, no PC, no well, nothing). Sell him AIESEC and arrange for him to promote AIESEC to the university directors next month. Tell him that if the university does not support AIESEC in the next few months the national team (me) will close the local AIESEC (he wants it to remain open). Suddenly I felt very powerful as the unversity professor listens to me carefully!

Then, meet AIESECers and run a reflection session on their time on AIESEC and I share some of my insights in living and working in Brazil.

Then go to a samba bar (the usual live music, dancing etc.)

The next day (Thursday) attend an EB meeting at 9am, then at 10am meet an AIESEC trainee who is really upset with the service she receives, arrange a plan of action with her and the LC. At 11am meet another trainee. At 2pm meet representatives from another university that wants to support the LC. Later that day meet the People Development co-ordinator, meet the whole EB and then the LCP. Finally travel back to Sao Paulo.

Presentation at school for children from Favela's  

A Brazilian Graduation

A ceremony... like a football match!

This week I attended several things.

Firstly, I went to my first ever professional football match. It was in the worlds second largest (160,000 seats!) football stadium, located in Belo Horizonte, the city I was in this week. The match was not that great but the stadium, the songs, the people was an experience.

Similar to that was Marcleos graduation (an MC member who recently finished university). Yes, they wore the cap and gown and the people dressed smartly. But there was whistles, flags, hooters, sirens, songs etc. for the people. Suddenly I was back in the football stadium and not at a formal academic ceremony to celebrate the most intelligent people in Brazil.

Then, 1 day later, the graduation ball - dress smart (suits and dresses), free alcohol and food, daners (rather 1960s!) and parents. It was a good party (started at 12.30pm and finished at 6am. But was a bit strange (in the UK parents would never attend such an event and people would get more drunk - I think that the British are the worst in the world in drininking alcohol responsibily).

Still.... the mix of whisky, beer and wine gave me a headache the next day as I headed to Juiz de Fora (4 hour bus ride). But it is the waiters fault... they just kept filling my glass up... it would have been rude to decline. After all it was a formal ceremony to celebrate academic excellence.