Gabriel, out inbound exchange student for the year from Brazil shared his story so far.

 

Born in Assis-Sp in Brazil, and then after four weeks, moved to Santos-Sp until he was 4 years old.  His family moved back to Assis-Sp. He has two siblings, both older.  His sister Danielle is 20 and she is training to be a dentist.  His Brother Eduardo is a recent graduate in mechanical engineering. Gabriel's  parents have been married for 21 years and have business which sells auto parts. His siblings are happy for his opportunity to come to Canada. It was his sister that introduced Gabriel to Rotary and the exchange program. She was to go on exchange to Australia in 2020 until COVID shut everything down and she could not go on exchange.

 

Gabriel showed us photos of his family and friends.  The schools in Brazil are different.  The students stay in the same class all day and the teachers rotate.  Classes start at 7:20 with lunch at 12:20.  The school day typically ends at either 12:20 or 5:30pm. 

 

At 15 years of age, the boys and girls have a dance to celebrate their birthday.  They invite 12 boys and girls to dance together.  No one criticizes how anyone dances.  It is lots of fun.  The fun never ends in Brazil.  They also have a Rodeo celebration each year.

 

Gabriel knew that he wanted to do an exchange to another country in 2020.  He realized that he had a chance to meet wonderful people like his host parents and friends.  He wouldn’t have done anything differently.  When he arrived in Canada, he  felt so much better because Emily and Joyce were there to meet him.  His sister told him to ‘Enjoy every moment of this exchange and that she will see him in one year.’

 

While in Canada, he visited Niagara Falls (He loved that place).  Gabriel showed photos of himself with his host family (Emily).

He  participated in the Terry Fox run at ENSS wearing flip flops so by the end of the day his feet were killing him. 

He also participated in the Polar Plunge in Campbellford this past winter. 

He visited Sick Kids to be with and entertain children with disabilities. 

He  also visited Haliburton to do dog sledding. 

Rotarian Dan took him on a trip to Toronto Leaf game (first attempt was not successful due to a snowstorm); He loves hockey.

 

Typical Brazilian food is BBQ, but they  typically use more of a ‘Shish Kabob’ style BBQ. 

Brazil has an animal that looks like a long-legged red fox, parakeet, jaguar, and others.