Ituverava - Rodeo and more!

Last week, the group headed 6 hours out of Sao Paulo for our 'rural' visit in the country side, a town called Ituverava. All i knew prior to our arrival was that this town has many sugar cane fields and that the five days we were going to be there happened to be the five days of their annual Rodeo festival. Although in the country side, Ituverava much more developed than I had expected and like most of the country, has a small number of extremely wealthy families and many poor families living in favela-like conditions. We were placed with host families among the wealthy crowd, which my host mom refered to as the Brazilian Southern California (and indeed it was just that!) I roomed with my friend Jasmine at the Conti house hold with: Dad Gustavo, Mom Rosangela, Brother Gustavinho (20), Sister Laura (16), and Little sister Alice (12). The family was absolutely wonderful and I immediately felt like one of the Contis. While in Ituverava, we visited the towns hospital, clinics, went on excursions with local health agents, visited sugar cane fields and processing factory, and a school. We also heard from speakers about rural health care and lifestyle and how it has improved drastically in recent years. The city was so excited to have us (as their first American visitors) and made our stay more than amazing. Every night we went to party at the Rodeo festival VIP style. We had passes to watch the bull riding in the mayor's booth and had fun walking around the rest of the carnival (kind of like a giant state fair). I have never seen anything like this before so it was really exciting! Of course I wanted to fit in, so I borrowed cow boy boots and a matching belt to wear every night. After the bull riding would end (around midnight), a different famous performer would play a concert, both Brazilian country and samba music. And after the concert ended (around 2:30) the disco would begin in a venue across the street until the wee hours of the morning! The festival and my new host family were amazing and really made my stay in Ituverava so special! Luckily, the Conti's will be in NY this fall so I will have the opportunity to show them around in my neighborhood!