Day 2 in Sao Paulo

So on my 2nd day in Sao Paulo, I actually got to go into downtown, well more like the center of the city, not really downtown, and let me explain why. For those of you wondering how big Sao Paulo is, the following 7 pictures make up the 360 degree view from the top of the Santander Torre (the highest building in Sao Paulo)




























Well, the city is huge, gigantic, humongous. In the US, the following are the large cities I've visited: Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. I'm going to go ahead and say that Sao Paulo may be bigger than all of those cities combined. I've never ever seen so many large buildings in my life. The pictures don't even do it justice. The fog blurred out some of the buildings in the distance.

Even bigger than the city itself, is the social disparity. I thought the following two pics are a great representation of this disparity:









In the two pictures, the same homeless man is seen on the floor sleeping. (Look really close in the 2nd picture) This is the plaza in front of the Cathedral and Dept. of Justice. Businessmen and businesswomen, police officers, lawyers, judges, and churchgoers alike, all pass by this homeless man and do not even glance at him. Now, I've seen plenty of homeless people sleeping on the streets (growing up we used to have a couple sleep, and uhmmm sleep together, right across the street from our house), but I've never seen people show such indifference upon seeing someone in such a condition. Amazing.

Here are some more pics I took:












(In front of the Cathedral, just near where the homeless man was sleeping. Oh, and one of our team members found out she is pregnant, so she has to go home. That's why there's only 4 of us, instead of 5)











(Line forming for an illegal market, where everything is on the cheap)


















Initial thoughts about Sao Paulo (2 days in):

1- once again, it is a titantic city
2- it is extremely densely populated (there were people everywhere, and this was a Monday)
3- the people are SOOOO friendly
4- it could use some talented city planners
5- electronics and cars are so expensive (iPhone 3GS runs about $1,200 and a new honda civic about $30,000, the sales tax is around 50%)
and
6- it needs a lot of help.

We went to the aquarium of Sao Paulo in the afternoon (not posting pics, because, well...its an aquarium) and at night, we presented to the Rotary Club of Ipiringa (a community of Sao Paulo). We told the club about ourselves and thanked them for hosting us. After we spoke, we received a certificate from the club and mingled with them for about an hour. Extremely friendly people. Here we are next to the President of the Rotary Club of Ipiringa:









I am now in my 2nd home where I will be staying for the next week. I am in a beautiful apartment belonging to a young couple, Renato and Tais. And they have wi-fi! (Yay-yeah, don't have to miss Laker games. Thank you justin.tv!)

Ok that is all for now, tomorrow I visit the Rotary Club of Ipiringa's youth outreach project (they bring in teens from the favelas and teach them general job skills so they can do something positive with their lives), will ride around with the police of Sao Paulo (kind of sketchy huh?) and speak at another Rotary Club in the evening. See you soon!