BALLIN!

On Sunday, we arrived in the port city of Santos, Brazil. Santos, in more ways than not, is quite different from Sao Paulo. Picture a more scenic Santa Monica with a longer shoreline, more skyscrapers, and a terrible mosquito problem, and you’ll get an idea of what the city is like. Gone are the endless hills and suffocating traffic of Sao Paulo. However, like Sao Paulo, there are favelas. Unlike Sao Paulo, they are in the periphery rather than within the actual city. On the way in to Santos I was able to snap a few shots.











The home that we are staying belongs to Dona Terezinha Bastos. Dona Terezinha’s husband founded a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Santos that, at one point or another, was the third largest in the world. After her husband’s death some years ago, Dona Terezinah placed herself at the helm of the company. Having cemented the business’ sustainability and securing a fortune, Dona Terezinha decided to sell. An exceptionally cultured woman, Dona Terezinha has a never-ending supply of enthralling stories and insight collected over the 78 years of her life. In addition, she has never-ending supply of Coke Zero, my favorite.

Her residence is straight out of MTV Cribs, replete with multiple servants, groundsworkers, etc. It may literally be the largest house in all of Santos. Built into the hills, the view from her balconies is absolutely breathtaking.


















Unfortunately, Dona Terezinha was only in the house for a limited time as she had made arrangements to travel to Paris to visit one of her daughters on the day after we arrived. Here is a picture of the GSE team with Dona Terezinah and Deborah, who will be taking care of the home in her absence.












Having been in Brazil for ten days now, I’ve had the good fortune of meeting many successful Rotarians who make sure to contribute to the betterment of the community. While I’ve also met many wealthy people in the States who do their part, and more to help society, in my experience, prosperity in Brazil seems to exist only when coupled with a sense of communal responsibility. I must make the disclaimer that I’ve only met affluent people who are Rotarians in Brazil. I am sure there are the snobby types who do not feel that the social disparity of their country is of their concern. In fact, Rotarians themselves refer to their partners who only show up to weekly lunch meetings and do little else to advance the Rotarian cause as Almozarians. (Lunch-only Rotarians) However, I’ve spoken to quite a few Brasileiros of more modest means who confirm that the negative connotations of wealth; apathy, indifference, and unresponsiveness, are less characteristic of the more fortunate in Sao Paulo and Santos.