Two Cities... One Goal

During the trip we will be spending time in São Paulo and Fortaleza.  Both cities are located near the east coast of Brazil (Fortaleza toward the middle of the country and São Paulo to the south).


São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and the world's eighth largest city by population.  It is the business center of Brazil and is home to the São Paulo Stock Exchange.  São Paulo is colloquially known as "Cidade da Garoa" (city of drizzle) because of the unreliable weather. Not sure what this means for my hair while there but I'm still looking forward to the trip.  The city's motto is "Non dvcor, dvco" which means "I am not led, I lead."  I love this!  What a great motto for our trip.  We, as United Methodist Women, aren't going to wait for others... we are leading the way!



Fortaleza is our other stop on the trip.  This is a city of about 3.5 million people (making it Brazil's fifth largest city).  Fortaleza will be one of the host cities during the 2014 FIFA World Cup (soccer is the main sport in Brazil).  Unlike the "city of drizzle", Fortaleza has a tropical climate with high temperatures throughout the year.   The current mayor is Luizianne Lins a former academic at the local Federal University of Ceará and well known feminist.

Portuguese is the official national language of Brazil but English and Spanish are also part of the high school curriculum for students.  Language barriers are always an opportunity for learning and usually some guaranteed laughs.