Jelaine Foster Brings GSE Brazil to the Club

Jelaine Foster, a new member of the Hamilton AM Rotary Club and a member of the District 7090 Group Study Exchange team to Brazil in May 2012 took the club on a tour of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. After a 17 h flight and 7 h drive the GSE team arrived in Rotary District 4660. The team consisted of team leader Angela Hintz, and team members Amy Lawrence, Steven Davis, Meaghan Moore and Jelaine Foster. All team members except the team leader were non Rotarians at the time of the exchange.

The Rotary Group Study Exchange is a cultural and vocational opportunity for four young professional or business non Rotarians to visit another country for one month with travel costs paid by Rotary International. Jelaine is the South Western Ontario business Developer for Kaplan Test Prep, a company that provides tutoring, classes and text books to students planning to attend graduate school. While in Brazil, Jelaine visited many schools, factories and universities as well as live with Rotarian families and sample the local culture and sites. 

Brazilians from Rio Grande do Sul tend to classify themselves as either a gaucho or gaucha before calling themselves Brazilian. Jelaine said they love food, especially Churrasco, a BBQ with lots of salt and fat. Their buffets are legendary. During the team's visit they stayed at Rotary clubs in the areas shown by the red star on the map.