Yesterday l had my final meeting with Rotary before l’m off for 12 months to Brazil. Below l have pasted the speech l presented about where l am going and the host families l will be staying with.

“Olá, meu nome é João Ducarme. Eu tenho catorze anos, e sou Frances e Australiano. In one week Holly, Tilly and l will be on a plane and off to Brazil. My Host City in Brazil is called Ribeirao Preto which is situated in the state of Sao Paulo. To put this into perspective I am going to share a couple figures:

Australia has a population of 26 million compared to Brazil with 214 million

NSW has a population of 8 million compared to Sao Paulo state which has 14 million

The city of Sydney has a population of 5 million compared to Sao Paulo city which has 12 million

My home region, the Central Coast, has a population of 348,000 compared to Ribeirao Preto with 700,000.

When l arrive in Brazil I will be greeted by my host Father, Andre and his girlfriend Luciana  at the airport. We will spend the night in Sao Paulo and drive up to Ribeirao Preto the following day. My host Father has two sons, Felipe, who is 18 years old and Leonardo, the oldest who is 20 years old. I will be staying with them for 3 months and then moving on to my next host family. I will have four different host families next year and have made contact with all of them. They all seem like wonderful people and l can’t wait to get to know them more.

In Brazil, I will be going to my rotary club called, Rotary Club of Ribeiro Preto in district 4540. I will be going every Monday with my host father Andre and taking part in events and meetings. I have reached out to the executive secretary, Gabrielle Machado and received a welcoming response.

My school next year is called Albert Sabin. The school looks really nice and the classrooms look really organised and well sorted out. My brother Felipe went to this school and he said that it was great. The school is 150 metres from my first house and according to my brother Felipe I will be able to walk to school.

For the moment l am mostly excited about being greeted by my Host father in the airport and getting a big hug. I’m very excited about the 36 hour flight with Holly and Tilly, and the road trip up to Ribeirao Preto with my host father. I really look forward to celebrating my birthday during the Carnaval with my 2 brothers and my host dad. For the moment l have to admit I haven’t been very consistent with my Portuguese, but I do look forward to being able to be submerged in the language and learn fast.  I know I will have a great time and I will enjoy every moment of my exchange. 

Obrigado, Thank you.”