Hello fellow friends… It was so nice to see you again…

Story teller – we hang on to our traditions the Mohawk – the borders have always been an issue. Every boy must have a mohawk name that reflects their origin. When our guide was born it was the beginning of Spring, so the snow was melting. So his name, in mohack, meant snow way. When his brother was born, his parents were living in a place and working in another. So, the brother´s name means “between two places”. They have no written laws or written story. Only story tellers. Their government and their organization are defined by the clan mothers. The clan mother is responsible for choosing the next clan mother. The clan mothers are very powerful. She gets to choose all the children´s name in the clan.The clan mother is the oldest woman in the clan. She carries the name and the clan. She owns the house, the family, everything. When a man marries a woman, he gives up his family and integrates his wife´s clan. He leaves his family and now he belongs to his wife´s family.

You can have as many kids as they wish… as long as they can support them. If you get pregnant and can´t support, you can drink some special herbal tea and it will cause an abortion. They don´t have issues towards it. It is natural. Of course, you are not supposed to kill your babies, but abortion is a consequence of material impossibility.

Before a couple gets married, they live together for one year. It is a trial marriage. But the husband is supposed to abandon his clan and become part of his wife´s clan. If he returns home after a year, he will leave everything they built for his wife, he will simply take his tools along. Everything they built together belongs to her. Women are more important, because they can create life. There is no rape. Women are respected. The wife is the one Who proposes…

The child is raised by the whole family.

When you are born, you are given a name, a clan and your citizenship by the clan mother. People from other nationalities can be adopted. And they are opened to that.

The decision is taken considering the future nations – new generations. The idea is to remember the past in order to build the future.

You eat when you are hungry. No calendars, no time. We have been living hard times, and killing is easy. But they don´t accept it. They have one person – a peacemaker – who is in charge of the disputes. He brings messages of peace, and they talk until they reach a consensus. It may take long time… but it is their job

The great peace is their main objective – and they have their own rules:

1. Rather than killing, talk. It can take years, but no blood can be shed.
2. Sometimes war happen – In the old times, they got the power from violence – thru the gun – military power. The peace maker convinced them to bury the weapons. So, they buried them under a huge pine tree so that the water could wash them away. the tree of peace – anybody can follow those roots and take shelter under that tree. You have to prove and earn that you want to become a mohae…
3. The clan mother picks the chief. When he dies, the clan mother picks his successor. There is no majority. It has to be consensual. If they can´t reach it, they stop the negociation and look at the shy for a sign.
4. They have their own power, their own government. In the 1700´s, the most useful commodity was the beaver… for hats and fur.
5. Control of transportation – if you control the water, you control the lives of people.

Our society started using money. No idea of money. The individual owned the land and made agreements with other people… they could not understand poverty – they gave the germans some land.

Most peoples in the world adopted cristianism – where life was created by a man. In their case, only women can create life. Diseases came and now, only 10 thousand left. On the other hand, if you want to leave their community, it is ok. But you have to give up your rights as a mohack. The idea is that there are two boats, running parallel,in the river. And you ride on one of them. You can change to the other boat, but you can´t have one step into each boat.

Mohack gave the world the idea of representation, freedom… when someone speak, you have to listen. Only the leader speakers in their parliament, they have to listen.

Old people – the family takes care of the senile and of the kids with special needs.

There is an entity – who created everything and we pay respects to it.

Understand nature and appreciate its power. It is not worship, it is acknowledge – acknowledge and give thanks.

Bury your bodies. Another clan who is not mourning would take care of the funeral, because the whole family is sad.

The smoke carry your words up to the creator, so, they burn tobacco. But you can burn tobacco in your head.

 

Coming back from this other country – the mohack is partially in Canadian territory and part in America, but it is another country – on our way back, talking to Katie she said Cornwall is the earthquake land – no subway but good transportation. – 47.000 people – it used to be full of industries, but now it is missed out – everybody passes by on the way to Montreal or Kingston.

 

When we came back, Katie dropped us at the mall. The girls wanted to buy another piece of luggage. We stayed there until 5:30, the time to go to the Maze.

The maze is a farm – which became a haunted farm… they built playgrounds for children, have haunted houses, you can feed the animals, burn marsmellows, walk in a corn field… It was freezing cold… But great fun.

Getting back home, I was very tired. I wanted to pack, but I could not. I decided to go to bed and leave packing for the morning.

Woke up early and went to the University. There is something I discovered about myself in this trip: I love noise, traffic, pollution, rush hour, traffic lights, construction problems… I really like living in a big city… Even though people in small town are so nice and the life is much more relaxed, big cities like Montreal give me the goosebumps… It is just that the possibilities are unlimited… and I really like that.

Montreal is an amazing place… It has all the good things we wish… and it is pretty much like Belo Horizonte… People rushing around, but they take time to look at you in the eye, talk to you on the streets, stop for lunch or coffee… Yes, they are quite of coffee drinkers… Everybody loves coffee here… And I think they drink much more than us… While we drink little cups, they would have REAL MUGS, all full of coffee…

It was definitely great to see the metro working so nicely… You can get almost anywhere by metro… And the shops… uau!!! Wonderful shops, you can buy most anything… Loved it… Wish I had had more time to discover the city…

But anyway, heading to Cornwall… our last stop… Very tired, but really thankful. I said I would not thank people anymore, because no MILLIONS OF THANK YOU could never express the joy and the happiness of profiting from people´s hospitality… it is really amazing…

But anyways… they have not invented any other words for that… so, THANK YOU EVERYBODY…

Woke up at 7:30 and tried to reach the office. Talked to Ursula and got worried about some of the cases. Then Herman took me to the restaurant he is reformulating. After that, I went to the other business he is running. I bought blueberries, raspberries and almonds with chocolate. He then dropped me at the metro and I took the metro to Peel station. Walked around some downtown Montreal – the city is amazing. It is a big city and the architecture has both ancient and modern buildings.

I went into a huge mall – and of course I could not help buying some make up.

Lunch at RC Westmont in Victoria Hall in Montreal. When I got there, there was this brilliant physician who was our guest speaker on Polio. Richard Lalonde, MD. He is a doctor who has worked with infectious diseases. He said the only disease that is completely eradicated in the world is smallpox. There are 3 types of live polio viruses modified and weakened for production of live vaccine. Of these 3, 2 types now eradicated. The third is still present in Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Paquistan – and as borders can´t stop the virus, it may come back anytime. We got to “Seek and prevent”, because it is impossible to destroy. India is doing a good job and it will be eradicated in a few years. Nigeria refeed other places of Africa and we are not free from this virus. Finally, he said that if we are not careful, the disease can become an outbreak within one day… In The 80´s, Polio was the worst disease. It is not anymore. Even though the Amish refused to take it, the lobbyists can make it happen. It was Richard.lalonde@muhc.mcgill.ca

After lunch, we drove by the Oratory and went to the old Montreal. It is a downtown part of the city where you can buy lots of souvenirs. The girls did. I did not buy anything, I am afraid I have already spent too much… But I sat on the café, had a snack and hot chocolate… And then, we were supposed to go to the church for the light show… but it was canceled. So we went to this Feng Shui restaurant and had a delicious dinner.

I got a chance to talk to Karine some… She is a brilliant young woman who does this amazing work with people, diseases and dogs. She is young, but very talented. She told me some kids heal faster when they interact with dogs. Specially those who have cancer, it has been proved that the dogs help. She said dealing with dogs gives the person a feeling of power over the dog, and it frees them… At the same time, cherishing a dog liberates the same effects in your brain that you had when you were in your mother´s womb… interesting… Different. Challenging. Encouraging. At the same time, Karine is a great girl. She is so nice, talkative, open… I encouraged her to apply for the GSE next year. She would profit a lot from the experience.

Then, our Rotarians friends took us to a Salsa bar, we had a great time… We Brazilians are no good at punctuality, no good at planning, no good at…… too many things…

BUT WE CERTAINLY KNOW HOW TO PARTY!!! We had great fun…

Alex took me home. He is also brilliant and full of ideas. He is the president of one Rotary club in Montreal. He has all these plans about how to change things in a way that people could really participate and be more like HANDS ON… not simply write checks…I am pretty sure he will succeed. He is very active, outspoken and energetic. He is a real estate agent and we talked some about clients. He told me that he does not let his clients make him bark… he runs the show… When he notices the client is not ready to buy, and still wants to spend a lot of time looking for a house, he will dismiss him and tell him to call Alex within a year… He said he does not have time to waste…    

Breakfast at Rotary Club of Montreal. We had 4 new members in the club. The president welcomed them and said “What you don´t do for Rotary, nobody else will.” One of the new members is a chemical engineer – involved in international projects. The other is a PHD student at Mc Gill´s and the third is also in similar business. Young guys and everybody hope they bring new ideas and experiences to the club. All in all, there are no such things as good friends.

After that Bertrand, a good friend who was the president asked me if I wanted to do anything. I told him I would be delighted to go for a drive around town. He then took me downtown, the oratoire and a viewpoint where I could see the whole city of Montreal. Later, I stopped by Mac… Could not resist… had to buy some make up… He said I looked like a kid in a toy store… I can´t disagree…

Lunch at Lakeshore Rotary Club Laval. We had our presentation. The team was very excited, but definitely very tired. We met Karine, MG and Alex and they took us to the lake. They walked around and saw the beautiful sights and took lots of pictures. Manon is taking us to the subterranean city. Everybody is pretty anxious about it.

At Night, we went to the lanterns. It is an amazing show everybody should see.

 

We woke up around 7am. Baryl prepared us delicious breakfast. She is such an interesting woman… one of the most brilliant I´ve ever met. I couldn´t wait to talk to her some more and learn some ideas about teaching and education. Our destination today was ther resort in Mont Tremblan, to visit the Ski station. When we got there, we found outthat the cabriolet was not working… what a pity… but sill, the place is so beautiful. We met the others at Coco Pazzo, and Pascal, our guide.

Tremblant has a Latin culture. In the late 1800´s, 12 million of people from the area went to the USA to work. Americans were living times of great stability, so everybody wanted to go there for the jobs and the money. The place became abandoned. Then there was a guy who decided buy land there and build his own piece of paradise and yes… he did.

Once a year they have Quebec canal race. That is a ski race. There are people coming from all parts of the country…especially Philadelphia.

The resort is about 7 hour drive from Toronto and York – about 7 hour drive. They used to have as airport.

Now Argentina, Mexico, England, Asian, French, German – last weekend we had about 40.000 people visitors – around 2 million tourists a year – 9.000 people live in here. Divided in 3 sectors: downtown, resort and

Few people go into university – closest to Ottawa and Montreal around 2 hour drive.

Leave the hotel at 10:00 – ok. Late, but it was the first time in this trip that I am late… ok. I had too much to carry. Ok. All bad… But I do have reasons for all that… Reasons that certainly excuse all these penalties… But I won´t publicize. If anybody is interested in finding out such reasons – and they are really good – they may ask me. But one thing I have REALLY REALLY REALLY learned in this trip… Things are not what they look like. There is always something behind each gesture, attitude, mistake, decision, choice and handout…

And I promise myself that I will NEVER EVER judge someone´s sandals, or someone else tardiness, ability to make choices in GSE teams. I will NEVER EVER again question their appropriacy…

Nossa primeira visita vocacional nos Estados Unidos foi bastante interessante. Fomos a uma empresa especializada na fabricação de freios para locomotivas.

Fomos recebidos pelo Sr. J Paul Morgan, presidente da empresa, que nos contou um pouco da história da empresa e do cenário financeiro que sua empresa enfrenta neste momento. Nos últimos anos New York Air Brake (http://www.nyab.com/en/) apresentou aumento na produção dos seus sistemas de freios em função da demanda de mercado.

Após nossa conversa com o Paul Morgan fomos conduzidos até a sala do Joe Parisian, gerente de marketing, que nos apresentou toda a linha de produtos que possuem, bem como uma visão geral da empresa e de suas divisões. Foi interessante saber que a ArcelorMittal e a Vale são clientes da New York Air Brake e que já adquiriram os novos sistemas de freios automáticos.

Logo em seguida, fomos apresentados ao engenheiro brasileiro Renato Montandon, engenheiro de sistemas. Com ele tivemos uma agradável conversa em português, sobre diversos assuntos. O Renato pode nos contar um pouco de sua experiência de viver nos EUA, como foi a adaptação de sua família ao diferente modo de vida e as coisas que sente saudade do Brasil, bem como as vantagens de estar em outro país.

Fomos conduzidos pelo Renato a uma visita pelas instalações da fabrica. Trata-se de uma produção Lean, baseado no sistema de controle de processo da Toyota. O sequenciamento das atividades são monitoradas através de sinais luminosos próximos a cada posto de trabalho onde pode-se verificar se o desempenho daquele posto está de acordo com o volume de produção. Ficamos impressionados e surpresos com a limpeza e estrutura da empresa.

Além da fabricação de freios para locomotivas, o Renato nos mostrou as bancadas de teste utilizadas para certificar tais sistemas conforme requisitos da norma. O Renato nos contou que foi ele o responsável pela instalação dos sistemas de freios nos carros torpedos da ArcelorMittal Monlevade e nas locomotivas da Vale em Itabira. Vejam só como o mundo é pequeno, afinal saímos do Brasil para encontrar aqui nos EUA o responsável pelos freios de nossas locomotivas.

EnglishVersion

Our first vocational visit in the United States was quite interesting. We went to a company specialized in manufacturing brakes for locomotives.

We were greeted by Mr J Paul Morgan, president of the company, who told us a history of the company and the financial landscape that your company is currently facing. On the last years New York Air Brake (http://www.nyab.com/en/) showed an increase in production of its brake systems mainly because increase of market demand.

After our conversation with Paul Morgan were led into the room of Joe Parisian, marketing manager, who introduced the entire line of products that have, as well as an overview of the company and its divisions. It was interesting to know that ArcelorMittal and Vale are clients of the New York Air Brake and who have acquired new automatic braking systems.

Soon after, we were introduced to the Brazilian engineer Renato Montandon, a systems engineer. With it we had a pleasant conversation in Portuguese, on various subjects. Renato can tell us a bit of his experience of living in America, as the adaptation of his family to the different way of life and the things that you miss in Brazil, as well as the benefits of being in another country.

We were led by Renato to a visit by the factory premises. It is a Lean production, based on the process control system from Toyota. The sequencing of activities are monitored through the traffic lights next to each job where you can check the performance of that office is in accordance with the volume of production. We were impressed and surprised by the cleanliness and structure of the company.

In addition to manufacturing brakes for locomotives, Renato showed us the test benches used to certify such systems as standard requirements. Renato told us that he was responsible for the installation of brake systems in ArcelorMittal Monlevade locomotives and in the Vale in Itabira. See how small the world is, after we left Brazil to find here in the U.S. responsible for the brakes of our locomotives.

Conference in Plattsburgh

Day Off in Gananoque