Rotary Friendship Exchange – District 6250 (Wisconsin) and District 4640 (Brazil State of Parana) – Open to All District 6250 Rotarians.
Please read fully … contact Mark Etrheim at mark@mchlax.com if interested. If you don’t receive confirmation and an application to fill out and return within 2 days send it again.
What: Rotary Friendship Exchange (home and hotel stays, meetings and tours) with various Rotary Clubs and Rotarians in Brazil. Return leg will bring Brazilian Rotarians to our District. See also: Rotary International Website RFE Information
When: District 6250 travel to 4640 State of Parana Brazil from April 2-12. District 4640 to 6250 in September 10-20 of 2024. No visa requirements in either direction, just a passport.
- April 1, 2024 Fly Into Sao Paulo,
- April 12, 2024, fly back to USA from Sau Paulo
- There will be others who want to extend the trip if you would like company. Or go it on your own.
Where: See also map below.
Who: Maximum of 10 interested Rotarians, spouses and/or family members. If oversubscribed / too much interest, we will use District 6250 RFE policy parameters to put the final group together. Note that the policy favors RFE first timers. If you travel to Brazil you are expected to host and to enlist your club members to host when the Brazil Rotarians visit Wisconsin in September so keep your calendar open the 8th to the 18th, 2024
How: RFE (10 days or so), must be willing to let others organize your life and to go with the flow during the RFE. Private travels within South America both before and after the complete RFE are your choice. Iguasu Falls is on the West boarder of this state and there will be someone going there before or after the trip if you want company. Final District 6250 RFE group will meet in Wisconsin at least once prior to the trip to work out details, presentations etc.
Costs: Round-trip cost currently is about $1400 into Sao Paulo. There will be train and bus travel expenses, but are pretty reasonable in Brazil. Best guess costs will be under $2000 per person. Typically, as part of the RFE, you are hosted by local Rotarians in their homes. This is the magical part of RFE’s. You stay with them, they stay with you on the return trip. These details are being worked out by the Trip Leaders.
Timing: We hope to have the final group identified by January 10th, 2024.
Trip Leader 6250: Rotarian Mark Etrheim who has extensive RFE experience.
Trip Leader 2231: Rotarian Odilete is our contact person. The return trip is planed for mid September 2024.
Please let Mark know if interested at the e-mail given above. Questions are welcome but please realize that very few details of the trip have been worked out. Firm interest appreciated. When your application is accepted and you are selected to participate you will be asked for a $500 deposit which will be refunded upon return less any costs incurred for your trip. Often it is easier for the group leader to pay for things like museums, transportations, group cards, etc vs everyone paying one at a time. An accounting of costs will be included with the return of the deposit when we return. Sorry to have to do this but we need to be certain that we only have seriously interested people signed up and we need to be certain that everyone participates in the full RFE.
