AN ACCOUNT OF MY PEACE CORPS MEMORIES IN MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL

JUAN E. ROSARIO-RIVERA
VOLUNTEER IN TEOFILO OTONI, MINAS GERAIS
1962-1963

I'm limiting this account or recollection of my memories as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil to the state of Minas Gerais, where I was assigned to work. Many details are no longer in my mind, fifty-five years had passed since. 
The group of volunteers assigned to the  Associação de Crédito e Assistência Rural de Minas Gerais, better known as ACAR-MINAS arrived in Belo Horizonte, the state capital, during the first days of June 1962. This organization is the equivalent of our Cooperative Agriculture Extension Service, that provides assistance to our rural families in agriculture, animal husbandry, home economics and many more areas. At our arrival we were housed at the Hotel Itatiaia and later on at the Hotel Metrópole at Rua da Bahia. Two weeks were devoted to receive training/information about the organization, the state, crops and so for. There we were assigned in pairs, a man and a woman to work together as an agronomist and as a home economics. My partner was Esther Díaz-Figueroa, another Puerto Rican, and were assigned to the local ACAR-

Minas office in Teófilo Otoni in the state's northeast. By mid-June we took a Real Transportes Aéreos flight to our assigned site, arriving at the Teófilo Otoni's airport early in the afternoon. When we arrived to the ACAR office, it was been moved to a bigger facility to accommodate us, so the next day we were in the new office.
The Teófilo Otoni office of ACAR-Minas was the regional

office serving, besides Teófilo Otoni, at least five other local offices in the region, among them Poté, Itambacuri, Ladainha and Malacacheta. We were to work at the local level with an Agronomist, a Veterinarian and two Home Economists. We were responsible for the three 4-S Clubs to collaborate, planning reunions, supervise and teach how to conduct meetings, give demonstrations in farming and home economics and chores; and talks about nutrition, leadership skills and so on. 
As the time went on we increased to eight the amount of 4-S clubs organized and functioning by the time we left the city at the termination of our service by December 1963. Most of the time we worked alone, especially when visiting club members to provide them with individualized attention and support. Visiting club members often times required driving more than hour and walking long distances and climbing to high places to reach their homes. During our visits to the home of the club members we performed demonstrations, lectures, agriculture literature discussion and other issues of interest to them. 
Our working hours in the field went from early morning and often times until the evening or night. Saturdays mornings were reserved for office administrative work and from noon on free until Monday. The Peace Corps provided us Willys Jeep SUV for our work within the ACAR regional office territory. The two-story building in the background housed the ACAR office. The local office consisted of an Agronomist, a Veterinarian, two Home Economists, a secretary and us; the regional consisted of an Agronomist, Director/local and regional, a Home Economists and a secretary.
I left Brazil by the end of December 1963, just three months before the military coup or intervention of March 1964. It was sad to know of that event because I never saw, heard or read that there were differences between the military and the government of President João Goulart.

PCV Esther Díaz and PCV Juan E. Rosario with 4-S Club members