Mission

The mission of the Program for Assistive Technologies for Underprivileged (PATU) is to allow students to practice engineering skills while they develop strong communication and teamwork skills, gain global perspective, and learn social responsibility through projects for persons with disabilities that otherwise could not afford assistance.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

We have arrived!

We are now relaxing in the cool breeze of our beautiful hotel, Praia do Sol, in Ilehus, Brazil.  The trip was relatively uneventful.  We had an absurdly short layover in Detroit to make it to our international flight to Sao Paolo (40 minutes), so I was a bit nervous about that.  Turns out, my nerves were correct.  Because of weather and construction on the runway in Detroit, they had us in a holding pattern for 20 minutes, announcing that we might have to divert to Flint, MI!  Luckily, we ended up landing, albeit a few minutes late, and SPRINTED to our gate (on the opposite side of the airport).  We made it JUST in time, and my lungs are still recovering.

Most of the trip was uneventful.  Something strange happened in the brief stop between Sao Paulo and Ilheus in Belo Horizonte.  The flight attended said that the airport was "closed" and no one knew what was going on.  We were there between 1.5 and 2 hours.  We were late getting into Ilheus because of that, but since it was our final destination it was no big deal.  And we are only missing 2 bags!

Tomorrow we will be leaving the hotel at 7AM and going to UESC to learn about Brazilian culture and language and their engineering programs. 

Good night!

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