VISITING BRAZILIANS FIND LOCAL AMERICANS HAPPY

Brazilians think of themselves as happy and warm people, but several of them who have traveled to the United States have had experiences that make them think Americans are distant and cold.

That is just one of the stereotypes five members of a Brazilian exchange group are examining during a monthlong stay in Missouri.

After 20 days in Missouri, Dr. Christina Miura concludes that "here, people are very happy also."

Miura is one of five Brazilians in Cape Girardeau this week as part of the Rotary Group Study Exchange, a program which seeks to promote understanding among the world's countries. A similar team from the local Rotary district is in Brazil.

Miura is a periodontist. Taila Schmitt is an architect and town planner. Jean Carlo Possent is an agronomist. Nezio Da Silva is a business consultant. The team leader and only Rotarian in the group, Edgar Behne, manages a kitchen furniture plant.

The other four members of the team cannot be Rotary Club members and can't be related to Rotary Club members. They had to survive a selection process because many people wanted to come to the United States through the program.

They are on a tour of Rotary International District 6060, which extends from Hannibal, Mo., to the Bootheel. They are being hosted by the Jackson, Cape Girardeau County, Cape Girardeau and Cape West Rotary clubs.

U.S. society open

Miura, whose native language is Portuguese, speaks fluent English. She applauds the openness of American society.

"Communities that are closed to the world, like Russia, didn't develop," she says.

She has noticed that people in the United States are very proud of being Americans.

"They fight to make the country better than it is," she said. "We have this kind of thinking growing in our country."

With a land mass nearly as large as the United States and a population of 170 million, Brazil has many similarities to the United States. There are also differences.

Most Brazilians live in big cities and along the coast. The rain forest people are worried about saving covers well over half the country. Better distribution of income and basic education are the major challenges Brazil is facing now, Miura says.

Brazil is only slightly smaller than the United States but everything in the United States is bigger, Miura and Da Silva say.

Houses, cars, glasses, cups, even milk cartons in the United States are bigger.

"It's not a problem of space," Miura says. "It's just the conception."

Perhaps the impression of Americans as cold is the experience of Brazilians who traveled to the United States and visited big cities, Miura said.

"We are not tourists," Da Silva said. "We live with host families. ... This is a different vision of the United States."

"We are taking the best impressions of the U.S.," Miura said.