It’s been a quiet start to the week here in Minas Gerais, as yesterday we said our goodbyes to the great group of graduate students from American University in Washington DC.

For 2 weeks, the 11-strong group along with professor and returning Iracambista Eve were a tour de force in the Graminha community, working to develop a proposal for how we encourage more popular participation in local issues. With only a couple of days to settle in, the group hit the ground running going out into the community to interview the old and the young, the rural and the “urban” to determine the challenges and come up with some solutions. This all culminated in a presentation to the Le Bretons and the Iracambi gang at the end of their stay, which brought to light some interesting new points of view and provoked an constructive discussion – watch this space for where this will take us…

Of course, along the way this lively lot couldn’t help but make some great friends, and the party they put on for the community at the end of their stay went down a storm. Who knew the restaurant would double as such a good dance floor?!

A huge thanks to this brilliant bunch for such an interesting but above all fun couple of weeks – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, and we hope to see y’all back here again soon!