Recife Bound!

I am just back from a four day office and apartment hunting trip to Recife. After several years of having a presence in Sao Paulo, CIDA is relocating its second office -- the primary office being at the Canadian Embassy in Brasilia -- to Brazil’s Northeastern region. The fourth largest city in Brazil, Recife was chosen for our new office as it is home to many other diplomatic missions as well as international and domestic organizations working in the area of poverty reduction. A city of a mere two million people (perhaps I have been in Sao Paulo for too long....), it is often considered the "capital" of the Northeast.

The nine states that form Brazil’s Northeast are a world away from the ones that constitute the South and Southeast. Poorer and much less industrial, the North and Northeast suffer from much higher concentrations of poverty than the South and Southeast – hence CIDA’s relocation from Sao Paulo to Recife. One of our goals over the next five years is to increase programming in this part of the country.

We saw some pretty sweet places over the past three days. As of May, my view will likely look pretty much like the one above! Sad, isn't it?