IT was to be a 12 month trip of a lifetime to live and learn another culture, but for Hastings Secondary College student Hector Skene, it became a tense exercise in returning safely home as the world slowly shutdown.
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The year 11 Port Macquarie campus student departed Aussie shores on January 17 and 36 long hours later landed in Santiago, Brazil ready for his final journey to meet his exchange host family in Sao-Paulo.
His host dad, who spoke fluent English, was the prosecutor for San-Paulo State and his host mum "an awesome cook".
The language barriers were broken down with good food and lively music, regular trips to the beach where crowds of people danced into the night.
It was nine weeks of cultural immersion Hector says was the best experience of his life so far.
"My family had a beach house close to the border of Rio de Janeiro and it was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen where there are massive green mountains that come right to the sea," he said.
"There was music, swimming, sun and amazing barbecue food. The beaches were packed and everyone was just partying."
Hector enrolled in school where he quickly had to learn the basics of Portuguese.
"They all speak so fast. We went to school from 7am to 12.30pm and then in the afternoon practice my Portuguese and catch up with friends."
A highlight was a Brazilian soccer league match where the home town crowd converge on Sao-Paulo stadium to cheer on the Corinthians.
"That was an awesome experience. They only let the home crowd into the stadium because it gets too out of hand."
And then within a week, life in Brazil changed quickly. News about coronavirus brought the country to a standstill.
"I wasn't too worried about it at first but then it all changed so fast," Hector said.
"I had heard that a few of the other Rotary exchange students around the world had started to return home. A week after that there were a few cases of the virus in Brazil and schools were shut down. Then there were a few cases in my town.
"What has been happening over there is that if a test does not come back in time or a person isn't tested before they die, it is not counted as a COVID death. It is so under-reported."
Brazil now has almost one million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has recorded more than 47,000 deaths. In the state of Sao-Paulo, there are 178,000 confirmed cases and more than 10,000 people have died.
Hector's host family has been in quarantine for almost three months.
He made the decision to come home and after two cancelled flights, arrived back in Australia where he was held overnight in Sydney (before two week quarantining for international travellers was introduced).
Hector made it home on March 25 where he self-quarantined.
"I'll definitely go back one day, or as soon as I can," he said.
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