It’s been 22 years since Nancy Pannell saw a Brazilian exchange student whom she hosted in her Denton home for one semester.

But in recent months, Pannell and her husband, Zack, have watched in amazement to see the boy they once hosted grow up to hit the international stage.

Eduardo Paes became the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, which in October won the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

DRC/Al Key

Zack and Nancy Pannell hold a picture on Nov. 3 of Eduardo Paes, the foreign exchange student who lived with them 22 years ago at their home on Picadilly Street in Denton. Paes is now the mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

View larger More photos Photo store

Watching his success, Nancy Pannell said that she and her husband reflect on fond memories spent with Paes from January to June 1987.

“It enriched our lives,” she said.

That time with Paes changed the Pannells’ lives forever.

In their early 50s with their children gone from the nest, the Pannells saw an article in a Dallas newspaper asking families to host foreign exchange students.

They contacted a local exchange program, having decided they wanted to host a student. They requested a boy.

Shortly thereafter, the couple learned they would host a teen from Brazil.

In a journal entry she reads aloud on a dreary October morning, Nancy Pannell reminisces on the day she met her Brazilian “son.”

On a January day in 1987, the couple waited at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a sign that read “Welcome Eduardo.”

Nancy Pannell recalled Paes wore a blue sweatshirt with the word “Aruba” in white. He recognized the couple, ran to them and said “my Mom and Dad.”

“He is such a happy, courteous, outstanding and good-looking man,” Nancy Pannell wrote in her journal upon Paes’ arrival to North Texas.

Getting acquainted, the couple and the teen first went for an American meal — a burger and fries followed by homemade chocolate chip cookies, which Nancy Pannell had prepared and had waiting at home. The treat would be one that Paes loved and that he even had Nancy Pannell teach him to make during his five-month stay.

All the good times of the trio’s first day would be captured in photos the Pannells now keep in a family album.

Paes, who at the time was 17, would enroll in Denton High School as a senior but would finish in Brazil. Within his first couple of weeks, the teen would go from being excited to being homesick.

After his first two weeks, Nancy Pannell would write that Paes began to open up, discussing trends of his country and other experiences he had as an exchange student in Europe. Paes also would share stories, she said, of his family back home in Brazil, and his favorite food — black beans and rice, which Pannell said the teen made for them with a 3-pound bag of beans sent with him by his mother.

“Each day he is happy here,” Nancy Pannell read from her journal. “The more we get to know him, the more we realize he is a caring, perceptive person.”

Like most teens, Paes quickly made friends and agonized over tough classes such as chemistry, which he would go on to pass, the Pannells said. The couple also would see him off to senior prom.

In an attempt to familiarize Paes with American culture, the Pannells said they took many trips to surrounding areas near Denton, all of which they captured in photos. Paes was fascinated with Dallas, Nancy Pannell said, and enjoyed the cows at her parents’ farm in Hamilton.

As the trio’s time together wound down, the three became strongly attached.

“By the time he left … it was really hard to see him go,” Nancy Pannell said.

In his return trip to Brazil, Paes was sent home with gifts from friends. Among the gifts the Pannells would send Paes home with was a fishing rod and reel that he could use at his home, which sits on the Brazilian coast.

Courtesy photo

Eduardo Paes is shown in the home of Zack and Nancy Pannell in this photo taken during his time spent in Denton as an exchange student.

View larger More photos Photo store

The couple also sent him home with a Denton High Bronco T-shirt and other Texas mementos to remember his time with them.

In a June 1987 Dallas newspaper article, Paes said he was overwhelmed with emotion at the thought of leaving his friends and host family behind in Denton. He said he may get home and begin to cry, wanting to return to Denton.

Zack Pannell summed up the time with Paes as positive. He said he had the opportunity to live with a young man who was smart and caring.

“At that stage in our lives, it was refreshing and invigorating to have a teenager, especially from another country,” Zack Pannell said. “We are grateful that we had the opportunity to have a small part in a young man’s life at a stage in his life that was very impressionable … and I think he feels the same about us.”

Four months after saying goodbye to Paes, the Pannells visited the Paes family in Rio de Janeiro. That’s the last time Nancy Pannell saw Paes in person.

Zack Pannell, however, saw Paes and his family a little more than four years ago while on a church choir trip to Brazil.

Through the years, they’ve followed his progress and have seen him earn a law degree. They receive e-mail messages from Paes’ family about him, his wife and children, and the Pannells have kept newspaper clippings and online news reports of Paes’ climb up the political ladder.

He was elected as a representative of a Rio suburb at age 23, and at age 38 he was elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro, which has a population of more than 6 million people.

The Pannells followed Paes’ support in bringing the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Rio prior to his run for mayor and felt a sense of pride when it was announced that the bid was won. They think of Paes often, the Pannells say, as he works to change the perception of his city as a violent and poverty-stricken area as the Olympics approach.

In the time spent with Paes, now 40, Nancy Pannell said they saw his strong leadership skills and were not surprised by his “rapid [political] rise.” “It’s something,” she said, to log on to the computer and get so many hits from simply typing in his name.

“Many different people in Denton, particularly from the school, can be very proud and pleased that they had a part in the life of a young man who would become a leader of one of the largest cities in the world and who is in a position to do the most good,” she said.

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.