Wrapping up my time here in Manaus, Amazonas state at the IPA permaculture institute (www.ipapermaculture.org). Makes me think that I'm also wrapping up my time in Brazil, which is just universally conflicting in so many ways. Obviously there are adventures to come, but every time Im in the middle of two hugely optimistic experiences, its hard to feel sure about either.
How many wild and exotic places shed their light? Certainly not enough. What did I learn? It wasn't learning so much as understanding, leaving the path of words for the path of knowlege. How many people have I met that I hope to see again? Get your calculator. Speaking of calculators...
Research here at IPA has gotten much more entrenched than was imaginable at the beginning. The issue of simple data collection hasn't been a problem, in fact, most of the data existed already. The problem is I unintentionally stepped into the world of multi-variable calculus in trying to create some idea of the economy at a permaculture site like this one.
Permaculture, what the hell is that? Well, permaculture was 'created' or just written about by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, two Aussies enamored by the ways of nature. They layed down ideas for building our human culture in a more intelligently designed way, working with the grain of the wood, so to speak. Originally, their design was based on zeroing in the mileage on our food, and eliminating dependency on skewed markets. This means onsite agriculture, managed in a new way, with laws observed from the earth.
This site was instituted by an American, Ali Sharif, and a Brazilian, Carlos Miller, out of the pocket of the good ol' Brazzo government, and a granola mix of NGOs. The site sits smack in the shit of Manaus proper, from my lofty hammock I can see the pink city glow behind the profiles of towering palms. The site is a bizarre 12 hectares surrounded by urban neighborhoods like Zumbi das Palmares (literal translation Zombie of the Palms), and gunshots ring like firecrackers 3 or 4 times a day. The idea of the site is to act as an institute, and many classes are given to the strange mix of agriculture students from the school across the street.
The site uses multiple filtration tanks filled with various plants to clean their wastewater onsite, there is a food forest that has become the unwitting subject of my research, and of course the pig shit is piled in a giant press to extract the methane for cooking use. My donation of food waste back to the natural system is done on a lofty, gargoyle-like, composting toilet. I feel like a complete hippy. Almost all the systems here operate with a kind of synergy that is painfully absent in our modern style of living.
But back to the exciting stuff, academia! My goal here is to analyze permaculture as a way of conserving the Amazon region productively. I mentioned the ills of slash and burn agriculture earlier, a very large (23.9%) cause of Amazon rainforest deforestation. This systems is more or less the antithesis of permaculture, designed around quick yields and short term gain. Can a move to a different type of cultivation be a lifeline for the tropical rainforest? Developing a economical/mathematical function to model what is happening here at IPA has been the real challenge, and has been draining a good deal of my time lately.
Sometimes the difficulty is the incentive, or at least the fuel for the fire. Just something to think about.
Brazil really is an amazing place. Culture here has such diversity, many different traditions, ways of life, religions, foods, languages, all with a lowest common denominator of horrible beer, of course. Nevertheless, I have an urge to see it all! Particularly the deep south, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina with their breathtaking geographical formations, surfing, sailing, and reputation for all things extreme.
I'm finding myself missing the simplest things, of course, mainly the flavors of home. Brazilians have a bit of a fear of flavors at the extremes of the spectrum. A block of good cheese will no doubt be a highlight of my return. Also going to try my best to bring back goma, a manioc product that makes delicious pancakes, and guarana powder, a natural energetic.
Back to Belém soon, going to put a wraps on my 30 pages (or probably more) and present. The next 7 days are sure to be an intoxicating concoction of remorse and joy.
-Forrest
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Seja bem-vindo de novo, cara. Or ''welcome back again, man.'' Coming off of a massive Halloween extravaganza here. For the record made my own pumpkin pie which made the whole holiday for me! (Parents: 1 point) Just getting over a bout with the fated "Brazzo stomach" homeopathy has shored me up nicely (Parents: pulling ahead with 2 points!).
Past ten days made up an educational excursion to the south of Pará state. Belém is the capital of Pará, the second biggest state in the country next to Amazonas, its neighbor. The reigon first struck me as a modern Brazilian version of Clint Eastwood's wild west. Paraupebas, a hyper developed city founded by road builders, is said to have 1 murder a week over land disputes or other issues. The main theme of our experience there was the struggle for land by different groups of workers.
First we met Maria de Jesus, who was the first female leader of a workers movement in Brazil. By her inspiration, Im now keeping a tally of the days Im alive and making a list of why that makes me happy. She rattled of a long list of her time at the front of the battle against corruption, and the some 14 attempts on her life by assasins. Let alone her own husband (the mayor of Marabá) via rat poison. Ah, the ties that bind.
Most of the corruption can be owed to the PIN, or plan of national intergration, when the Military government that reigned from 65-88 urged a massive settlement of the Amazon region. They built two main highways from Belém to the capital of Brasília, and one that girdled the Amazonia region itself. They ushered in a huge population boom that was also lured by free land. The philosophy ''land without people to people without land". The military indeed engaged a intense army of resource exploiters to fly in and increase that gross national product.
Problems obviously arise when land is given away, especially when wealthy fazendos and corporations with the means for legal aid claim the lion's share. The popular method of income generation became cattle ranching. The farmers would sustain themselves with small-scale agriculture and raise cattle. The general rule of thumb here is 1 hectare (about 5 acres) for 1 head of cattle. Any more and the the land begins to degrade, and the cattle won't sustain. We visited a former site of a fazendo on 18,000 hectares.
Occasionally, famers would attempt to cheat the complicated Brazilian land ownership system, falsifying documents. The documents were put in tubes with gafanhotos or crickets, that died and created a chemical reaction giving the paper an older coloration. Now the lands are pounced upon by the Movimento dos Sem Terras or Landless Workers Movement. They made up the bulk of our experience there.
The MST formed in '84, a particularly turbulent time in Brazil when the academics and social progressives and the Catholic church were working together to un-seat the Military Government. It was a time of many ''disappearances'' here when the intelligencia or pastorals urging for social change would just drop off the map never to be seen again, a trend that is disturbingly popular in Latin America. The movement had a fight in front of it to say the least.
This would inclue the El Dorado do Carajás massacre where 19 MST protesters were killed by the police.
The interaction is still violent, just around the time I was visiting there, there was word from the media that a fazendero was vandalized by MST members. The media , however, should be taken with a grain of salt. My opinion upon arriving in the settlement of Palmares II, however, was given a good shot of reality. None of us students believed that we had arrived in the right place, the community seemed so developed with stores all around the praça and a bustle of commercial and social activity plainly in view. But when we saw the MST bandiera on the massive school in the center of town, it begain to sink in. After all, these members were granted their government plots of land some 15 years ago. I was also expecting different living conditions, I stayed within easy walking distance from town. The first thing that was visible upon entering the house was a case of beauty products for sale, and the everpresent glare of the TV.
Most of my time spent there was talking with the family (extended, and all over the place). They were extremely outspoken about social and environmental issues, and for the most part, extremely well educated. My host-mom of 50 years had decided to take a course at the school in Paraupebas, the large neighboring city. I had a great time with my brother there Edinedison, and my sister Heyde, 20 and 23. We went to the cachoeira or waterfall to swim, we rode on the dirtbikes exclusively (4 people to a bike), hunted in the jungle at night, and told jokes.
Sidenote: the Brazilian sense of humor is still COMPLETELY lost on me.
The last night was culture night, led by an impossibly eloquent thirteen year old, the son of the community leader. Really cool presentation about MST culture and their struggle. Also a giant snake that we got to pet. And I had to dance a tradition Brazilian dance in front of the whole crowd. Not my best showing, I might say. Very sad departure, staying in contact, and hope someday to go back.
After this we left for a one day trip in the Floresta Nacional do Carajás. This unassuming one day trip in a tourist van turned out to be more intense than we bargained for. It started very unassumingly of course, we just stopped to see the largest manmade hole on the planet. It is part of the former government owned mineral extraction company Vale do Rio Doce. The mine there is for iron, which is found in those parts at a remarkable purity, somewhere between 70 and 90%. After this massive crater, our next objective was to travel about 40 kilometers through the park to see another prospective site for a mine.
The road meandered around through the dense forest, which is protected as a reserve by the government. At a point the going became very rocky, and our van, made for comfort, became extremely unwieldy. Every time we smelled burning rubber, it was time to get out or relocate our weight over the wheels so the van could make it up. More than one time, I sprinted out into the forest to find a suitable piece of timber or rock to wedge under a wheel. Then we noticed the leak coming from the under-chassis. The drivers however, were determined. Then the rain came.
Even major highways are subject to annual renovation due to the 6 month rainy season in the Amazon. This small track stood no chance. And the rain came. The van would sink ass-deep into the mud at any difficult crossing, after which my Brazilian colleague Alana and I would dart out to wedge boards under the wheels. When this wasn't enough, or when the wheels were catching fire, we would tie a cord from a small truck in front of us to our front axle with bowline knot of course(thanks dad! parents: 3 points). Eventually the van refused to mount any more hills and we retired to foot. That 40 kilometers had turned into about 5 hours working and pushing and being generally drenched and soaked in mud.
The return proved almost as trying, but it tried instead the mettle. The small truck that could make the trip held about 5 people, and we were 15. So this neccessitated 3 20km trips back and forth. The first began around 6:00, with the sun just beginning to redden on the sill of the horizon. Four friends and I, Caroline, Nick, Mady Jake and James were the last group to be portered back to the van. We were backtracking by foot down the small road through the middle of the forest. And the sun was seriously setting. Trying to spot some wildlife, and not wanting to be part of the loud group, I decided to drop back from the pack, hoping that the critters would go along their way when the mob cleared.
Twilight in the Amazon, when every hungry belly starts thinking: food. The forest comes alive at this time when all the bugs take wing, sending a big rattle through the whole food chain. Probably the most frightened I've been in a forest ever. The twilight gave way to complete dark, still no sign of a truck. Last time I was in the forest at dark, I had a shotgun. Now I'm 100m, from the group, in the middle of dinner time. Made me think twice that the region was famous for a proliferation of onças, jaguars. I did spot a few as well, in the form of eyes shining like embers. Just eyes. I'll always remember this experience, the sounds of the howler monkeys and paca and birds and tapir. The way a eerie quiet in the noise usually corresponds to a crashing of sticks breaking from the same area. The force of nature on either side, and me in the road through the middle. Awe inspiring life in stereo.
Made it out alive, I'm happy to say. Tired and feverish, with more strange viruses in the stomach than ever, but alive. Gives me a new appreciation for our food.
Well gente. Tomorrow I'm starting my research project at IPA permaculture institute in Manaus, Amazonas state. I'll let you know more on that when I get there.
-F
Past ten days made up an educational excursion to the south of Pará state. Belém is the capital of Pará, the second biggest state in the country next to Amazonas, its neighbor. The reigon first struck me as a modern Brazilian version of Clint Eastwood's wild west. Paraupebas, a hyper developed city founded by road builders, is said to have 1 murder a week over land disputes or other issues. The main theme of our experience there was the struggle for land by different groups of workers.
First we met Maria de Jesus, who was the first female leader of a workers movement in Brazil. By her inspiration, Im now keeping a tally of the days Im alive and making a list of why that makes me happy. She rattled of a long list of her time at the front of the battle against corruption, and the some 14 attempts on her life by assasins. Let alone her own husband (the mayor of Marabá) via rat poison. Ah, the ties that bind.
Most of the corruption can be owed to the PIN, or plan of national intergration, when the Military government that reigned from 65-88 urged a massive settlement of the Amazon region. They built two main highways from Belém to the capital of Brasília, and one that girdled the Amazonia region itself. They ushered in a huge population boom that was also lured by free land. The philosophy ''land without people to people without land". The military indeed engaged a intense army of resource exploiters to fly in and increase that gross national product.
Problems obviously arise when land is given away, especially when wealthy fazendos and corporations with the means for legal aid claim the lion's share. The popular method of income generation became cattle ranching. The farmers would sustain themselves with small-scale agriculture and raise cattle. The general rule of thumb here is 1 hectare (about 5 acres) for 1 head of cattle. Any more and the the land begins to degrade, and the cattle won't sustain. We visited a former site of a fazendo on 18,000 hectares.
Occasionally, famers would attempt to cheat the complicated Brazilian land ownership system, falsifying documents. The documents were put in tubes with gafanhotos or crickets, that died and created a chemical reaction giving the paper an older coloration. Now the lands are pounced upon by the Movimento dos Sem Terras or Landless Workers Movement. They made up the bulk of our experience there.
The MST formed in '84, a particularly turbulent time in Brazil when the academics and social progressives and the Catholic church were working together to un-seat the Military Government. It was a time of many ''disappearances'' here when the intelligencia or pastorals urging for social change would just drop off the map never to be seen again, a trend that is disturbingly popular in Latin America. The movement had a fight in front of it to say the least.
This would inclue the El Dorado do Carajás massacre where 19 MST protesters were killed by the police.
The interaction is still violent, just around the time I was visiting there, there was word from the media that a fazendero was vandalized by MST members. The media , however, should be taken with a grain of salt. My opinion upon arriving in the settlement of Palmares II, however, was given a good shot of reality. None of us students believed that we had arrived in the right place, the community seemed so developed with stores all around the praça and a bustle of commercial and social activity plainly in view. But when we saw the MST bandiera on the massive school in the center of town, it begain to sink in. After all, these members were granted their government plots of land some 15 years ago. I was also expecting different living conditions, I stayed within easy walking distance from town. The first thing that was visible upon entering the house was a case of beauty products for sale, and the everpresent glare of the TV.
Most of my time spent there was talking with the family (extended, and all over the place). They were extremely outspoken about social and environmental issues, and for the most part, extremely well educated. My host-mom of 50 years had decided to take a course at the school in Paraupebas, the large neighboring city. I had a great time with my brother there Edinedison, and my sister Heyde, 20 and 23. We went to the cachoeira or waterfall to swim, we rode on the dirtbikes exclusively (4 people to a bike), hunted in the jungle at night, and told jokes.
Sidenote: the Brazilian sense of humor is still COMPLETELY lost on me.
The last night was culture night, led by an impossibly eloquent thirteen year old, the son of the community leader. Really cool presentation about MST culture and their struggle. Also a giant snake that we got to pet. And I had to dance a tradition Brazilian dance in front of the whole crowd. Not my best showing, I might say. Very sad departure, staying in contact, and hope someday to go back.
After this we left for a one day trip in the Floresta Nacional do Carajás. This unassuming one day trip in a tourist van turned out to be more intense than we bargained for. It started very unassumingly of course, we just stopped to see the largest manmade hole on the planet. It is part of the former government owned mineral extraction company Vale do Rio Doce. The mine there is for iron, which is found in those parts at a remarkable purity, somewhere between 70 and 90%. After this massive crater, our next objective was to travel about 40 kilometers through the park to see another prospective site for a mine.
The road meandered around through the dense forest, which is protected as a reserve by the government. At a point the going became very rocky, and our van, made for comfort, became extremely unwieldy. Every time we smelled burning rubber, it was time to get out or relocate our weight over the wheels so the van could make it up. More than one time, I sprinted out into the forest to find a suitable piece of timber or rock to wedge under a wheel. Then we noticed the leak coming from the under-chassis. The drivers however, were determined. Then the rain came.
Even major highways are subject to annual renovation due to the 6 month rainy season in the Amazon. This small track stood no chance. And the rain came. The van would sink ass-deep into the mud at any difficult crossing, after which my Brazilian colleague Alana and I would dart out to wedge boards under the wheels. When this wasn't enough, or when the wheels were catching fire, we would tie a cord from a small truck in front of us to our front axle with bowline knot of course(thanks dad! parents: 3 points). Eventually the van refused to mount any more hills and we retired to foot. That 40 kilometers had turned into about 5 hours working and pushing and being generally drenched and soaked in mud.
The return proved almost as trying, but it tried instead the mettle. The small truck that could make the trip held about 5 people, and we were 15. So this neccessitated 3 20km trips back and forth. The first began around 6:00, with the sun just beginning to redden on the sill of the horizon. Four friends and I, Caroline, Nick, Mady Jake and James were the last group to be portered back to the van. We were backtracking by foot down the small road through the middle of the forest. And the sun was seriously setting. Trying to spot some wildlife, and not wanting to be part of the loud group, I decided to drop back from the pack, hoping that the critters would go along their way when the mob cleared.
Twilight in the Amazon, when every hungry belly starts thinking: food. The forest comes alive at this time when all the bugs take wing, sending a big rattle through the whole food chain. Probably the most frightened I've been in a forest ever. The twilight gave way to complete dark, still no sign of a truck. Last time I was in the forest at dark, I had a shotgun. Now I'm 100m, from the group, in the middle of dinner time. Made me think twice that the region was famous for a proliferation of onças, jaguars. I did spot a few as well, in the form of eyes shining like embers. Just eyes. I'll always remember this experience, the sounds of the howler monkeys and paca and birds and tapir. The way a eerie quiet in the noise usually corresponds to a crashing of sticks breaking from the same area. The force of nature on either side, and me in the road through the middle. Awe inspiring life in stereo.
Made it out alive, I'm happy to say. Tired and feverish, with more strange viruses in the stomach than ever, but alive. Gives me a new appreciation for our food.
Well gente. Tomorrow I'm starting my research project at IPA permaculture institute in Manaus, Amazonas state. I'll let you know more on that when I get there.
-F
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Double issue! Heart of Darkness; liver of sun
A gente! I've gone too long without a post. No problem though, because I've brought pictures to ease that burn. Gonna start this megapost off then, we'll do it backwards, Tarantino it.
This weekend is Cirio here, the biggest Catholic procession in the world. Some 2 million people come here from the interior (Amazon) to stay with family or others. During the day the hosts prepare a huge lunch for everyone. The star of the show is manisoba, a dish prepared from the leaves of the manioc plant, that happen to contain cyanide. As the raw leaves are lethal, they have to be cooked for 7 days before consumption, after they add calabresa (sausage) and pork fat and such. Delicious! Much more about manioc later back to Cirio. 
The whole girth of the event is honoring a promise made to Nossa Senora de Nazare, or Our Lady of Nazareth. The massive crowd follows the image on the right in a procession to the church. She is pulled by a huge rope, and devout Catholics 'pega a corda' or carry the cord, without shoes, some 10 miles around the city. People also make the trek on hands and knees in the massive crowd. Hands down the most people I've ever seen in one place.
All this comes as a bit of a shock considering the nature of my last two or so weeks. Left 17 days ago for the city of Manaus, and the start of the amazon river. Although there are debates over the actual length of the Amazon, due to seasonal fluctuations and such (the Amazon has 2 seasons, rainy, extremely rainy), the consensus is that the amazon empties 15 to 20% of the worlds fresh water into the ocean. The size of the basin is disputed as well, but the start is the contra de as aguas in Manaus. 
Due to the different water compositions, there is a very definitive meeting of the waters for about 50 miles until they finally mix. We passed this on our boat, the Barao do Mar and stopped for a bit of treacherous swimming that taxed all of our abilities. Also, the botus or pink freshwater dolphins made their appearance for the first time, and we were able to feed them with fish from the water. Speaking of fish, there are some thousands of different amazing species, each with unique strategies of survival. Including the ghostfish, who can survive as a head for days, the electric eel of course, the tamate (a scaled catfish), tucunare, and many more.
Due to the different water compositions, there is a very definitive meeting of the waters for about 50 miles until they finally mix. We passed this on our boat, the Barao do Mar and stopped for a bit of treacherous swimming that taxed all of our abilities. Also, the botus or pink freshwater dolphins made their appearance for the first time, and we were able to feed them with fish from the water. Speaking of fish, there are some thousands of different amazing species, each with unique strategies of survival. Including the ghostfish, who can survive as a head for days, the electric eel of course, the tamate (a scaled catfish), tucunare, and many more. Being a big fan of rivers in general, I have been overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Amazon. When the boat puttered along by one bank, I had to squint to see the other side, maybe one of the reasons the river has yet to be bridged. The current is overpowering as well, the redes (head-jeez) or hammocks we slung on the boat rocked violently many nights, slamming into the bulkheads of the boat, as well as eachother. One night when we were travelling through one of the narrowest parts of the river, my rede was swinging to the better part of 160 degrees of a circle, almost touching the roof on either side of its swings. I woke up in the middle of the night to ´hit the head´ and decided to time my rede dismount with one of the forward swings. This gave my exit a little too much velocity and sent me to the rail. At the same time the boat hit the trough of a wave and all of a sudden my center of gravity was very much outside of the boat. Thankfully I could hold myself in by a deathgrip to the rail.
The last city we hit was the amazing port city Santarém. Its largely made up of varzea or white water swamps, and so was relatively unaffected by the rubber boom, as the constant nutrient renewal of the white water system allowed for a more sustained agriculture. Had a wild time here, hanging out on the bars that sat on piers on top of the water. The city has recently been metamorphisized by Cargill, an American soy distributor. Amazonia has become the worlds biggest source of raw soybeans, and this has caused a lot of problems here. Since soy is such an easy crop, planting it usually involves a huge clearing of primary forest in order to plant. Having an international company like Cargill increases the demand for soy and the farmers have been known to use cutthroat practices to increase their profits.
The situation is very similar in the ALCOA bauxite mines just a little farther west. The advent of this company moving to Juruti Velho, in Amazonas state has dislocated thousands of original inhabitants. The idea of land ownership also is different here. When someone has lived and worked land for 1 year and 1 day, they can have some form of legal title to the land, even if someone else has rights to the same land. At the same time, both parties only own the surface, the Brazilian government has rights to everything underneath. So when ALCOA surveyed for the bauxite (aluminum oxide) back in the 70´s, and found what they were looking for, they had plenty of time to convince the government of the benefit of strip mines in the area.
Anyway, one of the last days of the trip when we were at the Large Biome Atmosphere experiment (conducted by the Brazilian gov and NASA) we got one of the opportunities of a lifetime, to climb a 50m tower above the forest canopy! Words cannot begin to describe the grandiose beauty. Hell, I´ll just put up another picture.
It was very difficult to look out and see any two trees of the same type. Also, at this level of the canopy, a very pleasant wind was immediately noticable. This is owed to the trees respiring and reating a microclimate. Why not show this one too while I´m at it??
Charming, eh? The usual procedure is to get a plastic bag to use as a glove and do a quick grab´n´toss, but we decided to just let this guy be. *Taken from the window outside our room*
So the most, influential thing I have to talk about is the rural homestay with the Riberinho people, or the people of the river. Their roots are in mestizo origins, or mixed colonial and indigenous bloodlines. When the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s here, they spilt out along the Amazon river basin, and eventually those became the Riberinhos. They are largely extractavist hunter/gatherers. They live of the production of manioc (used for an absolute preponderance of different cakes, soups, flours, etc.) and their fishing and hunting practices. I showed up with a bottle of water and my bag of food that served as payment for the family. My host was a 44 year old woman named Ivanilde, who cared for her grandchildren and made clothes. The community was called Terra Novo and consisted of 22 families, who all lived in proximity to each other.
The houses were wooden boxes on stilts some with wooden, some with pallia (palm leaf) roofs. There was a church, school, nurses office, and most importantly a soccer field in the community as well. Life there has a unique cadence, daily activites include the tending of the slash-and-burn fields, fishing, many baths in the river, and school for the younger children. I spent my days there working in the fields (the most I have ever sweat in my life), or fishing. One night I got the opportunity to hunt with my cousin José. We went out around 8, as it was already very dark, I believe the main objective for him was following the tracks of a tapir (a giant porcine). Although we didn´t manage to find that, he shot 4 pacá, which I cleaned with his wife and mother the next morning. They are a ROUS, or a rodent of unusual size, with a reddish-brown, or white coat, and a couple of yellowed buck teeth. 
Also, absolutely delicious. I also developed a fondness for raw turtle eggs mixed with the coarse manioc flour. They thicken in consistency and have a saltiness similar to bacon.
Passed my birthday here as well. Went fishing most of the day, and caught bunches of piranhas. We didn´t use poles but rather just threw the line into the water and spooled it in by hand. This added a new element to the fishing, especially when the piranhas snap and slap in the bottom of our tiny boat. Also saw a Jacare or caiman on this fishing trip. The head was probably two feet long and it just sidled along our boat. Of course my friends in the boat weren´t absolutely terrified, but I almost lost it.
But I dont mean to misrepresent my experience there as strange living and fantastic creatures. These are real people with real struggles. Terra Novo was what is call an Extractive Reserve, or basically a National Park where traditional populations can hunt and fish and export some goods. They still don´t have a say in what they can and can´t produce. Economically they are controlled on every side, wether it is by corporations dislocating them, or conservation efforts telling them how to survive economically. Some of them go to the city when they are 20 or so to live, get a job, maybe find a wife or husband. But still, they are tied to the same pattern of life.
Also the slash-and-burn system of agriculture can be limiting. In this system, they burn down primary forest to plant manioc or other plants. This releases 80% of the nutrients from the biomass, which is a huge spike and the plants grow wildly. After the first season, howere those nutrients are gone forever, and the fields must be left for a 10 year fallow until the original nutrient levels are replentished. This means they must find a new field to plant during that fallow, and they usually have to burn more forest. Traditionally, they were more nomadic, and moved around every 10 years, but since the population boom into the Amazonia region, land has become valorized, and that is no longer an option, so they end up deforesting and degrading.
This is part of the study for the Independent Study Project I will conduct at the end of my time here. I am researching Productive Conservation, or methods of production that can help communties like this develop economically while at the same time preserving natural resources. This will consist of researching a bunch new technologies developing here, like permaculture, agro-foresty, and alternatives to slash-and-burn, that help agriculturalists or extractivists use their resources in a more productive way. Can´t wait to dive into that!
So tomorrow is the start of another excursion, this time to the south of Pará state, to stay with the people of the MST, movimento dos sem terras, (landless peoples movment). Hopefully by the time I get back from that 10 day trip, you´ll be done reading and I can fill you in with South of the equator news once more.
Until then...
walk straight, stay true
-F
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Dia Siete: bem-vindo ao o selva (welcome to the jungle)
Day seven now and finally finding the great city of Belem to be a beast worth reckoning with. My Portuguese is improving daily, and I think my english will be inversely proportional. Already I make reorders of my words and do slight mistakes with things, tenses and such. Hope I don´t wear it too plainly. I am with my host family now, they are great people, and I anticipate quite the stay. In Brazil, light family conversation bobs and weaves around topics like sexual encounters, etc without a glitch.
The telenovelas have half naked women and names like 'caminho de indias' in which brazilian actors proffer their best approximation of Indian culture, and at least one person gets hit by a car per episode. Speaking of counts, the tarantula count is now at 5, including one massive one I found in the middle of the night in my room.
Prior to Belem, we spent 7 days in a 'sitio' a small farmhouse 70 km outside of the city, where we spent our days generally getting oriented and relaxing in redes (hammocks, pronounce hey-jay). Less relaxing was the ´drop off´, where we were booted out of the dependable volkswagen ´combi´ vans and given simple tasks to complete.
My minimal Portugues made it difficult to find out where farinha, (manioc flour) was produced. Eventually a extremely nice woman and her son Leo showed me that the staple was produced not half a mile from where they sold it in their store. I saw the whole process, beginning with the grating and processing in a chipichi (woven from palm), to the final stirring and cooking. Manioc contans cyanide and must be cooked for 7 days in its natural form.
Also a great experience was harvesting açai, which grows on a palmate tree Euturpe Oleracea,
and is a staple fruit of the Amazon and is another staple of Brazilian life. The fruit is borne about 60 feet above the forrest floor, and its harvesters climb to the top, cut the bunch of berries from the tree and then jump to other trees 10 feet away. The harvester (along with pointing out many important varieties of flora) showed me how to fashion a pescoina from palm leaves, a simple durable loop that somewhat fastens ones feet to the bole of the tree. The harvest was extremely strenuous, and made the emulsifying of the berries into an act of sweet sweet vengance.
Leaving the sitio was a bittersweet goodbye, until I realized how cheap the beer is in the city! Brazilians obviously perfer beer cold so they can cope with the equatorial heat, and often the carafes will be half frozen when you buy them. Not exactly beer, almost totally flavorless. MMM flavorless refreshment.
By the way today marked my 3rd anoversário in 3 days, people are suprised if you dont accept a beer or drink, and the blowing out of the candles is marked by an intense clapping. I am beginning to think that the biggest meal of the day is called Birthday. And the Samba...oh the samba.
Off to catch up on my dever de casa (homework), I have 16 hours to finish T.C. Whitmore´s An Introduction to Trópical rainforests... not exactly harry potter. Thank god for the great brazilian coffee.
-F
Day seven now and finally finding the great city of Belem to be a beast worth reckoning with. My Portuguese is improving daily, and I think my english will be inversely proportional. Already I make reorders of my words and do slight mistakes with things, tenses and such. Hope I don´t wear it too plainly. I am with my host family now, they are great people, and I anticipate quite the stay. In Brazil, light family conversation bobs and weaves around topics like sexual encounters, etc without a glitch.
The telenovelas have half naked women and names like 'caminho de indias' in which brazilian actors proffer their best approximation of Indian culture, and at least one person gets hit by a car per episode. Speaking of counts, the tarantula count is now at 5, including one massive one I found in the middle of the night in my room.
Prior to Belem, we spent 7 days in a 'sitio' a small farmhouse 70 km outside of the city, where we spent our days generally getting oriented and relaxing in redes (hammocks, pronounce hey-jay). Less relaxing was the ´drop off´, where we were booted out of the dependable volkswagen ´combi´ vans and given simple tasks to complete.
My minimal Portugues made it difficult to find out where farinha, (manioc flour) was produced. Eventually a extremely nice woman and her son Leo showed me that the staple was produced not half a mile from where they sold it in their store. I saw the whole process, beginning with the grating and processing in a chipichi (woven from palm), to the final stirring and cooking. Manioc contans cyanide and must be cooked for 7 days in its natural form.
Also a great experience was harvesting açai, which grows on a palmate tree Euturpe Oleracea,
and is a staple fruit of the Amazon and is another staple of Brazilian life. The fruit is borne about 60 feet above the forrest floor, and its harvesters climb to the top, cut the bunch of berries from the tree and then jump to other trees 10 feet away. The harvester (along with pointing out many important varieties of flora) showed me how to fashion a pescoina from palm leaves, a simple durable loop that somewhat fastens ones feet to the bole of the tree. The harvest was extremely strenuous, and made the emulsifying of the berries into an act of sweet sweet vengance.
Leaving the sitio was a bittersweet goodbye, until I realized how cheap the beer is in the city! Brazilians obviously perfer beer cold so they can cope with the equatorial heat, and often the carafes will be half frozen when you buy them. Not exactly beer, almost totally flavorless. MMM flavorless refreshment.
By the way today marked my 3rd anoversário in 3 days, people are suprised if you dont accept a beer or drink, and the blowing out of the candles is marked by an intense clapping. I am beginning to think that the biggest meal of the day is called Birthday. And the Samba...oh the samba.
Off to catch up on my dever de casa (homework), I have 16 hours to finish T.C. Whitmore´s An Introduction to Trópical rainforests... not exactly harry potter. Thank god for the great brazilian coffee.
-F
Monday, August 31, 2009
Day negative one: Whats so bad about yellow fever anyway?
Welcome to my chronicles of the Amazon! If you're trolling the net looking for shrimp on a treadmill, stick around, you might learn something. If you're looking for Bear Grylls blog, second door down on the left. For those of you who know something about my prospective trip, press fast forward for about 2 seconds or play along for kicks. For the cyberplebs out there, a moviereel synopsis...
This Fall
.
One Man
.
One Semester
.
is
In the amazon.
Hopefully I'll be able to inform and entertain- hell I might even write a poem or two (don't cross your fingers).
Last day stateside, tomorrow is the 18 or so hours in a plane, so not much to mention so far. Just must say that preparation has been a rocky path, and my heart goes out to everyone who helped me get here; the millions of pages of paper (couldn't it all be on the internet??), the enlightened warehouse supervisors (no doubt in their final stages of the cosmic wheel), the fax machines and their attendants (yes, I made crazy requests... no, I dont think that 3.50 is reasonable for 1 fax), and more seriously, my family and friends that made this possible. My heart goes out to all of you who helped me make this happen. Seriously, you guys all rock. You know who you are. ;-)
ps. I have enough immunizations and vaccines in me to preserve a tapir. http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-7/1194311861.jpg
my pincushion arm can hardly support it's own weight. Whiteboy out.
stay true, walk straight
-F
This Fall
.
One Man
.
One Semester
.
is
In the amazon.
Hopefully I'll be able to inform and entertain- hell I might even write a poem or two (don't cross your fingers).
Last day stateside, tomorrow is the 18 or so hours in a plane, so not much to mention so far. Just must say that preparation has been a rocky path, and my heart goes out to everyone who helped me get here; the millions of pages of paper (couldn't it all be on the internet??), the enlightened warehouse supervisors (no doubt in their final stages of the cosmic wheel), the fax machines and their attendants (yes, I made crazy requests... no, I dont think that 3.50 is reasonable for 1 fax), and more seriously, my family and friends that made this possible. My heart goes out to all of you who helped me make this happen. Seriously, you guys all rock. You know who you are. ;-)
ps. I have enough immunizations and vaccines in me to preserve a tapir. http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-7/1194311861.jpg
my pincushion arm can hardly support it's own weight. Whiteboy out.
stay true, walk straight
-F
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