[SPECIAL NOTE: We had to move our presentation night to Monday, February 17. Too many conflicts with student schedules on the 18th. Sorry for the inconvenience. Still 7:00pm, room still to be announced.]
[SPECIAL NOTE #2: Go back to 1/13 and 1/14 and we finally got videos to post for those days. The others are all loading and it depends on whether our skitchy internet connection holds up whether they appear today or tomorrow. We are trying!!!]
Our evening was a small celebration of Jesse’s birthday, because the big party will be on Friday night. We had gifts for Jesse, including lots of things from the year (even the day!) of his birth. We had radio playlists, a TV guide, some magazines, a Brazilian coin, a vintage t-shirt from Brazil’s 1970 World Cup championship (starring Pelé), and a Folio Society book about the Amazon. They were hidden around the camp and Gui created clues to help him find them one by one. He exclaimed over all of them and wanted to talk through each of them.
While he was searching, we had a conversation about what we still want to achieve in our last few days here in the community. We talked about connections we still want to make, projects we still want to finish, and things we still want to learn. We also started thinking about our reentry when we return to California and realized that we are going to have a very hard time expressing what has happened for us here, especially just in the last few days.
We recognize that parts of it sound horrible: “it was hot!,” “some of us got sick!,” “we hauled tons of rock and sand by hand!” But we also realize that we have loved it. Almost every minute of it. And we have changed and grown so much that we can’t even figure out how to express it. Maybe some of it will be obvious but a lot of it probably won’t be.
We took the time to honor our alum teammates, Megan and Scott, with their third purple bikes. These two are great vets to have along, as they fit into our group easily but also serve as role models that show us how to keep our attitudes going in the right direction and how to solve dilemmas that arise. They are both hilarious and are incredibly patient with us as they help to bridge the gaps between Shawny and Jesse and the rest of the students. They traveled to Tanzania and to Puerto Rico on prior DIRT trips. All of the parents, friends, and family members out there should really appreciate them, as they are helping all of us all day every day!
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We returned to the garden today and got the thrill of raising a new roof. It started with a trip the beach to pick up all of our drying palhas to carry them to the garden. It took a lot of trips with them slung over our shoulders, where we looked like a strange camel train trudging through the sand. We gathered some of the palhas in bunches of five and learned that these are called “cabezas” (or heads). Others stayed loose from the bunches and were carefully arrayed by our local experts as we handed up sticks to hold them in place, vines to bind them, and singles or cabezas to fill out the roof. We were all busy and it felt great. Of course, we were playing music and dancing like maniacs.
We did some finish work on the chicken coop, where the floor is complete and dry and now easier to clean than it used to be. Someone had advised the community to put down a cement floor and now we’ve helped them to reach that step. We also got some sawdust to add to the floor to make it less harsh on the chickens’ little feet.
We are ramping up for a party on the beach tonight in honor of Jesse’s birthday. They seem to have some special plans but we don’t know yet what they are. We’ll let you know once we find out!
IT WAS A ~HOT~ ONE. Sweat stains galore.
Some locals working on the roof of the viveiro.
Katie carrying multiple dry palhas on her shoulder. We carried them from the beach to the viveiro
IT WAS A ~HOT~ ONE. Sweat stains galore.
Romario putting in work, getting the support beams for the roof ready.
A walk through town (Lauren is carrying a lot of palhas).
Sororoca, a material found around the local Anã area, is used as a rope like material when roofing most buildings in the community.
Maya easily has the most skill with creating the material needed to bind the palha.
The DIRTies and our local counterparts attempt to put up as much palha as they can in their final days of work.
We had a very special celebration this year—celebrating Jesse’s 50th Birthday—just before the DIRTies depart Anã.
Jesse and Gui finally get a father-son picture after a long night of celebrations.
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