We went back to Alter do Chão today, this time to work on
our original plan with our contact from Saude
e Alegría, Fabiano. He lives in a
small subvillage outside of the somewhat tourist-y area of Alter do Chão. In that village, several people have
established a collective system of sustenance, including Fabiano’s property
that would translate into English as “Horticulture and Art.” There, Fabiano is cultivating a number of
food items and is also producing rich soil through worm composting.
So, our jobs today varied greatly. Some of us started to fence a new section of
the village for new cultivation, which – when Fabiano is leading the way –
meant we learned some real craftsmanship.
Sadly, a number of enormous roots slowed our progress in sinking
fenceposts but we did excellent work on the part that we managed to
complete.
Another job was to go into the existing garden and build new
planting boxes, which we could do with ease.
The presence of our battery-operated power tools is clearly changing the
aspirations of some of our community partners here, we think mostly for the
better. Brazilians are big “notchers,”
meaning that they fit pieces of wood together by notching them to hold boards
together. We can help them produce their
notches much more easily than they can do it by hand (though, because of their
incredible skills with hand tools, we can’t do it much faster than they can,
even with our power tools).
Another job was to plant new seeds in small containers, all
of which were repurposed from some other use.
Things like juice boxes, 2-liter bottles and even plastic bags are the
main containers that hold the beginnings of all life in Fabiano’s garden. A few of our crew were feeling a bit under
the weather, probably due to mild dehydration, heat, and some level of
exhaustion, so they were the seeding crew today, sitting under a shaded roof on
Fabiano’s lovely patio.
A final group got the mystery job of “worm management.” We assume our friends in the third grade
class of Southwestern Elementary School will appreciate that “worm management”
means dumping huge piles of wet dirt onto a tarp and sorting through it with
your hands to separate out the fat, juicy worms that live in it. The “dirt” used to be food scraps and other
organic materials and the worms have turned all of that material into dirt just
by working their way through it every day.
We also had to pick out centipedes and millipedes, along with a few
termites, to leave nothing but dark rich soil to be used by Fabiano and his
neighbors as they continue to keep themselves fed.
We bid farewell to Fabiano and his family after lunch, so
that we could take a spin through the tourist area of Alter do Chão, including
its beautiful island beach (really a massive sandbar). The sand at this particular point in the
river is soft and almost white, making it very appealing for locals and
visitors alike. They even have one of
those weird banana boat rides where six or so people ride behind a speedboat
and the driver tries to throw them off into the water (wearing lifejackets, of
course). We didn’t take a turn on the
banana boat but we thought that it confirmed the site as a true tourist stop.
We left the beach in the late afternoon and headed home to
get organized for our next big move: a boat ride upriver about four hours,
where we will settle for a few days in the community of Anã and help that
community with whatever projects they invite us to join. We know that one of those projects is to
build a nursery for new trees, as the area is eager to remove invasive trees
and restore native ones, especially those that bear food or hardwood that can
resist the pervasive local termites. We
leave early in the morning to get on the boat and will report in once we arrive
on the other end . . .
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