Day Four, Saturday, January 10: Touring the Town
We all succeeded in getting good sleep in our hammock
hut. One of us moved onto an air
mattress to try to reduce snoring and a few of us found that our hammocks were
truly right on top of each other, but after a lot of sun and a long day, we
slept anyway.
We awoke pretty easily, with the breakfast crew rolling out
at 6:30am and the rest going to the gathering space by the kitchen for
breakfast at 7:00. After sampling more fabulous juices and a
range of local foods, we started a tour of the community with Dona Odila. We walked through a forest path and happened
on a few houses in the clearings, most surrounded by scrambling chickens and
one very lazy dog.
When we crossed into the central part of the community, we
got our first glimpse of the project from last year’s trip: the tree
nursery. The 2014 trip revolved around a
reforestation project supported by Saude e Alegría, where we cleared a large
parcel of land to become the center of the community’s efforts to restore its
hardwoods, its fruit trees and other food-bearing trees. In addition, that group created planter boxes
for use in propagating seeds and in growing vegetables and other food
crops. When the group last year left
Anã, the space was a big dirt field with a shade area, some planter boxes, a
huge area staked out for a thatched shelter and the home of 10,000 or so
just-planted tree seeds.
When we came to the space this year, it was a lush thriving
garden, with almost every area maximized in the ways that we imagined they
might be. The shade area that we
constructed and covered is now the home of 10,000 very strong and healthy
saplings. They include mahogany, açaír
(known as açaí in the U.S.), coconut, iper (known as ipe in the U.S.), and a
number of other fruit and nut trees that won’t sound familiar to U.S.
readers. Those 10,000 saplings need our
attention, as we need to transplant all of them into bigger containers to take
them to the next level.
Another shade area is the home of a small community garden,
including lettuce, tomatoes, collard greens, onions, cilantro and other local
offerings. The large shelter space now
holds a large shelter (imagine that!), which is carefully protected by the
thatch that we prepared for eventual installation as a roof.
The three returners from last year’s trip – Jesse, Shawny
and Jenny – were absolutely floored by what they saw. Shawny got teary-eyed, Jesse kept exclaiming
over every item that we encountered and Jenny got chills. They all experienced great pride and joy,
along with happiness for the community that their own stated aspirations are
coming to fruition (literally!).
The newcomers said that they were all very inspired by what
they encountered there and now they are even more committed to the series of
projects that we will undertake here. We
will do some continuation work on the garden but we will also focus on a number
of other areas, including the creation of a print/visual/video visitor’s guide
to Anã (which, by the way, is pronounced sort of like uh-NUH).
In pursuit of information for this second project, we began
gathering footage and photos of some of the primary enterprises in the
community. The garden/nursery is one of
those enterprises and so is a very fascinating beekeeping project that consists
exclusively of stingless bees and their thin, sour honey. We visited the site where the main bee boxes
are (about 130 of them) and got the scoop on all of the ins and outs of
beekeeping in the Amazon. We will tell
more about this issue in an upcoming day.
When we left the beekeeping project, we decided to visit the
community soccer field, where tomorrow we will play a men’s game and a women’s
game against our Brazilian host community.
Because we have played here before, we know how both games are going to
end: in humiliating losses for the U.S. team.
Still, we are going in with open minds, good attitudes and extremely low
standards (“If we even get near the goal, let’s count that as success!”). The whole community will probably come out to
see, as will the radio announcers who broadcast full play-by-play and color
commentary both onto field and onto the (local) airwaves. It will be fun. Yes, fun.
We have to remember that we intend to have fun . . .
Speaking of fun, we got invited to the local honey festival,
which turns out to be a very big, very hot, very loud dance in a community
slightly upriver from ours. We showed up
ready to shake it and did so as soon as we could get our confidence up. We learned rather quickly that confidence was
not enough, as we also needed more stamina than we could muster. While we went on and off the dance floor,
sometimes stepping outside for a breather, the Brazilians just kept on dancing
without seeming to suffer one bit. We
intended to stay until midnight or later but by 11:00pm, we were all too hot
and tired to carry on. We gathered our
troops and headed back to the boat, where we are now all looking at the sky off
the rail or lounging in our hammocks as we head home.
Tomorrow we hope to catch a church service in the morning then
rest up for our big soccer humiliations in the afternoon. We’ll let you know . . .
Daily Photos
Some of the tree saplings in the nursery in Anã. They will take only six years to grow in the rainforest.
Last year (2014), Saint Mary’s visited Anã as well. During that trip, they helped the locals clear land for a nursery and built planters that are used for reforestation and food. Upon our return this year, we got a tour on our second day by Viccente the leader of the nursery.
There are many enterprises around Anã. One of them are these stingless bees. On our tour, we got up close and personal with them.
Dona Odila is the head council member of Anã. She keeps everything in tip-top shape and runs a tight ship. She makes sure to take good care of us.
Don Dogila, is our group pet. As we work and walk around the pousada, he loyally follows along and shares in our adventures.
Diorlando, one of the many friends we made in Anã, was extremely excited to show us the village’s pet turtles as part of our tour.
Along our walk, a little boy peaks out the window to catch a glimpse of the new visitors. Anã has many groups and individuals come visit around the world to participate in ecotourism.
Diorlando is sitting along the rail of the boat on our way to Coroca where we danced the night away celebrating the 10th annual honey festival. Diorlando is loved by all in our group. He tags along all our adventures. As he teaches us Portuguese along the way we teach him English.
Suzanne playing tic-tac-toe and teaching English to a young girl, Dinara, who joined us for the honey festival.
After a hour and an half trip, we arrived in Coroca for the honey festival. We danced the night away with Brazilians and got to know one another better. Another boat docked outside Coroca after they dropped off their passengers. About two hundred to three hundred people came out to celebrate.
Some of the tree saplings in the nursery in Anã. They will take only six years to grow in the rainforest.
Last year (2014), Saint Mary’s visited Anã as well. During that trip, they helped the locals clear land for a nursery and built planters that are used for reforestation and food. Upon our return this year, we got a tour on our second day by Viccente the leader of the nursery.
There are many enterprises around Anã. One of them are these stingless bees. On our tour, we got up close and personal with them.
One of the many angels helping us survive in Anã! Oi Mônica!
A glimpse of a beautiful girl in Anã, laughing at the Americans walking by!
The center of the honey enterprise in Anã, featuring the Manulplano stingless bees.
Dona Odila is the head council member of Anã. She keeps everything in tip-top shape and runs a tight ship. She makes sure to take good care of us.
Don Dogila, is our group pet. As we work and walk around the pousada, he loyally follows along and shares in our adventures.
Diorlando, one of the many friends we made in Anã, was extremely excited to show us the village’s pet turtles as part of our tour.
Soccer is life to Brazilians. Even at the age of 4, this
young boy had tremendous power behind his kick.
Children of Anã playing outside their houses while we walk through the village.
Diorlando is sitting along the rail of the boat on our way to Coroca where we danced the night away celebrating the 10th annual honey festival. Diorlando is loved by all in our group. He tags along all our adventures. As he teaches us Portuguese along the way we teach him English.
Suzanne playing tic-tac-toe and teaching English to a young girl, Dinara, who joined us for the honey festival.
Carlos and Sydney taking a picture after dancing Carimbo at the Honey Festival!
Cannot wait to see pictures of the garden!
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