SMC Amazon: Marlina’s Birthday!!!

Special Note: We were excited to manage to talk to family members last night but we were BUMMED when the entire internet connection went out regionwide. Not everyone had gotten a call off at that point and some were in the middle of sentences when everything went down. We will try again from a different connection point today, but the timing might be inconvenient, as that other point is available only between about 10:00am and 1:00pm California time. On a positive note, it is likely that we will be able to make actual cell calls from there, but we might need to rely on WhatsApp, as we did last night. If you can download the app, it might help us connect. We have some daytime internet access right now so we are adding some content from long before we are ready to report on our tasks for today . . .

January 12, 2026

We get to celebrate with Marlina on her birthday today! Marlina is a veteran of two DIRT trips in years gone by: this one (Brazilian Amazon) in 2016 and SMC Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) in 2018). After graduation, she took up a career in emergency management and has served in disaster zones all over the world, putting the principles and training of her DIRT days into practice almost constantly. Shawny convinced her to use some vacation time from her current gig to return to the Amazon and we are thrilled that she agreed.

We sang to Mar as she came down to the pousada this morning and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast as the overnight rain began to break. The sound of the rain on our thatched roof seemed to contribute to some deep sleep for most of us but the calls of the zoguezogues and howler monkeys helped convince us to stop. Yesterday some of the zoguezogues came right up to our oca to help us get a good look at them, so there will be some pictures of them here. We also tried to catch some audio of their sounds from inside our sleeping space today, but you can't get the feel of how loud they are from these recordings; unfortunately, we missed the howlers entirely so we will try to record them both on a different day. Whenever you hear the zoguezogues, it might seem like the sound you hear is either a mating call or actual mating, but we hear that these are just the sounds they make as they frolic in the trees. The ones right by us yesterday were not making their sounds, so we couldn’t quite test this theory.

We are starting into a new work week with freshly-washed laundry (note that we did not say “clean” laundry; there is an important distinction there). Some of us timed our washing poorly relative to the arrival of the rain, but we added some lines under a covered area that should help things air dry until we get some sun to bake them all the way to crispness. Hopefully we will beat the mildew, but if not, rewashing may be in our future.

Yesterday we ran into another group that came through the pousada for lunch, this one a “return to the forest” group from São Paulo that has done some projects similar to ours in this community and others along this particular part of the Amazon basin. Many of them spoke English so we had some enthusiastic conversations and made quick connections over shared perspectives.

The DIRT group was the first to visit the ecotourism camp in which we are staying when it was built. We have collectively been working with the tourism group here to develop and promote the ecotourism footprint without impinging upon the lives and lifestyles of our hosts, so we are thrilled to see the volume of flow that has returned after the slow days of COVID.

There are some glitches in the system to be sure (like the “nudist Buddhists” who consistently swam naked in the river as part of a rebirth ritual of some kind), but our partners here find that for the most part, visitors are full of awe about the community here and they are grateful for the invitation to visit it. Most are respectful and easy to get along with, and some – like us – make meaningful contributions that our hosts really appreciate. As they tell us stories about the glitchy visits (see above), we talk with them about ways to instruct their guests without seeming inhospitable. This entire enterprise was controversial at the start, but has become much less so as long as visitors don’t cause offense. The proceeds from the tourism enterprise pay the federal (and state?) taxes for all inhabitants of Anã, so the benefit of it is truly felt by every family. And as we have discussed in previous blogs, the resources that are generated by this operation and through government and non-profit grants continues to help in improving the quality (and length!) of the lives of those who live here.

Our work morning was very productive, as we returned to the garden area for two primary jobs: re-roofing the chicken coop with the fancy new tiles we secured yesterday, and setting the beds to be ready for planting with new seedlings and saplings donated from community members. We also salvaged an old canoe that was supposed to be demolished to reuse its intact wood. Along with Joelma, we decided it was not damaged enough to destroy, so instead of tearing it apart with wrecking bars, we reinforced it. It certainly would not be seaworthy (or riverworthy, as the case may be), but it is a lovely addition to the space and seems to be destined to be some sort of planter.

As for the roof, we worked with local professionals to secure the trusses over the coop, and we found that our battery-powered circular saw and drills came in handy after all. We try not to use any tools that will prevent them from being able to do maintenance without our power tools once we are gone, but we could clearly see that some pilot holes and some straight cuts weren’t going to compromise things going forward.

It was really hot and sticky out there today, maybe because of the long overnight rain? We needed lots of breaks. Because we were close to a potential source of wifi signal, those of us who didn’t manage calls last night made new attempts and mostly succeeded (sorry for the early hour for some of you!).

We had more stingray for lunch, this time grilled instead of fried. Amazing. And after a sesta of a couple of hours (that involved swimming, walking, and more laundry), we got to enjoy locally-harvested açai (we actually had it yesterday, too; we just forgot to mention it, even though it was a total thrill).

In the afternoon, we joined the local community groups in a litter pickup campaign around the area. People are a bit casual about dealing with trash and there is no municipal system that manages things. The main community leaders routinely tote cans that they find on the beach or the roadway and occasionally they organize larger groups to do a more comprehensive job. Today was one of those days so we jumped right in. We were separated into different groups that joined with the locals and wiped out virtually all of the litter along the paths and the beaches.

Some of the local boys came to play a pickup soccer game on our beach. Everyone went down to either play, watch, or swim. The sun started to drop below the horizon and we took in the beautiful sky over the river. There were several community members at the camp hustling around and preparing handicrafts. The kitchen was especially frenzied and there were more foods than ever in progress in there. Jesse finally summoned our kitchen crew and let them know that all of this madness was secret prep for Marlina’s birthday dinner.

Dona Odila showed up and said that she wanted to talk to the birthday girl. Marlina, Jesse, and Odila started walking toward Odila’s house having a conversation about the contributions that women make in the world. As they walked away, we all mobilized and brought out dish after dish after dish, including a beautiful roast chicken and a pretty complex version of pizza. There were also two cakes.

Some of the women who had been around the camp for the last few hours had created a wall sign from palm fronds wishing Mar a happy birthday. They all gathered around with us and we turned off all of the lights in the camp. It got very dark. We waited quietly (sort of) for a few minutes and finally saw the light of Odila’s headlamp coming down the dark path. When Marlina, Jesse, and Odila got to the edge of the pousada, we flicked on the lights and started clapping frantically. Marlina started bawling. We all sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese (sort of) and tried to get Mar to serve herself dinner. She was overwhelmed and not acting particularly rationally. She got out her camera and started taking pictures of the sign and the cake and the table and the group, including twenty or more of our local friends. She acknowledged that she had celebrated her birthday in this exact same place ten years ago and it was meant to be that she is here with us again today.

Marlina has been a wonderful addition to our DIRT group and has folded in effortlessly while also helping organize things and keeping our systems running as smoothly as they possibly can. We are honored to be in her presence, we admire her free spirit mixed with deep responsibility, we appreciate her smile, and we are indescribably happy to get to share this time (and birthday!) with her. Happy day to all of us!