Amazon 2009: Day Ten (Wednesday, January 14)

Today’s video was produced by the team Paz.

We quickly got back into the swing of things by getting to work on time this morning (we decided to get up 15 minutes earlier to help make this happen). Though our hosts weren’t quite ready to begin when we arrived, we were. We started going around to different kids and checking out their recollection of the English we had taught them. We mostly focused on greetings and the question: “How are you?” Little clumps of them picked it up quickly while others needed phonetics lessons on the words “thank you.”

When Georgete was ready to get started, we separated into two groups. Most of us went out onto the beach to build the tents and get ready to deliver our lesson plans. Today we planned to do two songs (The Counting Song and The Hokey Pokey) and two lessons in English (colors and clothing). Partway through The Counting Song, we could already tell that our students were pretty hyped up. Then we moved into our English lessons instead of going on to our next song. We managed to keep them together and focused on our lessons, but it was clear that they wanted to RUN!

So, Team Paz came to the rescue by setting up its calisthenics obstacle course. The kids had to run in pairs (representing the two teams into which we had divided them) and stop at different stations to do pushups and jumping jacks, among other things. Perhaps more than any other lesson we’ve done, this one was PERFECT for its moment. The kids were patient and courteous, they were really excited about the game, they ran really hard from station to station, and they cheered madly as each person returned to home base. We all cheered almost as hard.

We played Duck, Duck, Goose, and a game called Cat and Mouse. They taught us Portuguese words for all of the English in the game but we still had them play the games in English. (Of course, this decision meant that as we rode off for lunch, we heard calls of “Duck! Duck! Goose!” from the kids lining the dirt road.) We have all gotten a kick out of spending some of our college lives playing children’s games again.

Another group of the older kids separated off with Georgete to plant açai trees around the storage building. Açai is the fruit that is the basis of some new diet fads in the U.S., but here it is just a common fruit that people eat often. The main way to eat it is to smash it up into a substance somewhat like melting ice cream, sweeten it, then eat it a bowlful of it from a spoon. It is a great source of iron and other nutrients, so it will be nice for the kids and the program to have access to a steady supply of açai once the seedlings mature. We didn’t find out today how long it will take for the plants to bear fruit.

The rest of our group got busy with the building itself, demolishing the back wall in short order (carefully, though, so we could salvage as much wood as possible) and then rebuilding it. A few of the students who were on the construction job had never knocked a wall out of a building before (no matter how sturdy), so doing it for the first time was quite a rush.

Equally fun was rebuilding the wall using hand tools almost exclusively. The one exception was the small power saw that we bought to help cut the wood. It is of a familiar brand name, Makita, but it is so small that it looks like a toy. It saves us lots of work, though, so we don’t mind. Chris trained a couple of people on how to use the saw and they became a virtual lumber mill. We had two different sizes of boards that all had to be cut at 45 degree angles, so we would measure and yell out “Fat 310” and the crew would know just what to do. By the end of the day, the wall we knocked out was rebuilt much better than before.

As for that “310” up there, it is a metric measurement, which has been a constant source of confusion for us. We keep saying the number on the tape, then asking, “is that centimeters or millimeters or what?” Of course our Brazilian hosts always use the metric system, but few of us have ever gotten the hang of it. We keep switching back and forth: “Bring me an 8 inch board cut to 291 centimeters.” Maybe by February we will catch on.

Speaking of the metric system, we are guessing that a certain subset of our readership out there might be better versed in the metric system than we are. More specifically, we could probably use some of Miss Anderson’s (Shawny’s sister’s) sixth graders from Happy Hollow Elementary School in West Lafayette, Indiana, on our measuring team. They probably know their way around the metric system better than we do. Each of the Happy Hollow students wrote letters to each of our students before the trip began. We just got our letters when we were out on the boat yesterday.

The Happy Hollow students have some questions for us, so we will answer them here:

Q: How big was the anaconda?
A: Happily, we didn’t see an anaconda. We hear that they can be 18 feet long.

Q: Please introduce yourselves in each video so we can get to know you.
A: It takes a long time to put together our short videos. We probably won’t remember to do this. Sorry.

Q: How does it feel to be compared to Barack Obama??
A: Joe is not in the room right now, so we can’t answer. Maybe he will say it in tomorrow’s video.

Q: More Zilly! What kind of cat is she? What will happen to her when you leave?
A: What kind of cat is Zilly? A SKINNY cat! Did you see her bones? She seems much fatter already since we’ve been here. Another guy here seems to like her too, so hopefully he will give her attention when we go back to the U.S. Several of us have contemplated smuggling her back with us, but we think we will leave her to hunt bugs in the bushes around our camp.

Q: We love the "Order of the Purple Bike!"
A: We love it too! All day every day people praise each other’s work by saying, “That might be worth a ride on the purple bike!”

And speaking of the purple bike, the newest inductee into the “Ordem da Bicicleta Roxa” is Shana Dhillon! Shana jumped up and ran around collecting laundry off the line when the rain started a couple of days ago, and we had such a back-up of worthy recipients that we are only getting around to recognizing Shana now. She is always a person who is trying to see what others need. She offers to get first aid items when someone is tending to a blister or sunburn and she does more than her share of work on-site. The Purple Bike belonged to her today! Congratulations, Shana!



Ana helps us get the kids ready to start the day.

The building across from our work site shows the general condition of the riverfront in the neighborhood where we work.


The children taught us how to play “Cat and Mouse.”


Marcia chases Joe around the circle in the game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Even with a camera around her neck, she can still catch him.

Alec takes a break from the hand-saw to help one of the kids practice his English.


After playing around in the hot sun, the kids needed some water to refresh their body and mind.


Shana and Margeaux repaint the side wall of the new and improved boathouse.

Chris trained Marie on how to use the power-saw and she became a real expert today.


The two boys relaxing in the shade from the hot sun.


The two boys again, smiling (we think), for the camera. They came to watch and observe the hard work everyone had put in on the building.

Mercedes, Shawny and Alec working together to put up the boards on the building.


Here's a picture of the wall replacement job mid-morning.


A fantastic group puts on the finishing touches of the wall. It was ripped down and built up ten times better in one day.


Jaime standing tall on the reinforced building, proud of all the work that has been done.

Amazon 2009: Day Nine (Tuesday, January 13)

Today’s video was produced by the team Dar Um Jeito.

Today was technically a day off, but we still bounced out early to get started on our day of exploration on our way to a local beach called Alter do Chão. We walked out of our gate at 7:40 just as we planned and arrived at the docks of the Port of Santarém exactly as the clock struck 8. It might be the first time we’ve managed to make it to an appointment as scheduled in this whole trip. Maybe we can make a habit of it.

As it turned out, the place that we arrived was not where our captain was, but we managed to call him and have him bring the boat to us rather than us hiking over to where he was. Our captain, Rionaldo, owns a triple decker boat similar to the ones that SMC groups have chartered on previous trips upriver. This boat, the Marco André, has a nice kitchen area and a spacious split level deck that left plenty of room for people to be in the sun or the shade, whichever they preferred.

Some people napped and some people talked, but all of us were awed by the magnificence of the entire river basin. We were mostly on the Tapajós River today, which splits from the Amazon right by Santarém. The size and scale of the river cannot be described. We said over and over again that this thing around us just could NOT be a river, as it is too vast. All along the shore were lovely villages and small beaches, along with long stretches of undeveloped land.

We stopped at one abandoned beach that had apparently been a gathering place some years gone by. Now it has a few standing refreshment huts, but with no refreshments or customers inside. Its sand is soft and white, and it would feel great on your feet if it didn’t get so hot that it almost burns. Thus, we ran from shady spot to shady spot to cross a low hill and get to a lagoon on the other side.
We all hopped right into the water to cool off, then walked down the shore to a long sandbar that arcs far out into the shallows of the river. The tranquility of the moment ended only because we decided to move on up the river to the beach where we really meant to spend our time today.

Our chosen beach for the day was the well-known (but not crowded) Alter do Chão. It is a wonderful river beach with a cute little town nearby. There are food huts and cabana boys and umbrellas to be rented, but it is not posh in any way. In fact, we ordered our lunch of fish and chicken and waited over two hours before it arrived. Once we had eaten it, though, we had no complaints, because it was fabulous. We tasted other beach snacks, including pachoca, which consists of ground/powderized roasted peanuts and a little bit of sugar. It looks like a bag of sand on the tray but it tastes fabulous.

After lunch, a few of us went into town to walk around, while others rested on the beach. One other group took advantage of the totally-out-of-regional-character “banana boat” ride. It is really designed for children and is pulled behind a speedboat until it dumps off its 6-8 occupants. Our group took several spins on the thing and decided it was pretty fun even if it wasn’t very Amazonian.

We gathered back at the boat at 4:00 so that we could make it back to Santarém by sunset. We wanted to spend sunset at the “meeting of the waters,” where the Amazon and Tapajós run side by side in different colors. We were interested to see that phenomenon, but even more we were hoping to see some of the most unusual occupants of that particular part of the river basin: the pink dolphins.

As we understand, river dolphins sometimes turn pink depending on their diets and other factors. There are quite a few pink dolphins that are seen regularly in the area, so we will continue to seek them every time we enter the water. Unfortunately, we missed the sunset and therefore the dolphins. We still stopped at the meeting of the waters and jumped into two rivers simultaneously. Wouldn’t you?

______

Today’s Rider of the Purple Bike was Cassidy Gunter, in honor of her “why not?” attitude, especially when we are working with the kids. She demonstrated this spirit in a very clear way when she agreed to be buried in the sand a couple of days ago. Though others joined her eventually, she was the first to volunteer. As usual, she was the trendsetter. Today’s Purpleness was largely symbolic, as we didn’t ride our bikes today at all. She still feels honored, we hope.




This is where the Amazon River and the Tapajos River meet, but their waters do not mix. We jumped off our boat in the exact spot where we were in both rivers at the same time!


This is the food that we had for lunch at the beach! It was delicious!

: This is the Brazilian flag waving on the back of the boat!


The scenery on the boat was truly breath taking as you can see.


At the beach we decided to try this banana boat ride. It was SOooo fun!


The welcome home view of the city from our boat.


Our very own Tara was the star sailing beauty of the day.


Marcia took a moment to sit in the water and contemplate her surroundings, or maybe she was just using the facilities.


Our lunch had obviously been visiting the dentist frequently.


Dentist or not, the fish’s teeth were no match for us.

Tara taught some of the girls yoga on the back deck.

The first beach we visited. (Siblings Joey and Marie having alone time.)

We spent the day on the boat "Marco Andre".

Since the boat ride was a few hours long, we played games to pass the time. 

At the end of the day we jumped off the boat into the Amazon river. 

Amazon 2009: Day Eight (Monday, January 12)

Today’s video was produced by the team Bota Fogo.

Again, we are catching up on blogposts, so please look back at the last couple of days to see newly-posted videos. Today we had a surprise day off, so we slept in a bit. Still, we are used to being productive, so we took the time to clean our camp. The staff gave us all of their cleaning supplies and taught us their methods; we went to town on the floors, walls, our own stuff, everything. It really felt much better to see the place straightened up.

One group of four opted to go to work with Georgete this morning to help her package some goods that she had made. We are very impressed with her resourcefulness in everything that she does. She is constantly producing art and other goods from recycled materials and she apparently sells enough of her work to help support her family and the program in which we are participating. Our group had a great time working with her until we realized that one of the bikes that we had used to get to her house was no longer outside. That is, we had parked our bikes inside a wall around her house, but someone ventured in and stole one.

We were bummed to lose a bike, but Georgete was downright horrified that this unfortunate event had happened. She launched a full investigation among her neighborhood group, which might well lead to the return of the bike. We’ll see.

Even without all of our bikes, we decided to use this afternoon to learn a bit more about Santarém. We chose the João Fona Cultural Center as a starting point. It is a museum of natural and cultural history that focuses on Santarém and the surrounding Amazon region. We learned a range of different things there, but most of us were probably most fascinated by Lourimar Leal, the director of the museum, who was just inside the front door. The last SMC group had met him four years ago, so our leaders were able to catch up and see what has transpired in Santarém since then.

Lourimar is a descendant of Brazilian slaves, so he has spent part of his life trying to understand the practices of slavery and the premises under which the system persisted. Among other things, he has collected some items that were used to punish slaves, including a huge iron shoe and an actual stockade that were used to keep slaves in line. These items are on display in one room of the museum and -- unlike U.S. museums – the items are not covered by plexiglass or protective coverings so we could actually touch some of them.

Lourimar’s perspective on the entire subject of the Brazilian slave trade is unique, especially because he is one of few living Brazilians who learned the songs that were passed around in slave communities. He sang a couple of them for us and we were surprised to learn that they are not recorded anywhere, whether sung by him or someone else. We, then, are going back to see him soon and we will be the crew that documents this important piece of Brazilian history for the first time (as far as we know). Both Lourimar and we are thrilled.

The sad news from Lourimar is that since the last SMC visit (in 2005), he has lost his sight due to glaucoma. This news is particularly sad because Lourimar is also a respected painter in the region, who has served as Secretary of Culture under several different administrations. Lourimar, however, seems to take his relatively new blindness in stride and now hopes to do more singing (perhaps starting to sing about what he might have painted). We look forward to our next visit with him, which might actually be at his artifact-filled home.

Our Rider of the Purple Bike today was Tara Larson. Yesterday, she got herself up for church and sat out on the porch waiting for almost an hour. When Shawny finally got up, it was too late to make it to mass, but she stayed up anyway. Tara is a fabulous group member no matter what is happening, but she proved herself to be extra special on Sunday and therefore wins a seat on the Purple Bike.


The view out into the courtyard of the museum.

Felicia, Rob, Erik, and Katie sitting on the steps of the Santarem Museum.

Georgete in the process of packaging the products she makes before sending them out to the stores.

A doorway out into the courtyard of the Santarem Museum.

Ana talking to Lourimar Leal, a historian at the Santarem Museum.

As we stare outside the window, you are able to see the meeting of the Tapajos river and the Amazon.

Lourimar Leal is not only the director of the Cultural Center of Santarem, he is also a well renowned artist.

This is Joe and Joey enjoying each other's company in Brazil.

This is Georgete using her day off from working with the kids to make fruit flavored liqueur and jelly. This is how she makes her livelihood in Brazil.

Erik contemplated about life looking at the pure beauty of Brazil.

A whale skeleton of the animal that mysteriously floated throughout the Tapajos River, only unfortunately die in a boat accident.

Artifacts in the museum. Some of the earliest ceramic art was found in Santarem.

The beautiful Mercedes is documenting the beginning of our tour of the Santarem Museum.

Who needs a car when you can carry your family on your bike?

Katie enjoying the scenery and relaxing in the hammock, while diligently writing in her daily journal.

Amazon 2009: Day Seven (Sunday, January 11)

Today’s video was produced by the team As Onças.

We got behind on blog entries for a day or so there, so go back to Day 6 to see a newly-posted video for that day. We are having a few problems with our late-night internet connection here on the university campus so we haven’t quite gotten everything done that we are trying to do. We have also had an awful time working out a cell phone situation here. In prior trips the groups managed to outfit a U.S. phone with a Brazilian chip and stay in contact in that way. This time that option seems impossible. International phone cards on pay phones have turned out to be our best way to talk to people back at home.

Anyway, on with our Sunday. We intended to go to mass today, even though we knew it started at 7:00 a.m. That meant we needed to get up at 6:00 and start walking into the city by 6:30. We were all game to do it, as the last group who visited got a very different view of the town on Sunday (not to mention a trip to the church’s bell tower, which comes with a 360 degree view of the river and the city). Unfortunately, our alarm clock (Shawny) set her alarm clock but forgot to turn it on. Maybe we were meant to get a little extra sleep today.

Instead, then, we headed on over to our worksite to connect with the kids, Georgete and Jaime again. Today we started out inside the building on-site teaching lessons in English. We decided to start with songs today, so we used “Happy Birthday” as our opening, followed by “Old McDonald.” The kids thought that the word “oink” was one of the funniest they had ever heard. They were laughing and clapping and very much NOT self-conscious; suddenly we noticed that all of those things were true about us too.

Georgete then took the students outside and they began to run around madly. A new volleyball net caught their attention, along with some of ours. Some of the students took interest in the kayaks and new paddles, lining up to wait their turn for lessons from Jaime, an expert kayaker. Some of the students teamed up with one or more of us to practice speaking English.

Everyone was pretty well occupied, when suddenly we heard a noise like a train in the far off distance. We looked that direction and saw a wall of rain heading our way like an invading army. Though we didn’t really fear getting wet, the sense that it was chasing us convinced us all to run madly for cover, screaming and laughing along with the kids. We huddled under the tents and for the first time since we landed and got the slightest recollection of what it feels like to be chilly. The kids thought it was “freezing,” but to us it was a pleasant reminder that there are times when one’s body does not perspire.

The sun broke through pretty quickly and we all resumed our activities. Some of us even took spins in the kayaks. We knocked off just after noon and helped clean up the area. As we left the worksite by walking our bikes up the rutted dirt road that leads away from the river, we were surrounded by kids screaming, cheering, and yelling: “How are you?,” “Fine, thank you,” “And you?,” and “Oink!”
We headed home for lunch and siesta, then biked right back to the worksite, but not for work this time. Instead, some of our hosts took us in boats across the delta to a beautiful river beach called Maracaná. We actually picked a shady spot on the beach and just relaxed for the first time since we arrived. (By the way, our 50 spf sunscreen is still doing an amazing job of keeping us from getting burned! Though we should easily expect to have a couple of bad burns among us by now, we have not experienced any such pain. AND our insect repellants seem to be working too. Our only problem is heat rash, which comes and goes on most of us.) We could only stay on the beach for about two hours, as we had to catch the last boats back at 6:00.

We were so happy and relaxed that we decided to go into town to hear some live music at night at what used to be Santarém’s prime ice cream spot. As it turned out, they didn’t have live music or a proper selection of ice cream, but they DID have pizza (including a sardine one, which we ordered!) and burgers. Though we love the food at our camp and our cook, Dona Maria, we liked cheating just a little bit for some familiar comfort foods.

Georgete let us know that she is not working with the kids on Monday or Tuesday, so we are planning other adventures for those two days.

By the way, our Rider of the Purple Bike today was Erik Coloma. Yesterday, when the chain broke on Marcia's bike and Chris offered to walk the broken bike home, Erik towed Chris and the broken bike up the longest hill we have to ride. For that, and his great co-operative and collaborative attitude, he deserves the special honor today.





While we were playing beach Volleyball, a wall of rain came at us and we all ran for cover.

Team Paz teaches the kids how to sing happy birthday.

Selini is one of our youngest students. We all love her curly hair.

While we're making friends with the kids, it looks like they were making friends with each other too.

After an exhausting morning working with the kids, we took a break on Maracana beach.

A moth the size of the palm of a hand.

On a sunday afternoon the beach was hoppin'.

People of all ages enjoy kayaing on the Tapajos River.

The fab 4 (Dar Um Jeito) having a great day at the beach.
Cops patrol the beaches of the Tapajos River.

This is Botafogo teaching the kids "Old Macdonald had a farm". 

Some of the kids thought it would be fun to bury some of us.

Some of the youngest kids of the group.

In the afternoon we took 3 canoes to a beach across from our worksite.

A picture of the beach at which we spent part of the afternoon.