From the Nursery to Erosion

These past few days have been a whirlwind, and the weekend will be too! On Wednesday, I spent the morning in the nursery with Deivid and Arielle and the other volunteers, sorting seedlings that will be distributed and planted on nearby farms next week. In the afternoon, the other volunteers and I readied seed beds and planted some of the seeds we had identified and extracted in the days before.

In the evening, a few other volunteer and I went with Robin and Binka to the nearby town of Belisario to observe and participate in a community meeting about the future of the town. People began by writing down and then taking turns saying what they liked about living in Belisario (the people are very nice and the nature and waterfalls are beautiful). The pastor running the meeting then had everyone do the same thing concerning what they thought could be better about the town. Many residents talked about the lack of a paved road to the town, public security issues, the lack of specialist doctors, and the lack of leisure opportunities like public parks. I am a bit torn about whether or not these would be good additions to the town. If these things were added to the town, the quality of life of the residents would surely improve. However, the forest and wildlife in the area would surely suffer from the fragmentation caused by a paved road as well as the influx of people that would almost assuredly occur.

Thursday morning, five volunteers including me walked to an area near Robin and Binka's house that is undergoing an attempt at reforestation. It is on a very steep slope, and due to the past couple of years being pretty dry, many of the trees have died. Our job was to count how many trees that were planted there are still alive. This involved walking across a very steep slope with deep grass, and I consider myself lucky to not have encountered a snake or other venomous animal while wading through chest-high grass.

At 11:40 we caught the school bus to Rosario da Limeira. The school bus goes three times a day because Brazilian schools sometimes start in the afternoon or evening, and it is one of the only reliable ways to get to Limeira if you do not have a car, seeing as it is free and open for all to use. Once in Limeira, we went to a grocery store and bought snacks, candy, drink-making ingredients, and a green pumpkin for the Halloween party we were planning that night.

It was lunch time and we were starving after counting trees all morning, so we ate lunch at a local diner. Out of caution I only ate the rice and beans and avoided the lettuce and sliced tomatoes. I have yet to decide how adventurous of an eater I want to be here, because I do not want to get sick, but I also don't want to miss out on possibly delicious food.

During lunch, it POURED rain. And by that I mean that it looked almost as though there was a solid wall of water pouring down from the sky, and within ten minutes there were rivers on the side of the street and waterfalls pouring from the gutters. We waited out the rain and played word games to pass the time.

We took a taxi back to Iracambi, with four of us squashed together in the back seat. Once back, we began collecting firewood for the bonfire we wanted to have in the evening. This was no easy task, seeing as much of the wood lying around is damp at best and soaking wet at worst. However, we managed to amass a substantial pile, which, after some coaxing, did give us a nice fire that evening.

Before dinner, we carved the pumpkin we had acquired earlier that day. We did not find an orange pumpkin, but the dark green is almost spookier. The hummingbird is the Iracambi logo, and Nathan did an astonishing job of carving it into the pumpkin.

After dinner, we all put on our costumes. None of us had arrived with any sort of pre-planned costume ideas, so the resulting costumes were very interesting. On my part, I decided to collect several different soil colors and dress up as "Erosion".

It was a beautiful night, cloudless but not cold. We had a fun party complete with bonfire, music, caipirinhas, candy, pao de queijo, and good conversations. Overall, a fun Halloween.

Today, three other volunteers and I are taking a car to Ouro Preto, a beautiful city (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) about 2.5 hours from here. We will be staying there for 2 nights, and I'm excited to see some more of Brazil!

Also, I will finally complete the college application process as soon as I publish this post, because UC Apps are finally accepting submissions! I have had them completed since before I left, and this is the very last step.

Ate logo (until later)!