The apostle Lucas and cathedral in Brasilia

Brasilia's government district

Water garden around one of the government buildings

Had hoped to meet members of A_Rocha_Brasil to learn about their projects here but Luz was unable to reach one of her contacts and another was out of town.

written by  cjones on April 24, 2008 from Brasilia, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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"Catholicism retains its status as Brazil's official religion, but is declining in popularity. Many people now merely turn up to church for the basics: baptism, marriage and burial. Evangelical Christianity, however, is booming. All over Brazil, especially in poorer communities where people are most desperate, you will come across simple, recently built churches full of worshipers. Sometimes there will be two or three rival evangelical churches on the same street... In one, worshipers may be moaning and speaking in tongues, in another they'll simply be listening to the stern words of a preacher."

Such a dismal view of Christianity! Misses the point and meaning of faith entirely, although I admit I used to think this way. Unfortunately, there seems to be some justification for the cynicism as I've learned that evangelicals in Latin America have often preached that faith is a matter of church and family - rather than action in the world, redemption is to be found in the afterlife - rather than on earth, and that difficulties in life are due to one's sins - rather than to injustices perpetrated by an economic system which should be resisted out of love for one's fellow human beings and the earth. Also heard from a friend in Ecuador that a friend of his who joined an evangelical church became more business-minded and materialistic (bought a fancy car) and less interested in helping the community, apparently because community organizations were not specifically Christian.

One of the implications of the above seems to be that desperate people turn to Christianity because reality is too difficult to bear - thus they accept an illusion that is more tolerable or pleasing. While this could be the case in some instances, I think the result would be a shallow faith. For myself desperation may have been necessary, but also a realization that the illusion is not in faith in God but in faith in the world and those human beings who belong to it. By the "world" I mean the global system of selfish exploitation and greed all around us. From my experience, I could see that believing in the world's promises ultimately leads to desperation - for oneself and for others. Then in addition, there had to be a willingness to trust in something - God - that can be known, although not by the intellect.

The attitude of the Lonely Planet guides and most of the single independent travelers I've met seems to be that traveling is about having fun and having fun is about adventures but also about partying, getting drunk and maybe hooking up for casual affairs they know won't last. Not very inspiring and I've been feeling this more lately since staying in closer quarters with the group at the hostel.

written by  cjones on April 23, 2008 from Brasilia, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Kickass street music in Teresópolis

View of Dedo de Deus from the hotel window

Hiked around the Serra_dos_Orgãos_National_Park and an outdoor art fair today. Tried the caldo de cana - a cold drink of sugar cane juice. Muito bom! There's good rockclimbing in the area but couldn't find any bouldering on the side of the park I visited. Resting up for the long bus ride tomorrow and making plans for upcoming projects.

written by  cjones on April 21, 2008 from Teresopolis, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Rio is an interesting place and very scenic in parts but it still feels good to be out of the big city. It's a bit tense there with the crime, crowds and current dengue epidemic. Although I met some very nice Cariocas, it definitely feels more relaxed here and the people in general seem more happy and friendly.

Been thinking about how different it feels here in Brazil from the other Latin American countries I've visited. Part of it is the language, which to me seems more like Italian or French than like Spanish. Another part is the different mix of people - more European and African than mestizo and indigenous as in Ecuador. The music is different also - samba and bossa nova instead of salsa and bachata.

Because of the much higher cost of living, I had been buying groceries and eating in the hostel instead of eating out. So while I haven't tried much of the local food yet, what I have tried and seen on the menu is also different from Ecuador. No more platanos, more beans and fruit juices I haven't seen before. For lunch here in Teresópolis, I just had a pitcher of açai juice and a banana and cinnamon pizza!

View of the hostel from the street below

Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio

Copacabana at sunset

This is the first time I've been around Portuguese and thought it would be easier to understand from the similar spelling of many words in Spanish, but the pronunciation is very different - r's pronounced like h, d's like j, t's like sh, g's like the French j, etc. Surprisingly for me, I've heard that in Rio there may be more people who speak some English than Spanish. Still not many speak either.

written by  cjones on April 12, 2008 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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"This is what the LORD says:
'In the time of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances'"

Isaiah 49:8

written by  cjones on April 5, 2008 from Quito, Ecuador
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Looking down from my room in the trees

Discussed many things with Servio, whose family has lived on the same land for 150 years and has always practiced organic agriculture - using no synthetic chemicals and maintaining a wide diversity of fruit trees and other crops I'd never heard of before, such as the "air potato" which grows on a vine instead of underground. Learned about the successful organic cacao and reforestation projects in the community, and a community-managed enterprise to export palm leaves for floral arrangements, as well as difficulties in obtaining credit for other potential enterprises.

It seems that by supporting just individual entrepreneurs the current trend in microcredit could be creating disruptive competition and missing the point of what is best for the life of a community as a whole. Some projects, such as a chocolate factory or a community store that would sell locally processed foods (e.g. banana chips, other dried fruits, candies) instead of mass-produced junk snack foods from the multinational companies, require larger investments of capital than are available from microcredit programs.

The organic cacao project has been successful because of the investments of an Ecuadorian NGO that has assisted in obtaining organic certification and also buys the cacao at a fair price and sells to a chocolate producer in Germany.

Although there has been little mention of it in the press, which is controlled by business interests generally against Ecuador´s current president, a new program he has promoted called "5 plus 5 plus 5", for $5000 loans at 5% for 5 years, has the potential to be of great help to campesinos struggling to survive on their land. This is in stark contrast to lending practices of private banks in the past, which have charged up to 60% interest and required a document prepared by an attorney that could cost several hundred dollars.

Another problem I heard about with the banks occurred with "dollarization" in 2000 when depositors' accounts were frozen for 3 months, then the national currency (the sucre) was converted to dollars at the rate of around 25,000:1 although the international exchange rate was actually more like 8,000:1.

Maria roasting the delicious cacao and coffee

Cacao nacional (yellow)

Walking the perimeter of Segundo's farm

Worked out a process for acquiring, organizing and transferring the GPS data and integrating this into a digital map with an aerial photo from the Ecuadorian military geographic institute. Through meetings with the local council and accompaniment by council members in the data collection, Yanapuma has eased suspicions about the purpose of the maps so that we now have the enthusiastic support of almost the entire Búa community. Pascal will also be teaching a few of the locals to use the technology so they can continue the data collection after he leaves in a couple of months.

In the thick of it

Taking a break for fresh papaya

Thinking about the people I met in Baños and the current conditions in Ecuador I've been learning about from the news media and from talking with my Spanish teacher all week. The country is in the midst of a natural crisis with the severe rains that have destroyed many of the towns and crops in the lowlands, as well as a political crisis with the invasion a week ago by the Colombian army, who killed a group of guerrillas camped and sleeping in Ecuador near the border. Ecuador is neutral in regard to the Colombian civil war and of course this was a violation of national sovereignty. Colombia's position is that they were pursuing "terrorists" who were gathering their forces for a major attack, but this was apparently not true and there have been terrorists on both sides of the war.

Ecuador also formed a national assembly last year to rewrite the constitution so now many of the laws could change, hopefully for the better. I've read about a lot of resistance to the US military base on the coast in Manta, and a question about tariffs increasing on exports to the US due to the expiration of an Andean trade agreement linked to eradication of coca. The president has proposed protecting from oil exploration vast tracts of Amazonian forest as a carbon reservoir for the planet. However, the proposal would require partial compensation by the international community, which so far has not responded.

Also reflecting on the tenuousness of the lives of people living next to the volcano in Baños. About nine years ago when there was a time of very intense volcanic activity, my teacher Marco and his family had to leave their homes and livelihoods, and quickly evacuate to another city for a year. This was almost necessary again about a month ago. Marco is indigenous and also Christian. In Spanish he told some great stories about how he was brought to his faith and about miracles and fulfilled prophesies that he and his friends had witnessed. I also heard about 4-year-old kids being sold into slavery or working and living on the street.

written by  cjones on March 8, 2008 from Tena, Ecuador
from the travel blog: so-journ
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