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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"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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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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View from the cabin at Iracambi

The accommodations are here seem more comfortable than in the other communities where I worked, including good food, showers and internet access. Planning to put my software background to use on the GIS project as well as to learn about and hopefully contribute to agroforestry, environmental education and alternative income generation efforts in the community.

written by  cjones on May 1, 2008 from Rosario da Limeira, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Last weekend I visited an experimental organic coffee farm in the local community of Graminha. The weekend before I went on a 13-hour pilgrimage hike to a cross on a mountaintop in Serra_do_Brigadero state park with Virgilio from Iracambi and several others from Graminha - an annual tradition here on May 3, known as the celebration of Santa Cruz.

During the week, I've been working on the computer system here - resolving map data organization and compatibility issues, and evaluating the quality of the existing map data. I've also been using the GIS to help develop a reforestation plan for the Iracambi fazenda. Most of the property is currently used for agriculture including cattle, tilapia (fish), sugarcane and eucalyptus for timber, but some of the pasture is planned to be converted to forest using seedlings from the tree nursery here for the production of medicinal plants or agroforestry crops.

Sunrise over mountains in Graminha

Destination of pilgrimage on the day of Santa Cruz

The fish farm at Iracambi

Harvesting eucalyptus

Presentation in Rosario (notice maps)

Iracambi's Marcelo - the Brazilian Neil Young

Also earlier this week I received the map data I was waiting for to complete the Bua map. Finished the map, which can be opened in a free program called ArcReader and allows a user to interactively explore and query the underlying map data, for example crop types, family names and areas of parcels.

At Iracambi, the new GIS coordinator arrived on Wednesday so we have a few days of overlap for me to transfer what I've observed, learned and managed to accomplish here before I leave. Made some progress with the reforestation map and cleaning up the data organization on their computer network. Also learned more about the agricultural and economic situation here and the lives of some of the local families. The reforestation plan, of which the map is a part, includes agroforestry areas to be used for experimentation and demonstration to producers in the surrounding communities.

I feel blessed to have this success and completion of the work I initiated within the past 5 months. After some setbacks, it's been encouraging.

written by  cjones on May 31, 2008 from Rosario da Limeira, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Noticed on the bus trip yesterday all the destruction of forests and soils in this part of the country, being used mostly for monoculture coffee plantations and as pastures for cattle. While in Central America much of the coffee is grown along with and in the shade of other tree species, here in Brazil - by far the largest coffee producer in the world - almost all of it is grown in the sun. This is very harmful to the soil and biodiversity, and requires much chemical use that damages the health of people and other life besides the targeted pests.

As I logged on to my email account just now, I noticed a news article on Brazil's new environment minister talking about cracking down on illegal cutting of forests for cattle grazing. The article says that burning to clear new or overgrown pasture in the Amazon accounts for about 75 percent of Brazil's production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. That doesn't even consider the loss of trees to absorb atmospheric carbon, nor the cows' production of methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And not just in the Amazon but in other areas of Brazil like the Atlantic rainforest where I was working. These could be some good reasons to eat less beef - to reduce the demand - and if you eat it to be more selective about where it comes from.

It seems that cattle grazing is a particularly destructive use of land in the tropics. Aside from the methane, it requires a lot of land for the quantity of food produced. But there are other destructive land uses, and good laws against deforestation exist - they're just not enforced and wealthy landowners have a lot of influence on politicians and the police. Without more enforcement, better economic alternatives and/or more conscientiousness about preserving nature - whether from a biblical or other perspective - I think the rainforest will continue to be destroyed for one purpose or another.

So what's a better alternative to the cattle? We need to be careful about what we substitute so that the cure isn't worse than the disease. The forest needs to be restored but people need income, although if they can produce their own food and trade with their neighbors they need less.

On the topic of cures worse than the disease: During my time in South America, I've been thinking, observing, reading about and talking with people about the effects of both oil extraction and the production of biofuels here. It's been well publicized that oil exploration and extraction have been destructive to forests, wildlife, rivers and people. One particularly glaring example occurred during the 70's through the early 90's in northeastern Ecuador, where the volume of oil spilled is estimated to have been 30 times that of the Exxon Valdez spill. And of course oil use contributes to global warming. But when land use is considered, the large-scale production of biofuels may have an even more detrimental impact on the climate (and on ecosystems in general) than oil.

Brazil is a major producer of biofuels - mostly from sugar cane but also from corn in the north. I saw smaller-scale production of a plant called mamona, grown for fuel oil alongside coffee at a farm next to Iracambi. Noticed that in the gas stations you can buy alcohol for much less than gasoline, and I heard that some people use this for travel within the city and gasoline for longer trips on the highway for more power.

written by  cjones on June 3, 2008 from Vila Velha, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Low tide in Piúma

In the past few days, as I've been making conversation with people, a number of them have told me I speak good Portuguese! But then others didn't understand a word - just stared open-jawed and giggled, as if I was from another planet! Haven't seen other gringos since I left Iracambi on Monday.

written by  cjones on June 6, 2008 from Piuma, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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