Jessie's Amazon Journal

Wednesday, August 22nd

This morning we got up and got ready to go back to Santarém. When I went over to Djalma's house to have breakfast, it was quite scary because I saw Djalma's wife, Margarete lying in the hammock with her face and arms all covered in mud. Djalma told us that she had been burned by an explosion in the oven earlier that morning. We didn't know how serious the burns were, since she was covered in mud, but I was very worried seeing as we were so far from a hospital. After I had been up for an hour or so, she washed the mud off. Thankfully it turned out to only be a first - or maybe second-degree burn. But still it was really creepy and she was obviously in a lot of pain.

A serious child eyeing the strange
blond American women on the boat
back to Santarém

The boat ride on the way back was quite a bit rockier - we were going against the wind and it was quite a windy day, which meant some pretty hefty waves. We couldn't even stay in our hammocks because they were rocking so much.

This evening we attempted to get organized for our trip to Maguary, which was supposed to be tomorrow. However, we weren't able to contact several people that we were trying to contact so we decided to stay another day in Santarém and join Arimar on the bus to Maguary on Friday.

Later in the evening we went to a local cultural festival. We had no idea what to expect, but we thought it would be interesting to check it out. It seemed to be organized by local schools. There were examples of houses from different regions within the Amazon, and examples of their crafts and clothing and such. There was also an outdoor performance space where dancing of various kinds were going on. When we first came in the gate to the concert, there was a very large group of kids performing some African style dances. Only as we were leaving did we notice that these were all local kids (mulattoes) who had painted their skin black!

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Thursday, August 23rd

Today we went to Eunice Sena and Father Leão's house. Father Leão is an American priest who has lived here for several decades. Now that I think about it, I am not sure about Eunice's background, other than I assume she is Brazilian. On the way to their house we picked out some giant fish from a guy at a little stand. Father Leon was nice enough to drive us to his house, which was a very good thing because it turns out their house is about 30 minutes by car from downtown, and much of the route is on somewhat dubious dirt roads. Father Leon seemed to know just about everyone along the way, including an Italian expat and the ex-nun he was with who were broken down on the road to their houses.

We had the fish for lunch when we got there and we talked about all sorts of things. For one, I had no idea how involved they are in the issue of micro-hydro. They are part of a micro-hydro coop and they know the engineer who is proposing to do the project with Suruacá. He is actually the engineer who designed the original micro-hydroelectric dam in the region. Now there are quite a few in the rural communities and even more on the local farms. Surprisingly, the engineer only has a 4th grade level education, and no formal training from what I am aware of. Despite this, though, he and some friends experimented with different designs and came up with one that worked better and was cheaper than the existing technology available. And his design is now being replicated throughout the area.

Pumping station at São Jorge
micro hydroelectric dam. This was the
prototype for a dams built in
several river communities
in the region, as well as the
proposed dam near Suruacá

The turbine at São Jorge

We mentioned the 2 communities that Angela is considering visiting in order to observe the micro-hydro that already exists. I can't remember their names - one was São Jorge and the other was one that someone in Suruacá recommended, but apparently it is really far away. Eunice suggested a different community because they have a better model of the community managing the dam themselves. In fact, she is going to be going to this community in the coming weeks, potentially even with the engineer. She offered for Angela to go with them which she is definitely planning on doing. This will be a fantastic opportunity for Angela not only to see a model of the dam but also to get to know Eunice better and hopefully the engineer as well.

They showed us around their property, which Father Leão calls a "mini Alter de Chão" is a famous touristy beach that is a short bus ride away from Santarém. It is on the Tapajós, of course, but it feels like a Caribbean setting with the palm trees and white sand and huge river. Father Leon and Eunice's house is right on the water.

Their property includes a small training center for women who were starting up savings groups. Eunice has quite a bit of expertise in this area. The center was simply a large round outdoor covered area where about 30 women could meet during the daytime and hang up their hammocks at night (they stayed overnight for several nights, as they traveled quite a distance to attend the training). They also had about a zillion different plants, several bee hives for honey, and a small pond where they are going to stock fish.

Eunice reaffirmed that she is very interested in our cCLEAR project and would be willing to serve as an adviser. From what I heard today, it sure seems like she would have a lot of valuable experience to offer. Not only specifically in the area of training for savings groups/entrepreneurship, but also just in getting to know the area in general - who are the major players and what is already going on. She is a great person to learn from.

We were at their property for quite a while, and it was dark by the time Father Leão dropped us off in town. He dropped us off at a supermarket so that we could do some shopping for tomorrow's short trip to Maguary. After that we just went back to our hotel.

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Jessie's Amazon Journal

Wednesday, August 22nd

Thursday, August 23rd