Life at Brazilian backlands

BRAZIL | Monday, 24 November 2014 | Views [625] | View Smaller Image

When you live in a dry region as the backlands, having a river in your backyard is like winning the lottery. The stream Da Silva collects water from is not exactly at her backyard - specially because she doesn’t have a backyard per se – but 20 minutes away from her home. When the sun is about to set, she goest to the stream to collect the last bucket of water, so she can be sure she won’t need it during the night.

Tags: river, backland, brazil, ana caroline de lima, stream, dry, drought, water

Can you picture yourself living in a place where the nearest neighbour lives 15km away from you? Neither did Da Silva, until her husband asked her to live in the Brazilian hinterlands, also know as Sertão. Suddenly she saw herself leaving her hometown in the north of Minas Gerais, Brazil, to a complete isolated place. They build their home with bricks made of anthill sand and collected water from a stream nearby. And despite the fact there was no electricity or sanitation, they were doing fine until a one day, when both faced the biggest fear of living isolated brings: sickness. After having successive heart attacks in a week, Da Silva husband passed away.

The only way Da Silva found not to drown in depression was to start working as a nanny for her ‘closest’ neighbours. This is how she met Bruna, the milkman’s daughter. Bruna’s mother worked as a planter and couldn’t take care of her daughter until the night comes. This is when Da Silva met Bruna, when she was only two years old. Eight years has passed and Bruna calls Da Silva granny while hugging her by the woman’s house.

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“Every day he picked up his hat, said a little pray to Virgin Mary and kissed me on the forehead before walking into the savannah” – says Da Silva, remembering her husband’s routine with tears in her eyes. He died a year ago after suffering a heart attack while exploring the backlands in search for new pastures for their cattle.
“He used to come back home before dawn. It has been like that for forty years. So the day he didn’t came back, I knew something bad has happened.”, she says. He was found the other day, still alive. She tried to bring him home but she didn’t has the strength to drag him. He has two more hear attacks and died in her arms.
She stills keep his hat at the same place he used to keep: by the wall, close to the querosene lamp

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Life at Brazilian backlands

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