The experiences that I am having while working on this project are exactly what I have envisioned that Rotary wanted for me… Today we departed my little “hotel” (3 spare rooms upstairs that you can rent out and use their bathroom downstairs with the rest of the household and she will also provide breakfast) and spent 8 hours riding (on a small motorcycle) from small house to small house talking to people. The first house we visited down in the valley that is shadowed by the beautiful Serra do Brigadeiro, housed a coffee farmer with about 4 hectares of eucalyptus. He and his wife of 8 years have just welcomed their first child (a son of 6 months who was all giggles and smiles as he had just woken up) into the family and are so proud of him. Their father lives with them as well and upon us departing I heard him telling a niece that came to visit that I was an “americana” and that it was the first time they had had an “estrengeiro” in their home… I think he was bragging! Another man had a son who was learning English from his TV programs and so I was asked to come and talk to him. I spoke in English greetings and who I was and where I was from, and he his his 10 year old face behind a pillow but would peak out and smile at me whenever he thought I wasn’t looking. His father informed me that he is shy around “pretty girls” but that he thinks he will grow out of that.
We encountered other very differing types of people, some young (a set of twin girls of no more than 6 years old informed us that they did have eucalyptus planted on the property but that their parents were in town at work and we would have to return another time), and some with more than 70 years who are still working hard in the coffee fields. At each house we were offered coffee and when we refused each time they informed us that it was the coffee they grew themselves and it was of superior quality. I have, fortunately, become good at giving the excuse of a headache from coffee and therefore am able to turn down the offer for “medical reasons”. Their houses are varied as well but all seem to be of adequate size. They are made of bricks made of clay with a type of plaster made with clay as well, applied over top. The walls are often painted bright colors and the floors are either tile or concrete, depending on their economic status. They have couches and “easy chairs” just as we do but often they do not face the tv but instead each other, in a semi-circle that facilitates family interaction (which can often be lively and loud as each family member talks over top of the other and tries to make themselves heard).
They have large concrete “patios” in front of their house in which they dry the coffee beans. This is where we often encounter the people this time of year, barefoot and raking coffee beans back and forth in front of their house. Chickens and dogs run around with them as they work, with the chickens often pecking at a bean or two until they figure out they can’t eat it. The dogs are all mutts and most are of a “medium size” which is lucky for us strangers that come *knocking* at their door. In fact, when we approach it is the custom in this region to *clap to announce your presence. So, if a gate is close enough to the house we will stay on the other side of it and clap many times (a mini-applause) until the “Donna da Casa” pokes her head out of one of the windows. Only then will we enter through the gate and wait for her to emerge from the house in order to ask to speak with her husband. The people of this area work very hard, (as there isn’t a single one I have met with “extra weight” on them), and live simply. Most everyone I have talked to has only one year of schooling and has been working many years in the coffee fields, often receiving their land from their parents and working side by side with their neighbors/brothers and brother-in-laws.
We left the last household after a salmon sunset, viewed from well above the valley floor, and returned in the 50 degree night air to town (via the 12 km dirt road) underneath of a concert of stars and the sliver of a moon just barely rising above the dramatic peaks of the mountain range. The milky-way was particularly visible and therefore I was glad to be hanging on and not driving so that I could allow myself to be mesmerized by the show. What a night (with more just like it to come, I hope).
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