seed youth & prehistoric cave drawings

On our final day in the sertao,

we had morning breakfast

(that we shared with the monkeys :) )

Then we started our day off by traveling to a much drier area than we saw yesterday,

and our first stop was to meet with the group Semente Jovens (Seed Youth) who create

jewlery made from seeds straight from the desert in order to make & sell some very unique, beautiful jewlery.  This program has been in place for about 3.5 years now, so we were able to meet with the youth & of course buy some of their beautiful jewlery made from the seeds. We bought a few things (kaylee, I bought you something too!)

jordans bracelets

mine :)

 As we were waiting outside for everyone to get done, our dear Carbonel began graffiting the side of the building (which is actually half church/half school and about the size of a living room.) Here was his creation:

After our visit, we had lunch on the way & headed to the REAL sertao which was so dry, and was filled with sand and catcus. We literally drove off all these small dirt roads filled with rocks for what seemed like forever. I kept thinking to myself “if this bus breaks down, how would we ever survive!?” and jordan kept saying “I’m really proud of our little bus for going on all these crazy roads”..we were literally traveling up and down and all around the brazilian desert where it was unusal to run into a home. Every once and a while, we would see a house then another..It was far and inbetween. I watched the people come out of their house in like amazement as we drove by..I wonder how many buses ever go down some of those roads. 

surrounding area..this was real sertao.

We even came to a point where we had to stop and move this barbwire fence to keep animals out and continue on our way. When we finally arrived at our “destination” it was just two small houses, one where you could get some water, snacks and some drinks. We asked if we could buy water and he said “no no, we have water for free, from our cisterns, it’s natural mineral water” and he took out a jar of water and we filled up our waterbottles. I asked him if he had a bathroom I could use and he took me through his little home, in their kitchen was a small bathroom that did not even have an option to flush. The boys who wanted to use the bathroom were sent across from the house behind a brush/stick open “outhouse” type thing.

We were told it was an hour hike to see these ancient cliff drawings that we had come so far to see. We started walking and then Vanessa & our guide from Diaconia had to stop at this small home in order to ask the owner if it was okay to cross into his land in order to see these cliff dwellings.  Apparently he was kinda the person who looked over that land, and the trail to get there was through his property.  When he saw us, he literally started shaking.  He showed us his hands and how badly he was trembling. His name was Fabio, and he was probably in his early 30s.  He told us that he has never once seen so many people at once (we are about 23 in total) unless he was at a party.  He was extremely nervous. We asked him to take us up to see the cliff drawings and he gladly led the way. He was such a kind man and led us up the mountain. The trail was kind of rough, not difficulty wise, but it was not a nice trail as in it was covered in weeds and other plants (thorn covered), there were rocks every where and it was just not a “well kept” trail. There were also lots of wasps & we even came across a snake skin (that jordan picked up! yuck) 

When we finally made it to the top, this is what we saw:

(fabio told tawyna, a girl in our group, that he hasn’t worn a shirt in like 7 years except for maybe a party. He said that if he has to wear a shirt to a party than he will come home and take his shirt off immediately. He was funny.)

These PREHISTORIC cliff drawings that we encountered were 

12,000 years old.

 Now, that number is something that I cannot even comprehend.

And there it was, these drawings that were created by animal blood thousands of years ago. Still in tact, and so beautiful.  I just couldn’t believe that we had to drive two hours on a dirt road in the brazilian desert with no signs, and that there is just a little family with a ranch that takes care of that land.  I couldn’t believe it was not more of a “tourist” attraction, where the point to get there would actually be more developed. We literally had to kick his cows off the trail because they were sitting right there!  I wonder how many archeologists have actually studied the area.. I was in amazement!

Jordan was so happy, he said that this was his favorite day of all of Study Abroad. Which is crazy, because we have had many great days.

The sad part of these cliff drawings was that other people had gone in there and drew their own names and dates and what not.  I wish it was more well protected! People don't understand how amazing it is to have these cliff drawings.. 

After we headed down,  we wanted to take a picture of Fabio outside of his home.  He shouted “I need to go home now. I haven’t worked today and my dad is mad at me.” We thanked him and Vanessa handed him 50 Reais as a thank you for taking us up.  Daniella said that normally people might give around 10 reais, so he was in shock when Vanessa handed him that money. He literally just stared at it in amazement.  It was like he had never been given that much money before. He lost his words and finally thanked her and told her it was too much.  But the reason why Vanessa gave him that much was to show him how much she appreciated and valued that experience.  

As we got on the bus, he came on to tell us that we were always welcome to come back and of course be on his land. (since vanessa and daniella had to ask permission)

I’m so grateful for my last day in the sertao. I’m grateful that we traveled on that ridiculously bumpy dirt road and hiked in the desert up the side of the mountain. It was all so worth it. Especially just meeting Fabio was great!

:)

visiting with families and learning about their farm work.

Our second day in the desert, was my favorite day! 

We got up really early, had breakfast and headed out deeper into the sertão.

We traveled about 2 hours even further to visit with some families whom Diaconia had assisted and to see there farms.  

The first home we went to was of Ivan.

He told us all about his life working in the desert, what it’s like to live so far away from everything, how they live with so little water and we also talked about how Diaconia had helped them. He also told of us family, how he is in his 30s and unmarried. He has a brother who helps him around the farm, and another brother who died at the age of 13.  He had an accident with a male cow who kicked him in the head and killed him. They created a small sancturary/church next to their home with pictures of the boy along with figurines and paintings of saints and God.  I noticed that even in all their sufferings most of them have strong faith and churches are abundant throughout all of Brazil. 

He showed us all around his farm and we were able to see all the variety of fruits and vegetables that he is able to grow. We were all so surprised that so many fruit could possibly grow in a desert! Ivan and his family focus on selling the pulp of the fruit rather than selling the fruit itself.  They have a room in their house where they create the pulp and package it and place it in a freezer. 

He continued showing us around and it was amazing to learn about how a farm in the desert works. We saw how they extract oil from cow manure, we saw how they fertilize soil by the worms who eat the soil and later digest it out.  We also saw the water cisterns , the wells, etc. 

Ivan was so kind as to let us eat so much of there fruit. We literally just ate all the fruits off the trees itself. We tried acerola, guava (goiaba), maracuja (passfruit), pomegranite, oranges, graviola just to name some. 

What is really amazing is that his one tiny little fruit(the one in the bucket), acerola, contains the same amount of Vitamin C as 10 oranges! And it is smaller than a cherry!

After touring the farm, we had lunch with his family!

We had rice, cuscuz with beans, potato/carrot salad, meat, squash, salad, etc. It was seriously so delicious! I think what made it so wonderful was that all these ingredients were fresh from their farm. We also had fresh fruit juice of Guava & Acerola. Yumm..

Later, we had a second farm to visit. So we traveled another 2 hours to visit his farm. They also have a variety of fruits but it seemed like they had more vegetables. They also had a lot of sugar cane as well. He lived there with his wife, and two children-eric, and erica. He said that his farm has been with his family for 200 years! It seemed like they had quite a lot of land with plenty of produce.  Their home was very humble though and did not own a car so had to walk or ride a bike to get anywhere.  After we were done touring their farm and learning about them we had fresh maracuja(passionfruit) juice and crackers in their little home.  

It was so fun getting to know these two families and learning about their lives in the desert and how they as farmers can survive without much water. They both lived in a very rural place with hardly anything. But they both seemed very happy with what they do have.  It was such a wonderful reminder to me about how it doesn’t matter what you have as long as you have people around you that you love. These families seemed so happy and content with their lives even with all their stuggles. They find joy and amusement in the smallest activities such as playing with sticks or playing in the outside shower.  They were happy because they have each other. Anytime we would ask what they enjoyed doing in their “free time” they always responded with spending time with family, visiting family, etc. Even if they had to walk miles and miles in the desert in 100+degree weather, they would do it to see members of their family and they found joy in that.  I’m very grateful for this reminder to always be content with your situation and always see the best in what you have to endure. 

These people are farmers with hardly any water.. 

And they survive. Every day. But most importantly.. They Are Happy.