Karyn Millerbrazil 2011
Two Sides of Death
March 20, 2011
At the last GCY Brazil monthly meeting, we commenced as we always do: went around and told a high point and a low point of the last month in our homestays. Somewhat overly emotional, I couldn’t keep the tears from falling as I said that my high and low point were probably wrapped up in the same event: the death of my host mother’s grandmother.
Weeks earlier we had learned that she had stomach cancer, and that the family had decided to operate. But at 87 years, there were doubts that she would be able to recover. Then one Sunday…
Farinha
March 19, 2011
I now know the full process of making farinha, and have participated in almost all of it.
It all begins with a field, a tractor, a plow, and some manioc seeds. The plantation process I have not witnessed or been part of yet, but word has it that I will get the opportunity before I leave. The manioc is planted with about two square feet of space around each root, and though I do not know how long it takes to mature, I can attest that harvesting the root is a lot easier if the field is kept well-manicured.… When
Antigamente
March 18, 2011
On January 15, I think I learned more about Nova Suica in one day than I did over the course of the two months prior.
It began when I arrived at the settlement school to greet a group of Brazilian university students who were arriving for a 10-day program. I found the school empty but for their baggage and Dona Mira, a tiny, sun-aged, well-muscled woman. “You haven’t heard the history of the settlement yet, have you?”
The real name of Nova Suica, apparently, is Assentamento 5 de Maio, 1996—the date of the land occupation. It began quite like any…
Ocupação
March 17, 2011
I looked out over the fields of Nova Suica, empty but for the occasional bull, the lights of the houses glowing in the distance. The night chill had already set in, but I resisted putting on my jacket for fear that when it got colder, I’d be out of options. And it would almost certainly rain later.
10:15pm. 15 minutes until Paulista was due to arrive with the truck. I took a moment to reflect on where I was at that moment, standing beneath a huge cement canopy in an MST assentamento, mandioc peelings under my feet, carrying only a…
Azeite de Dende
March 17, 2011
We were at the health post, handing out bottles to those who were interested in buying.
“10 reais for one liter? Really?”…
“You kidding? Smell it. Flavored, washed with spring water, mashed by hand—and with an American helper? How often does that happen?”
This was the basic negotiation going on—I was being used as part of the marketing campaign, and my host mom Raquel was talking up her product—“not what you find at the market,” she said.
She managed to sell a good 9 liters of the homemade dende oil in a matter of 30 minutes. And when I say
Health Agent
February 10, 2011
I’ve never really had any interest in public health. I didn’t know anything about it—I knew that functional systems were in place in numerous countries but that they ran the risk of providing poor care or not having enough capacity. And so, while I marveled at the idea of free health care, the little I knew about it I associated with inefficient bureaucracy.
The first things I learned about public health in Brazil were through our university classes the first month in Salvador. The name of the system here is SUS—Sistema Único de Saúde—and it’s considered to be a pretty…
Contributions
January 4, 2011
A student from Salvador asked me, while we were conversing about why exactly I’m in Nova Suica, what I bring to the community.
At our first monthly meeting, during our Portuguese check-up with Marcelo, he asked us how we think we can contribute to bettering our communities.
A doctor from the health post in Santo Amaro asked me what my objectives were for my six months here.
These questions all stumped me. In part because GCY is hard to describe in English, let alone in Portuguese. But also because I’ve got six months here and no specific project yet—as Tony…