Half Way Through

Okay, it's team leader time: I am sitting on the porch of a new 6 story apartment/condo building in Porto Velho, in the shade, looking out over the city. Just had breakfast of caju juice, Brazil nuts (castanha) and crackers (bolaches), though normally I have fresh bread, cheese and ham, fresh fruit- bananas, mamao, melon, and cafe in various delicious forms. I see: mostly one story, somewhat older houses of brick and stucco, with spanish style tile roofs; a few wooden houses, though brick/stucco are still the preferred building material--even in the wood center of the world (most wood is exported for much needed income); on top of most houses are ubiquitous blue water tanks for each house; each house has a small walled courtyard, for laundry, parking, sitting in the evening; on top of each wall is either sharp broken pieces of glass, or the newer electric wire/fencing; on the sidewalk are concrete trash containers on pedestals, about 2'x 2'x 2', raised to keep the street dogs out presumably; a few tall trees in the distance, but mostly it's urban; a large cell/TV tower. There are several 5-7 story new apartment buildings, and I see two new high rise condo buildings--maybe 10-12 stories--in the distance; these monsters are the wave of the future, as incomes rise, providing obvious security from street crime; they say there are maybe 30-40 of these in the early planning or construction stage, given the current booming economy.

The states of Acre and Rondonia, located next to Bolivia and Peru, are booming, despite a bust in the rest of the world. The federal government is pouring money into the area, as part of a 20-30 year old policy of developing its interior (think Transamazon Highways), in part to keep the world and America from claiming the Amazon as some kind of world resource, and in part because of the rich natural resourses (wood, rubber, minerals, etc.). The meetings a few weeks ago between the presidents of Peru and Brazil, touting a new highway to the Pacific for trade and regional develop, are part of this strategy. There have been 4 stretches of boom/bust in the Amazon economy: rubber in the early 1900s, gold mid century, wood for the last 30 years, and now the construction of 3 huge hydroelectric dams, coupled with massive government spending on infrastructure and social services. The state of Acre apparently gets 80% of its annual budget from the federal government, the employees of which are buying the high rise condos (from our real estate friends in Rio Branco and others).

There were two broad questions I brought to the Amazon, left over from my days 35 years ago living in the Amazon: what has happened to the Amazon rain forest, and how have the indigenous Indians fared over time? So briefly: A Floresta: despite major legal and illegal logging over the past few decades, the federal government seems to be taking steps to protect what remains, within reason. A recent federal law set up the 80/20 rule: you buy or plan to develop , say, 100 hectares, you can clear cut (cattle, soy beans, fruit trees, sugar cane) only 20 acres and the rest must be left basically as forest. The 80% forest can have managed cutting of timber, but not clear cutting, and most wood now from whatever source has to be certified (Forest Stewardship Council, I believe). Though depending on who you talk to, there is still a lot of illegal logging going on, often floated down past inspections at night, or mis-marked. Common woods are mahogany, castanha (Brazil nut), Ipe and others.

The indiginous peoples are another story. Our trip to the very much out of the way colony of Americans (and other foreigners) at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (google if you want, or type in http://www.jocum.com.br/), gave a good initial glimpse. The evangelical religious group has been learning and transcribing languages of indigenous peoples for 50 years, in the Amazon and elsewhere, in part to be able to bring the Bible to the `savages,´ but also to slowly acculturate them into society, providing food, education and social services along the way. Not having a firm appointment, we drove a long a potholed dirt road for miles, next to heavy industrial activity along the Madeira River, finally driving into a neat set of buildings in a pleasant natural setting. Not many people around, as school did not seem to be in session. After some fast explaining, we were shown around the campus of maybe 30-40 houses and buildings, by a very nice Swedish guy (Emmanuel) who speaks Portuguese well and English acceptably for our group. We saw school rooms, health centers, labs, training rooms and maybe 20-25 houses, for missionaries and staff. We met an American couple from Nebraska that maintains a small pontoon airplane, used for reaching remote jungle villages.

Turning down an offer for lunch (though we were hungry), we met with Emmanuel and an American woman of about 50 who has been with the institute for years, along with a tribal chief who happened to be visiting for consultations. We talked about approaching new tribes, gaining their trust, learning the language, and bringing education and support as needed. They emphased that religion is not the main focus, but rather gently bringing them into Brazilian society. The chief (short, darker, jet black hair) spoke in passable Portuguese about the shifting government (FUNAI) policy toward the Indians: either patronizing handouts and programs, or completely leaving tribes alone, leaving them to the mercy of illegal miners and loggers that inevitably invade their territory. He felt the government simply did not respect them as equals, and seemed to like the institute's approach better. Is the overall condition of indigenous peoples in the Amazon improving or getting worse? His answer was clearly worse, and he spoke pessimistically.

Okay, so much for "Make Dreams Real," the Rotary International theme this year (Realezemos Os Sonhos). Headed to lunch today at the house of Dr. Benedito, whose charity dental clinic and Rotary sponsored cancer family support center we visited yesterday. His wife Zenaide (?) works at Uniron (the local private university we visited several times), teaching linguistics herself, and who turned us on to the visit above. For lunch we can expect a heavy spread of rice, beans, farinha, farofa, befe, fish, fruits, fruit juices and vegies. Maybe I'll get a little exercise today.