Moonlit Rio

For some reason I have been very in touch with my feminine energy here in Brazil. I don’t mean anything about feminism or my sexuality; this is just the first time that I’m really happy that I’m a woman - truly strong in my female identity.

Maybe it’s because the full moon is coming up, but I’ve felt very connected to her energy lately. As I was traveling alone by bus from Pirinopolis to Brasilia, with the hopes of meeting up with someone from the next ecovillage at the bus station, I felt nervous that the person would not show up, or that at the huge bus station I would not be able to find her. But then I peered out the bus window and saw mama moon shining down on me, telling me that she would look after me, and I felt OK. “tranquilidaje.”

I feel like the moon picked me up, rocked me in her arms, and then dropped me back down to earth, knowing I would somehow land feet first. And I have – the “unplanned-ness” about my whole Brazil has trip turned out unbelievably well. I smoothly glide from one experience to the next, indulging in advice presented by wonderfully friendly eco-strangers.

I am now in Rio and could not be happier. There are two institutes that I will try to visit that teach bio-construction and permaculture, etc, but they are 2 and 3 hours north/east of the city center, so tomorrow I will figure out if I’ll really make it to them or not.

Tonight I had dinner with two Israelis that are staying at my hostel. I arrived at Vila Carioca (a hostel recommended by an ecovillage friend) in the late evening and decided to research what to do tomorrow. I was on my computer in the lobby (free wifi! – que massa!), and Chai came up to me and invited me to eat with him and his wife (they are a young couple on their honey moon). They showed me their favorite soup spot – this friendly woman that makes soup on a street corner and there are lots of stools to sit around on. Not only was it nice to meet friendly people in a new large city, but Israelis! Haha, I bet Chai saw my Jewish Star or something ☺

Anyway, I am excited for the next few days of freedom in a city that I can explore and make my own. Idealistically I will start writing my research paper at some inspiring café that I happen upon, but in reality I see myself waiting until I get home and writing it over the course of the summer.

Portuguese lesson:
Bom Dia (“Bon-Jia”) – good morning
Boa noite (“Boa-Noiche”) – good night
Tchau (“Chaow”) - bye
Legal (“Le-GAOW”) – slang for cool
Que massa (“Que maza”) – more slang, for hella cool





Yum! Acai! (seriously, SOO good and SOO filling!):


This is pao de queijo (pronounced "poum-de-kay-ja") and is a traditional breakfast food in Goias (the state that I was in up until today). It tastes like a small, soft sourdough bread piece with some cheese in it, kind of.:


Some "IPEC-ians":

Tour of IPEC

Environmental Education

Friday June 10, 2011

After interviewing a pair of the American students here at IPEC, a number of us got into a conversation about environmentalism in America. It was so exhilarating to be around youth that, like me, not only see environmental issues as extremely pressing, but that also have the drive to DO something about it. We of course spoke of the ideal society that would incorporate ecovillage lifestyles into mainstream culture. We questioned when and if this would really happen and I posed the question of what would come first – if the people would change, or if the creation of laws would force the people to change. While most of the students I spoke with believed that environmentalism will only catch on in a grass roots, bottom-to-top, fashion, few of us believed that laws would play a large role. Although I do believe that the individuals must care about the issues themselves, I believe that enough restriction and enforcement can change any culture. The only problem is actually getting legislation passed, which takes years and years...

And again, like it always seems to, the conversation about environmentalism boils down to education and knowledge. If only people really knew the implications, the details, etc, THEN they would care and THEN they would do something about it… And so environmental education continues to be, in my opinion, one of the main solutions to our earth’s problems.

Brazil passed a law about three years ago requiring all youth to get some type of environmental education. Wow, yes yes, you go Brazil! But why hasn’t California, one of the most progressive states in America, done something similar? We need to require that all public elementary/middle/high schools provide some type of (in my opinion extensive) environmental education programme. How can I help make that happen?! And who wants to help me?!

Santa Branca Ecotourism center

I made this little video just so you guys could see what Santa Branca was like. It's a very rural, large piece of beautiful land. The video shows you just their ecotourism center, which is open to the public for recreational use and is located about a quarter of a mile from the ecovillage itself.

IPEC

Thursday June 9, 2011
IPEC
I arrived and asked “hablas espanol o ingles?” and the woman responded “yes.” The receptionist, Lyla, is an Australian born Brazilian that grew up mostly on the IPEC ecovillage. She is probably my age, if not younger, and her mother runs the ecovillage. She was homeschooled here by her mom and now works with her mom to help IPEC operate.

IPEC is not technically an ecovillage – instead, it’s labeled as an eco-training center. IPEC holds courses for students, professionals, and people that are just curious about living sustainably. Most of the courses have the umbrella theme of Permaculture (designing your life to function in harmony with the environment). Some courses are more focused on specific topics like Bio-construction (or green architecture), natural water filtration, or natural waste management systems. There is a group of about 15 American university students on a summer program taking a 3 week permaculture class. The program is through an organization called Living Roots that I have heard about because Kibbutz Lotan in the Negev in Israel also has a Living Roots program.

It was so nice to find a group of young, enthusiastic Americans that share the same passion as me. Although I cannot participate in their courses during the day (since I am not paying for their program), I see them at meal times and enjoy see them just walking around the ecovillage. I hope they can give me a two day concentrated lesson about all they’ve learned so far while I am here!

IPEC is much more of a typical ecovillage set up than Santa Branca was. Santa Branca was spread out and new and modern. IPEC is like a small campground with a junkyard to use recycled materials for projects, earth domes to sleep in, an organic garden, compost toilets, and lots of benches made from clay and adobe. It reminds me of the Adam and Eve Ecological Farm in Modi’in in Israel, with a few things from the LA Ecovillage incorporated.

It’s a bummer that IPEC is mostly just a training center. I think this would be a lovely ecovillage where people could permanently reside and make a living off of the training programs. I will do some interviews tomorrow, Friday, and hopefully find out the visions of IPEC for the future.

In the mean time, I will walk around and try to comprehend the Portuguese written explanations of the compost toilet, water filtration systems, etc, and just relax and read my book!

Check out more photos here!

a wonderful turning point

Read my post and then this video might make more sense....




Wednesday June 8, 2011

Today was such a lovely turning point in my trip. Instead of feeling alone and foreign in such a large country, I now feel excited to explore and get out there.

The day started as I left Pat’s peaceful home on the farm and headed to the Santa Branca Ecotourism centre. I said my gracious gracious thank yous to Pat for hosting me and feeding me for four days and letting me enjoy her wonderful natural lifestyle. Everything I ate was fresh off the stove or picked from the garden in the backyard. Pat taught me that energy in food is directly transferred to us, so the fresher the better.

As sad as I was to leave a free place to stay and free food and have someone communicate for me in Portuguese, I was excited to get out and really experience Brazil.

I met up with a man named Marcelo at the ecotourism center. Marcelo works for the Ecovillage tourism center leading hikes and taking care of the land. From 9am-noon we explored the trails, ate grapes off the vine, and had lots of laughs. Marcelo speaks no English, but my Spanish as well as lots of miming and repetition served as a wonderful way to get along. In just those few hours I more than doubled my Portuguese vocabulary. I loved seeing the jungle and learning about the different plant species.

After a lunch/snack, Marcelo took me into town on his motorbike, with my backpacking backpacking on my back and my day pack on my front. Marcelo treated me very well – demanding I wear a helmet, and asking a man on the bus to carry my backpack for me. I didn’t need to speak Portuguese to understand Marcelo’s kind heart and cheerful spirit.

There I caught a free bus to Anapolis as I started my journey to the next ecovillage, IPEC. The guy that carried my backpacking backpack for me was very friendly and I spoke with him in Spanish/Portuguese about my name and where I came from and what I was doing, etc. Once we arrived at the Anapolis bus station he was sweet enough to carry my bag for me again and escorted me to my next bus stop, so Pirinopolis.

I love riding public transportation in foreign countries. Specifically on buses, I love looking out the window to see the scenery and listen to the language spoken around me. After a while I turned on my i-pod and played some wonderfully calming music as I anticipated what was to come at IPEC.

I would be arriving unannounced, with no idea if there would be an available room to stay in, or how far away it is from civilization in case I needed a plan B. I arrived in Pirinopolis with plenty of daylight to spare, so I decided to venture to IPEC today, and knew I would have daylight lef to figure out housing elsewhere if it didn’t work out.

I didn’t have to say much for the Taxi driver to know where I wanted to go. Apparently IPEC is a training center that takes in lots of foreigners who want to learn about permaculture.

IPEC is an oasis of trees, green, and “bio-construction” in the middle of lots of pastureland a few kilometers outside of Pirinopolis. I arrived with a big smile, finally having experienced Brazil on my own and having not only survived, but really enjoyed the journey. I am so excited for the next week, especially to be here at IPEC, and I am already afraid the time will pass too quickly!

More to come about IPEC soon!

shout outs

big happy blog post to come tomorrow, but here is something short and sweet for now:

First I want to give my parents major props for naming me Nina because it's been easy to make friends with foreigners with a name that is so translatable. Everywhere I go people can pronounce it just fine!

This video goes out to my dad, who just got back from the French Open, but also shout out to Catherine and Lily!