They say that you should eat food grown locally. And it makes sense that people in Kansas eat a lot of bread, and the Chinese eat a lot of rice. But what do you do when you live in an area known for producing sugarcane? Well, you eat a lot of sugar.

That's been my assesment anyway. Northeastern Brazil historically had large sugarcane plantations. Due to its climate, some places here can grow the crop year-round. And the people here use sugar abundantly. Everyone here drinks coffee with huge spoonfuls of sugar. And if you want juice, it will certainly be loaded with tons of sugar as well. I think it's no accident that the words for juice and sugar (suco and açucar) sound similar.

One of the popular snacks is something called goiabada, which is a super-sweet gelly made from guava fruit. Some people will just eat a bunch of that on some crackers and call it a meal.

Once, I went to a couple's house with Orlando, another MCC worker here. The father offered us some honey, and I said, "Honey? Only Honey?" He proceeded to bring us glasses, and a bottle of "honey from sugar cane." Orlando tried a little, and I had a couple spoonfuls. It had a flavor like molasses, with a bit of an aftertaste. But when he asked how it was, I said, "Oh it's good." This apparently meant that I wanted more, so he poured a little more honey in my glass. He also brought out some manioc flour to mix with the honey to make a thicker consistency. Orlando mixed some in his glass, so I put a little in mine. The father of the house thought I needed more, so I put more in. But then he thought I had too much, so he put more honey in. At this point I was wondering how I was going to get this stuff down, but fortunately the mother of the house also brought out a pancake made from corn flour. So my method for finishing the honey/flour mixture was to eat of couple spoonfuls of it, then chase it down with some pancake. I eventually got the whole thing down, but I could already tell my blood sugar had sky-rocketed. It's no wonder that I've met so many diabetics here. Anyway, not more than an hour after the honey/flour mixture incident, I went to someone else's house where they offered me some goiabada. I declined, saying I'd had enough sugar for one week already.

So, needless to say, they like their sugar here. I guess they are eating locally.

Host Family

I have finally moved in with my host family here in Monteiro. The parents are Ricardo and Cristina and they have three boys Mateus, Bruno, and David (5, 8, and 10 years old). So far it's been a pretty great living situation.

The boys have a lot of energy, but the parents can keep them under control if they want. Also, the boys can entertain themselves easily. But they love it when I join in. One night I played soccer with Bruno and David in the "back yard." The space was about 15 by 25 ft with multiple clotheslines positioned where I would run into them, but the boys wouldn't. I found it was easier just to defend the goal than to try to move around. It was pretty great.

Another time I played a game that I stole from one of my friends called the "Picture Game." Two or three people sit in front of the cameraman, and that person calls out words for the people to act out and then takes their picture. For the most part they understood what I the game was about, but Mateus always tried to run out of the picture. But here are a couple of photos from that.

Happy (David, Bruno, Mateus)

Thirsty

I'm not sure what the word was here. We'll assume it was "Crazy".

So the boys have been a lot of fun. It's a little like dorm life, since there's always someone doing something fun down the hall. I have my own room, but I can always play with them if I want.

One night this week I played a game with the entire family that was like Trivial Pursuit, except that everyone was on their own team. So I had to try to decipher and answer questions in Portuguese. I actually did okay, but I didn't win. This family is pretty competitive, and playing the game reminded me a lot of playing Trivial Pursuit with my family at home.

I guess one weird part of living here is that I'm 24 years old and my "parents" are 32. So it's pretty ambiguious what the relationship should be there. Should I act like one of their kids? Should I pretend that they're just my friends, and I'm always crashing at their place? I guess all host family situations have their oddities, so I can deal with this.

In other news, I've been helping to construct a 52,000 liter cistern at the public high school near where I live. It will be part of a garden project that Julie, another MCCer here, has started at the school. So I've been mixing cement and concrete for the last three days in the hot Brazilian sun. We've got 5 more days to go to complete the project. Perhaps another blog will be coming about this.

This is my idea of a typical conversation for me in Portuguese. I wrote this piece about a week ago. Note that all the spoken words would actually be in Portuguese, but I translated most into English so the English readers could understand.

Me: How’s it going?
Brazilian: It’s going good. I am…
Me (thinking): He appears to be telling a story. Try to look interested and pay attention. Oh, I recognized that verb: caiu. What does that mean? What tense is it? Just nod a little and work on an expression that can mean either “I’ll help you build that house tomorrow” or “I can’t believe your dog did that!” or “I didn’t know chameleons could die from changing color too much! Yeah, that expression was good. Maybe I should tilt my eyebrow a little more next time. Maintain eye contact with the other person but don’t act like you’re staring. Look away, maybe take a drink of your water. Nice. You’re getting the hang of this. Uh-oh, I think he just ended a sentence. I have to say something.
Me: Interesting.
Brazilian: Interesting indeed! And also…
Me (thinking): Okay, I guess that worked. I’ll have to come up with something better for next time. I should probably say stuff more often. How ‘bout this:
Me: mhum (accompanied by a head nod).
Brazilian continues talking
Me (thinking): What do people normally do during conversation? I guess they usually change their position every so-often. Maybe I’ll lean forward a little and stroke my beard as if what I’m hearing is very profound. Yeah, that works pretty well. Oh-no, I think he stopped talking again. Time for me to speak. What do I know how to say?
Me: Very good.
Brazilian. Very good? No, it’s horrible! It’s…
Me (thinking): Crap! I tried to say “very good” half sarcastically but I guess that didn’t work out.
(Brazilian puts hand on my shoulder.)
Me (thinking): What’s this? What’s going on? …Oh yeah, I remember, it’s a cultural thing. Everybody does that, so don’t freak out.
Brazilian: …what do you think…?
Me (thinking): No!!! He just asked me a question. Time to revert to my default answer.
Me: I don’t know. (accompanied by a slight chuckle)
Me (thinking): Whew. That was close. Hey, check out that lizard on the wall. No, Joel, maintain focus. Look at this guy as if he were your long-lost brother. Put your hand on his shoulder. Open your eyes wide, raise your eyebrows, tilt your head, open your mouth as if you’re going to say something.. …Wow, this is exhausting trying to pretend to know what’s going on.
Brazilian: ...Well, I need to go. Bye!
Me (thinking): Sweet, I’ve made it through the conversation. I know what to say now:
Me: Bye!
Brazilian: Você fala Português muito bem.
Me (thinking): Você = you, fala = speak, Português = Portuguese, muito bem = very well. Hey, he just complimented me!
Me: Thanks.
Brazilian: You’re welcome. I’ll talk to you later!
Me: Later!
Me (thinking): And who says I can’t speak Portuguese?!

These last three days I have been involved with helping the building and use of a biodigester in a small community about 45 minutes from Monteiro. A biodigester operates by capturing the methane produced by bacteria present in manure for use in cooking or heating. Basically, it's a big tank. In one side goes the crap, and out another side comes gas. While there's nothing really new about this technology (people have been using manure as fuel for fires for centuries), it has only recently been explored as an alternative energy source.

Most people in Brazil have gas stoves. The cost of the propane tanks necessary for these stoves can be around $400 per year. For families with very limited income, this cost can be a significant burden.

Thus, MCC has decided to build one biodigester in each of 10 communities around Monteiro. It is hoped that if they are successful, more families in each community will want a biodigester.

A biodigester in Balanca, a small community near Monteiro. Serafim, owner of the house, and Orlando, Brazilian MCC worker. Manure and water enter the biodigester through the mixing tank on the right. When the pressure in the tank increases, the blue tank rises on the white pipe. Gas for cooking can be extracted through the brown pipe.

My task yesterday was to deliver "materials" to this biodigester in Balanca. And for a biodigester "materials" means manure. Since we wanted to get a large amount of crap, we went to the local slaughterhouse to see if they would give us some of their manure. (An entire blog post could be written about going to the slaughterhouse, but this post is nasty enough already.)
They gave us four large containers of excrement and we headed off for Balanca.

Mike, Keith and Christina were also along, so they got to help unload the manure from the truck. Here we are pouring the first container into the mixing tank:

After Orlando got splashed with foul-smelling manure, we decided it was better to shovel the manure into buckets and take these buckets to the mixing tank. Christina got involved just long enough to have her picture taken. Mike enjoyed shoveling manure a lot more than she did.

So after we loaded up the mixing tank with sufficient manure and an equal amount of water, we had to mix these two together so that the mixture could flow into the biodigester. Here's Serafim stirring the manure with a paddle.

So this was definitely not a job for germaphobes. It smelled like a cattle farm, and at times Serafim had to put his entire arm in the water-manure mixture to release the plug in the drain. But at the end of the day, we had sufficiently filled the biodigester, and we actually could hear (and smell) gas being produced. It was so gratifying to see Serafim and his wife Luzanetti smile when they saw that gas was being produced.

I think I may be helping out with other biodigesters. I'm actually excited about the possibilities of this technology. I hope I may be able to find some ways to improve the design for this technology. And I may help transport more "materials," but sometimes you have to get dirty to appreciate being clean.