Novo Airão - Small city with big dreams

June 18th
Safety used to be a problem in Novo Airão. Some of the neighborhoods were considered dangerous and hard to get to. My buddy Chacrinha told me that once the moto-taxis came to town, all that changed. If a mototaxi was anywhere near an ‘asalto’ or theft he would radio his buddies and within minutes a brigade of confrontational and pissed mototaxi riders would arrive. Chacrinha, a short solid guy with fists the size of bearclaws, told me that at first ‘os bandidos’ resisted and there would be epic fights resulting in broken bones, split foreheads…legend has it that one guy is still in a coma as a result of one of these ‘brigas.’ Today, Novo Airão is safe. People can go where they please, you can leave your bike laying around and no one touches it, people rarely lock their doors (a habit that is always hard for me to break).
Novo Airão is living a transcendental moment right now. Globalization has hit with an unexpected force. As I sit at a bar with my new friends, smartphones litter the table while vibrations and beeps momentarily distract as owners check their buzzing little gadgets, ‘aparelhos.’ Funny because no matter where we may be, when they respond the answer is always, ´i´m down the street!´
A new bridge has been built in the capital city of Manaus crossing the mighty river and finally gives the bustling metropolitan city access to the only road to Novo Airão. The fear among old timers and purists alike is that expansion is inevitable and Novo Airão will eventually become a suburb of Manaus. By road it is only a 2hr ride, along the winding river it takes 10 hrs! Within a decade, or is it already too late!, Novo Airão will lose its fading culture as a new generation aspires for mega-consumption and WI-FI. The only sign of branding here is the VIVO cell phone store about the size of a shoebox and a small bank. All that will inevitably change over the next few years. As I discussed my concerns and condemnation of the new bridge and its inevitable effects on this community, a local raised a valid point. Why should THEY have development and growth and not us? Why should we not have internet? We all want those things, are we doomed to live in a leafy stone age while the world around us passes us by? The world is changing, we must as well. The other side of the argument views this growth and expansion as opportunity, jobs, and new services. I talk with Erivaldo, my best friend here and caretakers of the indigenous artisan AANA offices, about maintaining balance. Finding a way to merge development with environmental protection, the difficulties in creating an eco-development synergy which preserve the very culture he represents. Erivaldo has traveled to Rio, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais as an ambassador representing the artists, craftwork and culture of his region. At dinner last night he told me, never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would visit Rio. It was beautiful, just like in the telenovelas. A sly smile across his face, his eyes squint, ´but I prefer here´. I think we both know that once the flood gates of expansion get a strangle hold on Novo Airão there won´t be much anyone can do. Shopping centers and air-conditioned grocery stores are inevitable. And why shouldn’t they be? You think only people in the city like walking around in air-conditioned comfort?
The soles of my feet are perpetually blackened by dirt. No matter how hard I scrub, dirt is already embedded into the fabric of my skin. Back when I was applying to grad schools, and finally chose the only Ivy League that accepted me, I never fathomed my summer internship would allow me the luxury of walking around the office barefoot. I love it. The roads here were made to be very wide, thankfully because traffic here is at an all time high. Like Utila island in Honduras, the main drag has become stomping grounds for any and all wanting to feel the roar of their motor… and force its blaring screeches on the rest of us and our ears. It´s funny how similar some things here are to Progreso…or simply put, any small developing city. Walking home past midnight, dogs guarding their yards egg one another on and seem to compete over which one can bark at you most. Since there is only one channel available, GLOBO, you can hear the blare of the TV in every house clearly all watching the same show. When you walk into a room at night, don’t turn on the light, it wakes and attracts mosquitoes and they’ll probably follow you to bed. Why do mosquitoes buzz in people´s ears? Electricity goes in and out, and the appliance always missed the most is the fan. A swaying hammock always serves as an efficient substitute for cooling off.
Last week I went with Lenne to the municipal gymnasium. I walked in and couldn’t help but feel a little jealous as I recalled afternoons training with the El Progreso basketball team in our municipal gym back in Honduras. Who ever heard of potholes INSIDE a gym?! It amazes me how organized and structured they are here. Really puts into contrast the inescapable poverty and corruption that continues to plague countries like Honduras. I sat at the sign up table and every person that walked in signed their name, along with the neighborhood they were representing and were given three index cards; green, yellow and red. Green = Satisfactory Yellow = Average Red = Unsatisfactory. A projector with an interactive powerpoint showing the night’s agenda was on display for all to see. There was a mic with speakers, a videocamera for documention purposes, a whitewash board with the rules (respect for others opinions, etc) and free popcorn and refreshments. One by one community members arrived, ON TIME!, and took their seats. Topics discussed included trash collection, noise pollution, education, park maintenance and environmental protection. Those in attendance expressed their opinions in a roundtable fashion and voted (using their index cards) on whether a topic was worthy of taking up with the municipality. As people spoke, Clarisse (who happens to be the Secretary of Env.) documented all ideas and suggestions for all to see on the live powerpoint. The entire process was extremely well organized, concise, and effective. Needless to say, I was very impressed.



June 20th
When I envisioned coming here, I thought I would be walking around along muddy roads with not much to do during my down time. That has certainly not been the case. To give an example, the very next night, in the very same gymnasium, there was a UFC fight organized by the Brasilian MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) association. I paid my 10reals, along with about 1000 other spectators, and walked into what seemed like a Las Vegas type production. An octagon at midcourt, spectators, camera crews, disco lights and a heavy humid blanket filled the air as a DJ blasted music. Families and kids of all ages filled the stands, ready to take in another night of bloody combat. There are no babysitter clubs or daycares here. Families seem pretty united and go everywhere together. If dad wants to go drink at the bar with the fellas, he takes his kid. Not many other options. There were 11 bouts, as each victor screamed and rejoiced in his victory, the crowd erupted in delight. I sat next to one mother whose son Bruno must have been fighting on the Jiu-Jitsu category because she was a mess!! “Tira ele Bruno!” Get him off of you,! she howled. Poor Bruno lost. The fights finally ended and we all went to dance forro, similar to salsa and danced everywhere , mostly across the Northern and northeastern Brasil. I broke my flip-flop dancing with a woman whose thighs alone probably outweighed me.
I have started giving English classes, specializing topics based on what people need to know. In one class, with Erivaldo, Lenne and Klarisia, I’m teaching them the English they need to manage their artisan center when tour buses arrive. They have always depended on tour guides to translate, all that is going to change soon. “How much does this cost?” and “This is a hat made from reed fibers” are some of the things I’m teaching. They tell me I’m a great teacher because I can explain to them in Portuguese what letters are supposed to sound like in english. For example, In teaching the alphabet, I’ll write below each letter A, B, C (ai, bi, ci) or twenty (tuenti). “Eu cobro rapaz!” I’m tuff because I make everyone prove to me they can say it right before moving on.
I eat fresh fish everyday. One of the perks of living here. Pirarucu, jaraqui and tucunare are some of my faves. Tacaca is a soup, made from the mandioca root and leaves, that leaves your tongue numb. A very strange sensation which at first made me worry I was allergic to it. Vatapa de camarão is also really good, a deep fried ball of dough stuffed with any and everything.
I am off tomorrow upriver to Rio Unini to visit the Brasil nut factory FVA sponsors. They are picking me up in the company boat on their way from Manaus and from here its about a day and a half ride. We are taking tons of supplies (tiles, machinery, etc) to put the finishing touches on the factory which will do everything from processing to packaging. My work here it to develop a new program recently initiated called AJURI (an indigenous word that kinda means community help). I had a meeting today with all the heads of the foundations and contributors to AJURI (AANA, ICMBio, IBAMA, IPE…and I thought Columbia Univ was heavy on acronyms) and proposed some ideas I had for growing this initiative. A youth Eco-walkathon with Olympic style races and prizes, a recycling program at the schools, building and painting recycling bins and trashcans to post strategically throughout the city, a city wide treasure hunt for students to teach them about local eco-movements, etc. The meeting went well and we´re all to reconvene in a week so we can let ideas marinate for a while. I have already been recruited to dance in a festival next week and will have to get some quick practice in when I get back from Uniní. The stars here are glorious, on most nights the Milky Way is quite visible and my neck gets sore from staring up at the endless night sky. For now I am reading a Garcia Marquez book in my down time, Memórias de minhas putas tristes, and listening to lots of MPB music on my little laptop. Tomorrow the river awaits and Im back to sleeping on a boat, only this time Im riding in style. I just tried to post a pic of the boat…see if it worked.
Ate mais. Boa noite.