Viva el Sueno: Brazil, Ecuador & Back

Hola a todos!,

Right now Im in Rio de Janeiro and gearing up for three days of research at the Terra Prometida encampment, an MST establishment roughly 1 hour´s drive from the city. However, this past weekend was spent enjoying the nightlife of this wonderful city–from beach parties and live samba music, to tossing a frisby in the sand and tossing back many a subpar glass o cerveza; its all good.

Last night I drove up to the all-too-famous Christ statue which overloos this gorgeous city and took what bode to be some pretty sweet photos. Today I met with the MSTs regional secretary and set up my next few days of research.

My two weeks of research in the country side of São Paolo state, which preceded my arrival here in Rio, went quite well, and involved 2-3 day stints in various encampments–mainly, one by the name is Irmã lberta. I partook in the daily routine of an MST encampment, from the 6am wake-up and morning coffee, to helping in a few medicinal herb gardens–all while talking with as many people as possible in regards to their respective rolls within the movement, how they decided to become involved and the vision they hold for the future of the MST in Brazil.

While teaching /interviewing at the University was eye-opening and most definitely a worthwhile experience, my time in the countryside living with the people has been, by far, the highlight of my research experience here in Brazil.

More to come later …
Abra篳,
-Patrick-

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.