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BAHIA, BRAZIL JUNE, 2010
So the group Banda Natureza...
They used to play and put on shows.
And usually, they would play their own music.
They had their own stuff.
I've learned to play a couple of their songs.
I'll show them to you.
Girl, have you ever Eaten maxixe?
It has a lot of foliage
I was born in Jacobina and came to Irecê in the early '80s
to study at the technical school of farming.
There we met this instructor Mr. Avelar
and started working on alternative agriculture.
Then we moved to Xique-Xique...
Then in 1985, he climbed the Assuruá mountains.
When they came here, their name was Grupo Gameleira do Assuruá.
Girl, do you know the Lexedenguin?
Do you know the Lexedengar?
Gosh, they'd been through a lot.
I was the first one to give them support.
First, they rented a small house around here.
We've always been through a lot of suffering.
We always had to work hard.
It doesn't mean we don't work anymore,
but that things really got better.
Jacó, actually when they got here along with Junior,
there were other fellow workers with them.
Inácio, Lia, Cida...
Then our goal was to create an alternative community
experimenting a more natural way, integrated with nature.
That was the first idea we had.
However, when we arrived, the community was already here.
LET'S PLANT
Then we got to know them.
They started to make friends inside our community...
Praised is the Lord. Those were people we had never seen before.
They've come to us and got that swamp...
My children and I went to work with them in the swamp.
We've planted onions, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, coriander...
Garlic, beetroot... They used to plant everything.
We took care of the garden. They wanted to start an Association.
People would say, "Why create an Association?"
Because nobody understood.
Thanks to the Association we could built a manioc flour mill,
people can get so and so... You know what I mean?
When the Association was created we'd meet in the shed
because we had no other place to meet.
We were so humiliated. We had to go looking for the switch
and they sometimes would cut the energy, so we wouldn't meet.
But we pursued and built this hall.
A community hall.
And thank God, it's a place for many activities;
meetings, parties...
People raised goats, they built chicken coops...
Then we started planting cassava and at that time we had...
The manioc flour mill was built.
There was only one factory, which was the manioc flour mill.
At the manioc flour mill they'd make flour using a squeegee.
Many people lost their cassava plantation because they lacked space.
We've always helped a lot. God gave strength to everybody,
we chose people for collective effort and so we did.
Thank God we have the manioc flour mill.
Actually, it's about to be start.
You see, people brought the firewood here...
-We'll start cleaning this... -We'll start this collective effort.
I believe that 10 or 15 days from now, if most,
everybody's gonna start cutting the cassava
to produce flour and tapioca.
It's all about collective effort.
From that point on, we realized that
they wanted to do this job.
Get the communities together to do the job,
such as an organization.
The Grail Movement in Brazil, as it was created here,
played an important role to our lives.
Because we had no home, no office, no structure at all
and they could get us the resource, so we could
begin taking shape inch by inch.
This is the room where we had the office
And here was the storeroom.
We began working this diffusion
and coaching for the technicians of EMATERBA, here in Assuruá.
LIFES FOR A LIFE!
So the first bus that entered this community
came from Irecê and brought technicians, who wanted
to learn from us how to organically produce.
LET'S BE BORN
There's this man Renato Tomazelli, from Austria.
He came here to do social work.
This man got acquainted with our work here
and wanted to talk to us.
He proposed to submit our project to Europe
to be examined by the groups where he had his contacts.
They supported us informally.
That wound up creating a conflict. At that time,
the Institute for International Cooperation, in Austria,
was very big, and the debate was fierce.
Therefore, those men said to us, "Either you become formal
or we won't be able to support you anymore.
That's okay! Come on over!
That was when we joined the communities
where we had been working at those people joined the abbey
and so we created CAA in July 1990. That's when we officially created it.
Quiet, please!
Here we only studied up to Fourth Grade.
Sometimes they'd flunk out and repeat the same disciplines for 3 or 4 years
because they didn't have the means of studying elsewhere.
Those who were wealthy could go out,
but the poorer ones had to keep repeating disciplines.
Sometimes even the teacher would say, "No, I can't have you this year again
because I need to open new admissions."
But we didn't want to quit studying.
Usually, children didn't go to school before they were 10 or 15.
Small children didn't.
That was when "compadre" Junior's wife started the school.
That wasn't really a formal school, but she taught a few classes,
so we wouldn't stay out of school.
At first, they hired a teacher to educate the children.
She was the first teacher they had here.
Did you teach children things about the region,
about the community, and to the community in general?
Absolutely. The culture of the place, its daily life...
inside the community.
It was a constructive effort.
I worked here 4 years as a teacher.
The question was the contextualized Freire's education,
which was very based on Paulo Freire in order to ensure children's access
to education, because 20 years ago this city
was in a very complicated situation.
Total disregard of the state for public services,
education, health care, infrastructure, communication...
That was because of my father. He used to take part in it
and I began doing so since I was a little kid.
He plays the accordion.
Generally, at CAA there was a time for cultural events.
During those events at the evenings,
we wanted to rescue people's culture in the community.
So, we were able to start this laboratory
in order to write lyrics and poetry about the history of that people,
and to be able to take part in it and to reinforce it.
We had donkey races, sack races,
egg and spoon races...
Pé de Serra circus came also at that time.
And the movement went in the city. The clowns, the puppets,
all those clowns.
So Circo Pé de Serra was the instrument we used
to discuss with other communities the problems of education.
In Canastra Mountain Range Its spring gushes
In the great plateau of Zagaia
There were also parties because the band was here.
This group, Banda Natureza was really cool.
It used to refer to our reality.
We used to put on a show, which was either theater or music.
Indigenous said "The great Opara river"
That had everything to do with the Sao Francisco river,
the trips to Minas Gerais... There was the project "Maria Zoião",
as well as, "Para Ver a Barca Andar".
That was an interesting trip made by the boat guys
to the people at CAA, when they invited riverside artists...
And we visited every city with our cultural show
willing to work on the protection of the river.
It's important to say that we were able to get people together
from all those parts at the time.
The river? The river has been bleeding.
Today it's segmented by men's hands
and it comes crawling.
It's sad to spot this landscape, a river deprived of its attractiveness
and being taken away.
We've faced so many difficulties in order to collect experience
in such a way that our management culture would support
our activities in that field.
But we were lucky because our partners
were always willing to help.
We always had someone from Austria at the time,
who would spend 15 or 20 days here with us to see the accounts
and to orient us. They used to say,
"You should hire an accountant."
We've met Jacó because of all this,
but we're also connected to the members of the church.
With the bishop and the diocese.
Take it from here. Come on.
We took part in all the assemblies, such as the diocese assembly...
They were here with us.
At that time, Friar Luís was living in Nazaré,
which is down that way in a retreat
and we began approaching him.
I believed, but most of the people said
we were giving support to useless people.
They used to say, "These people are crazy.
With their long hair, earrings, bag clothes...
They said we were supporting people who were good for nothing
but we never gave up on them.
At that time we were considered a group of bums
who had no time perspective at all.
However, with their support...
LET'S GROW
... our work earned respect
and we've gained more legitimacy.
And Brother Luís synthesized this.
He used to say, "CAA is doing a very good job,
but it's only in Gentio do Ouro.
We lived but we weren't certain
of what to do or how to do it, to get rid of...
let's say, difficulties.
Have you ever thought of leaving this place?
Sometimes I consider this because of the water.
Because you know, water is life.
So this is what makes me worried.
I had my job in Brejinho, so we moved out.
I mean, we move every time I have work to do there.
If it weren't for that, things would be harder on us,
We would be thirsty, like one day we had no water to drink.
And we had no water to cook.
Lack of water here is really a great trouble.
A great trouble indeed.
The social indicators of our diocese are the worst in Bahia.
And we must take the work of CAA
to other municipalities.
So Jacó arrives here in Brotas and talks about
tanks to capture rainwater from the roof.
I'd never thought about that.
Because we had never heard about that.
But when we saw this we understood.
First, there were 4 of them.
Edgar's, Edinho's and Lindáuria's over there.
Now there are 30 of them.
Now, it's 19.
With an average roof, we can capture water
for an average family, so this family can have drinking water at home.
That was an innovation. They didn't know this technology.
The CAA was like a City Hall to us.
And I know that if we still need them,
they'll be there for us.
To our surprise, and we were a little disappointed at that,
but on our assessments, we realized we were creating
a dependency relationship.
We were always depending on them.
But they'd come here with this in mind:
teach and let us do everything by ourselves.
So we had to make it become a public policy
we had to make the local government
assume its own role.
The Project "Sertão Criança", which was in Austria and from where
they brought money to pay teachers, was over.
So they've transferred it to City and the City is responsible for this.
The social basis of the CAA are community organizations.
Organizations, unions, cooperatives, groups, pastoral institutions...
So that CAA could implement its programs
and its activities it needs strong partners.
-Can you remember their names? -Not all of them.
How many more can you feed, if necessary?
About 50 or 100 I can feed.
In order to pick up fruits, you have to take the long walk.
And the CAA with the mechanism of capturing rainwater,
which was not only to drink because it was a blessing.
Because we have to preserve nature so we can win too.
We said, "I don't take food supply from nature."
But today I can believe it.
Not even at a small piece of land with just a little caatinga,
I don't destroy anything.
Something really important as this quixaba tree.
You see? Then it produces fruit...
We can accompany some activities. Some we can't,
but we've discussing to decide how we're going
to do this activity so and so.
What is the project? What do we need to go in search,
in order to develop the entity,
so that it will be able to work in the communities,
in its basis.
Even when we have no children, some of our colleagues
need milk. so we get milk...
Then they all became available,
and with the partnership and dialogue with CAA
the leaders have developed so much.
You can see the garden of cacti right here,
a few other plants too. Then we have a nest over there.
The Semi-arid is a region usually considered...
people don't to see the Semi-arid climate as a solution,
as a power, so to speak.
LET'S LIVE TOGETHER
There's still some limitation to this.
The semi-arid climate has its own peculiarity,
like the climate in the Atlantic Forest has its peculiarities.
I know things are difficult.
When we were there we had to work. And here we have to work.
Often when you go into the capital
and you get a job at a good company there,
you have a place to live there...
this is very important. But if you live in those outskirts,
I think you can't have a good future.
I'd rather stay here.
Because here I'm in my quiet little place.
Sometimes we have to face some hard times...
I didn't want to leave this place.
Our plan was to get methods similar to those we'd received.
Live with the semi-arid climate. This is our political agenda.
We must develop mechanisms.
We're living in a quiet place and among with all our neighbors.
Anything we need they're always here to help.
There, if you have the money you buy, if you don't have, you starve.
Here's different.
What was it that we thought we could use to concentrate
our fight in the Semi-arid? The water. The water...
Needless to say, those tanks
were able to change the reality in these municipalities,
and we see the rate of water contamination is quite different.
Especially children with abdominal pain. You don't see it
in communities where they have those tanks.
And we didn't consider ourselves as contractors.
We're not contractors,
we don't build these tanks.
We build citizenship.
LET'S JUMP
Things became difficult because CAA continued growing,
then it expanded to other cities.
It went as far as Brejinhos de Oliveiras, Brotas,
but it was still here.
And with the sequel they saw that it was more difficult here.
Because they couldn't expand here.
They couldn't keep growing the way it had before.
It was different in Irecê.
In our case, we had this difficult communication problem.
Sometimes the telephone went dead,
and we had to contact people,
we had to get a car to Gentio do Ouro, to Xique-Xique,
so we could make a call.
We didn't want to jump higher.
So we just came from Gameleira to Irecê.
Then we went to an office building in Salvador.
You can ask them to low.
Bartira! Hey!
Let it be lower. A little bit lower.
This is the hose for the garden.
And you can irrigate the garden.
I like tomatoes.
Do you prefer it green or when it's red?
Red.
What about the arugula?
Today at CAA, we could make our management better,
For nothing happens on demand, as it happened in the first phase.
It's something we think first.
...you've got to release your voice a little.
Yes... No, I was just...
Trying to feel the notes, huh?
Want to rehearse again?
...scraping the wooden bowl Eating maxixe
Cutting the ratter vegetation
My dream is it becomes even better,
so that people won't leave this place.
And don't go to a great town because we only see misery on TV.
I wish everyone who has the right to receive one of these tanks,
would decide to work, to go beyond the screen.
It's up to me and my family.
And if we want to make things better we will.
This is what we're fighting for.
We do believe this and we hope we will have a place
where we can live and say,
"We're living in a good place
and LET'S GO AHEAD AND STAY HERE."
That's the reason why I continue fighting,
even at my age. I'm not afraid of fighting.
And I keep cooperating.
Eating maxixe Cutting the ratter vegetation
-So? Was it done on the right time? -Yep.
But then the band was over but the rhythm remained.
After the band, the rhythm that stayed belonged to the CAA,
because that was the job we did for the communities.