It has been quite some time since my previous post, but here we go again!
One month ago, there was a national meeting of agroecology in Minas' capital: Belo Horizonte. At the same time, there was a truck strike going on in the whole country. Because of rising gas and diesel prices, truck drivers striked during 11 days, with all its consequences... Supermarkets ran out of (mainly fresh) products, traveling became very difficult, universities and schools were closed for some days... The whole country stood still basically. The underlying meaning of the strike was to put pressure on the government and some wanted to force a military coup with it. In the end, lastly named didn't happen, fortunately. The damage is great however, and to compensate the happening, education and health care are cut. Exactly the sectors where Brazilians want more money.
UFV was also closed for some days and the supermarkets here ran out of fresh products too. The one and only good thing was that those damn' noisy motor cycles were silent for some days ;p. Since I was planning to go to ENA (Encontro Nacional de Agroecologia) in Belo Horizonte, it might become difficult to get there because of the lack of fuels. That's why we decided to one day earlier, because some UFV busses were able to go there. The first day I spent in a paradise in the hills of BH, which was phenomenal!
Then I went to a hostel in the centre of the city, close to ENA. At the hostel, there were mainly other young people who were very nice. So we immediately decided to go out for a Sertanejo bar. The next morning, me and one of the other guests, Daniel, went to ENA. This event hosts farmers, professors, students and other interested people to unite and discuss all topics that have to do with agroecology. In the afternoon I visited a symposium and I met other UFV 'colleagues'.
The next morning, I first went to the Parque Municipal, where ENA was located. In the afternoon, I decided to go for some sightseeing in BH. The first museum I went to, I met Daniel and four other Environmental Engineering students from a university in Sao Paulo (who also stayed in the same hostel as me): Gabriel, Andre, Fernando and Tiago. They were also in Belo Horizonte to go to ENA. Together we visited some other places (by bicycle! STOP) and after we had lunch at the famous Mercado Central, we headed back for ENA.
The next day was pretty similar, but in the evening me and the four guys from Sao Paulo went out to eat at some place close to the hostel and we ended up in a nice bar with some live music. This was another great experience! The band couldn't stop playing even though it had become pretty late. But everytime they played their "last" song, the singer/guitarist started another one. I believe the bassist started to get really tired of it, from what I could see from his expression. And so did the drummer...
After a short night, we went back for the last morning of ENA, where there was an agroecological market going on. During the afternoon we planned to go to Pampulha ecological park, but because of the approaching sunset, and because our Uber driver told us about a football match going on, we went to a game of América FC.
In the evening I headed back for Vicosa, with very nice company. The good thing about the arrival was that it felt like coming home again: Vicosa meu país!
After ENA, June had started. June is the month of Festa Junina (June festival). The festival has catholic roots, and it's only celebrated in Brazil. The festival features typical clothing, dance and food. This year June is also the month of the start of the World Cup football, in which the Netherlands are, if we put it in a positive way, conspicuous by their absence. But no worries, there's another team to cheer for ;).
In the Netherlands we have a term called: "Orange fever" (Oranjekoorts). It's used when the Netherlands is going to participate at a big final tournament (yeah, had to dig deep for finding the term, indeed ;)). People get excited before every match our national team has to play, and you'll see a lot of orange on the streets. But let me tell you this, Dutch friends: Orange fever is nothing compared to Brazil's way of living towards and during the World Cup. But don't name it "yellow fever", because that is an actual disease. Better name it "Canary Madness" or something.
And then about the Festa Junina. Last weekend we had two Junina parties. One on Saturday at the UFV campus, and one on Sunday, organised by the Forrozear project. The one on Sunday was a celebration of last semester's project group, which we finished last Friday. I'd hereby like to say a very big thank you to all the teachers who taught us Forró. Thank you! It always was a class to look out for.
The Festas Junina were very nice typical Brazilian parties, which had something "vintage" because of the whole entourage, with for instance the clothing and the quadrilha (square dance).
I must have forgotten or left out several things, but this is it for now...
Vai Brasil!
Luc
