Demarcation Diaries
16 September 2001
Today is Sunday and luckily our team had a day off. Because there is no work and no school to
remind us, we often forget the dates in the Amazon. For us, everyday is the same: more
demarcation. The only difference is how many meters we have made
that day. I took the privilege of the day off to read and chat with
people.
I had a really good chat with one of the topographers,
Riberato. He is 41, short, and always carries a warm smile. He has been involved in social movements since high shcool but
like most of us, this is his first time working with Indians. He has more
experience working with urban poor. A few years ago he helped
homeless people in his home town, Belo Horizonte, to make a living by
recycling the garbage in the street. "Now they have clothes, food and
home." This is the best kind of environmental movement I can think of:
conserving and improving people's live at the same time. Having worked
with the Deni for eight months, he found the problems they are facing are
ultimately the same as the urban poor: the state's policies simply don't
count these people in.
Our conversation was cut short by Cees, our new
communication officer. He asked the volunteers in the ship to do a sound
recording for the website. I was excited because I haven't spoken
Cantonese for quite a long time! And thanks to the day off, we
were able to see an extraordinary scene in the afternoon. Hundreds of fish
jumped out of the water together, in attempt to escape the mouth of the
pink dolphins. There must be more than 15 pink dolphins swimming in the
shallow water just in front of our beach. They flipped their back from
time to time. Sometimes four or five dolphins flipped their back at the
same time, with hundreds of fish jumping and water splashing, it was like
seeing the symphony of nature!
Kontau
(Team A)
Find out about the different
volunteers on the demarcation project.
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