June 20th - Day Eighteen

On the last day we flew from Fortaleza down to Brasilia where we had a day-long tour of the city. Our guide, Billy, was great and knew a lot about the city because he grew up there. The city was built in one thousand days and was a designed city. Many of the buildings are built on stilts for several reasons. Skyscrapers built on silts allows an individual to be able to walk through the city and not around buildings. Secondly, stilts allow the breeze to flow through the city and as a result the city is much cooler and windier.

We first visited the government buildings because there was a scheduled protest later that day and we would not be able to see them later. The city itself is very well organized and planned; however, their major issue at the moment is public transportation.

The city was designed in a way where all the residential blocks are found on one street and all the commercial and government blocks are found on a different street. This is a problem because there are so many people that desire to take public transportation to work in the morning, but cannot because the buses are full. This results in buses coming back empty from the work blocks to pick up more people going to work. This wastes large amounts of gas and is very inefficient.

June 19th - Day Seventeen

We presented our projects that we have been working on this morning. We presented our project on the organic waste management potential for Jericoacoara. My group noticed, as we walked around Jericoacoara, that a lot of organic waste was either left on the beaches or simply being sent out of the town. We felt that it would be more beneficial for the community to set up a community compost where  the villagers could take their organic biproduct and create more healthy topsoil which, in turn, these people can utilize to grow their own fruits and vegetables.

After our presentation, we got ready for the soccer match between Brazil and Mexico. I was really excited for this because I had never been to an international match before. As we walked to the stadium, the streets were packed with police as well as people. Many of the protests that have been going on in Brazil are aimed at the corruption in the government. The government was supposed to develop the infrastructure in the major cities where the world cup will be held. However, the government has only built stadiums for the soccer matches but has not helped build the transportation infrastructure.

June 18th - Day Sixteen

We went to one of the government buildings in Fortaleza and watched one of the Ceara politicians get accused of corruption. We took a tour through the museum that was set up in the lobby of the building and learned about Brazilian political history. The museum was neat and our guide did a great job of explaining the history.

After the museum we watched as a Brazilian politician was accused of corruption, but I did not pick up on much because my Portuguese is still pretty awful. Bianca has been telling us about the massive corruption in the Brazilian government and that until now people have been pretty blind to it. All the protests that have been going on in the last few weeks have been directed at several aspects of the Brazilian government and corruption is one of those aspects.

We had the opportunity to meet the governor of Ceara but he was not very friendly and left after a few pictures. After our short meeting we went to see the rest of their facilities and were directed to their English classes. The teacher was a funny man who has been teaching English for over fifteen years.

June 17th - Day Fifteen

Today we visited the Fortaleza landfill where all of the trash and waste from the surrounding area is sent. Our first stop at the landfill was to the recycling center where trash is sorted through to separate out the recyclable materials. The Brazilian government helped the organized trash-sorters purchase the machines, which allow the employees to work twice as more efficiently. This center also provides better working conditions for the employees which are generally pretty awful working in the landfill. The government is supposed to provide subsidies for the people working at the center; however, over the last few years they have been failing to provide them. As a result, many of the workers went back to  the horrible conditions in the landfill. Often the people working the landfill can make more money per kilogram of recyclable waste than they can working at the center, and this drives people to continue working in the landfill.

The people at the center had also, along with the governments help, purchased a machine that shreds up plastic and provides twice the pay. The problem that they are facing is that it has high energy costs and it is not currently feasible to run. They had planned to run it off the methane that is naturally produced by the landfill; however, the infrastructure to harvest the methane has not been introduced to the site and they have not been able to capture the methane. If they could use the methane to run the plastic shredder they could save a lot of money and improve working conditions for many of the people working in the landfill.

After the recycling center we visited the actual landfill, where people where sorting through the trash that was brought up from Fortaleza.

June 16th - Day Fourteen

We left Jericoacoara in the morning and drove to a freshwater lagoon where we spent the afternoon. There are so many activities that you can take part in in the Jericoacoara municipality and it is no surprise that it has been named as one of the top ten beaches in the world. This is a ripe part of the world for any sort of tourism business.

June 15th - Day Thirteen

Walking around Jericoacoara I was thinking about how the town would be able to deal with a serious increase in tourism. There is very little infrastructure in the town and a population influx could really stress it. The town really does need to figure out how they will be able to grow but still retain the pristine beaches and dunes that surround them. The appeal of the town is definitely the relaxing atmosphere as well as the clean beaches and water.

June 14th - Day Twelve

We went out to the beach and walked up a dune that overlooks the village. Currently the entire Jericoacoara municipality has a population just over 16,000 people, but the town we were in was much smaller than that. The population is variable due to the heavy tourism that they get. Many of the businesses (hotels, restaurants, surf shops, gift shops, etc...) cater to the tourists that come to visit.

Because the town is on the beach and surrounded by dunes, there is not a lot of agriculture in the town. A few of the houses were growing some fruits and vegetables but there was very little topsoil for them to grow in. It is very difficult to grow near the beach because of the lack of water and all the salt; however, a hydroponics system would be able to provide a lot of food for the town. At the moment, all the food and supplies are trucked in from Fortaleza.