Sábado fomos a casa da família e tivemos que sair as oito e meia e fazer a viagem de caminhao (como de costume) junto com as ferramentas.

Chegando lá nós cumprimentamos a família e dividimos as tarefas. O objetivo do dia era fechar a cobertura (telhados) e comecar a nivelar o chao (piso).

Eramos 18 em dividas as tarefas ficamos em mais ou menos 4 ou 3 pessoas. Preperamos a massa e comecamos o telhado. Nesse intervalo de tempo as criancas (as 6) brincavam, de pega-pega, lanca-disco, construiram um castelo de areia, mas as outras pessoas nao deixavam de trabalhar um só segundo, alguns construiram o restante da parede para colocar o telhado enquanto alguns passavam as telhas para eles, haviam tambem os que tiravam a terra, cavando todo o barranco de tras e do lado da casa, outros levaram a massa do local ondo foi feita ate onde realmente estava se construindo e o outro grupo tirava a areia cavada. Tudo isso aconteceu no mesmo tempo com todos dando o seu esforco ao maximo.

Meio dia fomos ao lago que fica proximo a casa da familia e nos divitimos um pouco e tambem tiramos parte de toda aquela sujeira e suor depois do banho de logo. Voltamos a casa da familia para almocar, comemos bem e reforcamos nossas forcas, para partir para o trabalho novamente, esses mesmos grupos de antes continuaram fazendo suas tarefas e foram trabalhando até as tres ou quatro da tarde, depois nos reunimos  tiramos varias fotos, penduramos uma arvore de representacao a pascoa na casa já com telhado, cantamos, nos despedimos da familia, arrumamos nossas coisas e colocamos de volta no caminhao e na volta quase que nao couberam todos, pois o espaco agora com mais ferramentas era menor, mas mesmo assim demos um jeitinho Brasileiro e voltamos de caminhao todos juntos, quando chegamos proximo ao Aramitan pudemos ver o trem passar, e chegamos enfim ao Aramitan, para tomarmos banho, jogar, jantar e descansar do longo dia de trabalho que tivemos.

Fim...

Ebiliane

9th of April:

It is Christoph´s (CH) birthday, so he got a specially decorated plate with flowers, caramels and then a birthday song this morning.

During our morning circle the cement truck arrives and now there is a roof on the volunteer house!
But it is still kind of a sad day, I think: It is our last working day at Aramitan and I´m disappointed of the spirit in people. I was ready for hard work and to finish what we have started while a lot of people where just drifting, smoking, sleeping, complaining, etc. which made me so angry!

At the end of the day I played a little soccer and then Henning, Elsa, Mathias, Pete and I walked to Embu Guacu along the train tracks.
We really needed mosquito repellent so we went to the pharmacy and then to PASTEL SEM VENTO, I think the place is called, we always go there and buy juice. There we ate pastel and french fries.
Now I´m tired that my eyes want ot cry! God natt, sou sa gott!


10th of April:

I was one of the 15 or 16 people that went to the family house today and the weather was great, a bit too warm for an icelander (but hej, I´m half swedish).
The first thing we noticed when arriving there was that the boys of the family all had their hair cut.
Eveyone seemed to work their asses of and it felt so good at the end of the day to have worked so much!
I got the confidence and the trust of the little boy Junior and was allowed to carry him to the water where people junped in to cool off.

Today is Santiagos 30th Birthday and when we came back to Aramitanand had some food, someone had prepared birthday cakes for him and Christoph.
There was singing, clapping and a little speach from each of them.

Already now people are arriving for the weekend and the Sarau.

Elsa and I went to bed with no idea of how long this night would be!

Salbjörg

Yesterday, the concrete for the roof of the volunteer house arrived

8.4.

The work at Aramitan is created around freedom and initiative. Possible work assignments are announced every morning and there is an expectation that one works but it´s not demanded. Every day one has the freedom to choose exactely what it is you want to do. This freedom leaves an awesome space for initiatives and leadership but also a space for lazyness and inactivity, if motivation and will are not present. This day, the latter was my case. There were many proj ects taking place. The girls were painting, some brazilians were howling endelssly while plastering an inside room, a window was being scraped, our new designer from New Zealand was measuring and drawing a balistrade for the balcony, shopping was being done and last but not least our fabulous stone wall got it´s last rocks laid while a shape was being prepared for a concrete base. I managed to help a little here and there but all in all it can´t have added up to more then a couple hours of solid work. The rest of the time passed by hanging around. It all became more interesting in the evening. On sunday we are having an open mic or sarau as they call it here. Nina, Christina, Christoph and I are performing acrobatics. Nina is really talented and it is fun practicing. It will be intersting to see how it goes to the sarau. We, the yippies, also practiced some songs for the event. The dinner was extraordenary. Home made pizzas baked in a stone oven heated with wood. Delicious!
Pete

7.4.

Part 1

This day started without our alarm clock Pete - too bad. I found it quite hard to peal myself out of the cozy sleeping bag and get ready for work, especially hard as a moscito decided to to leave a bite on my left eye lid and even harder as the previous two days (Sunday and Monday) were very relaxing and sleepy. But finally I made it down to the food area and found the magical liquid coffee.

As a starter we played the game "HaSuKo!" which helped people to actually wake up... A big work area for today was the stone wall that will be built in the coming days. As I´ve been working with the big stone wall last year during another workcamp, I decided to work with the new wall for today. It´s like making a puzzle, just that the pieces weigh up to maybe 10 kg or more... In the morning we already used three 50 kg cement bags. The work went really quick and good. It was so nice to just work and not think of anything that needs to be organized or the book keeping... And suddenly I heard the shout "almoco!" (lunch) meaning the regular solid base of rice and beans and today some chicken meat and punpkin. Gostoso! 

Part 2

Uff! What a day! The second half also rushed by and now it´s almost supper time.

After lunch break I met with the other organizers of the workcamp to look at the two coming weeks. Those meetings usually eat up quite a lot of time and sometimes I find myself sitting there with "itchy" fingers that want to go outside and do some physical work. Today was a long meeting woth lots of discussion points, announcements that need to be made etc. My head almost stopped working at some point and my potuguese came out in a weird mixture of english and german...

Then I had my daily session of book keeping. When I left the office at maybe 15:30 I couldn´t belief what I saw: The stone wall was almost finished! People worked like ants! Some were constantly mixing new cement, others filled the wheelbarrows with "massa", some picking out the right, fitting stones, the strong ones carried them to the wall and others filled all the cracks and holes with cement and - not to forget - very important, a crew of people cleaned every single stone.

At some point we all thought it would start to rain and sped up the place - I counted 13 people working like crazy! I still don´t belief but the wall was finally finished in one day of fantic work. It´s quite amazing to see how much you can reach, if a lot of hands work together for one aim. Sounds cheesy but its true.

The plans fot the evening are: food, swiss chocolate, a nicely rolled american spirit cigarette, Tati is just making pasteis (Brazilian "speciality"), later we will have a meeting with the entire group and then watch a movie together - by then I´ll be probably asleep.

Christina Gerodetti

PS: The daily soccer game between the Brazilians and the Gringos ended with 1:0 for the Brazilians...

The roof of the volunteer house is being built, Henning is cutting the grass...

I woke up at six in the morning far away at the very end of the house, the sun was shining in through the big windows by the balcony. I fell asleep again thinking of the bright sun until I was awoken again, one hour later.

Pete came in with his guitar, playing a tune that has now become quite familiar to us as our morning waking up song. Picking the chords softly he moved through the room slowly, continuing into the next drowsy room.

Several of the girls in the room scurry to gather their things in order to have time to catch one of the three showers we are all sharing whlst a few of us tiredly grumble our way down the steps to the kitchen where breakfast has been set.

Fruit, white fluffy bread, and coffee. A tired atmosphere hangs over the kitchen table. Something that possibly has something to do with our late arrival hame from Embu Guacu the previous night.

Finally we manage to drag our tired selves to gathering and as much neede energizers, Christina leads into a game of tag. Shrieking panting and laughing, the game carries o for maybe  10-15 minutes and is then followed ba a typical YIP song, led by the YIPies.

Then the typical announcements, dividing into working groups and then the day begins as the temperature starts rising to boiling hot.

Cement has to be prepared and flicked onto the walls that will torm a small parking lot, toilets need painting and the working space around the volunteer house needs to be tidied up.

Beside the normal tasks though, today Aramitan hosted a meeting  for the Aramitan trustboard and thus, tables needed to be set for a shared linch between the workcamp and the trustboard, and the dusty space neede serious cleaning.

The work carried on underneath the glaring sun and to the music of Manu Chao and pulsating hip-hop.

At twelve lunch was shared along five or four long tables with people, conversations in portugese, german, english and swedish, casually mixing in the melody of words.

A small group of people gathered afterwards for a sort of group discussion with Ute Craemer about her work and Aramitan. In the middle of the conversation the gas car passed by outside blaring that extremely familiar song that doesnt really make sense but sounds more like a composed accident. The gas car passed aroud twice before disappearing to certanly appear later. 

Now the girls are sunbathing and the grass, the brazilians rapping and listening to hip-hop whilst several other people take the opportunity of freetime to get some much needed sleep in the cool house.

The rest of the day has dancing, music and churrasco (barbecue) waiting for us, and at three in the afternoon, the sun is still scorching hot, the sky bright blue and Aramitan still filled with sounds and laughter.

Amanda

I pretty much feel like I´m living in a different world since a couple of days. Sleep is missing a lot. I don´t like to go to bed early because evenings are my favourite part of the day. Feeling exhausted from all the work during the day is satisfying though. On the other hand, getting up in the morning is quite a mission. But Pete is doing a great job on that.
I am still surprised in such a positive way about the work we are doing. I mean many of us have never done this kind of work. We are quite a bunch of people with all these different languages, all these different characters and not to mention the enourmes diversity of all the backgrounds. But still somehow everything works out surrounded by an amazing atmospere! I´ve actually never had so much fun working. I wished more people on our planet could experience work in a similar way. The world would look so different. I´m convinced that we put something in the things we create and I think Aramitan is one of the lucky places carrying a lot of good spirit bacause of that.
Marie

Yet another beautiful day at Aramitan has come to an end. Now, on top of a nice barbecue, the last games of snooker are being played and the nights long choir of insects has begun.
Santiago had great succes beginning the day with an "aprils fool" joke, convincing the english speaking part of the group that since it was the first of april the immigration control were going to visit Aramitan. Jaws fell and eyes opened.
From the outside the day has been very similar to many of the other days of work work manually mixing concrete, manually scraping windows and manually sanding walls. The manual labor has a social aspact but efficiant it is not...
On the inside this day has been challenging for me. Slowly some of the realities of Brazil are wakening in my consciousness and they are difficult to grasp. The poverty here is extreme and the corruption enormous. I try to imagine the life of my Brazilian friends here at Aramitan, which conditions they have grown up under, what have they experienced, what is their perception of the world and reality? We have a great time together even though the verbal communication is limited. For me a greater part of the joy we share is given by the Brazilian capacity to be grateful and enjoy every moment of the day.
Pete

Ein Tag in Aramitan

Ruhende Stille

weisse, undurchsichtige Nebelschwaden

geheimnisvolle Morgenstimmung

Rhythmisierendes Grillengezirpe

Taunasses Gras

Leises Vogelgezwitscher

Frischfeuchte Luft

zartweckende Gitarrenklänge

Aufwachen, Aufstehen

morgendliche Stärkung

verschlafene Gesichter

Mango, Äpfel, Porritsch, weißes Brot

Plätschern des Abwaschwassers

Zusammentreffen im Kreis

zusammenklingende Stimmen

Singen

Ansagen, Arbeitsverteilung

Nebeldurchdrigende Sonnenstrahlen

Wärme auf der Haut

Beginn der Arbeit

Hammerschläge, Spachtelgeraspel, Meißelgesplitter

Erdehacken, ruhiges Malen, Betonmischen

Mauern bauen, aufheulende Sägen, Schleifen

Schweißperlen, Muskelkraft, verschwillte Hände

 Arbeiten an praller Sonne

braune, nackte Oberkörper

gleichmäßige Arbeitsgeräusche

Stärkung am Mittag

Reis, Bohnen, Kartoffeln, Gemüseeintopf, Teigware

Gemischt oder seperat

Mittagspause, Fußballspiel

fröhliches Stimmengewirr

Billardspielen, Zusammensitzen, zielloses Herumspazieren

Lachen, viele Gespräche, Sonnen

Wäschemachen, Wäschehängen

wiederbeginnende Arbeitsgeräusche

von fernher erklingende Radiomusik

Schubkarrengequitsche

Zuggehupe, Schleifgezische, zusehen, beobachten

Arbeitsanheuerungsrufe

glänzende, intensivgrüne, vor Energie strotzende Natur

rotleuchtende Erde, blauer Himmel

farbig leuchtende Blumenpracht

Sprachenmix

Zusammentreffen verschiedener Kulturen

annähern, kennenlernen, mehr verstehen

Portugiesisch, Englisch, Schweizerdeutsch, Schwedisch,

Deutsch, Spanisch, Französisch

Spätnachmittag

vorbeiziehen großer weißer Wolken

müdes Beieinandersitzen, sinkende Sonne

wunderschöne Abendstimmung

gelb-orange verfärbender Himmel

Sillouetten dunkler Palmen mit Strommasten

staubige, verdreckte Kleidung, erfrischende Dusche, Abendessen

Tagebuch schreiben, spielen, Singen zu Gitarrenmusik, anregende Gespräche

Zubettgehen, letzter Ausblick auf ein Lichtermeer, eingehüllt von tiefem Dunkel

manchmal übersäter Sternenhimmel

müde Körper, zufriedenes Einschlafen bei gleichmäßigem Grillengezirpe

Von Nina