"What fish?" was the typical response I have been getting from the Pescadores I have been interviewing on the Volta Grande...not quite the response I was hoping to get but very telling about the current biological state of the Xingu since preliminary construction of the Belo Monte began about a year ago.
But let's rewind...
On Tuesday morning, Amy and I began our remarkably long bus journey to Altamira. We got to the bus terminal at 8 am, convinced that we were in for a 12-15 hour bus ride, only to be informed that we would actually be spending about 19 hours of our lives on a not all too comfortable bus. After spending the first 7 hours both reading the first Harry Potter book, we attempted to waste time staring out the window and taking turns sleeping.
Around 4 am, we finally made it to our new homestay in Altamira and passed out for 4 hours before running off to our meeting with Xingu Vivo. There, we were informed that we would be leaving the next day for a boat trip to somewhere on the Xingu to meet with some people that might help us with our research, so bearing this in mind, we stocked up on rice and beans and prepared for our journey. We finally had a chance to get to know our host family in Altamira, who own a joint sticker making-dress making shop on the main street here called Lua de Mel. Mano and Alessandra are quite possibly the most friendly people and have been really helping me with my Portuguese. They cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us every day and have provided basically a boarding house for the Americans who are doing research nearby (namely, Amy, Stephanie, and me).
The next morning, Amy and I boarded a small dingy with a man who was introduced to us as Jose Paulo, hoping that we would be able to get some sort of research completed. This 3 day trip went above and beyond my expectations; we visited 3 communities, one that has already been vacated due to water pollution from initial construction, one that only has 3 families left, and one that has not yet been vacated, but whose families are planning to leave once the fish population drops so much that they can no longer sustain themselves.

The ghost town of São Pedro

I spent much of my time on the Xingu speaking with various fishermen, visiting the headquarters of communities, fishing, tanning, swimming, and altogether enjoying life. It's awful to think that in 2-3 years, no one will be able to see this place...construction should be finished by 2015 and the entire area will be flooded. In an area with one of the highest populations and biodiversity of fish in the world, it is awful that the population has already dropped so low and that water quality is so bad here that about 100 families have already had to leave.
I am hoping to go to Medicilândia this weekend to see how the lives of the fishermen have changed since leaving their homes on the Xingu and hopefully I will be able to bring back some organic chocolate from the cacao cooperatives there.
Here are some photos of the most beautiful place in the world

Amy and I checking out the construction of the Belo Monte Dam

Catchin some fish

Helping out the family by picking oranges

My Xinguese family

Rio Xingu at sunset

Living for 5 days in and MST community definitely proved to be eye opening, but not quite in the way that I expected.
Land rights in Brazil are relatively complicated and stem from the last agrarian reform during the military government's push to develop the Amazon. Only 5% of the land here is actually owned by someone; the rest is government property that is leased out to various farmers and traditional populations. While the traditional populations have rights to the land indefinitely, farmers technically only own the land as long as they keep it productive. If the land is not productive for more than 6 months, the government technically can take over the property and redistribute it.
The idea behind the MST movement is for landless rural workers to reclaim the land that they believe to be owed to them by the government due to the PIN program. In theory, they occupy land of large farmers who claim much more land than they actually deserve/use and as a collective body "conquer" the land. In practice, many of those vying for land are not always rural workers. Every MST member I met was actually from the city and they had no interest in cultivating the land to sustain their families at all. While I am aware that all MST communities are different, the one I lived in was essentially developing very quickly but had no way to control the development and therefore was becoming a slum. I am not all too sure how I feel about the concept of MST both in theory or in practice, and I do not feel qualified to actually make any judgements, but what I will say is that this experience taught me that I can never come to a definitely conclusion about anything before experiencing what it is I feel the need to make a decision about.
My life with the MST mostly consisted of watching Barbie Disney Princess movies with my host sisters and helping to take care of the 1 year old baby. I had so much fun practicing Portuguese with them and teaching them ballet and my host family was absolutely lovely. It's funny how I find myself feeling so much more comfortable in my rural homestays than I do in Belem.
My research project is approved and I am leaving in the morning for Altamira. I will be living on a boat for another week with members of Xingu Vivo who will be taking me to various communities along the Xingu so that I can conduct interviews about the current fishing habits of these traditional populations. I cannot wait to begin my research and I hope I am able to accurately represent these people despite my sub par Portuguese...

A roadtrip, of sorts
I got in the van with absolutely no idea of what to expect during my trip to the South of Para, and I am relatively certain that it changed my perspective on development and social organization in Brazil entirely. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it might take years for this trip to sink in completely and for me to actually comprehend what I have seen here.

We began our journey by driving to the Tucurui Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world. It is really is overwhelming to see the ways in which humans can alter and control something has huge as a tributary here in the Amazon...the Tucurui Dam is able to produce 8370 MW of energy and even that amount pales in comparison to the 11232 MW that the Belo Monte is projected to produce post construction. The major driving force behind the construction of large damming projects in Brazil is the aluminum production here. 1.5% of total energy consumed in Brazil is done so my Albras, the company that produces aluminum from bauxite. Belo Monte is basically being created for Albras, but when I visited Albras I realized that the corporation actually has the only water treatment facility in the area so that it can produce clean water for the surrounding region and it has a waste treatment facility which the government does not provide. While the energy consumption is outrageous and while there are myriad issues with these damming projects that actually have relatively viable solutions, we do need aluminum production and Albras does a great job of being energy efficient.
Post Tucurui, we visited a Colonos ranch (colonos are those who came to occupy land after PIN to receive free land for making it productive) and were able to assess the economic value of their various agricultural and ranching practices. Land rights in Brazil are really interesting because only 5% is actually owned privately. The rest is all governmental land, of which the government gives out legal rights to those who agree to make it productive. If the land is not productive for 6 months, then technically the government can take the land back and redistribute it, unless the land is marked as legal reserve and then it can remain forested. This sets up a really interesting scenario because currently Brazil is being pressured by the international community to reforest land. However, they wanted to develop the Amazon to protect it from being taken over during World War II so now rural workers who were told to deforest the area are being told to reforest it and aren't getting compensated by the government. The social problems that stem from this are astronomical, which led to the MST movement in Brazil. Since the issues with MST are so intense, I think I'll leave my description of them and my time living with them for another day, especially since this has already gotten my head spinning again...

Some friends and I visiting a Mexican restaurant in Brazil, of course