During Coen’s photography assignment for Bevrijde Wereld (meanwhile called Solidagro and locally called Mundo Nuevo), a Belgian NGO that supports agricultural projects with the emphasis on food safety, we visited a project focusing on women empowerment: A yogurt factory in …
During Coen’s photography assignment for Bevrijde Wereld (now Solidagro), a Belgian NGO that supports agricultural projects with a focus on food safety, we visited various rural communities in Bolivia. In the village of Koya each household received six fruit trees and was instructed on how to plant and maintain them.
Planting trees? You dig a hole, put in the tree, close the hole and water the tree, right?
Or is it not that simple?
We need to get work done on the Land Cruiser, but since our workshop does not have time until tomorrow we decide to have an “online workday”, as we call it. All we need is WIFI.
Right, where can we find that?
When we arrived last night, Domingo informed us that the Private Pilot Club does have toilets but no shower. This didn’t pose a problem as we have a shower bag. It isn’t the grandest shower in the world, but it does what it has to do.
With 1,5 million inhabitants Santa Cruz, in eastern Bolivia, is the second-largest city in the country.
Where can we spend the night?
The owner asks what I’d like to have. I can choose between
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”
~George Harrison
In the Jesuit Mission of Santa Ana we take a look at the map and conclude we will have to return to the mission of San Rafael in order to be able to reach San Miguel. While we are discussing this, Flora, the caretaker of Santa Ana’s Jesuit Mission, chimes in and says there is another road.
It is a short cut.
Outside it is bloody, bloody hot with temperatures high in the thirties and everything dripping with humidity. We feel like we’re slowly being cooked in a pressure cooker. We’re thirsty.
I could use some water!
These are days 3 and 4 in the 30-day series “An Act of Kindness by a Stranger”. We are camped in the harbor of Corumbá, on the Brazilian border.
Do you know anybody who doesn’t like peanut butter? I don’t and nobody has ever understood why I didn’t like it.
Neither did I. I just didn’t.
Until…
This is day 1 in the 30-day series “An Act of Kindness by a Stranger”. Today I did not encounter 1 but 2 friendly gestures worth sharing, which I consider a positive omen for this project.
What happened?
So often we encounter kindness, and so often from
No, the idea is not entirely mine…
We had been driving all day through the rainforest and couldn’t find a place to camp because there weren’t any clearings.
Until we came upon a fork and, in the distance, saw an antenna, which indicated habitation.
What were we going to do with 100 limes? An hour ago we thought we were going to be stuck with a bottle of cachaça and a kilo of sugar which had become useless as the main ingredient for our favorite cocktail had been missing: limes.
And now we had 100!
“We would leave on Monday, be gone the entire week fishing in either the lakes or if there was not enough water we’d go out on the ocean and return on Saturday. We’d have one day at home and we were off again.”
With his six brothers and parents, Marinaldo lived on fishing. Day in, day out.