Cooley's Adventures in Brasil: Ajara ~ A Tiny River Community

The last day of our trip was spent in Ajara, a tiny river community (three hours by boat up a tributary from Portel). Debbie Dinstel, one of our teachers here at AVA, spent her language learning time, when she first arrived in Brasil, at this tiny mission post.

The people in this tiny community were very hospitable and generous to our group. They gave up their space in their homes for us to sleep in. They fed us delicious food, much of which we brought with us, but they did kill a pig to serve as part of one meal, which was very generous on their part. They allowed us to use their dugout canoes for river fun, and they came out in vast numbers for the service our group did the night we were there.

The house where the teen girls hung their hammocks and slept.

In the kitchen of the home where Dennis & I slept (as well as 6 of the other adults). The hosts hung hammocks here in the kitchen that night so that we could have the bedrooms.

Space was limited inside, so most of us ate our meals outside.

Dennis shared with the community before the evening service.

These two little girls sat in the pew with me, and spent most of the service time watching me. They liked my camera and liked it when I showed them pictures of themselves on it.

Christie Bagley, our ESL teacher, with a young girl after the service.
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Down Time

After working hard for the previous 4 days of our mission trip, our time in Ajara (with the exception of the evening worship service) was spent as down time for our kids. They spent much of the afternoon in the river swimming, canoeing, jumping from trees, and jumping off the boat. It was refreshing and rejuvenating for everyone. We didn't find out until later that we were sharing the water with piranhas, or that alligators lived about 500 meters from where we were swimming. I guess what you don't know, won't hurt you (or at least make you worry a whole lot). The people here use the river for bathing all the time, so we just went by that knowledge and assumed it was safe.

The kids used several canoes throughout the afternoon. Some of them did real well, and some of them discovered that hauling a swamped canoe back to shore was a lot of work.

The river was very refreshing and also very deep. Even that far up river, it is still tidal. We used the six life vests (yes, only six of them) from our boat to float on. Even then the tide coming in was sending us UP river.

Jumping off the boat was great fun for those who enjoy that sort of thing. :o)
Nathanael is about to make a splash!

This is the boat that we traveled on to get to Ajara and back from Portel. The church community chartered the boat for us so we could come up to visit them. The teen guys and Mr. Stewart hung their hammocks on the boat and slept the night rocking on the river.

Boarding our small chartered boat to head back to Portel, where we then boarded the large public river transportation to Belem.

The river people are much more adept at canoe travel than we are. Check out how many people are in this small canoe.

Typical river transportation
Notice the color of the river. This picture was actually taken while still on the Amazon River. The tributary where Ajara is located was much clearer water.

Here is a typical river home...including the satellite dish you see. Even way out in the middle of nowhere, you can find technological and cultural changes.