Energy - Food
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There is a generator in the village that is switched on during church services, in order to power the fans, and in the school, the electricity powers the computer and fan.

In the evening, people pile into a house that has a television and  assist the football, news or the adored soap operas.

There is a solar panel, that charges the telephone box in the village, from 11 o’clock in the morning. 

The Forest Community farm mandioca to make farinha  (below):

 This is their staple diet (consisting of mainly carbohydrate and a little iron).  They also farm banana, melon, brazil nuts,  acai and coffee and rubber (from the ‘siringal’ tree.  They gather food supplies by fishing, daily (left: fishing with a bow and arrow)  – as they don’t have fridge’s or freezers. There are two seasons, a wet (January to July) and dry (August  to December) season. During the dry  season, the river lowers 30 meters,  so it can be difficult to get fish, therefore they treat the fish they catch with salt and hang them to dry on washing lines in the sun.  This also serves them when the river to too high and the fish disappear to the river bed to avoid the tremendous river current.  The Forest people prepare, by boiling or barbecuing the fish for lunch and supper, on stoves made from mud, and fires fuelled by wood that they gather in the forest. The rubber that they gather from the sap which drips out from  the bark of the ‘Siringal’  tree,  serves as excellent fire- lighters when the wood is wet from  the tropical rains. 

It can be very dangerous working to gather food in the forest in order to survive daily.  For instance, the Brazil nut tree is incredibly tall, and looks like an umbrella.  Its fruits – the brazil nuts come packed together tightly in a                thick, hard-shelled brown ball – inside this ball the nuts are squeezed tightly together appearing similar to  ‘chocolate orange segments’…and they are just as delicious, creamy and full of protein.  Only experienced adults can gather these nuts, because the nuts can fall fast from the tree and kill you outright!  

There are thousands and billions of inhabitants making up the most diverse bio – system in the Amazon,  many of these plants are commonly used for medicinal purposes, like tree oils – ‘copaiba and anjiroba’, used for instant healing of wounds (no plasters needed!).  Unfortunately, due to de-forestation, many plant, insect and animal species become extinct before discovery.