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| This is a cashew tree. The cashew nut is the the little pod you can see above but there is also a fruit that grows above the pod which is used to make juice. |
Today began a series of road trips for me. Leaving early in the morning we set out for a trek to the southern portion of the state of Goias where there is a town called Paranaiguara. There is a Sister of St. Joseph who lives there as well. It was just an overnight trip but it was a great experience and beautiful to see the rolling savannah that makes up the landscape of Goias. There were countless plantations of sugar cane for ethanol production, corn and soybeans, toucans, parrots, and hawks, as well as lots of time to sleep. In Paranaiguara, a town of about eight thousand people, Sister Christina gave us a lovely tour of the city and we talked about her job as a nurse in the hospital there and described the challenges of working in a city with a lack of doctors and proper conditions for health care. Paranaiguara also has an interesting history as it previously was in a different location about fifty kilometers away. The town had to be relocated in the 1960s when a damn was built that flooded the whole town!
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| This is one PSF in Paranaiguara. |
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| This is a plaque that the mayor constructed for himself describing his good deeds of building public side walks and streets. There is no guarantee that he did though. |
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| This is a community garden that is part of a project Sister Christina is a part of in Paranaiguara. The people in the town are each given a section to cultivate in order to feed their families. This project is one portion of a project that the Sisters here developed to reduce child mortality rates. It is in conjunction with a program that goes to peoples' homes on a monthly basis to track the growth of children from birth until age six. When the children are measured, there is an opportunity to educate the parents and families about proper nutrition and hygiene to reduce the likelihood of infant death. Sister Christina developed a simple formula of water, sugar, and salt that has been adopted by programs instituted by the Brazilian government which significantly improve dehydration in children and thus also reduce infant mortality rates. The Sisters began this program in Paranaiguara in the 1970s but it has since spread throughout Brazil. |
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| A small farm house in Paranaiguara that is one of few in the town which has land. The other houses are tightly packed together limiting the amount of space families have to grow their own vegetables. |
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| This sign is promising the building of a new health care post similar to a PSF, but Sister Christina said that it will probably be a long time in coming. |
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| This is the new church that was built in the center of the town. It is only used for Sunday masses and weddings, while other masses during the week are held in the chapel that stands to the right of the church. |
