Life in the Desert: Part II

I had the chance to see a lot of the sertao today. We took two trips to different parts of the sertao where a couple of families live and they are very self sufficient. They have farms where they grow all different types of food. I honestly was blown away because in Utah we talk about different types of foods that can't be grown there, but here it is much the same if not worse at times and they grow things I would never expect to see in the desert. They grow corn, onions, carrots, lettuce, pineapple, coconuts, goiaba, oranges, and more. Seriously, it is crazy the things they grow here! I italicized the things that blew me away when I saw them growing and tasted how good they are!


It was awesome seeing the first farm and getting to see how they took everything in after it was ripe and made pulp that they sold for money to live more comfortably. They did this after they had enough food for themselves. They even had a natural gas producer that allowed them to save a lot of money by producing cooking gas for themselves. They used cow manure to produce the gas which goes through a system that removes the smell and sends it right to their house. It was an amazing thing to see.

 This was the natural gas producer that Diaconia helped them build.

 This is how they produced their pulp.

 Storage of the pulp

 This is one of the homes that they have on their property. They have three, one for the parents and one for each child.

 She's a cutie :)

 bananas! 

The second home that we went to had a ton of food growing as well but we also got to see how they worked with sugar cane and produced their own rapadura to sell and eat themselves. It was really cool to see considering we just saw a movie that showed the same equipment. Seeing it in real life was awesome, and the family were way nice and made the trip fun.

 Eric was the coolest kid i met and got to hang out with at the second farm.

 This is the way they process cane sugar

This is a cistern that Diaconia is building for people all over the desert.