Guru Geri in Brazil
I had been active with Robin Wood for several years and was interested in deforestation. A lot of action was done about it. I wanted to see it with my own eyes. In 1986 I sent a postcard to Volkswagen Wolfsburg, Chairman of the Board of Management, asking if I could do an agricultural internship at their Fazenda in Brazil. I actually got an answer with the offer to do the internship: Contact addresses etc. were included. Everyone from the shared flat in Planckstraße also looked for internships in South America: Stefan in Argentina, Brigitte in Bolivia, Walter also in Brazil, Gerold in Bolivia. I have been 11 months in Bazil and 1 month in neighboring countries Paraguay, Bolivia, Agentina and Uruguay.
We booked a flight and all flew to Rio first. There we separated. Gerold with 10 drainage pipes around his shoulders. The intercity buses were very comfortable and I was surprised about the vastness of the country - especially the monotony. From Brazil I went towards the rainforest to Cristralino. My Portuguese was very bad and I had difficulties with communication and only dare to imagine where the Fazenda is located. After two weeks I arrived, talked with a lot of hands and feet and smiled. I didn't get much to eat, because I had to order before I got anything. I rarely got this before the bus departures. But I quickly learned Portuguese. Somewhere in the Pampa, I didn't know where I was for a long time anymore, I was abandoned from one of the tens of buses with the request to wait: at the sign Rio Cristalino, 20 km. It was shortly before dark. And indeed, a car came and took me with it.
On Cristalino I learned to ride, 10 hours every day sitting out on mules, sat at a computer for the first time and learned a lot about tropical cattle farming: grass cultivation, diseases, tropical suitability, breeding, "pasture care by burning down", mortality rates of 10%, many by the extremely poisonous snake bites, long growth periods and a free life on the pasture where they actually do not belong.
I liked the rainforest, it was the first time for me that I drank from an open river and it was all so green, although everything was cut down and 25% of the area was burned down regularly.
One of my favorite things to do in the rainforest is fishing. After four months with the arrogant fazenderos, the landlords and the very poor economic slaves, I left Rio Cristalino. I had experienced indoor displacement in the forest, had been to one of the most modern slaughterhouses, had experienced auctions with multimillionaires and airplanes as well as military powerlessness in the rainforest and had been fishing a lot with a rubber dinghy on the many wild rivers or simply from the hammock hanging over a stream. I spoke Portuguese quite well now. Had spent quite a lot of time alone, on the horse in the office or with the animals. I painted a lot. I spent 10 month on the Facenda. Than I took one month traveling, to visit the other colleagues from the Planckstraße.
I visited Walter in Piraputanga near Campo Grande. He worked on a small self-catering farm of a German. He stayed there for a few weeks. Together with Walter he made a round trip of several weeks over the Iguazu waterfalls, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay. Then together with him into the Pantanal to Curumba, where we wanted to meet Stefan and Brigitte. It really worked. We drove together into this beautiful landscape, enjoyed the free life. Spent one day in Bolivia. Then together via Campo Grande to Sao Paulo, where we celebrated Christmas. On the coast of Brazil, in Florianopolis, in Blumenau, where all the Germans are, and in Rio spent several days.
