Trip at a glance

Our visas have all arrived and we look forward to leaving on Aug. 10th for Brazil. For our entire visit we will be in the state of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. We will spend about 9 days in the capital of Pernambuco, the coastal city of Recife (pronounced Hay-SEE-fay. Recife is headquarters of two of our key partners Equip(pronounced Eh-KEEP-eh) and FASE (pronounced FAH-say). Equip is our host and in-country support group. We will also spend five days travelling into the interior, about 700 km from Recife. on the way we will visit encampments and more established settlements set up by members of the MST (Landless Peasants Movement) and the CPT (the church's Pastoral Land Commission). At the farthrest end of the journey we will visit the town of Santa Maria de Boa Vista where another movement partner, the MAB (movement for those affected by large dams) is active. Santa Maria de Boa Vista is a town on the San Francisco River, which is the most important waterway in the country... more important than the Amazon. Many hydroelectric projects threaten the people living on this river.

Welcome to our Brazil trip blog

Hi and welcome to the blog a group of D&P members will be using to record their activities and impressions while visiting Brazil from Aug. 10 to Aug. 25, 2010. There are eight people on this trip:

Sandy Gibbons from St. John's, Newfoundland; Patsy Mooring from Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia; Kathy Gillis from Antigonish, Nova Scotia; Kerrianne Ryan from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ann Flynn from Fredericton, New Brunswick; Caroline Dow from Rockland, New Brunswick, and Brenda Chaput-Saltel from Winnipeg, Manitoba, are the D&P members in the group, and Danny Gillis, from Antigonish, is the staff coordinator.

I hope anyone who has an interest in our trip will visit the blogspot frequently during the days we are in Brazil.