A new adventure began at the break of dawn last Friday, what this adventure entitled was a farm with cows, horses, bugs, caves, bats, a sunburn to last a week, and a belly full of scrumptious food. Four hours SouthEast of my city is a town by the name of Igratamia. Consisting of farm land preserved forests and more cows than I have ever seen in my life. I was privileged to go on this trip with Jacquine, a member of my Rotary Club and his family.
Many years ago when his great great grandfather was alive his great great grandfather bought around 650 thousand kilometers of land in Igratamia. He established a tobacco farm and constructed two houses. Years passed, and his death followed. His sons took over the land, sold parts to other people willing to pay a hardy amount, and the majority of the land they kept.
The sons of the farmer agreed on changing the farm from tobacco producing to a dairy farm.
This was a large process for the family, since many changes were needed to keep and raise cows. Corn and other products such as types of grass were planted as a food source to sustain the cows. As the family grew more and more houses were built for aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers and grandparents. Today the entire family lives on the farm living no more than a couple hundred feet away from each other.
Saturday night we walked to the house of Jacquine's sister and celebrated the birthday of her husband. There I learned how to dance the Forro and Samba, Native dances of Brasil. If there is one thing that Brasillians know how to do better than Americans, I would probably say throwing a party. The layout was simple but the music, churrassco (type of barbecue) and people thrown together made for a wild night of pure good fun. As I slightly remember the time we left I think it was around three in the morning.
When I woke up I milked a cow for the first time in my life and what an experience that was, the milk just wouldn't go into the bucket for the longest time. I also watched a cow give birth to a calf. After this weekends adventures, I have found that farms have many things to offer, which makes me want to live on one myself.
The only problem I had throughout the trip was forgetting sunscreen after one day of riding horses I looked like a little red hot chilly pepper and felt like it too.
