Cutting Cashews

An abundance of photos today; we've brought the family we're staying with (who live in our old house) to the beach overnight; came through the Serra do Mel (Honey Hills), stopping at old friends on the way.

This is Derian cutting open cashews - each cashew has to be cut in half, one by one, to get the nut out - the alkali in them burns hands and stains clothes; then each one is scraped by the women with a little knife to get the bitter skin off, very carefully so as not to break the nut; then they are roasted for 12 hours in a cool oven. And that's not counting the back-breaking picking them up from the burning sand from under the trees (I've done that, so I know), and all the work of maintaining the trees, and the transport and the packaging... And these folk all get paid a pittance. And now, because of the five years without hardly any rain, about 60% of the trees have died - we passed hundreds and hundreds of dead trees on the way here.

But there is a joy and a love of life here that's not matched in richer places - see the extra for a glimpse - Manuel Teófilo and Maria Júlia with M.