Taco and the joy within

The IRES visited the small, remote community of Camburi- an old Quilombo or escaped-slave colony. The community, living in a designated forest (part of the Atlantic rainforest), has restrictions on their construction and living practices and have turned to bamboo as a primary building material. They are home to a Belgian-based project called Bamboostik, which helps by sending architectural students to work for about 6 months designing and building bamboo structures with the community.

The IRES saw their building construction techniques both in their completed community center and in the roadside market currently under construction. We took in the beautiful beach and learned about their communal fishing practices. A local woman opened her home and cooked us lunch and afterward, we watched the kids play a game similar to cricket, which they called taco. I pieced together some of the rules, but I think one important feature was passion. You had to run with pure joy and argue fiercely if you thought the points were being awarded unfairly.