Jun-2015
Location: Alto Santa Maria – Espírito Santo Fernando lives in the hills of the state of Espírito Santo but he speaks Pomeranian better than he speaks Portuguese. The children in this region spend one week in school and the next helping their parents plant and harvest vegetables and grains. Since he was little, he has […]
May-2015
Rebeca is a shrewd girl, she always has the right answer on the tip of her tongue. Besides the answers, her tongue is always sharp when it is time to sew, a daily habit in the life of this 7-year-old girl. She uses her whole body as she sews, from her tongue to her feet, […]
We visited the house of Mr. Levi Roger on a sunny Sunday, when he was hosting friends and family, as they do every Sunday. To gather a group of children of various age groups without a defined purpose and with space for them to do what they want is enough for childhood’s imagination to show […]
May-2015
As soon as the “china” (marbles) game ended, I asked the boys why it is that adults today insist on saying that children don’t know how to play anymore and that games like this no longer exist. “It’s because these adults don’t come here to see,” one of the boys replied. This is true, I […]
May-2015
It’s so amazing how Brazil has so many games happening under a mango tree, or other fruit trees, that you could write a treatise on the subject. It was no different in Abadia, this small village near Carbonita in the Jequitinhonha Valley. While the girls swept the dry leaves and rotten mangoes, setting the ground […]
May-2015
The roar comes from a distance, and has been heard since long ago. A good cart has to roar, has to make itself heard. For generations the Cururupu region has been marked by the power of these carts made of iron and wood, pulled by the traction of two oxen. Cheda, canga, paré, rodeiro, canzil, […]
May-2015
Playing with canoes made from timbaúba, or earpod tree, is an old tradition among the children and adults in Tatajuba. They are proud of carrying this habit for so many generations. It’s an act of collective resistance etched into a way of playing. Once they told us about this toy, the questions began: “how long […]
May-2015
The sea calls for navigators, it calls for floating with sails puffed by the wind, it asks for the precision of boys skillful in cutting foam as they build their canoes. Here in Tatajuba we are learning about the nature of liquid play. We are noticing how a good foam canoe captain must know […]
May-2015
According to its citizens, Abadia is a land of medicine women, midwives and herbs that work better than any pill. A land where pilgrims come from afar to worship the image of Our Lady of Abadia, and where the dolls are baptized like every child. “Everyone deserves to be baptized,” said one of the girls. […]
May-2015
Neck deep in water, Felipe never tired of watching his little boat slide around on the whims of the wind and the current. Built with his own hands out of a rubber sandal hull, plastic bag sails and a rudder made from a bent bottle cap, the boat was christened with the name of his […]
May-2015
There are boys who, while making their toys, are like a bird learning to fly, they have a deep desire and persistent hands. They won’t stop making until they have arrived at what they wanted. Trial, error, fixing, adjusting, polishing, re-doing, they even make funny faces or stick out their tongues to help get it […]
May-2015
The days go by but the kids’ desire to show us what they know remains. When night falls they’ve already surrounded us with suggestions for the morning. “We still haven’t made the spool car,” one of them says. “Why don’t we go hunt crabs in the mangrove?” says another. The list never ends, they really […]
May-2015
For days the boys of Tatajuba have been telling us about their tiny weapons made of palm straw. I’ve seen entire arsenals of children’s weapons, but one made from palm straw was new to us. Does the weapon fire something? I thought it did. But no, it doesn’t fire anything, instead it launches the boy […]
May-2015
August is the windy month, and the winds call for bicudas and arraias, or airplanes and kites, in the sky. Acupe is currently covered with children on the docks, the square, in streets and backyards with their eyes turned to the sky and their hands waving deftly, like a maestro conducting his orchestra. The bicudas […]
