Adriana sits at an organized desk – beside her are some industrial scales and, at the opposite wall, two gigantic freezers and some shelves of vegetable. She is now in charge of the “Merenda Escolar” program (food for school) in the district of Assaré. On her initiative, fresh foods for the program are bought by the small farmers in the region. It is early in the morning and one of the first to deliver his products is her cousin Ernandez Alencar. He enters the room with two boxes of parsley and chives. The delivery is weighed, checked and put onto the shelves. Meticulously, Adriana notes down his delivery in a book. At the end of the month all suppliers receive their money. Her new farmhand Franzisco arrives, he has just finished the shopping. Adriana tells him to look for a cattle trader in order to sell some cattle before the dry season – prices are good at the moment. Franzisco sits down on his motorcycle, shopping bag hung around his shoulders like a backpack, and rides to Baixio Grande. He meets a pickup truck on the way there. The cattle trader looks out from the window. They quickly set a time and place for the sale – later today, as time is running short.
He doesn’t have much time to tell Alcacio when he arrives at the farm. Alcacio throws on a shirt, puts on his long pants and casually sits down on his veranda. The buyer is slowly approaching, driving his pickup truck. When he gets out, his cowboy boots and baseball cap with “Vaqueiro” (cowboy) written on it shows that he is a cattle expert. The negotiations begin with general talk about the economic situation, shouts of admiration for Alcacio’s new sheepdog and the good state of his house. After that the two men go into the pasture, point at the different cattle and their calves, whisper and come back. Alcacio gets coffee; the two of them drink without words. The trader offers 2600 reais for one cow and its calf. Not enough – Alcacio gives a refusing wave of the hand and the trader goes back to his car slowly.
The valley and the town have changed considerably. The cactuses are now deep green and full. Their caved-in yellow figure is in the past. There are at least two cisterns brimming with water in front of each house in the village and, as if they wanted to ward off the coming dry period, some inhabitants have made flower beds around their houses. The vegetable gardens are filled with beans, zucchini and cabbage. There were sufficient rains in the winter of 2017. For the first time since 2011, the farmers have planted large amounts of corn and can harvest it. Together they were able to repair the tractor belonging to the small-scale farming collective and now want to bring in their crops. Harvesting is teamwork. All of the male inhabitants meet in order to go to the fields on the hills. They laugh, drink and with great effort fight their way through the Caatinga. No tractor has driven here for five years, so they must fell trees and cut bushes. By noon they find out that it was all worth it – 50 bags of corn from one field. That is enough for one family for a whole year. The farm storerooms fill up, the village is in high spirits. Some of the young men as well as Adriana’s brother Fabio have returned – forever. If the rain comes in next year as well, once again life will be good in the sertão.
