Life at Iracambi

Living in the place where the farm and the forest meet brings its own set of challenges -
to find out how it works in a day to day way read on...

Volunteering or researching here provides a fantastic opportunity to live in a way that is likely to be quite different to the life you are used to. Sharing with people of many different nationalities, backgrounds, skills, ages and interests. Not to mention sharing with a few bugs. The philosophy of inviting volunteers to participate in Iracambi's work is to encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own work, experience, lifestyle and for each other - essentially to be self-sufficient. Together with your fellow volunteers you will need to find a mutually agreeable way to run your temporary home. It is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that the cleanliness of the house is maintained.

Accommodation

You will live with fellow volunteers in one of three properties and you will probably be required to share a room (with someone of the same sex). The properties are farm cottages, three of them are in the same area, and the Center is located a few kilometres apart from the rest. They are traditional and simple in design - built in the same way as the houses that people in the area live in. The Center is the biggest of the volunteer houses, with four bedrooms, each sleeping two people, a living room, kitchen and two bathrooms. The other volunteer houses all have two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and a living room. They each sleep five people.

The houses are all well maintained, at present the Center is the only one that has electricity 24 hours a day. The other houses have electricity in the mornings and evenings, as they are powered by our own ecologically friendly hydro-electric plant.

Casa Angola	Centro	Casa Escondida

The Iracambi Homestay Program - a cultural exchange

Iracambi has recently begun a Homestay Program which gives a small number of volunteers and researchers the opportunity to live with a family in the local community. Participation in the program gives volunteers and researchers an entirely new and privileged insight into Brazilian life and culture, as well as providing extra income for local families.

On arrival, you will be placed in Iracambi Volunteer or Researcher accommodation, but you can apply to take part in the program at any time after your arrival. A place will be allocated depending on availability and on the fulfillment of certain criteria (for example, you must speak at least basic Portuguese).

Homestay Participant Comments

"Living with a family made all the difference to my stay at Iracambi - my family welcomed me with open arms, and I became much more than just a visitor to Brazil."

"I have made great friends, really great friends. It's an invaluable experience."

"I've learnt so much living with my Brazilian family - about real life and real people here in Minas Gerais, and also about myself and my own life in England. It's been eye-opening."

Food

Once a week the volunteer manager does the shopping for the volunteers, and will also get any special requests such as alcohol or chocolate and post letters etc. The people in each house get an allocation of fresh fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, pasta and any essential household items. Food will be delivered to your house each week and it will be your responsibility, together with the other people with whom you share accommodation, to create meals for 7 days.

Lunch is cooked at the Center every day during the week by Carminha. The food consists mainly of rice, beans, potatoes, salad and cake or bread. Throughout the week most meals cooked are vegetarian, once or twice a week the cooks may provide meat or chicken. Food is bought from the local communities to ensur that it is as fresh and organic as possible.

Average Day

Volunteers and researchers leave the house for work between 8.30 and 9 am, return for lunch at 12.30 and then it's back to work until 5. Depending on your project you could spend most of your time in the forest, nursery, school, mapping neighboring hills or enjoying the spectacular views from the office. Lunch is available at the Center and Casa Escondida.

On weekday evenings between 5 and 7 pm. people may use the phone and e-mail facilities from Casa de Barro (the main farmhouse), this may also be done before midday on Saturday. Most evenings at Iracambi are spent socialising with the people of one house cooking for the others. Otherwise the main evening activities are reading, playing cards, listening to music and on some days playing soccer with the locals, oh and maybe a drink or two. Each Tuesday we have a film evening, playing one of the films from our library which has been built up by donations from volunteers and researchers past and present.

Location

The Research Center is situated on a working farm in the Atlantic Rainforest zone (Zona da Mata), near the village of Rosário da Limeira (lat. 21º00' S, long. 42º30' W) in the southeast of the state of Minas Gerais, five hours by road from Rio de Janeiro, or four hours from the state capital, Belo Horizonte. To see where we are click here.

We understand that volunteers and researchers will want to see lots of different parts of Brazil while they are here. Owing to our location it can be difficult for people to go much further afield than Muriaé in a weekend. If you are planning to go away for more than a weekend please do let us know before you arrive so we can take this in to account. If volunteers and researchers are staying for one month then they can take up to two days off to go away. Volunteers and researchers staying for two months can take up to five days off. For each subsequent month volunteers and researchers can go away for up to two days.

Communication

• Telephone - For communication with the outside world, you'll need to have a telephone charge card (most major companies serve Brazil - MCI, AT&T, Sprint, even BT). Without a charge card, you'll only be able to make collect calls (which not all countries accept) from the main office. You will not live in the main farmhouse so please explain to friends and family that it will not always be possible to speak to you when they call. It would of course be possible to arrange for them to call you at certain pre-arranged times though (ideally between 5pm and 7pm on weekdays). There is Skype on the computers at the Center but owing to the idiosyncrasies of our rainforest connection it is a bit like using a CB radio.
• Internet access - Access to computers for personal usage is limited, as work has priority, but if it doesn't interfere with anyone else´s work computers are usually available for personal usage after 6pm. If there are a lot of people need to use computers, the volunteer manager will set up a a rota to ensure that everyone has access. To avoid any frustrations if you use a computer a lot, you could always bring your own...
• Post - The post is collected from time to time from the nearby village of Limeira. For your information letters to and from Europe take around 2 weeks and parcels 6-7 weeks. From the US, letters take about 10 days to arrive, and parcels about 5 weeks.

Visitors

By general agreement with with volunteers and researchers, we have decided that people should not have friends coming to stay here for a day or two to visit: it disrupts the existing dynamics too much. There are hotels in Muriaè which they can stay in.

Questions?

If you are interested in living and volunteering or researching here yourself then you can e-mail us at iracambi@iracambi.com with any questions or queries that you may have. If you are getting ready to live here then click here to go to our webpage which will help you with practical pre-trip preparations.