BRAZIL - AFTER THE FLOODS

I went

back to Maranhão

, one of many cities that had been devastated by floods last month, to survey the progress after the damage. The waters that were once nearly up to roofs have almost totally receded, leaving a huge amount of toxic mud that has dried in the harsh tropical sun and is now blowing around in the air. The pools of water that are still left around town are full of fish, including piranha. Here is a photo of a girl, bleeding from a piranha bite, showing off the fish that bit her. She took it home, fried it in coconut oil, and ate it.

People are fixing their homes, which is free for the poorer people because they just pack more mud into the frames of their houses. The local government has been spraying pesticide all over the place so mosquitos won't proliferate any more than they usually do. People are back working on their plots of land with some crops like corn, which has been destroyed, and bananas, which are doing just fine. The floods have ended, people are getting back to work, schools are opening back up, and though a shitload of people are sick (well, they were fishing in an accidental river of sewage), the vibe seems pretty positive.

I met a guy in front of the palm frond shack he built while waiting for the flood waters that destroyed his house to recede so he could rebuild it. He tells me that he can tell by my accent that I am not from around these parts. When I say I am from the US he asks me to give a message to President Obama. "Tell him that we like him a lot down here, that we love Americans, and that we are all very happy that he won the election." It's the first time since Bush was elected the first time that any Brazilian has told me that they like Americans. Which is a little strange since the US donated only $50,000 in aid, and there was no evidence that a cent had made it to this town.

BRIAN MIER