The best football pitch in the Amazon

I have spent the last two days in paradise. I ran away from the circus to visit the Captão Dãrios riverboat. It has been a fantastic time for me, mainly because I don't have to answer so many technical questions!

We arrived here late on Tuesday evening to continue our work with the small communities. The village is called Por Ti Meu Deus and it has about 30 families living here. There is a school, community hall, manioc flour making oven and lots of small community plots for growing food in. The church here is beautiful, it is small yet perfectly kept, again I get the sense of how important religion is to people here.

As soon as we arrived Mora took us around and the pride in her village was glowing through her smiles. We had a quick look in the school but I think we were interrupting lessons so I sat at the back and tried to improve my Portuguese, this was the first class in the school yet the teaching was too advanced for me.

I watched the small girls play Melancia - it is an international game played with a piece of string or elastic around your ankles and you slowly raise the string higher and try to jump. I think we could have done quite well at this game seeing as we are twice the height of the children but it was time for a quick game of football instead.

Mora and her children took us up the hill past the plantations to the football pitch. This is my idea of a pitch. Perched on the hill with a great view of the Acarai river and forest on three sides it was better than many of the pitches I have used on rainy days in Blighty. I was told to play goalie so I closed my eyes and prayed. Mora is very good at football and she put quite a few past me. I got my own back later though. The women play football here which was good to know as in Gurupa they thought I was an alien. However it is segregated teams so if they are playing against other local communities they share players.

When you imbibe all the beauty here you cannot help but pray to Gaia or God to protect this area. This is to me how the Amazon should be, lots of trees overhanging the river and heaving with bounty. Not the deforested naked grasslands we have been seeing too much of during this trip. We need to ensure that this way of life is passed on for more generations to come.

Greenpeace can help people here with all its many resources and knowledge of the workings of Brazilian government but is still needs your support. For you are what makes Greenpeace able to come here and inform people that there is alternative to large scale logging and mass destruction. Little people in groups can be very powerful.

Give people some hope for their children, for these children have the widest smiles I have ever seen. There are injustices all over the world every day but you have the chance to be part of the team working here for better futures for the people of Pára through the extractive reserve - Resex.

Send a letter to the government, become a cyber activist or just promise yourself to be an informed eco-consumer of Forest Stewardship Council timber. If you cannot get FSC wood where you are then get on the case! You might think it is not worth it, that your small voice does not matter, but I tell you that Mora and family will appreciate it when they can retain their livelihood and keep the lungs of the world breathing.

Thanks.
Emily