Living in this community gave me an opportunity to become part of something bigger than my Fulbright project. Each day, I visited the kids, helped with lunch, read stories and relished the company of these wonderful children who, in spite of not having luxuries of any kind, giggled, smiled and played with me. I quickly became involved with the Mutá Residents’ Association and its nursery. After a few months of investigating the possibility of a replicable biogas system (as an alternative energy method for rural communities), I realized that my Fulbright experience was about more than just my research. My Fulbright project consisted of building a biogas system to produce cooking gas, supplemented by composting, while raising awareness about adequate solid waste disposal methods. When I first arrived, my intention was to help the town reuse all its organic waste. Nine months had passed and Mutá had started to feel like home. I was leaving the small rural town of Mutá in Bahia, Brazil, for the last time. I stuck my head out the window and took in the scenery: palm trees, mangroves, birds and sunshine. As the jumpy, beat-up bus lifted a cloud of dust behind it, I felt a lump in my throat.
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