Descending the Rio das Velhas – the canoeing and the heat:physical education in the Manuelzão

Abstract

Manuelzão, a character created by Guimarães Rosa, lends his country spirit to an integrating project of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Participants want to save the Velhas River in order to save everyone. They come from many fields: medicine, arts, and engineering, and bring knowledge of health and sanitation as well as cultural diversity. Full of creativity, they planned go down the river by canoe in order to meet and learn about the people living there, and to share with them the knowledge about environmental problems. The tropical climate, together with physical exertion, brings on profuse sweating and many risks. Then, we were invited to advise the group during this adventure. What has transpired, we need to tell. We have decided to borrow the words of Manuelzão: stand up and come to hear us.