"Many adults are reluctant with the enumerators and the innocence of a child makes the difference". With this sentence, Elane Ramos, who worked as an enumerator in Manaus (AM) for six months, summarized her experience as she visited the households and children helped her create beautiful memories of the 2022 Census.

I had great company in the Redenção neighborhood, when I worked in the census collection, and this company was children's company; they welcomed me, helped me and made me laugh out loud! Sometimes I was across the street, I mean, alley, and when the children saw me, they would go: 'IBGE! IBGE!' I would wave to them and just after that, I would go to them", she remembers.

For Elane, having worked with the support of the children was pure joy: “satisfaction, happiness, privilege! A milestone in my career, during the time I spent in the Census”, she summarizes. For her, “children have a key role in the Census, even though they do not understand it very well. They used to follow me up to the households’ door and say: ‘she is at home indeed; so-and-so lives here!’”

The children of the Redenção neighborhood were my motivation as I worked as an enumerator: “they help me in without knowing it, they made me company, and when they saw me walking, they used to greet me, and I would sit with them, talk and rest from the hot sun.”

Elane even participated in a TV News to show the work of the enumerators in the Census and according to her, when the children saw the TV team shooting, “they were amazed!”, and added “I believe that if I go there today they will still remember me and welcome me as they used to and will tell the future generations about this story because they felt part of it too.”

Happy for being part of Census history

Besides the warm welcome of the little ones, Elane has also kept in her memory the opportunity she is thankful for having had, of having experiences in the Census, and she tells us that she felt amazed seeing people of different ages working as enumerators in the Census. “There is no age restriction, everyone can undergo IBGE’s recruitment process for enumerators, if they have completed the Primary Education, and be part of the Census. Seeing old men and women walking down the streets, collecting information, residents’ data, and taking that to their family… Some quit and others persisted, staying till the end, so that is gratifying”, she said.

Now, as an ex-enumerator, she says she is happy for having been part of the 2022 Census History, and she believes that her daughter and granddaughter will also have the Census in their memories, and, who knows, they will have their own Census experiences in the future: “my daughter, seeing me in the vest, would say: ‘Are you going to work, mom? Cool!! When I grow up I also want to work at the IBGE!’ As I told her Census’ stories, she would grow more and more interested. I am sure this will be kept in her memory, as an 11-year-old girl and in my two-year-old granddaughter’s memory as well, because I’ll tell her all about it too.”

Speaking of her hard work as an enumerator, going through difficult pathways, under the hot sun, through alleys up and down, in subnormal agglomerates in Manaus, Elane feels grateful and grateful alone: “I will keep this forever in my mind! I Thank the IBGE, with an open heart, and my coordinators, Mr. Célio, a wonderful person, and Felipe, and it was such a good, very remarkable experience!”

Animal attack, mud, drought and "hot water" in the river

In the Paraná-Mirim community, in the rural area of Careiro da Várzea (AM), enumerator Maria da Glória has other types of emotions to remember when it comes to the 2022 Census. She remembers when she had to “interact” with local animals: “something  unusual happened, cow was coming to me, and the boatman, who was accompanying me, saw the situation and even filmed it. The cow was alone, so she started mooing to call the others (bullocks and cows) to attack us (laughs). A pig also wanted to attack me, and I was alone that time, and the pig came over and wouldn't let me pass at all!”, he says laughing, now that the fear is gone.

But those weren't the only “funny” situations Glória went through in the Census. She remembered when she got stuck in the mud, something typical of the Várzea region (lowland). “I got stuck, my feet stuck in the mud”, while the boatman, her partner at work, filmed everything and had fun with Gloria's frustrated attempts to cross the mud, but of course he later helped her to get out safe and sound.

“In addition, there were some situations in the Amazonian waters: one in which our boat passed through a section with a lot of grass (around), and I ended up getting completely wet”. In addition, because the Amazon rivers were facing a dry preriod, which gets worse in the last quarter of each year, at times, it became very difficult for the boat to go through the rivers affected by the drought, sometimes the boat couldn't even cross them, “and then we had to walk several kilometers around the river to reach some houses because we couldn't go by boat”, she recalls.

But, regardless the scary moments, Maria, like Elane, can only thank the IBGE and the Census for making her feel that she made a difference with her work: “in the places I visited, they only expect improvements; to live with some dignity. I always heard the same request: quality water and the right to come and go, which are hampered by the absence of Public Power and by few public policies”.

In a nutshell, she felt home in each house visited, and she 'was very well received in the communities, very well treated”, and more: “if I could, I would do this job with pleasure every year!” Thanking the IBGE, she also highlighted that “only this way, from door to door, will we discover the advances and downturns of our Brazil”.