Liberdade

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I spent four nights or so in the barrio Liberdade, about 45 minutes from downtown BH. It's a small community, initially founded with the construction of 200 homes for Habitat for Humanity, and then expanded by the construction of an additional 300 homes by the city. The neighborhood is more country then city. The houses sit along wide paved streets, the fronts obscured by the 12 foot concrete walls and metal doors added on by the residents. There's a public school, small shops, grocery stores, bakeries, fruit stores, butchers. The streets are usually full of people - as it is the winter and more windy, there are always kites flying. In the evening people stand about talking; there are always children running about.

I'm working in a community center here teaching English and Art classes, but as the children here already have school my primary goal is not to teach them but to make sure they're happy. As the neighborhood has a firm community, this is not difficult (as opposed to another project I'm working at, in the city, where the children often try to avoid interaction) and I work or speak with their parents frequently.

As to the cause of the difference in neighborhoods, I can only speculate. Liberadade was created as a Habitat project, and most of the original people still own the homes. Those who applied for the project numbered around 8,000 - however, with only 200 slots available, the people democratically voted on a series of criteria that would make one eligible for the project (some making themselves ineligible in the project). But after this, the number was only reduced. What followed was personal home visits and interviews with "points" assigned to a criteria of percieved need. Reducing the number of families to around 600, the rest was decided by chance, and 200 families were chosen, and built their houses over the next two years (as a cooperative; the houses were assigned randomly after completion). As a result, all the families chosen were single mothers with children under the age of 12, and all the deeds of the houses were assigned to the women. In short, the community was established by the current residents.

Problems do exist here, to be sure. I was blissfully unaware as I went out to the local watering holes with my friends that crime was an issue. But as was later explained, there are many drug trafficers and theives in the area, but they are also part of the community and grew up with my friends. In another instant we had entered a local bar, and I was introduced to one the off duty military police - horrifically drunk - who's wife i work with and daughter I teach. He told me shortly after meeting him not to worry about anything and that this was "my house." I didn't know what to make of the until 30 minutes later when him and another police were throwing someone out of the bar (literally), and 30 minutes later when they did this again. Apparently he's pretty high up in the police and has free reign to do whatever he wants - the second man didn't know this and said something offensive. When we left they had him up against a wall for twenty minutes shouting at him about hauling him off to prison. The man was understandably scared.

I spent some of the nights there staying in a friends house - crowded to the extent of 8 other people in a 600 square foot home. Brazilian hospitatility is being asked to stay here. Three of the kids that live there were taken in by the family when their parents died. It's amazing how well people share the space and the intergenerational relations resulting from this necessity.

After a few days speaking only Portuguese, my language facility has improved immensely, and though I may still speak like Tarzan, I can understand and usually be understood.

It's is also World Cup right now - Brazil played their first game last week, and the entire city became green, yellow, and blue as people painted streets, sidewalks, trees, cars, etc. The streets were crowded until the start of the game when everyone dissapeared inside. After the first and only goal, it sounded as if the city were being mortarted, as fireworks could be seen and heard for at least 15 minutes. After the game, we went out into the street, which at 7pm had been completely shutdown, cars parked in the mass of people blasting axé and baile funk. The scene was reminiscent of Carnaval, but remiscent of absolutely nothing in the states. And this was only the first game.

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Comments

[jellis]

Wow.
I commend you for being the only friend I have who is travelling internationally AND doing worthwhile humanitarian work.