Favelas & Football

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September 14th 2008

Published: September 25th 2008

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Clare Fenton

Rocinha

Just arrived at top of Favela

Having witnessed a few very large Favela´s (slums) driving through Sao Paulo, and of course, who hasn't seen or heard of the movie City of God, i admit i was very keen to do a tour through a Favela to see it all first hand.
We got picked up, our tour guide advised us that although it might seem a little scary, the people are very friendly.. we get to the entrance of a Favela called Rocinha. We jumped on motorbike taxis which took us up the long, steep and winding street to the top, which was a thrill in itself!
Our guide advised she would let us know where & when we could take pictures of people. She warned that any young guys with walkie talkies are drug watchers, as all Favela´s are governed by drug dealers (police never enter the favelas) and to not pull out your camera. She also told us not to freak out if we saw people with guns, bombs, hand grenades and certainly not to purchase any drugs! I´m thinking, sounds like scaremongering to me, freak the tourists out, etc. Surely it couldn´t be that bad?
We walked through the entrance into a rabbit warren

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of alleys and were clocked in by the drug watchers, just like she told us, young guys with their eyes peeled, keeping a watchful eye. The smell of the place was feral, open sewers everywhere. We were taken into an art gallery where they teach young kids from the favela to draw and eventually graffiti. One of the artists himself was there and i ended up buying from him what will be my pride and joy, an oil on canvas of the view of Rio from Christ the Redeemer.
The Favela was definitely friendlier than expected. Rocinha has over 350,000 people living in it and there are over 700 Favelas in Rio alone. Houses are built ontop of houses, any spare space is built upon. They tap illegally into electricity, cable tv, broadband and water. Sounds like a great deal, really!
Walking along, having just bought my painting, thinking this was all pretty cool and we stopped for a quick moment and oh my god, look at that dude standing right there with a massive gun. I was the first to see it and tried desperately to be nonchalant while whispering ´dude with a massive gun, dude with a massive

Rocinha

gun´under my breath to the others around me. Playing it cool we kept walking and at the bottom of the favela we were told put your cameras away now, this is where all the drug dealers will be hanging out, under no circumstances must you buy anything! We walked through, saw a few backhanded drug deals and dodgy eyes everywhere. Once again, all eyes were on us as we were clocked out of there.. At times it did feel a bit voyeuristic but i would do it again in a heartbeat!

Tonight three of us went to a football match to watch Botafogo, a local team, play International, a team from the South of Brazil. At first we walked accidentally into the Visitor´s section, no thanks, don't want to look anymore outsiderish than we already do! So we went and sat in the local section and the crowd was phenomenal... as soon as we got seats we missioned out to get beers to find no alcohol sold within the stadium! HUH? It got to about half time and this alcohol ban began to make perfect sense. I couldn´t imagine what these hoons would´ve been like with alcohol in them!

Rocinha

A large group of aggressive Botafogo fans dedicated their entire half time to standing at the edge of the visitor´s section, with police in between them, to heckle, threaten, scream, chant and make promises to kill them all. When International won, i was kind of glad they were ushered out a separate entrance as the Botafogo fans were truly livid! Great experience though, and was certainly a wise move on our part to sit in the local section.

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