Favelas etc

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30/12
Today was the day we went to the favela, Rocinha. Now, to just cover a couple of things:
a) a favela is best described as a 'ghetto town', they're where the poorest people in the city live, they're infamous for the presence of drugs, there've been riots in some because of the police drug raids and theyre the places where people often get killed in mudslides. Foreigners are generally not welcome without being on some form of tour.

b) Lots of people ask how we felt about, effectively, going to gawk at poverty and this was something we were a bit concerned about ourselves. But we had heard really good things about the tours and the projects they fund and frankly the favelas are fascinating, it is a way of life which is nothi8ng like anything we would ever see in the UK, on reflection this tour was one of the best things we did.

The government offers no social housing in Rio so people move there to be close to family but also its their only means of putting a roof over their heads, even though this isoften not secure, as demonstrated by the mudslides. The tour we went on was a very matter of fact presentation of life in a favela, in this instance, Rio's biggest and most stable, Rocinha.

We took a moped from the bottom to the top of the favela to start the tour, not the safest I have felt on my trip! We played a bit of chi8cken with buses, went over a fair number of potholes and generally clung on for dear life! The four of us got to the top unscathed and the group were told not to take photographs until we were told we were allowed. In order to get into the favela you have to pass the drug watchers who keep an eye on who is entering and leaving, we were NOT to take photos of them, or 'anyone with a gun, bullets or grenades' - enough said. We heeded the warning!

Rocinha was actually a place where I felt relatively safe in spite of these warnings, once we had got right into the favela we were taken to a building where we got some amazing views of the whole favela. We were told that there were about 380,000 people living in this one favela, which struck a chord as this is about the same population size as Barnsley, compacted onto the side of a mountain. The terrain meant that the sprawling favela was limited as to how far it could stretch and it had pretty much reached a point where Rocinha is stuck, with not much more land to build on, so people instead were building upwards, selling their roofs to build on, creating unstable tower blocks across the area, mutiplying the impact of, and increasing thelikelihood of future rock and mudslides which were a dangerous consequence of the Rio climate (as demonstrated more recently!)

Itis pretty standard for children of 12 or 13 to start having babies, which was shocking because it wasn't shocking in Rocinha, it is common for one woman/girl to have 8,9 or 10 children which, obviously, puts further pressure on housing availability in the favela. We were taken around the favela, were shown incredible artwork done by talented artists who run projects to engage young people to stay in education. The art was in a variety of forms but was united by one theme, life in Rocinha. This theme brought our some amazing work which was often colourful and charming but which could also be dark and disturbing, with images reflecting the drugs, violence and bloodshed experienced within the favela.

We were taken through the streets and came across a group of boys practising samba drumming (obviously a set up, but not offensively so!) they played us some grear stuff and the guide explained that they hoped to take part in carnaval with one of the big samba schools - let's hope! We learnt that it was better and more expensive to live at the top of the favela than the bottom, which often got filled with sewage and litter. We were told how many people in Rocinha had stolen services such as water, electricity and the internet, things many of us take for granted but without stealing, these people would havenone of these as levels of poverty mean that there would be very little chance of getting running water in houses (which is still not considered fit for drinking). We learnt about the impact of the drugs trade on the area and the projects in place which are trying to engage young people away from this as a career choice. We learntof the aspirational young people who, frankly, are like many british young people I have met, wanting to be footballers, pop stars abd nideks. But, in addition, many see the glamour of being a drug dealer, a gangster, or a hustler. We saw gunshots in walls where kids were playing and the sewage like conditions soume people were living in. In spite of all this, there is a huge sense of contentment and community in Rocinha, which I genuinely don't think I have seen anywhere else.

We left the favela with a bittersweet feeling, opportunities for socialmobility are almost nil in Rocinha, there are massive issues with drugs, violence and theft in the town, but the people were really friendly, clearly proudof their community and their families. It's hard to describe here just the environment of Rocinha, but this was definitely one of the most interesting things we've done so far, and makes me very grateful for everything I have. I am really aware of how lucky I am to be on this trip.

Rx

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