Advertisement
Published: January 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Visiting the favelas was a truely unforgettable experience and is something I wish that everybody could do within their lifetimes. We did an organised tour with a group called be-a-local.com- they work with the favela community and a lot of the money we gave to do the trip is put towards helping the education system in the favelas. We visited Rocinha, the biggest favela within Rio though there are many more. At the start of the tour shane and I were expecting a mini bus to take us up into the mountains, in which all the favelas are situated. We got a bit of a shock when our tour guide told us that we were actually going up on motorbikes!!! This is the way in which most of the locals get around and so some of the local men came down to collect us and we had to sit on the back of the bike whilst they speeded up to the top of the hill dodging buses (and may I just use this point to say.... brazilians have to be THE most CRAZY bloody drivers in the world)!!! Anyway... a short ride later we all collected at the top of the
hill. Here, our tour guide pointed out the way in which people use electricity. They gather their own wires and connect them by hand to the nearest electricty pole in order to get it free of charge, so above our heads were hundreds and hundreds of wires travelling in a million directions- not too scenic!!
Further into the favelas we were informed that to live at the top of the mountain is much more expensive as it is closer to the roads out to the main city and also the further down the mountain you travel the worse the hygiene as the sewerage flows down the mountain and gathers. The government are not happy about the favelas gathering around the city and as the hills are government property, they have the right to kick these people out at any point but it is too difficult to do so as the backlash would be horrific (the population of the favelas is huge).
The favelas have three main gangs, Rocinha is 'owned' by A.D.A, which is spray painted on many of the walls through Rocinha. The meaning of this abreviation is (friends of friends), which I thought was quite witty. Through the
favelas are little side streets in which the 'watchers' work. The watchers are in charge of the daily look out for other gangs and they sit there all day just in case a different gang decides to try and take over Rocinha. If they see anything suspicious they light fireworks to make the A.D.A members aware.
The favelas do have a big drug industry usually run by gang members. The locals like having these gangs as they prevent a lot of crime. The gang members don't allow any mugging of tourists etc as they want tourists to feel safe so that they continue to come into the favelas to buy drugs.
Our tour guide was amazing and knew a lot of the community. We were taken into an artists workshop, where many locals had hand painted beautiful pictures of their favelas ( I had to force my hands into my pockets so that I didn't buy one, mum, you would have loved them)! We were then taken into little side street stores and shops and finally, three young boys came to play us a tune (they were a band and tapped on boxes and bins etc). Lenny Kravitz had seen
them play a few weeks before us- I bet they made lot of pocket money that day!!!
Further down and the smell became worse, small children who should have been in school playing bare foot in dirty water, some of the conditions that these people live in is truely horrible. I don't think I have ever experienced a tour in which I have been so emotional, many times Shane and I both had to hold back the tears. We were told that it was common place for many of the women in the favelas to have a bout five children to five different men and that is was very difficult for these children to leave the favelas as many of them don't finish their education. Knowledge is also poor and parents teach their children to simply throw their rubbish into the streets making living conditions increasingly worse as the government don't send binmen into the city and the locals have to organise getting rid of this themselves.
With all this said the favela community is very close and they make the most with what they have which is perhaps what makes the experience so emotional and unforgettable. Brazil has the
rich and the poor living side by side and yet practically all of the better-off Brazilians refuse to go anywhere near a favela and have never seen inside one. Our host and be-a local.com point out that all these people need is a little help which they are brilliantly trying to give. This tour was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and certainly made me realise just how lucky we all are back in England.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0456s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Stacie
non-member comment
Hi You Guys
Lauren i think you know what i'm going to say to you......i hope you had a freakin cake for me from that bakery shack! They look awesome!! Pics are amazing guys, look forward to reading more of ur adventures xx