A trip to Brazil would not be complete without flirting with one of the local favelas (or shanty towns). It would be fair to say that exploring Rio de Janeiro without seeing let alone interacting with locals from the favelas would be near impossible. Of the local demographics, approximately 25% of Rio inhabitants live in a favela (Wikipedia)! So after visiting what would be considered one of Rio's least threatening favelas last week today I would be a guest to Tom's Favela; considered to be one of the most dangerous in South America.
Tom, one of the i-to-i volunteers here at Baron Gardens let me tag along to the local project where for the last 5 weeks has been working. Our day started off leaving the house at 9:00 walking down to the Gloria bus stop before catching two buses to our final destination 1.5 hours away. Whilst driving in I was informed that the road we were traveling on was the main road to many of the fevelas are housed. The road was littered with many sand-bag checkpoints; each contained military personnel with automatic rifles and surveillance equipment to ensure that the fevelas are in check.
From what I can tell Brazilian primary education is split up into two sessions, a morning session whereby half the students attend and an afternoon session where the other half attend. In saying that (from what I understand) kids only receive 3-4 hours of education per day, which isn't a terrible amount of learning to be had. The common theme is that the child's grades begin to slide. Soon enough they have to repeat the same grade and in an act to save themselves the embarrassment or shame they simply just drop out of school and turn to the streets (drug dealers, prostitution, etc).
The actual place where the project was held is a small school at the entry of the favela. They offer English as well as basic computer skills to the local community. We arrived just before 11:00 am just in time for the first English lesson. Most of the kids who attend are those who have school during the afternoon. As a visitor to the project my role was minimal at best, but despite having to read a couple of words from the textbook and point out a couple of objects the experience was definitely one of the most rewarding. Some of the kids were definitely making an effort to grasp the words whilst there were some who would have rather be somewhere else.
Lunch was taken at a food bar across the road run who by day plays the consummate host to all patrons of his restaurants but by night is one of the more notorious drug traffickers of the favela. Immediately following lunch was another English lesson this time offered to all ages, this group had a slightly more advanced grasp of English and we were at times able to have basic conversation. Only after trying to devise a crash course English syllabus in my head I came to realise that teaching a language is quite the task!
Our English teaching for the day was over but that was not the end to our efforts at bettering the community. Come mid afternoon we rolled up our sleeves and began our more 'hands on' work. What took place over the next two and a half hours was some hard labour in the yard. With our trusty tools of a hoe, spade and a rake we dug up the weed infested rock garden and planted grass seeds in hope to grow a nice lawn for the school. The day ended at 4:00 and we made our way home with a leisurely stroll through Centro.
For dinner we constructed the most delicious and possibly most square meal ever to come out of Barren Gardens. The ultimate steak sandwich. Words cannot even begin to describe the chemistry exhibited between the steak, egg, onion, tomato, lettuce and ketchup. The evening ended with a group walk down to the shops for a tall glass of cold açaí. Not a bad end to one of the more fulfilling days.
My short time spent at the favela along with the handful of BJJ classes I attended have been more rewarding than the entire Surf Program (No disrespect to the program, just to my experience). Despite having little or no way to communicate with the locals the amount of effort required to flash them a smile is definitely worth the happiness that it brings to them. Have to sleep soon, have a long day planned ahead for tomorrow, just need to book some accommodation for Buenos Aires.
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