Rocinha
I first heard the word `Favela` when I was about 10 and Blue Peter did a report on the ram shackled world of the poor in Brazilian cities. After that I always wanted to visit Brazil and had a somewhat naive wish to `help`. Reading about an organised tour of Rio's largest Favela, Rocinha I felt guilty that my knowledge of a Favela is based on that children's tv show.
The tour company (Be A Local) gives 40% of it's profits to the Favela, the result is the Rocinha day care centre. It's a safe haven for pre-school children to receive three hot meals a day, educational development and even psychological help. This also means both parents (if the child is lucky enough to have two) can work and continue to provide. With a sense of guilt for my big fat Western lifestyle I took donations of children's medicines, food and a few toys.
Brazil was the last country to outlaw slavery, the first Favela was a home for freed slaves. As continues to be the case, no one owns the land in a Favela, anyone can build a home and water and electricity are taken freely from the supplies running through the community. People often loose their life trying to connect to the already overloaded electricity poles. The government do not collect taxes in a Favela.
Electrical Supplies in Rocinha.
Rocinha is the biggest Favela in Latin America, with 400,000 inhabitants it's been growing since the 1930's. As one of the older Favela's, Rocinha is well organised and there is little space left for people to build. As is the case in London people are now building upwards, any flat roof space is hastily claimed. You don't need planning permission here to build, just the materials and the know how.
I'd wrongly assumed that most people living in a Favela couldn't find work and were perhaps forced into crime. But in fact the Favela is a huge working class community. Rio's receptionists, waiters, bus drivers, builders and cleaners come from homes in the city's Favela's. Under Brazilian law employers pay for employee's transport costs, so there is a benefit to the hotels, apartment blocks and restaurants of Ipanema and Copacabana employing people from Rocinha, as it is nestled right in the city.
Children in the Favela love digital camera's
Our tour of Rocinha began with motorbike rides to the top of the Favela, along steep and winding roads. I clung to the back of the rider as we whizzed past buses on narrow streets, all without a helmet, in shorts and t-shirt.
Daniella, our guide explained it was safe to take out camera's. We wouldn't be robbed by the locals, but if they see us in Copacabana it's a different story.
The police rarely enter a Favela, instead the communities are `policed` by drug dealers. Graffiti tags let you know who is in charge of the area, if there is a problem in that area it is down to that particular dealer to sort out. The problem can be disposing of a body. It's thought alot of those unacounted for are buried in Rocinha.
Daniella explaining the graffiti in the Favela
One day the Be A Local van was broken into while in the Favela, a radio and a box of t-shirts were stolen. Daniella and another guide cautiously approached the local dealer and explained what had happened. The next day they returned from a tour to the van to find the radio and t-shirts returned.
Before any tour of the Favela began permission was gained from the leaders. The rules are simple, if a tourist sees someone with a gun or making a deal don't take a photo. If there is a shoot out, duck and don't take a photo! Follow those rules and everyone will be okay.
Children in the Day Centre
Thankfully there was no shoot out on our tour, but I did see a man brandishing a gun. It was like a peacock showing it's feathers.
The narrow alleys that snake through Rocinha hold shops like any other high street, except here you have to tread carefully to avoid the stream of sewage.
I asked Daniella if the shopkeepers can make enough to move out of the Favela. The problem is they don't pay any taxes here and if they have built there home\business then no rent either, the burden of opening a `legit` shop would be too much.
I'd imagined people would want to move out of a Favela, everyday they see wealth less than a mile from the Favela, yet here people seem to accept their place in society. It's something I find hard to understand, the people of Rocinha have televisions, even Internet access, they are deluged with the same imagery as we are. Why don't they have the same desires? That constant need to have what you don't, no matter how lucky you are?
I spoke to a Brazilian guy who had moved to Canada when he was 9 and now at 20 his family were moving back to Brazil. It was fascinating to get his take on the situation. I wanted to end my trip around Latin America with some kind of understanding, why has this continent struggled for so long? Why are some incredibly rich, while others beg for food? Why are there adverts on television telling people why it's a bad idea to `scavenge through rubbish dumps`?
Felipe's explanation, if you live in a Favela or a gated complex, the mentality has always been take what you can. Can you get away without paying for taxes, rent, your employee's wages? Then do it. There is no concern for `the other`.
Yes there is medical treatment on offer to those in the Favela's, but is it as good as the private health care the middle classes receive? Hell no. If your child is bright, but lives in a Favela, don't expect them to go to university. They will be given a general education, but only those privately educated will have the skills to pass the public university entrance exams.
Britain might be famous for it's class system, but people here have no opportunity to better themselves.
Felipe spoke of his concern for the future. The main drug dealer in Rocinha makes $4 (US) million a month (still lives in Rocinha), rocket launchers have been found in Favela's. What happens when people do decide their world is unjust and they do want more?
Right now in Rocinha, the locals are proud to be Brazilian, as is the case everywhere in Brazil people smile and laugh. They seem genuinely happy. Maybe a strong sense of community and family is the cause of this. Maybe it's being able to stop wanting, instead working to simply get by. I wish I had the answer. I find I'm ending this trip with frustration, with so many unanswered questions. I guess there isn't a simple answer for such a complex problem. What I have learned is to be thankful for is all the opportunities I have. But will I stop wanting?
