Project Favela: Life in Rocinha

September, 2015

Oi amigos,

My first week in Rocinha has been a whirl wind of craziness.

Lets start with my arrival. My new pal Antonio picked me up from the airport to take me to the volunteer house in Rocinha. A little background info: Rocinha is one of the many Favelas in Rio, however, unlike some Favelas, Rocinha has been pacified and feels more like a huge and hectic neighborhood. By hectic, I mean music blasting 24 hours a day, motor taxis almost crashing into you and street vendors selling questionable meat on sticks. Hectic.

Most favelas are on the outskirts of cities, built into the hillsides and as you can imagine, they can be very STEEP. I would probably say walking to my apartment is the equivalent of doing the "insanity" work out tapes (and we are located at the very bottom of Rocinha). Needless to say, i'm the girl crawling up the hill, hunched and heavily breathing but at least I'm on my way to buns of steal 💪🏼

Back to Rocinha. Although this area has been pacified, it doesn't mean that you can just frolic around aimlessly. The reality is that you must always be cautious and careful here, as you should be anywhere in Rio. Things are constantly happening and you don't want to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. 

So after Antonio miraculously navigated us through the traffic and narrow streets of Rocinha (we may have nipped a few things on our way up) but I finally arrived safely in my new home. My 7 roommates are lovely (shout out to yall!) and my students are both wild and endearing. I already know I am going to love it here.

A few highlights:

1. My first few days in the classroom have been hectic but awesome. I teach a dance class to the kids every afternoon and so far they have mastered the Cotten Eye Joe! #progress

2. Two of my roommates and I did a sunrise hike to Dois Irmos (two brothers mountain), a beautiful viewpoint that overlooks Rio. We woke up at 3:30am, as the parties were just getting bumping, and danced our way down our hill towards the taxies that would drive us to where the hike began. It probably would have been a better idea to map out this plan beforehand, but stumbling into the back of a random person's backyard to find the start of the trail worked too! Not sketchy at all. We fumbled up the mountain in the pitch black, slipping and sliding until we finally made it to the top and THE VIEW was beyond. It was well worth the sleep deprivation and fact that we almost fell off the mountain a few times. We watched the sun come up over the most beautiful view of the favela, beach, Lagoa and mountains..a fabulous way to start the day.

3. Turns out there are a total of three Jews in Rocinha, me, my new friend Barak, and a man that owns a key making stall (casual). Barak was nice enough to take me to synagogue with him on Yom Kippur but obviously as we arrived at the bus stop, the bus was pulling away. Because I am a newbee, I don't know how to get anywhere and am basically useless, however, Barak has been here for a few months and quickly flagged down two motorcycle taxis (if you have read my other blogs you will know motorcycles and I are not friends). Needless to say, we hopped on and chased our bus up the mountain, zooming past other buses, veering through traffic, swerving god knows where...I was flailing off the back of the seat but YOSO (you only race to synagogue on the back of a moto once!), got to do what you got to do to get to Yom Kippur services. And that is how I began my fast, a little shaky, full of adrenaline, but I made it! A very unconventional Yom Kippur, but i've never been conventional 😁

Thats all for now! I am excited to start connecting with my students and see what the next few months at Project Favela brings....Até Logo!