Rocinha in Color

December, 2015

Three months living in a Favela. 

Three months of teaching english, motor taxi rides, cold showers, Pao de queijo, and mystery juice dripping on me in the street.

Three months of climbing up to my apartment (#death), almost getting run over by motortaxis (#everyday), living off of yakisoba (#healthylifechioces), yelling at children (#damnstraight), hugging children (#stilllovethem), throwing festas, hearing children yell "Tia!", caipirinhas and sacolé.

Three months of learning Portuguese, having awkward misunderstandings in Portuguese, holding baby Amanda, "attempting" samba, friendsgiving, jumping rope with Sabrina, handstands, tanning my bootayyy, learning Capoeira, luaws on the beach, lesson planning and handing out cookies.

Three months of hand washing my clothes, disciplining, laughing, surf lessons, late night shifts, breaking my computer, stalking a Brazilian man to fix it, lunches on top of the favela, teaching Powerpoints, showering with a bat, playing twister, dancing Funky with my kids (basically just watching them twerk) and dinners at Beth and Denise.

Three months of being welcomed by strangers, building a community and integrating into the favela. Three months of watching my colleagues inspire others and most importantly watching my students light up.

People have a huge stigma against Favela's in Brazil. Throughout my time here I have come across multiple people who were absolutely appalled by the fact that I live in Rocinha. "It is dangerous", "filthy", "there are drug traffickers",  "guns", "you will get shot" "it is a slum" "Rocinha, are you crazy??", I have heard it all. However, when you ask these people if they have ever visited, I always receive the same answer, no.

People have such a strong reaction towards a place they have never been, never experienced, solely due to the things they hear in the media. These are the stigmas that are hurting this community. I'm about to loose some of my street cred. by saying that I was extremely nervous about coming here. After the things I had heard, I was scared of all of the same stigmas that people believe. Rocinha however, Is probably the most interesting place I have ever lived and I have only been welcomed (maybe a little to warmly by some of the creepers) into this community.

I am not going to lie and say that living here has been a breeze, It has been a whirlwind of crazy. I have experienced tons of trial and error with my students, not really certain of what I was doing or the impact I was making. More trail and error trying to understand this place and how it is even possible to function (houses stacked on each other for miles). And most importantly experiencing unfortunate standards of living and realizing that I can leave the Favela at any moment, while my friends and others from the community here cannot. Initially this was the hardest part for me, knowing that I had a choice, while others would probably not get the opportunity. I don't feel this way anymore. One day I was questioning my friend about his life here and asked if he would ever like to live somewhere else, he responded with "People don't want to leave Rocinha, we have it good, why would I leave?" I realized then that it is all about your perspective; glass half empty or glass half full, you get to deciede. Either way, there is such pride and solidarity from the people in this community, it is not just a favela or a slum, it is home for thousands.

One of the main things I have taken away from this experience is to always be inquisitive and try to see and experience things for yourself. It is very easy to hear about something and think you understand what it is about. We hear about conflicts around the world on the news, through media and photography and ultimately think we have gotten the picture. More often then not, there are more pieces to the puzzle. Seeing and living this experience has been a complete eye opener; moving forward I plan to keep my eyes wide open.

It's been real Brazil, i'll be back

Obrigada pra tudo, até a proxima vez