Favela Chic

I'm currently hating on Rio. The weather's been inclement, which pretty much eliminates most of the must-dos in Rio. Things I'll never do (I know, I know, it sucks):

1) hanging out at posto 9/10 - Ipanema beach
2) pao de acucar - can u believe today it was too cloudy to see the summit??
3) corcovado - even worse!
4) walking around the barrios in peace. rain and cold winds just don't cut it for me.

So, now I'm sitting here in my 5-star hotel, thank god I'm platinum. I'm getting free wine, beer and food at the exec lounge... and sulking in front of the computer with my free internet. It could be much worse.

Anyway, so instead of doing something fun like watching the sunset from pao de acucar, I'm still sulking in front of the computer terminal (feeling a little bad that there are a bunch of other people that walked by and gave up on getting this terminal).

I woke up from my sweet slumber at 8:44am today. Would've been a good time to wake up, except my favela tour bus was picking me up at 8:55am. Good thing I change fast and don't put on make-up. I managed to brush teeth, comb hair, throw on random clothes, and even made it down to the lounge for a quickie (mangoes, mozarella, and three pastries).

Hopped into the tour bus only 5 minutes late and met some of my other tour mates. Two Italians from Sicily, a German and Scottish lady. Along the way, we also picked up a Chilean family of three. Luana was the tourguide from the Marcelo Armstrong tour. I enjoyed the info - I got the sense that people from their tour business all lived in the favelas and were very integrated into the communities. They weren't just doing this for the money. In fact, apparently about 80% of the money from this favela tour went towards supporting health and education in the favela.

There are more than 750 favelas and one million people living in the favelas in Rio. Interestingly, you won't see the favela locations indicated on most maps (at least not in guidebooks and Rio maps), but you can definitely find them on google maps. Ole google! On the regular maps, these favelas are marked as forest and greenery. What a rude shock for the tourist that seeks out nature in Rio. Also, the tour guide made references to famous Brazilian soccer stars like Pele and Ronaldo that came from these favelas.

The tour started with Villa Canoas - sounds cool doesn't it? Well, Villa Canoas was really interesting coz it was situated right next to the rich areas. On the drive up a long winding road, there were houses on either side that were constructed for up to USD5 million, and two golf clubs (country clubs) flanked these favelas (only obstructed by tall forest).

We walked through computer labs donated by M'soft, through the "supplementary schools funded by our favela tours (these schools didn't provide an actual degree), and residences. We walked through this little playground with a see-saw, where there was mosaic and art on the facade of the walls as an attempt to brighten up the favelas (the thought behind this was that a more colorful housing environment would result in more uplifting moods and hence higher productivity and general motivation.

While we were there, I attempted to take a picture with a little kid that was playing soccer. I'm clearly not a kid-person, coz the kid walked away from me. haha. I think I might even have a photo of that still. I shall work on my mummy skills.

On the way from Villa Canoas to Rocinha, Casanova from Sicily tries to pull the moves on me. I was sitting next to him, and he put his arms around me in a spooning embrace with the very poor excuse of having to take a picture of the favelas from a distance. Right before that, he was trying to pull moves on Scottish lady. Ugh.

We found our way to Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio. Some reports say it has up to 150,000 residents, but our guide said that it's probably more like 60,000. Shrug. THat's where we met Nicolas, this cute little Brazilian painter that specializes in painting favela houses that feature his house, himself, and hang gliders. Sooooo adorable. He goes, "I can speak three languages - Portuguese, English and Spanish. I can speak some Italian and Japanese. I also speak two words of German, Chinese..." The list goes on.

There were parts of Rocinha where we weren't allowed to take pictures because there were drug dealings going on. Drug dealings are quite rampant there, although favela residents deal almost exclusively to middle- and upper-class residents of Rio. The poor can't afford it. Instead they go for the cheap alcohols at the favela bars. And btw, these drug lords that they speak of, they generally live up to the age of 23. It turns out that it makes sense for them to deal drugs rather than do anything else. Why?

Education here is not very well organized. The city government organizes elementary school, the state government organizes middle school, and the federal government organizes universities. None of them talk to each other. Also, a lot of the money allocated to education magically disappears - benefits reaped from education only materialize after 15 to 20 years, and that's much longer than an election term. Power and politics are seldom altruistic.

Anyway, as I was saying, many poorer Brazilian kids drop out of school around 8 to 9 yrs. They drug deal because it makes them way more money. If at 12 they have money and can own guns, they are the cool kids. All the girls want to be with them, not with the losers that are still "studying". Also, before the age of 18, they are not allowed to be jailed. They go to a juvenile facility for a bit, then when they are released, they can go back to doing whatever they want. The favela guide also said that the guns that they own are top of the line, from countries like the US and Germany. I'm proud to have lived in the US for 8 years. Funding little 20 year olds with bazookas that can take planes down.

Oh, and with respect to the type of drugs. They don't deal crack because that way, the customers die faster and earlier. Instead, they deal marijuana from Brazil and cocaine from Peru and Bolivia.

Another interesting thing I learned about the favelas is that it is the birthplace of many Samba dance schools, as well as other Brazilian and hip hop beats (the guide likened these hip hop beats to those of Ja Rule and "Snoopy Dog"). hehe.

Anyway, I think it's time to invest my time in Rio in something other than blogging about Rio. I shall go for my second glass of Chardonnay for the evening and some "hours d'oeuvres". Hopefully tonight, I get to go to Rio Scenarium for a little dancing. Maybe it will redeem Rio in my eyes. I'll keep you posted.

And tomorrow, I head out to Fortaleza where Georgio will pick me up and drop me off at the pousada in Cumbuco. There I will meet Winnie's French kiteboarding instructor, Nico Raffi. It will be true love between Nico and me. Apart from that, I'm super excited about the kiting and maybe sand duning??!? Hasta manana.