Difficult Decisions

I walk through the community everyday and meet many people. I love living here becase one almost never gets lonely. All I need do is open my door, walk out and I meet people. With 300.000 people here I certainly do not know everybody. But many people know me becase I have been on tv a few times talking about my music and some of the projets I am making here in the favela.

About 3 months ago I met this guy at the mototaxi stand in the Via Apia. He started to ask me about my tattoos. He is a guy about 21 years old. I will call him Mario. My friend Grey from Australia told me about Mario a few weeks before. Mario works as a lookout for the gang here in the favela. At first I did not know this. But after talking with Grey and seeing his radio on his hip, I figured this had to be the same guy. Most of the guys who work in the gang are serios and do not talk much with the residents. Mario is different. I have seen him in his spot next to the restarant on the lookout for any possible threat to their business. He always greets me with a friendly “hello”. And he asks how I am doing.

One day while at the taxi stand Mario commented on one of the t-shirts I made. The shirt has a gun diagonally placed on the front with the words “Rocinha, Respeita O Poder”. He really liked this shirt and wanted to know how he could get one. He wants me to make him a shirt. This is not the first time but its different becase he works with the ruling gang here in the favela. Everybody wants a t-shirt from me, but I am not rich. I can not do this for everybody.

How do I feel about this situation? Its complicated becase when you live in the favela, these guys live here too. I do not fear them becase I have never done anything to have fear of them. I do not use drugs so what do I need fear. I am a worker like most the residents here. Many of the guys in the gang like me and say hello. But this guy I am talking about, goes out of his way now to stop me and want to talk. I guess he is curios about my work.

Interesting how life evolves in the favela. I saw Mario about 3 weeks ago without the radio on his hip. I asked him if was working and he told me that he left the gang. In the favelas, you can leave the gang if you find a normal job. You just have to never talk about your activities while you were in the gang. The gang here is not like others where you can never get out. There are always people wanting to join the gang becase it is about economics. When you are poor and favelado and feel you have no other options, you find work where you can. I make no judgement as I am far from perfect and I once was one of them becase I too, sold drugs.

So, Mario told me that he found work as a cobrador or a person who collects money working with the vans that transport people in and out of the favela. I was happy for him and he seemed happy too. It’s not often guys leave the gang as earning money being from the favela is not easy, or you get paid very poorly if you work outside the favela.

About 10 days ago during that 4 days where we had a lot of flooding here in Rio, I was walking through the Valao. The Valao is one of the poorer areas of Rocinha at the bottom of the hill. It’s called the Valao becase there is a open sewer system that runs down the middle of the street. The word vala means ditch and valao means big ditch.

As I was walking through the Valao, I heard a voice call out to me and it was Mario. He was hanging out with another guy chatting and he called me over. He asked me about the design he wanted for the t-shirt. I was surprised becase he told me he left the gang to work with the vans. He told me to turn around and look across the alleyway. I did and saw a .762 automatic machine gun propped up on the sidewalk. He smiled, and I asked if he was back with the gang and he said yes. I just replied “ok”. What am I supposed to say? This is his life and he knows what the gang life is about. Sad thing is I like the guy becase he is friendly and treats everybody with respect. I wish him the best and just hope eventually that he can find a better line of work.

Recently after a police invasion about 1 month ago, the guys have been setting up kind of a checkpoint in the favela. If I am walking down the hill from my house, the checkpoint is right by the Casa da Paz, right before reaching the Curva do “S”. The gang has several guys there with machine guns and other weapons. Today, one guy was carrying a rocket launcher. And there seemed to be more guys there today. Usually there are about 6 or 8 of them but today I saw at least 15 of them. Maybe they are preparing or expecting another invasion. The checkpoints are to see who is coming and going in the favela. Every car and van is looked over. If you plan to drive through Rocinha it is best to have all your windows open. They mostly stop taxis and vans that do not look familiar. But they do not stop the car for long. They just kind of look in the car briefly and let the car go. This checkpoint is set up after dark. There is another checkpoint at the top of the hill as well in the area called 99. So both entrances are watched by the gang.

So, today while walking down the main street here in Rocinha, I stop into my favorite market to say hello to this girl who I know. On my way out I meet a few other friends and continue on. As a said before, you cannot get lonely in this place. As I am walking by the checkpoint I hear Mario call my name. everybody here has apelidos, or nicknames. For people who do not know my name but try to get my attention, they call me “Rocinha” . I see Mario sitting in the middle of the street with his 14kg .762 machine gun. I go into the middle of the street where he is sitting. He reaches out his hand. I shake it. He asks me about the design I am making for him. I told him that I made him two that he can chose from. At the time I had nothing planned, so I jumped on a bike and went to my house to grab the designs for him. I returned gave them to him and he was happy. A couple other guys decided to come over and check them out and asked about if they could have designs. I just told them that to talk to Mario and I am sure they all can share. Before leaving, I told Mario to be careful with that thing (the thing being the heavy machine gun he had on his lap). He laughed and joked, “Ok daddy, I will”.

I really do not want to make this a habit as then everybody expects something from you all the time. There is only one me..But this is how the politics in the favela works.

News about Favela Adventures

The foto on the top left is Dan Robertson on top of my roof in Rocinha. he came on a tour and a baile funk party here in Rocinha. Please, checkout his blog at http://dandoestheworld.blogspot.com

The foto on the top right is two guests on top of my friends roof in Rua 1 at the top of the hill.

Living in Rocinha, I have great opportunities to meet many people from all over the world. I have the best work in that I get to help people understand the place that I live. The media destroyed the image of the favelas a long time ago. Interesting that Brazilians have fears of favelas but foreigners come here with the open mind and no fears. We welcome foreigners becase after visiting here they can tell people about the realities of life here. Living here in a favela is not as bad as the news says. It is not easy either but not impossible. I would rather have my friends than money.

I meet people who come to see my community. I guess everybody has their own reasons for coming here. Some are curios about the way the community functions outside of government control. Some of corse want to understand the role of the drug lords. We are a community of survivors who have managed to do for ourselves becase we have no choice. I call our favela one of organized caos, becase to the outsider the favela looks like a bunch of houses smashed together without direction.

One of my favorite guests were a couple from Angola who wanted to film everyday life in Rocinha. Everything from walking in a barbershop to riding on the back of a motobike up the hill. I gave them more access than a regular visit becase their interest was to go back to the slums in Angola and show our everyday life here. They made a film to educate their comunities. This was only the second group visit where I spoke Portugues the whole time. This is rare becase Brazilians who are not from favelas, do not make visits to favelas. So speaking Portugues is not common. The first was a couple from Minas Gerais who I later found out were the owners of “Havianas”, the sandals most commonly worn in Brazil. I guess they were doing business research as everybody in favelas wear havianas. We have a population of about 300.000 people and everybody has at least one pair of havianas, so that’s a lot of sandals. In Rocinha there are more stores who have these sandals for sale.

Although many favelas get a bad reputation becase of the news, there is so much more here than the drug trade. I think we can all agree that drugs are everywhere and problems exist with this. In the poor areas of the North America and Europe, there is this same problem of desperate people who have little opportunity taking what they can to survive. I am not making apology for this. But this is just the way it is.

We have the formal and informal sectors of work. The person who works in a restarant or in a hotel works in the formal section and you need get your work card signed by the person who employs you. The guy who sells you water on the beach or rents you a beach chair, works in the informal sector. All of the people working in the informal sector live in favelas. They do this type of work becase they probly do not have the education to work in the formal sector. If you do not have education, working in the informal sector is better than selling drugs. At least it is honest work. I work in the informal sector becase I can not find a job in the formal sector. I prefer to work in my community, I like being here. I feel uncomfortable and do not like leaving the favela My favela needs help and if I can I try to help.

I have two new tour guides that I have hired to work with me in showing our comunity to the world. Vinicius "Maka" Basilio and Rodrigo "Miyague" Zambianchi, both live in the favela. Maka lives in Rua 1 which is where I was raised as a kid. And Miyague lives in Rua 2. I tend to hang out more with Miyague as he lives very close and is not working very much. Maka works another job with his month making fod deliveries outside the favela. I hope as business goes I can give more people jobs as this is what the purpose of what we do here. People living here need to be making the tours.

Recently, many visitors have come here to the favela to write about their experiences. Below are some of the articles written about our work here. Please take the time to see what people are writing about us.

http://dandoestheworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/favelas-of-rio.html


http://riotimesonline.com/news/rio-travel/touring-rios-favelas/


http://www.gonomad.com/tours/1003/favela-tours.html

If you have questions about the article or the work we do, please write to me. I will do my best to answer all your questions.

How Outsiders can have a profitable business inside the favela

I have received many emails about this subject. There are many foreigners who see the favela as a oportunity to earn a lot of money but it is not that easy. I have friends in many part of the world who want to do this. The only real way to do this without much politicing is to LIVE here in the comunity.

With the whole favela tour business going on, some of the residents are now realizing what is going on. The majority if not all the tour operators live outside of the comunity, yet they make their money HERE off the backs of we who live here. Some give back a small amount into the comunity, but not enough to really change things or make a big diference in the lives of favela people. People in the favela are seeing outsiders now trying to take advantage at the expense of people who live here.

I will tell foreigners this, before deciding on opening up a comercial enterprise, it is best to come visit the comunity for one month and see if you like it here. Visiting the place is very diferent from living in the favela. You need to see how life works here and how people interact. After your one month then you can make the choise of you think is right to open a business here in Rocinha (or any other favela).

The mention of a hostel has come up several times by people I know. I have been thinking of this too becase I have so many friends all over the world who want come and stay in the favela. A hostel would work, but really depends on where it is located in the comunity as there are certain areas I would not want visitors to stay in Rocinha. The visitors as well, you would have to trust, would need be on their best behavior, which means NO ILLEGAL ACTIVITY..people from the outside do not know but the police will target foreigners leaving favela comunites assuming they bought drugs there. When you live there it is ok to enjoy the culture and people, but stay away from bad influences.

The kind of business matters to becase, to be honest Rocinha, does not need another bar opening up. We already have enough of them..A night club maybe, but a bar, no! This is why living in the comunity for a month you can do research and find out what the comunity wants or needs. If you want a business that is sucessful, find out what will sell....talk to the people about their needs and wants!

The first thing to think of is how will your business be a benefit to the comunity. Remember as a foreigner, the favela is not your home. We are to a degree very protective of our own. This comes from a history of having to do everything ourselves and not relying on the goverment to give us anything. So, of course we will look out after our own interests to benefit our comunity first. This does not mean it cannot be done. But you will be scrutinized as to your intentions in the favela.

What advise I tell these people is be prepared to contribute something to the comunity. The favela doesnt take well to people using the comunity without contributing "something" back to help the favela. So, when you think about your idea, keep in the back of your mind how you can make money but also give a small portion of your profits to a NGO or scholarship fund for kids etc..If you do this, forever you will be welcomed as a member of the comunity. If you only think of YOURSELF, you will not last long here in Rocinha.

I live here and am born and raise here and I contribute. Not a lot becase right now I do not earn a lot and people know me and my intentions. But for me right now, helping other favelados is a big plus for me showing that I do not think only about myself.

I could go into more details here but I think people understand what I am talking about.

My Rant

Another form of Exploitation

*** A note about tours, yes I make tours but anyone who knows me or has seen my website know exactly what I do.

I often receive emails like this:

"I am doing a project to study (fill in the blank) and I am interested to learn more about the community. I am not interested in a tour but would like to come to your favela and meet and talk to the people about (fill in the blank). I want to see what the life is like there"

I realize that there is much interest about favelas, first because of the glorifying TV or Films that show all the violence, drugs and bad things. Movies like "City of God" make favelas seem like hell. The second being that the favelas are independant of formal goverment control. And of course how favela comunities exist and have been able to create their own comunities is a curiosity for foreigners.

***Interesting to note, is that for ALL the research people have done about favelas, little has been done to change conditions there. I wonder why that is? Many books have been written about the people, Social problems, lack of healthcare, education, architecture, anthropology etc..but still the favela has not made drastic changes..

Now its a good thing that people want to help educate and learn about our comunities, but again you need realize people here are poor and NEED money just like you. People in favelas will never have the chance like you, the foreigner, to get on a plane and visit your country. In favelas 95% of the population has never travelled outside their state never mind travelled on a plane. You are blessed that you live in a country with out "Favelas", you may have poor areas, but nothing compared to favelas, and I am talking about North American and the majority of Europe. Unforunately there is no upward mobility for favelados unless you are a famose futebol player or singer. In Reality 99% of favela residents who live here will never be able to leave here and will die here.

What I am getting at here is, you have the available resources to come visit Brazil, you WANT something from a POOR area, to complete YOUR projet, but what are you willing to do to help the comunity you are TAKING from? I have given many people free tours of the comunity, but the majority have given something to the comunity. Most come to volunteer, others donate clothing or school supplies to NGO's and I support this 100%. Our comunities need help and so many people think it is ok to take advantage.

But for the University student from the modern western world (where running water and eletricity are certainly not a problem to receive), who expects me to drop everything for them, including pass up work (which I need) to service them, I am tired of this. I feel I am being taken advantage of. I live in the favela, becase I can not afford to move out. You the foreign student, although you may not be rich, somehow got the money to get airfare, hotel, hostel or place to stay "outside of a favela" (if you were staying inside the favela, I would be more sympatetic), you have plenty of food, clean cloths etc...and you can not afford 60$reais (about 30$US) to come learn about the comunity, meet with the locals ect for 5 hours???? It would be diferent if I was NOT a guide here in the comunity but had a totally diferent job doing something else. But some of you are expecting me to do MY JOB for FREE. Just like YOU, I NEED to work to eat too! So, PLEASE respect my right to earn a honest living...

Ok here is example for those of you who still may not understand. I have a friend who works doing websites. This is his JOB! All day he makes websites. When he comes home from work, the last thing he wants to think about is websites. Do you think it fair for me to expect him to make a website for free for me, just becase we are Friends??? I do not expect him to do for free becase this is his JOB and I RESPECT his way he makes his living..It would be selfish of me to expect this of him..and unfair. He has value and his work has value. So, If i respect him, I need pay him for his work.

So, for all of you out there who expect to want information by coming/visiting to the comunity, if you want it, PLEASE contribute to the comunity in some way, volunteer, give something back, and people in the comunity will be more than happy to help you with your projet. But to come in and expect everybody to service YOUR wants, is not the way to go.

Think of this when you email me that like you, I have a job and if I do not work, I do not eat or pay my rent. It is that simple!

Somebody who emails me wanting information about my comunity, I have NO problem responding, becase I can respond "When I have time", but to take the time to show somebody around, bring them in the favela, then escort them out etc..this is very time consumming. This is why I am a guide becase if I am earning money doing this, I can provide for my family and provide a great service to my guests. If my work is valued, I am happy. Like everybody on the planet, I am trying to contribute my small part to help my comunity of Rocinha!

ok I think I said enough!

Rant over. I feel better now..

:)

Tchau, tchau, maiow!