Faces of Rocinha: Brazilian moms, betches and drug trafficking

October, 2015

I have officially reached my 1 month mark in Rio and have a lot of fofoca (gossip in portuguese) to share! This past month has flown by, it feels like I have done so much but so little...

We have made our little apartment in the favela our home and I weirdly feel so comfortable and at ease amongst all of the craziness here. We live in one of the biggest favelas with a population of over 150,000 people, this neighborhood is MASSIVE and I have only mastered a tiny fraction of the beast. I'm happy to say that I feel super safe in my area and community; we live amongst some lovely people who I have gotten to know and adore.

I now have a Brazilian mother, a lovely woman named Denise who lives down the road (mom, you've got competition). We provide free english classes to the locals of Rocinha and Denise is one of my students, not to mention an amazing baker. She is always bringing us delicious treats, checking in on us and making sure everything is good in the hood.

Another one of my students, Beth, pronounced Betch (Can't even explain how weird it is for me to constantly be calling my student a BETCH), and her daughter Ana Clara, are two more amazing people I have met that have been incredibly

welcoming and hospitable. Betch is a super sassy lady who says it how it is aka is constantly laughing and and correcting my Portuguese mid-lesson (schooling the teacher). But on the flip side, she will always stay late after class to sit and help me work on my Portuguese, gotta love her. Betch invited me to dinner at her house the other night, so we made the trek up the Favela, through many windy and narrow alleyways (which all look exactly the same) until we reached her house. Let me just say, I would NOT want to get lost in a Favela, with my appalling sense of direction I would probably still be wondering the streets for days (gringo on the loose). Betch made us amazing food and blasted tunes as we danced and practiced being Brazilian aka shaking our asses. 

Finally, there are my adorable kiddies from the after school club and my locals english class. They call me "Tia" which means aunty in Portuguese and I always pass them in the streets hanging out and playing soccer. I try to whip out my old soccer skills and play with them, "try" being the key word here because I'm always rejected and kicked to the curb. They're all like "bye Felicia", "you can't sit with us" and I'm all like "ok, i guess I'll just see you guys in class...?" So awkward when you get rejected by 5 year olds.

Besides for the lovely people I have met, life here can be very exciting but also quite difficult. There have been many instances where I have had to take a step back in order to process the things happening around me. For example, we live in a favela where drug trafficking is both common and expected. We are constantly hearing both fireworks and gun shots throughout the favela. Fireworks are set off for many reasons, for celebrations, when your soccer team scores a goal, at parties etc. but they are also used to mask the sound of gun shots. Shots are fired for different reasons as well, not only for violence but to send warnings or signals as to when trafficking is occurring etc. Since I have been here I have heard a multitude of shots from my apartment. This is just the reality of life here, people go about with their days and lives without living in fear, many of my students don't even bat an eyelid.

What really stood out to me was one afternoon while I was teaching at school. We heard a multitude of  gun shots on this particular day and everyone, especially the children, were on edge. Ironically, I was teaching my dance class and the song "Rather Be" was playing, just as the chorus "no place I'd rather be" began we could hear gunshots coming from around the favela ( I could think of MANY places I would rather be at that moment). I just kept thinking, is this really happening right now, how are we dancing to Clean Bandit, "Rather Be" with a backdrop of gunshots? That was a real "Aha" moment for me, the fact that my students can hear gunshots at school and keep dancing and carrying on with their day. It's a different reality from the security guards and secure classrooms of my childhood. 

That is all the news I have for now. I think the project is doing some amazing work and I am really grateful to be working with so many creative and inspiring people. When people are passionate about what they are doing it makes it that much easier for me to be motivated (so shoutout to all my friends here, your killing it!). We have a lovely community that is beginning to feel like family.