After a long flight and a snow landing in Paris, we finally landed in Rio de janeiro. My first time stepping on the South American Soil. The drive from the airport to the city was enough for me to realize that Rio is every bit of the glamorous, exotic and beautiful destination that it is made out to be. The air felt familiar. It doesn’t seem like I was in a foreign land.
We settled into our gorgeous air bnb studio apartment right next to sequira campos station and 2 minutes away from Copacabana. Extremely well located. I felt like I was in a movie.
After settling in and having some nice coconut water (coco) on Copacabana, We head to the IVHQ( International Volunteers Head Quarters) hostel where we met Connie who is handling the IVHQ projects in Rio. As part of IVHQ, Volunteers from across the world take up short term developmental projects in different fields.
She took us to a project in the favela community of Barriera do Vasco where some volunteers were working on re-building homes in the favela. This particular favela is one of the few that is yet to be pacified in Rio. Over the last few years, the favelas in Rio have been in the process of pacification which basically involves cleaning up and ridding the slums of a deep-rooted crime culture and the influence of drug gangs. Easier said than done. In simple words, the guns have been shifted from the gangs to the hands of the UPP ( Pacification Police Units. )
However, this particular one that we were at wasn’t entirely pacified . We entered the favela with Fabio, a dutch living in Brazil who was also a resident of this favela.
I am not a traveller lured by poverty tourism . But I was intrigued to see how different the favelas are from the slums in Mumbai . Coming from Mumbai, the challenges and the environment of living in a slum wasn’t unfamiliar to me. However, it was my first experience visiting a slum area of a foreign country. What fascinated me the most was that in Rio, favela tourism is a full blown activity. The favela culture is unique in itself. From the structure of the homes, to the lifestyle of the communities, the energy in these favelas is rather unique. My impression of the favelas was of this dingy, scary areas with drug dealings hotspots at every nook and corner. Eventhough that might still happen in some pockets, there is a homely feeling that you get seeing families living together creating a life of their own within those dark alleys.
Walking through the Favela was like going through a dark maze . At some points, we were told to keep our phones/cameras inside as they were common areas for drug dealings . We found no threatening situation as such other than a drunk man who had been following us from the start of our tour who kept insisting that we see his house. I wasn’t feeling very adventurous about that idea but our guide seemed to have it all under control ,so we agreed. The drunk man’s house with a tiny door, opened to a posh room with a massive plasma Televsion. Very well maintained. It was interesting to know from Fabio that , inspite of being able to afford a better space, a lot of the people continue to live in the Favelas for various reasons one of them being , the community bond that they experience living here as compared to the isolation and expense of living in the city.
Later,we had lunch at a Kilo restaurant . In Brazil, Kilo restaurants are very popular which is basically like a buffet sustem where you pay by the kilo.
Next we headed to visit the Nova Chance Project . It was started by Elly, who having grown up in a favela himself, experienced its challenges and returned after his higher studies to start this project to work for the betterment of the people living in the favela .
He started a football training club for the kids in the favela as a means to encourage them to go to school . Here,the over all development of the child and their families is taken care of where educational and medical facilties are also provided. It was wonderful to interact with the passionate team behind this project.We explored the facility and watched the children play football like pros.
After months of discussion and skype calls,we finally caught up with the people whom we owed this wonderful opportunity to-Chris from World nomads and our mentor Brian who had just flown down from Australia ( we missed you Alicia !) . The four of us hit it off instantly. Inspite of a planned itinery, we were encouraged to be flexible and explore our own stories and live out our own unique experience. It was going to be an interesting process shooting along side Chris and Brian who would have a different approach to the same subject. We discussed the challenges of setting out to film in a place which isn’t known to be particularly safe and where language is a major barrier. But, that is what makes travel filmmaking all the more exciting. You never know what jumps into your frame …
