Following a generous lift from the airport off a friend of a friend, I spent my first night back in Rio in the city’s west zone. Vila da Paz, a small favela just on the outskirts of the Barra da Tijuca area, to be more precise. A close friend of mine from the previous trip has recently moved there to escape the high prices, noise and hustle and bustle of the enormous Rocinha – the place where he’s spent the last twenty-four years living. It seems that despite the violence that has emerged in the community over the last year or so, the cost of living continues to rise. In fact, the mother of my friend told me that an average size, two bedroom apartment in Rocinha is now costing around R$1,200 per month. Now, to put that into perspective, the minimum wage here is around R$800-900. This ballooning cost of living is probably the one thing that has stood out the most since my arrival a couple of days ago.
After a quintessentially Brazilian breakfast of tapioca and sugary coffee, I jumped on the 550 bus to Rocinha, carried my bags up the hill and was soon reunited with seu Jose. Jose lives about half way up the hill and rents rooms in his house out to foreigners who wish to spend time in the community. I passed my first hour or so back in Rocinha chatting away with Jose about how things had changed over the last year, what the Pacification policy is achieving (or not achieving) and getting a bit of advice about how best to go about my research.
Next stop, the beach. Reunited with another close friend from back in 2013 who was coincidentally on his folga (day off), I took the opportunity to get his views on how things were developing in the city. We discussed his thoughts on the idea of a cidade partida (broken city) and talked for ages about each others career plans and ideas for the future. When I posed the question: ‘do you think this city will ever be united’, his response was simply ‘no’. While I will be digging deeper into these kinds of questions as the trip goes on, to get such a blunt response from a typically optimistic Carioca was interesting to say the least. I came here with the idea of doing a survey and interviews, I think that just living, learning and remembering what people say to me in informal discussions is going to be just as, if not more, useful.
This became even more apparent later in the day on Tuesday when I returned to what was essentially my local for six months in 2013. Sergio’s kiosk, situated right at the bottom of the hill just beside the community’s Oscar Nieyemer-designed footbridge, is quite simply the place to be. R$5 caipirinhas, good music and great company was always going to be the way my first night back here went. All my old friends were there at some point throughout the night.
Aside from the drinking, joking and catching up, I sat for over an hour and discussed the topic of discrimination in Rio with a young man in the community – again an old friend from the previous visit. A well-connected, intelligent, entrepreneurial and hard-working lad, my friend shared with me many of his opinions on topics of social cohesion, inequality and life in the favelas of Rio. He gave me some fantastic but honest advice about how best to go about getting answers to the questions that I have. He has also agreed to help me with some aspects of the research and put me in touch with community leaders.
All in all, a great start to the trip. The kindness, friendliness and openness of the people here is the same as ever. The weather hasn’t quite reached where I’d hoped yet though! Oh, and just as I finished writing this post, the sound of warning shots (usually from fireworks) just echoed around the place like a firing range. It’s only 11am!!!
A Favela Maravilhosa 