Farewell Rio

Jack Fruit

Diverted Electricity

Favella

Narrow Alleys

Jan. 25, 2009-Favellas

How's this for a wedding night? Remember the Peters from Petropolis? Well one of them, at this point I don't remember or care which one, had his 12 year old bride sent to him from Europe. This was an arranged marriage and she wasn't having it. On their "honeymoon night" she refused his favors and when he persisted she bit part of his ear off. He should consider himself lucky that she chose his ear and that her name wasn't Lorena Bobbit.

The point of the Favella tour is to show people the other side of Brazil and a truer view of life there other than what's shown in the media. The tour succeeded and failed. It did show how the poorest of poor live but to me it confirmed what the media covered. One good thing is we did get to taste jack fruit which looks like an animal carcass when open. It's sweet but slimy. The taste didn't compensate for the feel.

David, Laura Lee, Colleen & I joined our guide Marina. She was an exchange student in Peninsula, Ohio in the 1970's and seemed nice enough. When we passed a sign warning of Dengue Fever she said her daughter had it. There are two kinds. With one you bleed with the other there's fever and joint pain. Her daughter contracted the second and recovered. The only treatment is hydration. I vaguely knew it was a problem here but she said it was epidemic a few years ago and being a teen-ager her daughter didn't use insect repellant. She does now.

Marina suggested we see the movies City of God and Elite Squad to get a good idea of life in a Favella. She gave us a general rundown on Favellas after we picked up people from other hotels. The organization running the tours is independent of Grand Circle and donates money to the schools in the Favellas we visit. Brazil has 750 Favellas and 20% of Brazilians live there. The government and Catholic Church ignore them and the many children living there. After all, this is a Catholic country so no birth control is offered, in fact, it's illegal.

In most places the rich live on the hillsides and enjoy the views. Here the poor do, but the neighborhoods can be across the street from each other. This is the working poor in a country that has no welfare system for those who can't work. Many are construction laborers and many work in hotels, restaurants, & homes. Building material is scavenged. Many people in the Favellas own their homes there. The law is that if you squat on land for five years it's yours. Many are enterprising and own enough houses to rent them out. All economic classes are represented but financial success doesn't mean they move up and out. They like to stay close to friends and family. It's a social and cultural system.

The first Favella we visited has 60,000 people living in it. It's the largest in Rio. The rulers of the Favellas and the law inside are the drug lords. There are three main gangs and they do clash. They import drugs from the rest of South America, especially Colombia, and sell them so they can buy guns from the U.S. The most popular drugs are marijuana and cocaine. The police are useless inside those areas. In fact the rules of the Favella boil down to "don't mess up where you live." There’s no crime inside the Favella boundaries. They don't want to call the attention of the police. It's a symbiotic relationship where the drug lords offer protection and the people behave themselves and some work for them. Even if not actively supporting the drug czars residents of Favellas give tacit approval to the enterprise by living under their protection. And that's all they get. Its like the Mafia up to a point but these lords give nothing back to the community. The drug lords are all young and most die in their twenties. They use kids as helpers since they won't be jailed if they're under eighteen.

Wages are very low here. Minimum wage is $200/month and teachers get $500/month. Families find they need to send their children out on the streets begging or selling items in order to make ends meet. Schools here have split sessions. Children go either morning or afternoon so have lots of free time. Wealthy families pay for after school activities. Poor families can't. The Favellas try to run day care and after school care with untrained teachers but not many families send their kids.

Some Favellas have banks and clinics. One had a McDonalds that pulled out after a series of bad incidents. The government is starting to give some money for improvements but it’s slow. There's trash pick-up twice a day but you'd never know it from the piles. We stepped over feces (human or animal?) and although they have indoor plumbing, electricity, broadband internet, and running water most is illegally diverted from city utilities. It's a third world city within a city. Most people living there buy on time and are paying off plasma TV's and computers, running shoes and refrigerators. Priorities are interesting.

It’s a really disgusting place not unlike areas of India. I was ready to leave after our first stroll through the tiny alleys. There are few main streets and homes are accessed using stairs up narrow walkways climbing up the hill. Going through the market we looked at CDs and Marina told us they were pirated. We didn't buy. Laura Lee wanted a soccer shirt but Marina was a woman with a mission and it wasn't shopping. She insisted there were none to buy and wouldn't stop when we pointed them out. In fact she really didn't listen to us at all even when it came to safety. The day was very hot and there were lots of steps to climb. At one point we asked if we'd have to come back up again before we went down lots of steps. I told Marina that some of the people on the tour had heart conditions. She said we wouldn't have to come back. Some people would have stayed behind had they known that we were not going to have to climb the steps we just went down but several other flights at the end of a long walk.

The second Favella we went to was much smaller and was not involved in the drug trade although it was under the protection of a neighboring drug lord. It was just more of the same, an endless rabbit warren. I expected the filth and poverty. I didn't expect the complicit relationship with the drug trade.

I think the trip was represented as difficult but Fernando insisted those who wanted could stay with the van. The trouble was that Marina didn't care and kept giving us misleading information about the difficulties that lay ahead. Her tips reflected our dissatisfaction. We were soaked in sweat and dehydrated. The tour ran late and we all had to shower and scrounge in our already packed luggage for clean clothes. We never got to the hippie market. Instead David flopped on the bed in our hotel room Fernando wheedled for us until 3 PM. And I wrote this.

 After showering and re-packing we met in the lobby and let Fernando know how dissatisfied we were with Marina. He was surprised since he'd been on the Favella tour with her and thought she was knowledgeable. He also said he specifically spoke to her about some of our limitations. That wasn't our issue. When we explained it to him and after Laura Lee repeatedly told him "she lied to me" he had us fill out Grand Circle evaluation forms. It would now be reported to the main office in our own words. When we talked to him about our reactions to the Favellas he said that people living there have no other options. Most don't participate in the drug trade but are still co-conspirators by taking advantage of the protection. David suggested that since these slums sat on valuable real estate a developer should go in and offer thirty times the worth of the property and develop away. A German has done just that. He bought up twelve houses and plans to buy more. Eventually he'll tear down the scourge and build high-rises. Where will the people from the Favella live? He has paid them enough to find decent housing in the city?

We walked over to the Fashion Mall for lunch. We'd seen a burger restaurant claiming to have the best in Rio. We didn't know the name but knew it wasn't the McD's. I went to a kiosk and asked if they spoke English. They didn't. I tried Spanish "hamburgueza" but got blank stares. I finally said "hamburger" in English. They pointed me to McD's but when I said no they said "Joe and Leo's segundo." That was it. Fernando joined us later and told me that Portuguese for hamburger is hamburger with a slightly different accent. There's also a different pronunciation for their money, the real. They say it with a French guttural "r." Fernando said most people have trouble with it. I sure didn't with all the "ch" gutturals in Hebrew and Yiddush.

 

 Long Way Home

 We left for the airport at 6 PM. Fernando was with us as well as "the ladies," Jane and Colleen, and Martha, our local guide. As usual Fernando asked if we had our passports and I asked Laura Lee if she had the "white paper" we needed to leave the country. She'd misplaced it once before, found it, but couldn't find it now. At this point she didn't care and was ready to pay the $90 to get out of Brazil. But our check-in at American Airlines zipped along while "the ladies" who were flying Continental were nabbed for an overweight checked bag. After shuffling their belongings they were cleared for security. We said farewell to Fernando as he headed for his flight home to Bariloche. Security was a breeze even though we were going to the U.S. but we couldn't find "the ladies" after we got through. Jane has a knee replacement and was being wanded. Then they saw something in her hand luggage. They took everything out trying to determine what it was and kept sending the bag through xray. We sat helplessly by wishing Fernando could translate since the security person spoke little English. Eventually they came up with a metal nail file and small scissors. Jane said she always carries them aboard and has never been stopped. She also thinks she won't do that anymore.

We took the escalator up to the Duty Free area trying to get rid of reals. We bought four chocolate bars. The escalator down wasn't working so we all had to schlep our roll-aboards down a long flight of steps. It was particularly hard for Jane who also uses a cane. We were in a part of the airport catering to international flights outside of South America. It was abysmal. It was dirty, old, shoddy, and dimly lit. I was sitting there with nothing to do when a young man approached and asked if I would take a survey. I was eager to fill time and agreed. One question was about what I think of the airport. I told him in no uncertain terms. I've seen better in third world countries.

We watched cute babies arrive and one toddler imprinted on my roll-aboard. She chased after it like a gosling trying to catch up. A huge group of teen-agers arrived at the gate area and we were glad to find out they were going to Atlanta and wouldn't be on our flight.

Jan. 26, 2009-U.S.A

We had a nine hour flight starting at 10:30 PM on Jan. 25. We arrived in Miami at 4 AM. When they said we could use our cell phones on landing I wondered who was awake for us to call. We had both taken Ambien and managed to sleep six hours. It was a restless sleep but our personal best on an airplane. The airport was empty and the Air Tran desk didn't open until 6:30 AM so I decided to write while we waited. Laura Lee wandered over to where we were leaving our luggage unattended and made a security person very unhappy. She smoothed things over and avoided arrest. We have a seven hour layover here. Writing took until 6 AM. Only five hours to go.

We finally made our connection to and in Atlanta and landed pretty much on time in the middle of a black and white picture postcard. The Akron-Canton airport and environs was snow laden. The lakes were covered in Snow. The fields were covered in Snow. The houses were covered in Snow. The world was white and covered in SNOW. What had we done coming home to this the land of cold toilet seats?

I'll tell you what we'd done. We were expecting Craig Flury, the Jewish funeral director in Akron, to pick us up. He runs an airport shuttle as a side business. We'd confirmed with him from Atlanta and expected him to meet us. Instead there were two little kids running across the baggage area and leaping into our arms. Vikki had canceled Craig and brought Talia and Rylee as a surprise welcoming committee. What a joy! They were both speaking at once and Rylee proudly told us she was wearing big girl panties all the time and didn't use her binky anymore. Talia was full of news and songs from school and sporting the nubs of two new front teeth. Of course, David cried.

I've done a few loads of laundry and the suitcases are stored. Now we have to deal with the rest of the house. Remember, we had a painter here while we were gone? Most of the stuff was put away by our cleaning help but it will be a while before we find where we stashed everything. We're in no rush. Tomorrow is Tuesday and we'll have Rylee all to ourselves. Then we'll have our usual family get-together for dinner.

We escaped colds, coughs, and stomach woes. Our ten flights were on time and landed intact. Our luggage made it home and we have great memories. We'll re-live it all when we load our photos and tell the tales for years to come. Thank you for letting me share the experience.

Toby