The Sprawling Slums of Rio and me in my Barra Bubble

My soul and my body becomes completely exhausted after a drive back from Nova Iguacu, a suburb of Rio where my brother and sister-in-law live. I don't realize how exhausted I am until the next day, and it's not because it's far, it's not, only about a 45 minute drive on a traffic free highway through the back side of the city center, it's the view. The view of the sprawling "favelas", thousands of brick houses, half constructed, half painted, piled on top of each other for miles and miles, over mountain tops and precociously hanging on near vertical rock faces. It overwhelms me, not like a violent feeling, but more like a numbing sensation.

My brain cannot absorb this reality. My eyes wander and trigger questions in my mind like "How can this be?, How can anyone live here? What about the children? How is it possible that 22% of the population of this city live in this squalor? All the questions remain unanswered and I shut my mind off and simply look out the car window at three little pairs of shorts hanging from rusty window bars, a huge pile of garbage strewn across a dusty alleyway, and a mom sitting with her kid on a stoop.

Back in Barra da Tijuca, where we live in a shinny tower by the beach, we greet the guard at the entrance of our building. We've re-entered our bubble, we can breath now. We can't see the favelas from here. Yet, you can't pretend that they are not there. It's not like in Vancouver where you can simply avoid going down East Hastings. Imagine if we took 1.4 million people and tried to squeeze them on top of Queen Elizabeth Park and Stanley Park without clean water and garbage collection. It's incomprehensible, right?

Well, this morning I read Tom Le Mesurier's blog, EatRio, and it gave me hope. He posted a video about the people who live in the favelas, and how they are no longer waiting for the government to do something, but taking things into their own hands to help themselves and their neighbors. This film highlights many caring, conscientious people who are proud of where they live and do a lot of good in their community. A perfect example of why favelas are no longer called slums, but "comunidades".

And like one community activist said,"When people see problems in the favela, we see solutions. Where people see misery, we see a place with opportunities." This film helped me see beyond the misery and to see a place full of hope and potential.