Seven Days in Brazil - Day 5 (Part 1)

Happy new year guys. How's 2015 so far? Hope we are cementing concrete decisions in the ground so this year can turn out better than last?

Day 5 was my longest and most tasking day in Rio de Janerio. In fact, it was so long, that I have to split the post into two. Because I didn't go to the festival at all on Day 4, and chose to watch the Live stream, I did not realise our visit to the Favelas (Brazilian slums) had been slated for that morning. I just stepped down to the restaurant to have breakfast when I saw the bus, and people getting ready to go. I was really confused as to what to do. Breakfast was one of the best things for me in Brazil, and I didn't want to give it up, yet I knew visiting the Favelas was an experience I might never have the opportunity to have in my life.

One of the producers just aided me in packing a few croissants in saviette, and a pack of yoghurt, and moved me out of the restaurant. I basically dressed up in the bus, lol. By the time we were done, let's just say I would never have forgiven myself if I missed that experience. Then again, I would have been too ignorant to know what I had missed.

Before I go on, let me just give a summary of this. Brazil, Rio de Janerio, Sao Paulo, and many other towns is a class based society, and almost no middle class. There is a clear distinction between these classes, different culture, living conditions, etc. The poor live up the mountains, while the rich live in the valleys. These mountain communities are the Favelas. You can't just walk into the Favelas anyhow. To visit, you must go in groups, and consult with the community chiefs, and go with one of the locals. They have a very strong community, and if you venture there alone, you might be killed, kidnapped, etc. To keep them separate, and the two classes as distinct as can be, policemen are placed in the Favelas. You have like three policemen in about every street or so, and they are there 24-7-365. The house are always clustered, with no space in between.

Arriving at the teleferico stations

Roberta, my slam master, with one of the festival directors

The cable cars we entered. The mode of transport is
on cables suspended in the air, like electric cables

Waiting to enter the cable cars

 Don't go, click below to read more, and follow me to the Favelas

Cable cars in the air

In a cable car, for the first time ever

 

Looking down the town of Rio

Doesn't Samuel, the guy on the left
look like what bible stories depict Jesus to be?

Approaching a Favela's Teleferico station

Finally at our destination

Favela art, depicting clustered art on top of mountains

The police headquarters

Two opposites. Wolf (pronounced vev) is a German slam
master, who has been slamming for 20 years. I had never
 slammed before I went to Brazil

Some of the slammers. Check out Hazel's
(from switzerland) mouth

And the we left, and I was so sad that I wasn't going to enter the slums. I wondered if they were being cautious because the didn't want us to be kidnapped or killed.

I was trying to capture the difference in class system,
just by looking at the infrastructure. Skyscraper in valleys,
slums on the mountain

Slammer and slam master

 Only for us to get down at another station

Brazil is the home of art

 And then we started going into the slums. I was so so happy.

It's like every house must be painted with one graffiti art or another

Looks like a temple to me, but the wordings mean
St Jude's Church. So I'm wondering why the
strange man and logo?

...In fact, if there's no graffiti on your house,
you are not a true slum person, lol

scary graffiti

Bad slum, but still not as bad as Nigerian slums.
At least they have 24-7 power

Its a war of graffitis

Can you see the kids posing for Commik?

We had basically walked all the way from that station
on the hill, all thru one of the Favelas, to the
station I was taking this picture from

Brazil and art

At this point, I had taken over 500 pictures, so I stopped, as we continued our journey in the cable cars to the last station, and we then went back to the hotel. I was eager to get back, to prepare for the next round of my slam.

Slam, here we come.