Bem vindo à Rocinha

Note: For more information and background on our project and us, see the “About” section of the blog.

Since our arrival in Rio Saturday morning, June 9, our time has been a whirlwind of walks and talks all over Rocinha. We were met at the airport by Rogério, the volunteer coordinator of the Instituto Dois Irmãos (our partner NGO), and the forty five minute conversation during the bus ride past the beaches and ocean down to Rocinha gave us time to refresh our Portuguese and realize that after months of planning we are finally in Rio, albeit a rainy and gray Rio. Courtney and I are living in two different houses just across the street from the Instituto with local families. We met our families briefly, put down our bags, and then met Rogério for lunch and a walk around Rocinha. During our walk we met Chris, a partner in the Rocinha Crossfit organization, and walked further uphill into Rocinha to look at a potential new site for their fitness classes. It was interesting to see the different building styles, old and new, in the city, and particularly in the cost-effective practices put into place in the new building they might use. There is also a large roof space that might one day house a new garden, as Rogério pointed out! We spent dinner relaxing with several friends from home who will be in Rio for the summer, a break for my Portuguese-fatigued brain.

Image from walk around Rocinha

On Sunday morning we met with Rogério early to see the rooftop space where we will be working. It is big, about 12 by 12 ft, with a tiled floor and wooden beams stretching above where a roof may one day be put into place. For now they may make great poles for climbing plants! We discussed some of our ideas for our project, agreeing that a crucial first step will be to get to know the community of Rocinha through our families and also the Instituto. We will be presenting our project to the children in their education programs this Tuesday and Thursday to get feedback and build interest and support in the community. With Rogério, we also discussed the long term viability of a rooftop garden at the Instituto. While over the summer the garden can serve as a model for residents and a space of education for children, it remains to be seen whether there will be leadership to continue the community garden after our departure in August, a factor that will certainly influence the kinds of projects we undertake. We then went for a walk through Rocinha, noting potted plants and trees where they exist, as well as enormous piles of trash. We collected plastic bottles of all kinds in a trash bag as we walked, and we plan to cut the tops off and use the bottoms as containers for our gardening endeavors.

Picking up trash on our walk

We now have a huge bag of bottles, including one especially exciting prize, a larger 3 gallon bottle that can be used perhaps for a small fruit tree! Continuing our ramblings, we met one of the Instituto’s volunteers from 2006 who was back visiting with his sister and her family, and joined them at the highest point in Rocinha. From there we saw the Rocinha of postcards and media images, an entirely different community from what we experience down in the narrow streets and close buildings below. We could see old buildings that had been around since Rocinha’s beginnings 80 years ago, new brightly colored government projects, and the many dots of satellite dishes that Rogério told us had only been present since pacification last November.

View of Rocinha from the highest point

After our descent, Courtney emailed various similar organizations that we’ve been in touch with for some months to let them know we’ve arrived and to try to set up meetings to see their projects over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I set up this blog, which we will try to update regularly over the course of the summer! Realizing all of the sudden that we had skipped lunch and were starving, we hurried off to dinner and later to a capoeira roda organized by friends of Courtney’s from her previous time in Brazil.

Today’s plans include meeting with the director of Green My Favela, an organization also located in the Valão section of Rocinha (where we are), sorting out our Brazilian cellphones, and meeting with Rogério to discuss our project plan in preparation for meeting the many children enrolled in classes at the Instituto tomorrow! As we continue to move forward with our project, we want to begin by thanking the many organizations, friends and family that have supported us so far in the process, primarily the Davis Projects for Peace and Instituto Dois Irmãos. We are grateful for your help, and we welcome continued ideas, questions and comments to our emails (located in the “About” section of the blog).