So a Brazilian that works in a favela with my friend Anouska told her that three drug dealers he knew from their favela were recently arrested by the police. Apparently the cops took the dealers before the chief of police, who was paid off and refused to acknowledge the situation. The cops, angry at the chief, then took the drug dealers into a rival favela, beat the shit out of them, then left them to be killed by the drug lords in that favela. This is the environment in which my children are growing up. I talked the other day to Priscilla, a citizen of Rio who works for i-to-i, and she told me a bit more about the government here. Apparently the capital of Brazil was Rio for a while, but as the city grew, the corrupt government needed to move away from the eyes of the public and businessmen to continue doing what they were doing. They founded the city of Brasilia far away from the other major cities of Brasilia, and apparently it serves solely as a place for the corrupt government to perpetuate -- politicians won't even live there.
I haven't had trouble with police corruption yet -- two gave my drunk friends a free ride home the other night, and the other day when I was out running and my keys wouldn't stay tucked inside my shoelaces, one laughed at me and told me to wear them around my neck instead.
The favela drug dealers are an interesting thing: for the most part, they don't bother anyone not involved in drugs. It's easy to see that cocaine is being sold and that many of the men standing around have guns with them, but they don't seem too concerned with volunteers. Also interesting: since they can't really leave their favela without being arrested/shot, most druglords spend their money on HUGEASS favela parties once every month. I'm hoping to attend one of these before I leave. Wednesday I'm going with my favela kids to Macarana stadium and a huge park nearby! Macarana is right by my favela and apparently one of the things to see while here (it's on postcards, even). Today the children absolutely exhausted me, it's 6:22 and I just want to go to sleep. I might walk down the hill to get an acai for dinz and call it a night.
Last Day In Houston!
14 years ago
4 comments:
you haven't gotten a comment for a while. how does that make you feel?
my goodness. I can only imagine the types of horrible debaucheries that would go on at a huge party thrown by Brazilian drug dealer. Of course, they could be the Robin Hood type drug dealers, in which the case there would be tights and merriment. I'll take the latter party.
Leah our lives are running practically parallel right now, por ejemplo:
1. Today I ate a fantastic churro from a street vender (I think he peed his pants when I jokingly asked if it was fat-free)
2. I seem to be walking up-hill everywhere I go.
and
3. I rode in the back of a pick-up to some Incan ruins the other day and they didn´t stop where I asked them to...
Glad you´re well, see you soon!
i'd say it's time for an update. agreed? agreed.
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