Favela Visit

Yesterday, we visited a favela (a slum) with John Macy. John and his wife Yvonne and their 5 kids are very dynamic and peripetic. They have started a work helping prostitues, then worked with street kids, then moved to the North East (a very poor part of Brasil) and started a training center for like minded folks, and then moved back to Sampa and are working with this favela doing community organizing and church work and training. There were many interesting things about this favela. It is named "Hot Hole" and is nestled behind a giant super market, busy streets, and a nice middle class neighborhood. Hot Hole existed for 40 years and was rife with drugs, selling $6,000 worth nightly. Last year there was a fire and the whole place burned to a crisp, mostly because the police didn't want to fire fighters to extinguish it. All 180 families were placed in tents in the soccer field next to it (the favela itself is about on the same acreage as a soccer field!). The mennonite church that John and Yvonne work with was asked by the government to distribute compensation to the families and ulitmately to rebuild the favela. They have gathered a committee of favela residents and are busy rebuilding-- holding flea markets to get money to buy sewer pipes and other basic needs. Unfortunately, the drug powers returned recently. They changed the pathways so they are no longer straight but a labyrinth so they can elude the authorities. The favela residents feel safer not confronting the drug guys. As we were leaving, two young men high on pot and just making a sale ran by us. They were eluding the police. Luckily, the police did not come after them. Often, they shoot randomly when they chase people. Thus far, the menonnites have the respect of both the police and the drug kings. Obviously, at some point, it won't continue. After we left, Claire looked relieved. She had remembered the intense filth and hoards of people when we visited a slum in Bangkok. Because Hot Hole was being rebuilt, it was pretty clean and the residents were quite proud of their new favela. Poor kid. I didn't know she had geared herself up for it to be horrible. As always, such visits stir up in me deep feelings about justice, systemic evil, what-am-I-doing-with-my-life wonderings. Much to ponder.