JÁ SAUDADES
Of March 2016 I stayed in Rio de Janeiro for the month. During my time there I saw first hand life throughout Rio de Janeiro and life in the favelas. My first morning there I experienced walking, then running, near a shootout between cops and a bandit before meeting with my personal guide. My guide of Rocinha, the biggest favela in all of Brazil, explained and showed me the disparities of Rocinha, his home. Having water, if fortunate enough on some days, but questionable for drinking, how waste water runs down the streets and into their beaches, no roads, no addresses for their homes, one person receiving mail for a neighborhood, crammed stairways between their homes to transverse from one block to the next, and while being impoverished due to government support. But regardless of these and other circumstances each individual I met had a vibrant personality and willingness to be kind to a stranger, which makes Rio de Janeiro.
