Thursday, December 3, 2009
End of Week 1
Whew. It feels like I've been here for an eternity. It's raining to beat the band at the moment.
Claudio took me for a walk through the immediate favela today, which gave me a lot more perspective on what life is really like here. Many homes are tiny, with only one window opening onto an allyway. Growling dogs followed us from rooftops, making our pulses quicken. Met drug dealers and users - old childhood friends of Claudio. Wierd to say. "Drug Dealer" conjours up these images of skeevy dudes dressed in black, wearing dark glasses and gold chains and lurking in the shadows. These guys smiled and shook hands and seemed quite nice. It makes the situation more difficult to solve (and swallow) when you are familiar with the names and faces of they players in the game.
Went to the grandmother's house of one of the students here. She was amazing - fed me homemade cake and gave me homemade herbal remedy for my cough. She was so proud to show me her house, which was a tiny, dark, shack-like place. These places give me new meaning to our privilage. And so many people are living this exsistance. Yet I'm humbled to be the recepient of gifts from people who have so little. Today, I had wonderful "bolo" (cake) from a friends grandmother and she gave me an herbal tincture that she made for my hacking cough that won't seem to quit.
The band and I have begun the process of putting together a CD! Working on 10 songs and we're very excited. I'll keep you up dated...
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Oddly enough I've known a lot of nice people who are or were drug dealers. While the street level dealers are part of the problem, as you likely know the issue runs much deeper. The guy on the street doesn't necessarily derive all that much benefit from dealing.
ReplyDeleteThose gold chains aren't a fashion statement. They're something that can be pawned off quickly in case something goes wrong and they have to pay off their supplier.