Visiting a Favela, Finding a Community

Although this blog is supposed to focus on my work with coffee, and I do have exciting updates, I want to devote this post to my recent experience in the Brazilian city, Rio de Janeiro.  Last weekend our group of international students got to see firsthand, Babilonia, a Brazilian favela. The hostel where we stayed for three nights in Rio was actually located in the favela.

Being the broke young travelers that we are we decided to opt out of spending twenty-five dollars to take a cable car to the top of Sugar Mountain, one of Rio's famous views.  Instead, we took the advice of our hostel to venture through the favela and keep going up until we reach an even better view of the city.

The average American doesn't know much about Brazil.  The most common associations are beautiful women, Brazilian barbeque, an economy on the rise, and the image of a favela (Portuguese for shanty town).  It's not a good image- probably stemming from the film "City of God" or US news stories about gang and drug violence. So as you might expect, I never thought I would be walking through the heart of a favela during my first three weeks in Brasil, and I certainly never thought my hostel would be located in one.

But it wasn't scary. It wasn't wild and shocking.  It wasn't even depressing as one might expect seeing such a "poor neighborhood" would be.  Actually it was the complete opposite.  Babilonia was one of the most impressive communities I have ever seen.  Ten years ago may have been different.  People told us that the favela was still "at war" then.  Today the favela is actually safer than the touristy beach is at night. It's community members look out for one another, and they look out for the guests of the Hostel.  They know that the young travelers support the favela's economy and are an important part of continuous progress.

Last Sunday we got lost in the favela trying to reach the view of the city.  Our group of seven went up, down, and around the maze of concrete, wood, and dirt paths.  People nodded their heads at us and some said "bom dia" (good morning).  Finally I asked someone where the view was and he pointed where to go.  We went where we thought he pointed but got lost once again. I could tell our group was a little nervous.  The favela lacked the aesthetics and infrastructure we associate with stability and safety.  We turned another corner and it was clear we were not headed where we intended.  Three kids from the favela ran up to us.  They knew where we were trying to go and they wanted to take us there.

Off we went.  Faster than much of our group would have preferred on a hot day, we followed our "guides" past the homes and to the top of the favela.  Our saviors/tour guides were eleven, twelve and thirteen years old and told us that they make the trip to the top of the favela everyday.  They showed us three views of Rio de Janeiro, each of them nothing short of incredible. We all took photos together and then sat in the shade together and shared our water above the beautiful city. It was surreal.

Just when we thought our experience couldn't get any better, our three guides led us back down into the heart of their community, to the cement soccer "court." We concluded our "favela tour" by sitting with our guides and watching one of the best soccer games I have ever seen. The skills were impressive to say the least and I certainly wasn't going to jump out of my seat and try to take on one of the kids.  Our group gave a generous tip, although not requested, to our guides and they bought a large soda and shared it. Although we could have stayed all day we had to get going.  We took a photo together in front of a painted Brazilian flag.  The soccer players, adults and children, stopped their game to yell "thank you" to all of us.  Our tour guides showed us the way back to our hostel.

I could write all day about this but I will wrap things up.  This blog is supposed to be about my work with agriculture and how small coffee farms and communities operate in Brazil. However, experiencing a favela firsthand that has been restored to safety, prosperity, and is only improving is relevant to my research and my interest in communities. Babilonia is an example of successful collaboration between an existing community, the state, and new businesses like the hostel.   Last weekend I went to a favela and inside I found a community. 

Roasting Coffee in the Mountains of Brazil

So it's day 13 and I am just now posting the blog I was supposed to start a week ago.  Things have been hectic and the first few days were total locura (craziness in Portuguese), but now I am settled in, improving my Portuguese skills, and really starting to appreciate this country.  If there's one thing that has been nothing short of amazing from the start, it's my internship. 

I am working with Agroecology Professor Ricardo Santos and about twenty graduate students, doing a combination of research experiments at the University and extension work with farmers, all about COFFEE.  I have limited experience with coffee production in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Colombia, and I drink multiple cups each day as a student at University of Illinois. However, I can already tell that my experience here, in Brazil, will cause me to never look at a cup of coffee the same. 

My first Saturday here I went with an economics student to observe a small scale roasting observation.  We left at 5:30 AM and I watched the sun rise over the mountainous coffee fields as our little car flew up and down and around the rugged roads. After our three hour journey we arrived in the small farming town. 

The roasting room was at the back of a combination house/market.  I was introduced to "the Roaster," who has been roasting coffee for local farmers for almost twenty years.  I was one of the first Americans he had talked to so I was forced to use my Portuñol (Spanish + Portuguese).  He brought out hot coffee and breakfast treats including local bananas. 

The roasting began! For three hours we roasted the raw dried white beans, about 60 lbs in total.  Of course it's the rest of the world so they used kilograms! I realized that I was wearing my Brother Bear's Coffee shirt and drinking the same coffee we were watching being roasted.  This incredible experience is just one part of the work I will do over the summer-  I can't wait to roast more coffee!

There is just too much to include in one post here about my first Saturday in Brazil.  I'll talk about our afternoon visit to the  mountaintop coffee fields in my next post.  So to conclude this post, I will briefly explain what our research is about and why it's so important.

Our team of agronomists, ecologists and economists are all working to help local small coffee farmers.  Small means less than 40 acres.  Typically the coffee from the region where I am working is exported.  For a small farmer this means that they will make a very small portion of the profit, compared to say, what the coffee shop in the US makes.  Right now the better coffee is exported and the inferior coffee is sent to the local market.  We want to change this.  We want farmers to grow even better coffee and for that coffee to be sold locally to Brazilians so the farmer makes the money they deserve and it doesn't take forever.  So this is why it take agronomists, sociologists, economists, and ecologists- to reform and improve the process from the time the coffee tree is planted all the way to the moment it reaches the consumer's mug.  I'll conclude my first post by saying that I have realized how important it is that we actually care about a connection to the farmers that grow our coffee. Yes, buying Fair Trade helps, but it's much greater than that, and I still have much to learn about how complex coffee really is. Stay tuned!!!