A closer insight of how I am living in Gardênia Azul

For those who are interested in what my life looks like in the favela: I am living with a family consisting of the grand-grand-mother, the 50 year old uncle and three little kids at the age of 1,5 , 6 and 10 years. They all just speak brazilian- which is defenitely a good school for me, especially because they have a lot of patience with me. (and: they talk a lot)

I guess in the beginning it seemed very strange to them that I don't want to eat rice and beans everyday but salad instead from time to time. So I always had at least 6 pair of eyes wide open watching me while I prepared the salad....until they found out that this green stuff can actually taste good. Now they are even asking me to prepare it for all of them, which i find very nice because i love eating with them, it is always an adventure and there is always a lot to talk about. The choleric neighbour, the heat, the carneval, different eating habits......there is nothing which you couldn't discuss. But always accompanied with the television which is turned on 24/7. During morning and midday it is showing comics for the kids, afternoon and evening is dominated by criminal stories and telenovelas (the famous soap operas), watched by the 50 year old uncle......as u can see.....there is not more than one meter between him and his beloved tv!

He stays there for hours!

But he is still very up-to-date about everything I am about to do. In the beginning I felt too much sheperded by him and his mother and the neighbours etc., but now I am already used to have them asking me where I go, what I do, whom I meet and when I am back again. Let's say the reason for that is a mixture of two things. 1.:the dangerous situation in the favelas. and 2.: the personal tend to worry too much (at least in the eyes of an european girl; I have never experienced beeing followed to the supermarked incognito, to see if I was really able to go there all by myself; [the supermarket is one block from my place])




Because of my sisters petition I took
some pictures to give an insight of how I am living in the favela- you will see that it is actually a well developed area, but right on the next street it looks really different.
So on this picture u can see my street.......my house is on the left after the yellow sign.....



My entrance is the door on the right........#365..........(it happens about two times a day that i pass the door without noticing that it is the place where I am living...they all look kind of the same....;-)
Upstairs, a corridor to the living room, on the left side you see a lot of stuff lying around, the window of the grand grand mothers, uncles and childrens room, and the second window- my room........
The kitchen...........................
...the place where i wash my clothes by hands...sometimes it happens that we run out of water because noone pays for water here....we get it from the black market or somehow, nobody knows exactly........last time i was taking a shower when it happened.....and it lastet 24 hours......that's when you realize what you are using water for all day long......for washing hands, food, takinf a shower, using the water closet....etc...


And finally, my room, as you can see, the window and the "door" are always open and privacy is a foreign word in the favela...when I am in my room I am actually talking to the grand grand mother in the corridor, the uncle in the room next to me and the chidlren running around everywhere........and it is extremely hot because the sun is shining directly into the room.....without any wind.....

...and the streets full of dirt.......
(not always, but nearly always).....you shouldnt have a sensitive nose here...;-)