| What a glorious day it was yesterday when R., C. and I made the long-awaited venture into Liberdade (the Asian area of SP) to find the Holy Drink...tapioca drink, boba, bubble tea, pearl tea, jun-ju nai cha, or now, the new name...POB�!! It had been 3 months for me and about 6 months for both R. and C. It has been a long three months since I last tasted those sweet tapioca balls but it was also a nice surprise since I had not expected there to be boba in SP. I guess this city really does have everything now. After our stop to get the boba, R. wanted to watch this French film which was at some artsy mall�so we went and when we were almost at the ticket window, that showing was full. Instead, we watched "Cidade de Deus," a Brazilian film that has been the talk of the town. The film is based on a true story and is almost like a documentary of life in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro. All the actors, except for one, are real residents of the slums. I had been curious about it but was deterred from watching it because I knew it would be difficult to understand the slang of the favelas. If it were a film with Portuguese subtitles, I would have been able to understand more, but to hear people speaking quickly and to understand it all is another story. However R. and C. were good about explaining things every once in awhile. MAN. That movie is depressing. After the movie, we were all kind of quiet in the car. The excitement from getting boba was sobered by the movie. It is artfully and incredibly filmed and woven together�some of it has that �Romeo and Juliet� (the one with Leo and Claire Danes) MTV style. And it�s neat to see how you see one scene from the point of view of one character and then later on, they rewind and show it from the POV of another one. It is just really really tragic to see the reality of life in the slums and how the cycle of violence and crime never ends. As much as the kids want to escape that life, it is hard for them to. You see how little kids start out by running errands and getting paid by the drug dealers and experienced robbers, and then how that leads to the kids stealing or killing as well. You see how one man's innocent life gets turned upside down when his girlfriend is killed and he joins a gang for revenge; in the gang, he kills a policeman during a bank robbery and the son of that policeman joins that same gang in vengeance of killing his father's murderer. There is a lot of irony and a lot of truth. The only positive thread in the movie is the main character who actually ends up making a real life for himself as a photographer for a big newspaper. He starts out as the delivery boy of the newspaper and because he lives in the favelas, he has access to all that goes on in there...and soon, the paper is buying his photos for the front page. I wish I could have understood everything they were saying, though. I think anyone who watches it will agree that it was done really well�but you also don�t know if you can enthusiastically say, �I loved it!� because you don�t know if you liked it. It is a movie that you come away from feeling sad and shocked at this harsh reality that exists in a world that seems so far removed from our lives. Yet at the same time, for people here, some of it is not so far removed because they have experienced being held up in their cars or on the bus. On the way home, this kid came by and put the bag of candy on the car mirror...they hang the plastic bag over the mirror when you first stop at the light, and right before the light turns green, they go by and either collect the bags or, if you want the candy, they collect your money. It is so easy to become immune to seeing this, just like how back at home, we get used to passing a begging man without wondering if we could spare some change for him. But this time, I thought about that kid and then thought about the kids in the movie and how although it is sad that this kid has to do this, at least he is really working and not trying to make money by selling drugs or weapons or robbing. Who knows�maybe there is an adult behind this kid pressuring him to sell a certain amount before he can stop working�who knows�but at least if he is out working like this, he cannot be in the favelas involved in the criminal life. My heart went out for these people, especially the kids, who cannot escape this life of poverty. Sadly, the majority of SP is like this...makes you wonder, why do *I* have a better life? There is nothing I did to deserve to be in my comfy home back in the U.S. while this kid goes back home to sleep in a bedroom for 5 kids. What would it be like if I had to run around with the same outfit for five days and scrounge fro money? I can't say I would watch the movie again, but I am glad I saw it at least once. It is harsh, it is sad, it is shocking...but it is reality. |
| sober on sunday 10.20.02 |
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