Thoughts of a brain-dead

Thoughts of a brain-dead

After four days of CSI Sao Paulo my mind is spinning and I finally want to sit down to write some reflections on my experience so far - day by day. And I am trying organising my thoughts but it is not much there.
And I am thinking of what I have seen while my mind is still trying to remember at least one of the names of the people how has guided us to day to the Cortico’s … all these clean laundry …you see it everywhere.

Maria I think was the name from one of the handful people who brought us to the Cortico’s and was also showing us around. In an old industrial round down building people, the poorest of the pore, are renting space to live with there families. 46 families, if I remember right, are living in self constructed separations in the inside of these buildings. I am amazed by the cleanliness and the necessity for decoration thus you see a lot of very nice details, and of course the clean laundry, ...lots of it!
You see happy and energetic kids, beautiful. There is a lot of music too; the atmosphere is relaxing but I can still not relieve tension.

The day before (day three) we have been to Alphaville, a gated community of wealthy people. It was hard to enter that era even we had an appointment, everything was excellent organised and planed like the registration of our passport numbers. But they found something to make it even a bit more complicated; so we had to wait. After all we where allowed to enter - guided, but we did not get permission to walk around freely. This was so fare the only housing area where I have seen no laundry drying outside.

On day two we have been to Paraisopolis. I have been in the subgroup which was focusing on public while walking through the neighbourhood. The public is basically the street. The stairs in front of the house the main street with its bars and shops is where the people gather. Like in most informal neighbourhoods the build structure is very dense. However you see a again the laundry and based on the lag of space the laundry is dominating the scenery in the public. I have been impressed to see a self organised primary school which is according to our guide even financed by the community.

On day one I was placed in the subgroup with the topic “formal-informal economy”. The first place of informal housing we visited was Cantinho do Ceu.
The main streets where like usually the most activity is, in public live as well as in economy, we only got to see from the car. The times we stopped have been a kind of short to only nearly getting a picture of how the economy works, unfortunately.
In the afternoon we visited the extreme opposite side of the economy world, Parque Cidade Jardim, a fancy shopping mall with upper class housing on top of it. Here in Parque Cidade Jardim I had for the first time the feeling not to know where I feel more out of place – in the informal or the formal (?).

In conclusion Sao Paulo is a diverse city, something we knew before. New to me was the experience, also if people where looking at us in the informal neighbourhoods as well as in the upper class areas, that I felt welcome in Cantinho do Ceu, Paraisopolis and in the Cortico’s. Here people where smiling though they where not in Parque Cidade Jardim or Alphaville.
… so fare.