On this particular day, we already knew that it wasn’t going to be as eventful as the other days, just a quick trip to the favelas with our daily guide, Nate. But apparently there was something in the air for us to have a more spirit moving day, and it would be through the sheer innocence of children.
We first stopped by the Project Grupo Cultural Arte Consciente, where we got to watch the children play various numbers on the drums; and when I say talented and full of rhythm, these kids were outstanding! They played well enough to deserve scholarships or at least a sponsor to provide them extensive training. The mentor over the project, I feel bad cuz I forgot his name but you can tell that he really has a special bond with not only the children but his community that is everlasting. These kids couldn’t have been anymore than 12 but they just had such life and maturity in them and had no problem helping us when it was our turn to perform. The feeling of being able to interact with these children in their comfort zone and joke and play with them gave me a feeling of appreciation of life due to you can tell, economically, their environment definitely isn’t the best but they live life with such love and gratitude.
Once we finished up at the program, we took a tour through the favelas, which is equivalent to the projects back home, and this was the worst one of all. But even still, there wasn’t any violence to stress over or at least we just so happened to catch it on a really great day. We had the opportunity to see where they have a vast garden growing all the foods they could possibly need, their clinics which is known to not be as effective as they should due to poor conditions and the corrupt system of politics which does not invest money back into their community, we also saw their schools, which unfortunately does not exceed past middle school, so majority of them never receive an education beyond that, only if there is money.
We continued our tour though the favelas which led us to of course, more stairs. Once we reached the top, not only did we feel like Rocky but we got a chance to see the city from a great aerial perspective that overlooked the favelas and the city, not only was it a great shot for a photo op but you got a chance to see how the money is steady put into city and tourist spots while the favelas continuously lack. As we were getting our pictures and resting before we walked again, that’s when these young dudes, looking like their ages could range from 6 to 12, showed up to get a game of soccer started. Now I’ve always been the type to participate in any sporting activity whether I’m skilled in it or not, as the children began playing I enthusiastically joined in as well. These kids were had so many skills on the field it was ridiculous, they had so many moves and could perform all the soccer tricks you see on the television. Even my classmate and good friend Kierra Thomas, showed up in the game and honestly showed out! I knew she could hoop but didn’t know she talented in soccer also, so that was fun to see and be a part of it. We played about twenty minutes and then got a great group picture with the children to remember this awesome day. It was actually hard leaving them just because of this experience, so we talked to them for a little bit with our very broken Portuguese and then went our way. As we start to walk away, one of the boys ran up behind me and grabbed me by my shirt, as I turn around to see what’s up, he is standing there with the ball we played with, handing it out to give to me. Nate then tells me that they were giving me this ball as a present, I was speechless. The reason of that was these kids didn’t even have shoes to play in and they gave me their ball, true enough they had another one but it’s just the simple fact that they chose to give me something when they already have so little.
After that day, Kierra and I talked and came up with a plan to give back to that community because they touched our lives so deeply and I don’t even think they realized how important it was to us, Nate explained to us that since they don’t get a chance to interact with Americans much or even at all, it was a major thing for them. So after a twenty minute game, my life will never be the same.
