Of Cell Phones and Other things

This is Maria Cristina. She lives in a neighorhood of Rio de Janeiro called Jardim de América, which is about a one-hour bus ride from the city center. She made the dress that she is wearing for a woman in her 50s to wear to a special event. Maria Cristina has been teaching sewing to women living in the favela near her since 1999. Some of the women who have participated in her classes have even had their clothes shown in the annual "Fashion Rio" event. Sewing is not the only skill that she shares with her community. In addition to this project, she teaches people how to use materials like old circulars, plastic bottles and flour sacks to make party decorations, hand bags, and other items. Having taken a class on nutrition, she also shares ways of using things that are often considered garbage, such as banana skins, to make healthy food. This is one way that she shows the women in the favela that they have resources around them, and it helps the women to feed their families.

For some time, there was a person who gave Maria Cristina 1,000 Reais each month to pay the rent on a space where she taught these courses. About a year ago, though, the donations stopped and Maria Cristina was forced to re-locate everything to her home. This has not prevented her from moving forward, however. 

Mercado livre is a web site that commercializes some of the products that Maria Cristina and her friends make. Distribution is actually the biggest challenge facing these ladies. Since they have limited resources, to sell their products they must approach stores directly or pay fees to have stands at the local artisans' markets. 

On my way back from this visit, which was really fabulous, I lost my cell phone. This is the second one that I have lost in a month, and I had only bought it last week. It should come as no surprise, then, that I won't be running out to buy another one. I'll just rely on e-mail. 

Rio is a beautiful city. I probably said that in my last blog entry, but, y'know, certain things can be repeated. I love the downtown area with its 18th century Portuguese architecture. There is also just a fabulous flow of people there. One section of it, Uruguiana, reminds me of Canal Street and Chinatown, although there aren't really any Chinese here. But it's the knock-off and cheap merchandise center of Rio, and that's what brings me to Canal Street.

Needless to say, Rio is also chaotic. Monday morning I tried to go for a walk along the beach in the Botafogo neighborhood where I am staying. To get to the promenade, I had to cross, literally, 12 lanes of traffic. And it was morning rush hour. After making it across 9 lanes, I got stuck on a median strip. Fortunately, an understanding Brazilian man with a potbelly helped me time the crossing right, and we both dashed across to an underpass.

It looks like I'll be here in Rio until mid-April, when I'll start wandering Northeast again. In the meantime, I've made a resolution to get out and explore the downtown more.