Meet A Sao Paulo Policeman Who’s Doing Something About The Street Kid Problem.
Our next stop was in a nicer looking, but according to Paulo, more dangerous neighborhood. He said the first neighborhood would be generally considered "poor" but this neighborhood was closer to "middle class." We stopped in front of a store and met the proprietor, who was a friend of Paulo.
We went through a doorway and up some stairs to some rooms behind the store. In one of the rooms we met about 20 kids who were waiting for us. They were under the care of a Sao Paulo Police officer, Mr. Cordeiro, who was teaching them music. Three of them had musical instruments: a trombone, a clarinet and a trumpet, and the other kids stood around in a circle while the three musicians played the Star Spangled Banner for us American Visitors (!) It was a truly humbling experience!
Then they played a few other songs and they too asked me to pray for them. Laura and I walked around the room and shook all their hands and told them how honored we were to meet them.
I asked Mr. Cordeiro, their band director if he needed more instruments.
"50 more," he said.
"What kind?"
"Woodwinds, Violins, Horns, Trumpets."
"Guitars? Keyboards?"
"Not guitars. Maybe keyboards. We want an orchestra so all the kids can learn to play together. It keeps them out of trouble, out of crime and drugs, doing something constructive. We need as many instruments we can get." I found out that the few instruments they did have were given tothem by people at MBC Church in Cedar Rapids Iowa. I said, "I think I can help you find more instruments." (Attention readers, listen up! Anyone got an old trumpet in the attic?) We’ll send it to them, no charge to you. Just email us.
Mr. Carneiro told us a little more about this neighborhood. It is not uncommon for drug lords to have shootouts in this neighborhood with machine guns and the whole nine yards.
So before the gangs fight their battle, someone goes around to all the houses and warns everyone that they’re about to have a shootout. That way all of the innocent people can run for safety. After the war is over, someone goes around and asks people what in their house was damaged by gunfire and the drug lords pay the people for the damage. That way nobody says anything when the police come around asking about what happened.
Understanding Where The Problem Really Lies
At this point I’d like to interject that the problem with living in the favellas is not living in a favella. It’s dealing with all of the evil and bad influences. It’s incredibly dangerous and the mentality surely must be stifling.
I think a person can deal with having no heat in the winter when it’s 40 or 50 degrees outside, or eating mediocre food or living in a cement bunker. The real problem is the prostitution, drugs, gangs, violence and hopelessness.
So in my opinion, one must look further into understanding how people can climb out of that and then turn around and help someone else do the same.
I made a few observations during our trip with Paulo. First, those who had Faith had hope. They were also clearly in the process of learning an alternate value system, work ethic and "good Samaritan’ attitude that has the potential to eventually lift them out of those circumstances. Those who did not have faith were living in pain and uncertainty. And some seemed to be indecisively standing at a crossroads, wondering if the high road is really worth the trouble. Wondering if it’s for real.
TV in Brazil
Second, every single person we met had a color TV. Even the ones that made $60 per month and had no job. Even the poorest of the poor watch TV. Which is interesting because TV obviously shows people things they want. But what is not so obvious is that it teaches them nothing–absolutely nothing– about how to get it. Which leads me to my third observation:
RELIGION IS NOT THE OPIATE OF THE MASSES.
TELEVISION IS.
Laura and I (especially now) have friends at both ends of an extremely wide economic, social and political spectrum. We now have friends who make less than $100 per month and we have friends who make $100,000 per month. And generally speaking, the prosperous ones are ones who generally DON’T watch TV.
Also–Have you ever noticed that TV shows never show people watching TV? And those actors and actresses are making a lot of money. Hmmm… Do you think there could be correlation?
We ate supper at Paulo’s house (what Brazilians can do with a simple potato is simply amazing) and then went to his Tuesday night Bible study. It was in an upper middle class house, and about 20 people (mostly teenagers) were there, and some of them were folks we’d met earlier that day. Favella kids and even a homeless guy in the home of a fairly well-off woman. I’ve rarely seen such a wide range of people together in an American church scene. Brazilians seem to be more comfortable with such disparities than Americans.
