Menino Deus on camera

17 September 2011

We volunteer once a week working with kids at a local community center in a poor neighborhood called Menino Deus.  This week there was a camera crew filming some kind of spot or documentary on it and they interviewed each of us and then staged a group walk around the neighborhood.

Hey kids, why don't you just kneel on these sharp rocks and smile for the camera? Eeek!

 Too far away to get them clearly but these little ones were just toddling down the street, soooooo cute!

 The houses here all have corrugated tin roofs and are made of whatever building material was handy at the time - wood, stone, brick.  Only the main street is paved.

 Everyone walk and try to look "natural"... the camera crew was running around us filming and snapping away, so I figured I might as well join them.

 Despite the tiny shabby homes, the neighborhood is on a hillside and has a lovely view of the surrounding hills.  In the bottom of the valley are large quonset huts housing several manufacturing or warehousing operations.

We passed by the home of one of my students, and her family happened to be outside, so I got to meet them.  Two pretty sisters.

And a not so flattering picture of me with them.  At least it makes them look prettier!

And here is her dad.

 After we took these photos and walked on down the hill, the camera crew descended on her dad to interview him.  I hope he didn't mind!

 Yep, we had to walk up a steep hill after coming down one. Thankfully, it was a warm day but not really uncomfortable.

There were enough people outside that I felt I should be a little circumspect about photographing their homes, but on this street no one was around.  Here is an unsafe-looking house built on precarious pillars of stones.

 Around the side of this teetering shack was a beautiful rosebush - many homes had lovingly tended roses.

This photo is one of my favorites.

 What a cute handmade mailbox!

There are two major soccer teams in Brazil and it's a running joke how polarized the fans are.  Apparently these people are such big Gremio fans that even the house is painted Gremio blue!

I think every single house in this area had dogs. Lots and lots of dogs.

Returning to the community center, everyone poured inside for a drink of water.

Ah, intercultural exchange!