MAY 3, 2017 update

I was not required in the favela today and it was a lovely day so I hiked up "Pedra da Bonita" (the beautiful rock?) which is in Parque da Tijuca, a national park in Rio.
 
  

I was accompanied by a friend from the hostel.  We went to Ipanema Beach afterwards.  

In the hostel at the moment is a group of young men who make skateboarding films for brands.  They travel around the world skateboarding in all kinds of places.  Zeze (one of the camera-men) tells me that it can take up to two years to create 3 minutes of video!!!  They return to the hostel after a long day extremely tired, but they are very friendly and polite - not what you might expect from a bunch of skateboarders!

Yesterday, I began the day in a different favela.  We were doing a bit of cleaning up in the common area of a community garden that has been set up by volunteers here.  It was so lovely to walk into the garden, enclosed by hibiscus and other pretty shrubs, leaving the dirty concrete street behind and hearing the sounds of birds in the garden and walking amongst papaya trees and rows of vegetables.  Unfortunately we had to leave rather quickly when some policemen turned up outside with rather large guns.  It was apparent that there was going to be some action.  We left very quickly.  As you can see from the photo below there was quite a bit of rubbish to clear away - and I was a bit hot, sweaty and messy.  
  
That's all for now. :D

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