Neuza and Parada de Lucas

I decided to go up and check out the northern community of Parada de Lucas, where my friends Karina and Rafael have been doing community projects. Karina teaches an art class and Rafael, even though he is Mexican, has been in Brazil long enough to be an accomplished capoeira teacher. The woman that runs the program, Neuza, grew up in this neighborhood, and as Karina put it, is like Mother Theresa except she "shags, smokes and drinks." This favela is in the northern part of the city, a place few tourists or foreigners go on purpose. Since practically ever major attraction is located in the southern part of the city (Christo, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, Pao de Azucar), the north has been largely forgotten and ignored. You get a totally different sense when walking into the favelas here, they're grimier and smell horrible because of the lack of proper plumbing. In any case, I thought I should see it firsthand, and I'm glad I did. The kids in this center, although hyper as hell, were great. Here are a few shots I got.