Construction

I started the first round of construction on Casa Branca here in Vila Brandão. Signing the R$1000 contract and paying for my shady neighbors R$350 electric bill has sealed the deal. I am now an official 'home owner' in this small Favela community. (well part home owner anyway)

It is interesting to note how my perception of quality is beginning to change. Had I visited Casa Branca upon first arriving in Brazil, I would have been horrified at the 'slum' like conditions. Compared to the tighty, white washed, neat little world that is home, Vila B and my little house would be quickly scheduled for demolition. Pipes run in crazy directions, open wires befriend standing water, the place lives and breaths chaos. I'm sure that if you named a building code, I'm probably breaking it.

But as it is, by and by, if you are here long enough in Brazil you start to forget these trifles. Things are how they are and you learn to live with them. Life is, after all, a matter of perception. To the people in this neighborhood, my house with its high ceilings and view of the bay is considered a castle and a "dream home" to use the words of a neighbor. What horrifies some is the envy of others I suppose. If any of you adventurists back home are brave enough to visit, the least I can promise you is humility.

Working on the balcony.

Battling the wall cracks.

I can now unlock the house without falling 10 feet to my death.
Funny thing about Brazilian construction is that it is so creative. Instead of just "ordering materials", the guys ran around the house looking for scrap wood. This walkway is built from abandoned housing beams and a couple of my shelves. In the lack of money, "Sempre ha um jeito".

This is the 'why are you taking pictures of me' face.

Also, construction safety. Awesome. This is an abandoned ladder that was found on the property, which is rusted and about to fall apart. This guy put two of its legs on beams set across the stairwell. I watched him in amazement, hoping at first that I wouldn't get sued, and then I remembered that lawyers in this country simply don't give a rats ass.

Yikes!

I stepped out of the house for a minute only to find that the guys had thrown all of our waste materials out into the green space below my house. This is very typical here. Hills are considered waste dumps, even when they are right next to residential property. I think that of all the cultures that I am familiar with, the Brazilians are the least environmentally conscious, which is a shame considering that they sit on the worlds largest most ecologically valued rain forest.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

My first artistic creation. You likey?

This is a picture of my first sunset in the house. The trick in this house is to choose which spot you'd like to watch the sunset from. Naturally, this picture hardly does it justice.