Eliseu

Eliseu has been a dentist his entire working life and moved to Vidigal 3 years ago specialising in dental implants. He came from Santa Rosa in the south of Brazil.  He studied in Porto Allegre which he pointed out on a huge map of the world on the wall of his surgery. He always believed Rio was the best city to live in. When he first came to Rio he was in Ipanema but the space for a dental practice was very expensive and so he decided to move into the favela. He sees Vidigal as his new family as do I. Eliseu  is the proud owner of 5 cats and surprisingly for a dentist he enjoys a lot of chocolate!

Eliseu has lived in Lisbon in Porugal but he didn’t like it because it was so far from Brazil. He also spent a year in London when he was younger where he worked washing dishes and in construction. In 1990 he studied in Copenhagen in an international exchange where he was voted The Greatest Lover in his yearbook! He left Brazil to see what place was most important to him. He decided on Brazil and says sometimes you have to leave to see how important it is. One day he would like to experience life in Amazon.

Community is very important to Eliseu because he believes he has found his “place” the location for the rest of his life. As he describes he is on the side of a mountain, overlooking the sea with his work, everything is here in Vidigal. He loves the happy people in the favela who are coming from all different places to make the community  “great.” They are happy, exciting and fun!

In his free time he likes to go up and down the favela on his motorbike and after consulting with his patients he likes to drink tea with them and find out about their lives. Eliseu likes to help people and he likes everyone. He has helped 2 children up to the age of 18 through a charity in Vidigal and he helped a friend to get his bottom teeth back!

Teresa

The front door of Teresa’s house is always open to the children of the favela and houses a tiny shop selling sweets. Years ago she used to sell vegetables and has had a number of different jobs in her life including waitressing,  babysitting and even a manicurist. She had a shop and a restaurant which sold all sorts of things. When the shop closed she opened her little shop in the front of her house because the local children had grown so used to buying sweets from her that they used to come knocking on her door! So now she has her little shop that she says keeps her busy in the daytime. She enjoys selling things and also likes that the shop is at home because it would be difficult for her to work in the out in the “work force.” Over the years she explains how she has watched so many children of the favela grow up and now they have children of their own.  She says the people of Vidigal are good people and so she has good relationships with everyone.

The inside of her charming little house is host to collages of religious images that Teresa has put together. She makes all kinds of things and has also collected hundreds of bottle caps and  strung them together to hang in her door way all adding to the character of the place. The religious images represent what an important part of her life her Catholic faith is to her.

Teresa came from Paraiba to Rio in 1969.  Her boyfriend brought her to Vidigal over 30 years ago when the favela was all jungle and the houses were made of wood. Teresa explains how it used to be a dangerous place to live but despite this she has always loved it and believes it is the best place to live in the world!