Building My Life

Chapter 3 Happiness Slum

“Amen!” Josias responds; somewhat moved. Despite the need to get off, (the driver gets wild when asked to stop and no one gets off the bus!) Josias wanted to stay a little longer, as he felt a connection with Everaldo that he was unable to explain at the time. But, it was time to get down.

After the two say goodbye with a handshake, Josias goes to the front door (the driver also notices Josias's little clothes) and disembarks. When the bus goes on its way, Josias and Everaldo see each other for the last time, the two waving their hands on their foreheads, the typical military greeting. So, Josias turns on his heel and faces his new neighborhood.

“Well, Josias!” he said to himself, trying to cheer up, “Time to get to know your new neighborhood!”

Josias starts walking. He is walking down the widest street, the main one. That's because, in Happiness Slum, there was no type of urban planning. The main street was the only one opened by the City Hall, as it was a street connecting Happiness Farm. The family who owned the farm sold all the land to the City Hall and moved to the United States. The City did nothing with the land and little by little the residents invaded the place, building houses without care around the street.

As the residents were poor and miserable people, in very low living conditions, the houses built were not of the best quality and reflected the identity of their owners. Many of these houses were not plastered. Most of them were built very close to the sidewalk of the street, which removed the privacy of the resident. Nobody thought about leaving a space for the front yard or garage, the main door opens directly onto the street.

With this type of construction, when Josias inadvertently looked at the window of one of these houses very close to the sidewalk, he saw another totally naked man looking for what to wear in the wardrobe, without caring about the open window. In another house, he accidentally saw a woman in her thirties watching the soap opera in a nightgown, lying on the sofa.

Ashamed, Josias leaves the sidewalk and starts walking in the middle of the street. At least in Rainbow Garden, the houses had a front yard, and no one was so exposed. How easy it must be to be robbed in this place if people inadvertently leave everything open!

Now Josias had to watch the street. Even though it was wide, it did not prevent people from driving their vehicles carefully. A cyclist could easily dodge Josias, but he made a point of almost running him over and demanding that Josias look where he is. Cars pass down the street with no sense of minimum speed. Bikers pass by leaving smoke and deafening noises. Josias starts to wonder if the residents here can sleep.

To complete the noise, one of the houses was listening at an absurdly loud volume “Xanadu”, by Olivia Newton-John. Josias knew the music, but now he was not in the mood. In front of the house, a group of black teenage girls tried to reproduce the choreography. Another insensitive car driver drives at high speed, very close to the girls. They scream in fright and separate to avoid being run over.

“Where's the happiness in this place?” Josias asks gritting his teeth.

As he approached a crowded and messy bar, with a group of drunks singing a samba out of tune with drums and tambourines, Josias realized that the commerce was on a corner. He passed through many alleys, but this passage had room for at least one car to pass. He noticed that the residents parked their cars on the sidewalk so as not to block the street. Josias approaches. “Hope Street”, so it was written on a hand-painted blue-colored sign. The residents maintained their optimism despite everything.

Josias needed a place to stay. Somewhere in this favela, there must be some kind of boardinghouse or building that rents rooms. Even more than that, in this street and the main street, most of the buildings are of several floors. In the building where Josias saw the lady in a nightgown watching television, there were six floors. She had the discomfort of staying on the ground floor.

Therefore, Josias started to walk in it, when he realized that Hope Street also had buildings. No, he didn't want to be on the main street, with all that noise and lack of privacy. Gradually the noise of drunks and samba decreased.

Josias found a five-story building with the sign “rent rooms”. There, it was what he wanted. Josias put his hand in his pants pocket, and he didn't even dare take out the money to check how much he had. Obviously, he wouldn't have enough for even one night.

However, Everaldo's voice echoed in Josias's mind as he stared at the building. The main door was open, and from where Josias could see, the interior appeared to be the lobby, as if the building were a guesthouse or hotel. Well, the guy that had it built knew what he was doing.

“I will pray for you and plead that God will bring you the best for your life. You will get out of this and be successful. And I believe that you will have the willpower to overcome your adversities! Amen?”