ARCH 3 CHPT 2

“…picture me inside the misery of poverty…”

4 July 2019, 9:25am

Aterro Sanitário Smokey Mountain

Brasilia, Brazil

Bander is finishing up structural repair welds on a bicycle a kid procured from the mega-massive landfill in front of them.

He is under a makeshift tent well distanced from the main hustle and bustle of the scavengings and constructionings happening at the smokey mountain frontlines.

Smell of rot, rats and radroaches suffocate the area. 
The malevolence of these places; gross existence; undeniable horrors of callous privilege.
Blightant toxicity of the human condition, surges of smoke from the endless trash heaps.
People scattered all over it like insects on an ant hill, overcoming adversity.

Kid never had a bike before and was jubilant over his find.  The fruits of his sht mining labor.

Bander matches the kid with the fruits of his own labor.

“Done.  Feito.  Here kid”

The bike wasn’t much to look at, the tires were not true but it rolled, the brakes worked but complained loudly when used, and there was chipped off paint and rust everywhere.  It had no seat.
The weld came out spectacular though.

Bander has been working lines on that e6011; finally got the hang of controlling that initial spark which he saw as a massive setback; both personally and in practice.  Bander does not like feeling hapless, he doesn’t like gambles.  It’s all about controlling risk.  Luck, the concept of it.  The unfamiliarity of it.   Unpredictability.  Not cool.
He was determined to master the art of tap-starting that arc.
It wasn’t a guaranteed action.  Increasing probability meant it requires coaxing, feeling it out.
He did good here though.
He was feeling this.  He was liking the rewards.

He admires his work.

{Sht came out tight}

A buff stocky native man with tattoos all over checks out Banders finished work. 
Rarely wears a shirt.  Thug life inked on his gut.
Only judge can god me tatted on his back.
His reputation was established here; people interacted with him differently.
Can’t tell if it’s fear or respect. 
Former inmate.  Local warlord.  Street smarts.  Big heart.
This is Bander’s handler.

Bander’s handler hands them both a plantain.

Bander’s handler takes a picture of the bike and the wicked beads and slug lines Bander accomplished.

The kid couldn’t contain himself, didn’t bother to thank anyone.

In his mind, the snack could wait, this was a big social climb moment for him.
He’s been waiting a long time for this, he always wanted a bike.  This was meaningful.  This was personal.
He was ready, and these two jackasses were messing with his dream time.

He pocketed the plantain, waited attentively for Pagpag to drop his guard from taking pictures.

In a flash.

Kid grabbed handles, hopped on, kick pumped the pedals.  
In short order the little ignant rough ryder bolted straight out and forward and to the dirty floor ahead. 
The fall was spectacular, total knee scraper and elbow bruiser.

In his mind it was going to be easy.
In his mind, he already knew how to ride a bike because he saw other people do it already.
In these mines, life is unforgiving.
All his friends around him laughed, one of them came out and tried wrestling the bike from the kid to show him how it’s done.

The I-got-this kid wanted to try it by himself, it’s his bike for his use, doesn’t want others touching it.  
The wanna-help-you kid insisted that he has to show him first so he can learn faster, and for his own benefit and even safety.

Another kid jumped in the fray, producing a bike seat; took it off of his own bike to help the bigger cause. 
Everyone argued their way together to a nearby bike and skate park that was recently built to accommodate these kinds of issues.

One of many projects that were coming in waves on this novel initiative against slums, dumps, and all other forms of financial violence.

Towns all around were under a spell where things were going fast and far from crying and starving and dying hush hush to wtf and enough is enough.
Sht was changing around here, and moving with purpose.

“that sht tiiiiight mang.  [Pagpag reviews the pictures of Bander’s work with him, points the nuances out, proud of him]. 
That lesma smoooooth, nice nice. heat set good, not like last time you burn big holes, you make problema worse before remember mang?
Right here you go slooow and you start to sow together right there ehm?  That has like sowing like Mama ‘Berta show you ehm? 
You learn fast.  Fast learner.  Yous is smart.  Yous is kind.  Yous have metal touch.  I teach you more. 

Pagpag hands over a three-way like piece to Bander.

Here.  Look this.  We have many ehm, square bar irons – make this three way eh, connect. 
See here this?  We need more this.  Many more.  More better. 
This help Demming approach all here and everywhere like you say ehm?  This demming mang?”

Bander inspects over the piece, feels it out, solving the puzzle on what Pagpag’s intentions are with it. 
He puts the speed square’s ruler to it while checking out how it was welded together.

{…three way corner coupler using square iron tubing…   …63.5mm, slightly bigger than the more common 50.8mm squares out here.  The 50.8 should fit and telescope in and out easy.  …that would make sense.  And for measurements he cut one at…   76.2mm then welded to two 50mm cuts onto it…

Damn he’s good.  No weld lines visible, it was sanded smooth and clean. 
How is he getting his cut’s so straight by hand using that piece of sht TTI angle grinder. 
Paint job even throughout, no bubbles or prints or sht.  He was showing off by two-toning it; completely unnecessary. 
Fkn peace came out quality👌}

Bander brings up his observations.

“okay, alright…          You think that with many of these we can take some 50.8mm square tube bars, cut to any length and width sizes, and by putting them in these couplers we get fast dimensions up and about am I right there?…      ….so by using a lot of these with some simple adapters and variations…   …we can put together solid shapes to work off of fast.  
Like, makeshifts furniture’s and work platforms right?”

“Sim sim, simsaras.  [Pagpag beams at being understood so well].  Fast building furniture, fast building of it platformas.  Correctomundo mang.  
Thats what I was think.  yous is smart mang.  Pagpag corners better than ikea for cut corners mang. 
I was thinking and thinking how to how to, and you think faster.”

Bander continues contemplating the piece significance.

{of course this is fkn deming…    This coupler idea is straight Kaizen.  It can speed up the construction here substantially, these size bars being common make it accessible, and the concept itself is adaptable to different sizes so it’s scalable, transferable, sustainable idea…   just insert any quick cut tubes and done, doesn’t even have to be perfect or exact tolerance cuts, a lot can be done using these connectors as a starting base…     so it’s, at least 8 of them to start off for a basic cube or rectangle…    …sht, the power of being able to quickly set up big or small 3d shapes with tetris dimension, it’s just construction legos, nothing original, but by applying it here where the demands are pure function over form and portability…    …simply leveraging corner joints this way will speed things up significantly….   …and if we can manage to secure some bungee cords, make a net, grab some of these connectors and bars I can make myself a better bed…     …quick canopy bed, would take about 12 of these things.  Then hang a curtain, blanket or mosquito net over it…   …sht yeah that would fkn help.
it’s going to cut our weld project times substantially and free up talent for bigger projects.  
Can’t believe this guy.  What was it, 2,3 days ago he asked about some of my studies in school, thought it was just small talk and he wasn’t listening.  That mfr was high af when I told him about demming. 
Who is he…   ..doesn’t matter.  Make note, process improvements sht makes him happy. 
Keep feeling him out, you need to escape this fkn sht hole before Mosa get’s back or some sht goes down.  These people are not your friends and the sht they are doing is going to get them killed with me in here}

Bander acknowledges the initiative and his role in it.

“….yeah man…     that’s Deming as fk.  It’s a good idea.  I’ll start cooking up a good 7 or 8 of these and set up a sample, just get me some 50.8mm bars, the longer the better so we can identify sag control points while we are at it…  
Let’s see…   we’ll test out a few quick frames.  Oh, get me some foot wheels as well, check the office chairs from the chair pile.  Yeah, we going to also need to figure out how we can make the end-point fastenings secure for easy set up and breakdown…    …bring some sheet metal screws, i think we can get away with those and going slow with the impact driver…  …and yeah, if this works man.  That should be enough to get all the other welders from the familias out here on board to make and use this approach as well.  That is called Positive deviance since you like those words so much.  That’s what you are doing here my guy, so let’s capitalize on that.  If all goes well I’d say you are going to see substantial improvements in construction speeds and…     ….hey.  eh.  You think mama Berta will let me make my own bed?”

Pagpag shrugs avoidantly, “You have question on Mama ‘Berta, you ask Mama ‘Berta.”

“…yeah i’ll, i’ll do that…    …Oe pagpag, real talk.  When will you tell me what’s going on? -Look look!  I’m chill, I’m chill!  I’m here to help and stick around and be chill, I don’t have a choice in that, y’all made that clear.  You guys treat me well, not saying you and mama ‘berta aren’t awesome to me, I respect y’all.  I respect y’alls gangster, I truly do.  Thank you so much, I owe you guys for everything, I was in bad shape, so thanks for real.

Just, anything I can learn about my situation helps me survive.

I just want to survive this the best way I can man.  Come on man?  Can I get something here?”

“okay okay…       …what you want know, we try that.”

“Where’s mosa?”

“Ah…      …La Leona hunting la pulpa.  La pulpa maybe somehow help her find baby.  [Pagpag lazily scratches his chest as he minds both Bander and the environment around him]  “Fkn locura ehm mang?…”.

“What’s a pulpa”?

“Oh!  Pensei que você soubesse.  Não sei.  Noone know.  No one knows who is o where live.  No one know that, hard find la pulpa yo.  Cassandro say out there, all over America central, la pulpa e fighting with..   ehm, bad people sim?  People, land and guns and shooting and money and fruits [he gestures with his hands to try to deliver his messages].  Sim sim.  Fighting people. 
Underground fighters, very quiet fights.  Like, small Yakuza style but more jungle ehm?

{Fkn btch could be gone forever.  If she finds the kid will she let me go?  What’s her plan with me..   am i in danger, will she or him kill me one day to the next…      …fkn shit, I’m locked in either way.  This is crazy, no real fkn options.  At least she’s not around, she’s fkn abusive. 
Fkn psycho is out hunting for leaders of armed rebel groups or whatever who obviously do not want to be found. 
Probably won’t be coming back}

“That’s like, impossible right?  I’m not crazy here.  Like, the whole thing right?  Central America is a pretty fkn big place to be looking around in.”

Pagpag smiles in admiration.  “Nothing stops la Leona de Kayapo…      she comes from that Kararao tribe up north, they live mission impossible [chuckles in disbelief] everyday.  But she, different ehm.  More crazy like you say ehm?…     …if anyone can, she can, she has focus.  Determinada…  
she smart, like you mang.  She has you here, you are here yeah?  She hunted you?  She has hunted many already now.  Nothing stops la Leona…”

“And….     …who is Cassandro?  I mean, I know he helped y’all out with doing something about [Bander points around to all the collaborative energy and trash sht around him] all this.  But, do we know where he comes from?  Does he work somewhere?”

“No one knows him like close.  Everybody knows he solver problemas, he say that a lot.  a lot a lot [Pagpag shakes his head grinning].  He says solver problemas.   Apenas corações e mãos.  hearts and hands, hearts and hands solve problemas only.  He only care, solve problemas like machine.  Mosa know him little bit more. 
Mosa say Cassandro the pirate came from Africa to smoke with vovo tuira de los machetes…   he heard about it…     …asks them to smoke what real warriors smoke.  [laughs more, bellowing into it]…   …and they say yes, they give him warrior smoke, special blend…   …he take this du hast mix and live…    …Mosa says when he woke up, major change. 
He finished, he no more looking for pulpa, give leona his backpack, and say he go after hotel operation to Cuba Libre.  He say, number one important.  He will attack bigger problema there.  [Pagpag continues chuckling in imagination and high esteem of his heroes].  He crazy also, thug life from Africas come to thug life Americas.  So nice.  He say, look at the one dollar bill, that pyramid, with the eye.  He is looking for those people ontop, as high as he can go, and untangle all the arania webs dollar is communicating everywhere, web of lies…     hehe, Cassandro say he will fix the problem from Cuba…     …so crazy mang…
Oh oh! I saw nice gun he give you.”

Pagpag clicks in approval of it, “la le Nafta ist niiiiice👌”

Bander is holding his plantain in his hand.  Attracted to the yellowness and green tinges of it.
His hands start working it without thought.

{btch Mosa stole my gun.  She can fkn keep it}

“How long?  I mean, for me here?  Look, I get that her wushu-fu is the best, no doubts about that friend, she’s awesome.   But reality is reality, lets be pragmatic about this, or at the very least play the what if game.  If she dies, nobody would know right?  Not saying I am hoping she gets hurt or nothing, not saying that.  Just, thinking out loud, does that mean I stay here with you forever?  Don’t get me wrong, you cool af my guy, thank you, no disrespect, I like rap music at 2am bunked up and locked up in with another man just as much as the other guy, believe me, I do I just – This is important things man.  I’d like to know what to expect and set myself up accordingly.

“Sim mang, la Leona say you stay here.  We take care of you.  We keep you alive.  You outside, I try not kill you, I try catch you better.  I work hard to make easy catch you if you go, i take risk so, so ehm, so you can [he laughs as he gesture encourages Bander to take in the outside air] breathe aire livre.  If pagpag not good enough to hold down Bander, we put Bander in box and bye-bye.  You here, I watch you close like, you help me, you help mama ‘berta, you help kids, you help us, we help each other, we all okay.  We okay and we cool.  Good plan.  Best plan.
Behave good, be clean, be good person, easy easy. 
We all have fun good time and make most in good way… [He leans back]  …pura vida…

I also am like you [leans back in and puts his wrists up like he was cuffed]. 
I cannot leave.  Only way outside for you is Leona say so is okay.
I trust Mosa.  Eu a apoio buscar bebe“

{don’t let him know about the billions.  He probably wasn’t told about it.  Nobody has mentioned anything like that this whole time. 
Check if he is open to money.  Not fkn likey, mf literally has a big ass Lealdade acima do dinheiro tattoo on him but fkn try anyway.  Feel him out little by little.  
Why would they tell him or mama ‘Berta or anybody else for that matter, that would paint a target on them.  They likely want to keep me a secret.  If I can get out of here I still have my money and will stay alone in my fkn yacht for the rest of my life.  Just have to buy more stuff that is anti-radar and anti-detection tech.  fk it, go all out.  just get the fk out of here and disappear.  ok, what to ask him.  See how much he knows Mosa.  What’s their relationship, is she paying him}

 

“…were you part of the …   hotel thing?”
[Bander starts eating his plantain]

“ah!!  Sim sim.  Grupo Delta when you there.  Before you there, long time before you there, I work little bit for Martha and Sean…     when it hotel campus de oro, before they change name…    …later, i leave them.  I sell guns, police shoot me, I cannot run.  No more futbol.  hospital fix okay.  Then pagpag was… [he puts his wrists up like he was cuffed] long time alone while ah restded.  Mosa need me for go in, i know hotel inside segredo areas.  Leona hunt me.  Find me in Urso Branco.
take me out so i help leona bebe.
I help good.  i help anyday.  I give back nice.”

“She fkn got you out of…   …eh, never mind.  uh, the hotel thing, is that what is funding all this?”

The two are surrounded by all the noise and grinding and sparking that was being done on Smokey Mountain.
Smell ever present.  Flies interrupting every few sentences.

“yeah mang!  You know chef ‘Berto is cook.  He now also owner.  They have organized.  Hotel make money and porcos come and we take money and sell for more money.  Dinheiro não problema.  For now money no problema.  We finish here, money never more problemas.  We take money from outside world and change to survival things.  [Pagpag fantasizes out loud]   It will happen, you see.  It will happen yes.  We will feel safe and be safe, protectors will win mang.
Cassandro also say so.  we will win protecting.  A home for us, a safe space we go roll, I show you and we go, no more fighting here and life like this.  [Pagpag shows around with disagreeing fk this sht place face].  Dança, frutas e bons momentos apenas, boa vida chegando.  No plata o plomo here.  Confiança ou violência. Confiança ou violência.  You like mang?  Eeeehmm    [Pagpag thinks how to translate]  Trust o violencia!  Ah!  You like?   Sound nice?  I have for you barz mang.”

Bander nods good one as he looks around with nasty sht smell face as well. 
{Nobody wants this knowingly.  this is a forced relationship with double binds.  It helps keep labor prices low.  Poverty is the best motivator for accepting low wage contracts.  It’s not a mistake, it’s clockwork.  I’d do anything to get out of here and would take any job to be in the city}
He covers his mouth and nose back up with the shemagh to help take a break from the smell.  Pagpag had shown him some phone pics on how much worse this very spot was from just a few months back and had said Confiança ou violência before, he said that a lot when he got drunk and blasted rap on his cellphone.
{annoying af mf.  hard enough to sleep on that shty bed}

Bander continues to look around the land dump. 
No culture on earth in their right mind would agree to use their land this way.
Landfills are a conscious centralized power move.
It’s Poison that’s put down and goes around.  A hexxus.

This was different around here.

They were not scavenging to survive starvation. 
They were not dying off alone anymore.  They were challenging the status quo directly.

This was a deliberate and sophisticated operation.
The de-centralized familias prioritizing these frontlines were consistently being supplied with
fresh food, cooked food, shoes clothing, support, labor, entertainment, drugs, everything from de-centralized outside familias…   …and in these synergies they are building quick small houses on the outskirts to house the people working there, building small parks and community kitchens and storage houses and health libraries and tool libraries, inching inwards the workstations and logistics, taking land back by force and grit, squaring off against a perennial, inhuman, monstrosity. 
Volunteer laborers and cooks and artists and lovers and all other flavors of warriors were joining in slowly, a few each week, rags over their faces, thick boots and gloves on, digging into these dumpsters willingly.  Filtering out materials into huge piles depending on their properties and uses. 
Breaking things down into simpler shapes, scraps, parts or ash.

Glass was being extracted.  Metal was being mined.  Methane was being harvested.  Plastic was being up-cycled.
Things were being repaired, repurposed, reused, revamped.
Human beings everywhere.
Cleaning house.

There was a new socio-structural initiative in this beehive.
And the honey isn’t sweet here.

Bander had roughly understood from the buzz around him that all these communities were practicing 150 person limits.  They were called familias.

Familias provide their own security, their own food and health practices, and prioritized their internal social mapping using the hierarchy of needs as a guide and glue.  Bartering on these wants and needs with mutual agreements.  Trust and reciprocity are king and queen and what they are looking for.

Any groups over 150 was not a familia anymore.  A familia of one meant that that person was self-sufficient and was respected for it.  If you were not a familia, or not in a familia, you were not respected and undeserving of trust.

Familias could be any number of people, under any pro social problem-solving idea or belief, so long as they were auto sufficient as much as possible, played nice with others, and didn’t go over the limit.

Bander meditates on it
{Cassandro put some seeds down here, grass is growing and all, but at some point the lawnmowers are coming, and I can’t be here for that.  If they really do respect la familia angle, i should be able to hold them to it…     …find a way to be independent, bring up some strong ideas to our problems here, call yourself your own familia…   …take it from there maybe}

Bander’s observed carefully how leaders were flowing in and out of projects depending on their reputation and skills.
When they showed up, everyone tended to follow more than willingly.

The problem solvers lead the solution to the problem and had no authority beyond or after that, keeping a fresh and open leadership atmosphere with altruistic competition.  Everybody knew each other and collaborated.
Mutual problem solving was the dominating ideological currency here.

Bander observes and notes how discreet this operation is on their moneys aspect.  They were purposely being gradual and subtle, not buying a lot at once from the same places, and the low-key agreements were that money and money chasers as societal traits were being filtered out to make the communities safer.  Under the same safety initiatives, there were weapons and equipment coming in from gossip Bander overheard.

{This shts real.  This is all a fkn powder kegs in the basements and i’m sitting here right over it.  sht, these guys are willing to test war with the Brazilian gov.  These favelas don’t pay living taxes, and the main purpose of the police is to keep the guns away from them so that eventually the real estate can be repackaged and sold.  All the good intentions on earth aren’t going to keep investors from this real estate.
More guns here, more attention, more likely a military intervention. 
What’s anybody anywhere going to do about it? 
They’re fkn crazy if they think they can take on military forces. I can’t fkn be here for that sweep and clear Brazil is making ready for them}

“So Pagpag…     …how are you guys …  I mean, how are we going to protect ourselves from police.  How do we protect ourselves with no guns?”

“yeah mang, we need guns.  Popo porcos have big guns.  porcos always come, we need ready for porcos have machine guns mang.  This is jungle.  We need guns to protect…   …this is big problem…   Mama ‘Berta ist okay.  She is die hard as you say mang [Pagpag chuckles to himself]

Oh! You can’t have gun, so so sorry.  You, me?  we use…     …Kapueraaaaa hahahahahaa [pagpag animates himself and does some eddy gordo imitations].

I teach you later.  I teach you after you make sixtyquatro unidades like I show you. 
You get back to work Mr. Billionaire mang.

Bander looks at him in surprise and pagpag gives him a smiley-wink and bounces out to a station nearby to get help in collecting the items needed.

“Lets gooooooo mr. demmiiiiing!!!  Izzo Hova wazzzzaaaaaaaa!”

Bander steps up and throws the banana peel in a trash bag he keeps nearby himself at all times. 
Mama ‘Berta had threatened him to not make any mess.  Not even a gum spit to the floor.  Or else…      ….he didn’t know what or else meant, and he wasn’t going to fk around and find out though.  Besides, going against the person who has been taking care of him in the nicest way possible given his situation, and someone beloved by all these familias out here was not a good look.  He looked around and made sure there was no other mess he might have accidentally left..   ….feeling stupid about it given the location.

Mama ‘Berta was firm on him that he was allowed to make things better for others if he wanted to make things better for himself…    
{hopefully she will let me make my own bed soon, gotta work hard for every ounce of luxury and progress.  Earn their trust, they let their guard down, run the fk away…    …gotta earn their trust…    …should be able to make and hide a simple shank from one of these rebars or something}

Bander walks a little around out of his welding tent.  Machinery hooked up direct to the power lines. 
Hot wet trash and sht and movement over and around it everywhere.  Mounds of it.  Nauseating.

{This air is so fkn foul.  Can’t believe millions of people live like this and that’s that.
This is all so fkd up.  It’s not supposed to be possible to survive sht like this.  And here we are.
Children everywhere.  If they even survive to grow up, what kind of people will they be.  If I had grown up here, what kind of a person would i be}

He sees a large heavy artisan door.  All metal, painted black, little insignificant rust spots on the edges. 
It was intact, with a mirror built within it.  Bander was forced to question how it found it’s way in the landfill.
It didn’t belong here.  
This was meant to be used in a home somewhere…    …keeping a home safe at night.

He looks himself in the mirror and doesn’t recognize himself. 
Bearded.  Leaner.  Darker.  Dirtier.  
Eyes worn out and re-focused.  Slag under his nails.
There’s a hunger in him even though his tummy’s full.  The reflection tells him he’s hungry for something. 
Starving for it.  Whatever it is.

{Fk Mosa, Fk Pagpag.  fk Cassandro.  Fk… 
okay, Mama ‘Berta’s, okay, she’s cool, but she got you locked-up and would probably put a bullet or two in you anyways if you don’t pick up after your sht, so yeah, fk her too!

Fk this place!.…        …wait}