The night shift II - The race against time
When night falls, mingling with the permanent smoke billowing from the dump, not even the moonlight can penetrate the thick darkness. The night shift has to be quick to spot what they're anxiously looking for. When dawn breaks, other groups will seize the pieces of metal that will survive the fires that have slowly consumed the piles of garbage throughout the night. It's a race against time. In a few hours' time, not even the fragile lanterns on their heads could help them win the race.
How to be a real child
Here, toys have to be invented, or simply reinvented with the right amount of imagination and ingenuity. A bike rim that has withstood the fires set by piles of garbage and a simple stick of the right size are enough to give birth to something new and exciting. Surrounded by toxic fumes and an army of angry flies, it is in this surreal workshop that he patiently creates the simplest toy that can exist, reminding us that children can be children even in the worst places in the world to live.
The night shift I - Taming the flames
The fragile lanterns strapped to their heads can no longer penetrate the heavy blanket of darkness that has fallen over the plain. The only way to discern anything in the smoking heaps of garbage is to get dangerously close to the throat of this blazing inferno. It's time for the night shift to tame the flames.
The bag full of dreams
Finding an almost undamaged bag in this amalgam of smoking debris is like a dream come true for him. What could it contain? Did the owner forget something valuable in it when he threw it away? Is today his lucky day? His dreams vanished quickly, the bag has nothing to offer him. All that remains for him is to continue walking barefoot through the smoldering ashes, looking for anything that will finally sparkle in his eyes and bring a smile to his face.
Curiosity
Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you come here for? These seemed to be the questions stamped on the curious and somewhat shy expressions and looks when I arrived at this remote village. Electricity and all that we call civilization have not yet arrived here, where everything happens in harmony with nature and its rhythms. It is the sun that commands their parents' workday in the fields and their plays until nightfall, when they gather around the campfires under a starry sky, listening to stories of the collective imagination told by the elders. How beautiful and pure is this curiosity that reminds us of how far we have strayed from their world.
Dribble
Every Sunday morning they gather on this field and become the Michael Jordans they have always dreamed of being. They are masters of dribbling, performing acrobatic gestures and almost defying the laws of gravity while avoiding their opponents without ever losing control of the ball, as if they had glue in their hands. They never stop looking at the position of their teammates and study passing lines, while their opponents never take their eyes off the ball, trying to foresee the next dribble and avoid the graceful arcs in the air until it reaches the coveted basket that watches them from above.
The sound of fun
All they need to have fun are the welcoming waters of the sea, challenging them and waiting anxiously for them and their contagious joy. They run wildly towards the waves that lick the little cove and plunge into its tepid waters more or less clumsily. They feel weightless in their nudity, as innocent and natural as pure and natural as the ocean they dive into. There is only water, land, and air between and around them, in a perfect communion with nature where not even the roar of the waves can equal the sound of fun.
Too soon II
Madalena is still a child, but she has to be an adult and play the role of a real mother. Sheltered from the baking sun in a ragged hut, she takes care of her little sister while their parents work from sunrise to sunset. Behind the beauty of the love and tenderness she gives his sister, hides a sad reality: Madalena can no longer play freely with other children or have fun without noticing time passing. Time now runs by slowly, as if obeying a destiny that has been set since she was born. After all, it was always like this, her mother and grandmother also had to submit to the same fate. But her stare, vacant and sorrowful, doesn't lie! It was too soon!
Why?
They are children, but we no longer find that magic gleam in their eyes, nor the frank and open smiles that so easily conquer us. Each of them has a sad story to tell, where the days without toys seem endless and the nights they must fall asleep hungry come too soon. Instead of sweet and loving, their glances seem to have nothing left to give but the intensity of an accusation. A silent, piercing, disturbing accusation, but where you can hear a question: why?
The soldier
The war here is strangely silent. You don't hear the whistle of bullets or the thunder of mortars, only the buzzing of flies and the distant crackling of a few campfires. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a war going on here, a ferocious war this soldier fights for his survival, day after day. He is dressed in a tattered uniform that shows arms and legs withered from the lack of combat rations, wears mismatched boots that he rescued from abandoned corpses, and uses a simple folded iron to stand up to the enemy. And he despairs, as news of an armistice never arrives.
Defying the fire
The hellish heat that rises from the flames and makes the air almost unbreathable does not dissuade them from digging around in the still burning ashes looking for pieces of metal. Copper is the most coveted, but any rusty piece of iron or aluminum cans are also welcome. They can mean the difference between feeding their family or telling their children again that they have to go to sleep with an empty stomach. In this piece of land, probably the closest to the real hell, fire has to be defied every day.
Under dead trees
Trees have long since given up surviving here. Only their skeletons stubbornly remain standing, testimonies of a past when the plain was verdant and colorful. Their withered arms are now sorrowfully adorned with tattered cloths and shreds of plastics, as if they were dystopian Christmas trees. It seems they wanted to grab all they could from the wind, so that in a last gasp before death, they could cherish lives seeking refuge from the stifling heat, the only thing nature can still give them in this hostile environment.
Love in three acts
The desolate landscape that surrounds them is not enough to blur the beauty of the love and complicity that exists between this mother and her son. A mother that has to divide herself between the need to work hard to survive and the unconditional love she gives her son. A son that naturally cannot resist all temptations to play, but easily surrenders to his mother's affection.
Reborn from ashes
As if they were a phoenix reborn from the ashes, pieces of metal are carefully retrieved from the fires set in the dump. Lives are also reborn like the phoenix in this descent into a kind of hell, where smoke and heat get in your eyes and throat but are not enough to discourage the search, defying the flames and scratching in the hot ashes. Here, fire is synonymous with hope, hope of find bits of civilization that only here still have value.
Too Soon I
They are still children, but they all have to be adults and play the role of mothers and fathers, taking care of their younger siblings so that their parents can work from sunup to sundown. From a very early age they had to renounce the moments when they could play freely and have fun without having the feeling of time passing by. They show no resentment or any kind of revolt, it was always like that with their parents and grandparents. But their looks, vague and gloomy, denounce that they have become adults too soon, even without realizing it.
Capoeira II
Capoeira is a form of cultural expression and sport that mixes martial arts, dance and music. It has its origin in southern Angola, when the shepherds celebrated the initiation of young people into adulthood with a ceremony called n'golo (zebra in the kimbundo dialect). It was later developed by the descendants of the African slaves who arrived in Brazil at the end of the 16th century. It is characterized by agile, complex blows and movements, and acrobatics on the ground and in the air. Unlike other martial arts, Capoeira is always practiced with music, its players take turns fighting and singing and playing the typical instruments.
An ocean of joy
They have no TV to watch movies or toys freshly bought in endless stores that other children eagerly pull out of boxes to play with. They live in a world where the desire to have fun like any other child commands their imagination. Simple things fill their moments of play and are enough to elicit unforgettable smiles from them. After all they are children, only they could flood this barren plain with a contagious vivacity and turn it into an ocean of joy.
Gifts from different worlds
The arrival of trucks loaded with garbage is a source of joy for children and relief for adults. These are authentic gifts that happen in their fragile lives, so sadly dependent on what others discard. They wait anxiously for the trucks to throw up the remains of the abundance and unbridled consumption that other lives could not digest, the gifts from another world. Here, those remains fill empty bellies, clothe naked bodies, and protect bare feet. Here, where the children's gazes seem to ask us how long these gifts will continue to be so unfairly different in these two worlds.
The torn and barefoot match
A ball and a dusty field with two pairs of worn tires marking the goal posts is all they need to have fun playing a fierce soccer match. Wearing torn clothes and fighting for the ball barefoot or with old shoes or flip-flops that fly into the air on the most disputed plays, they seem to dance around the ball. Few rules of real soccer are followed here, successfully feinting the opponent is what gives them the most satisfaction and joy. The only thing that really counts in the choreography of this game is the intensity of the moments of pure fun.
Brothers in arms
They are orphans and wander alone through the garbage dump, looking for scraps of food, clothes, and anything else they can trade for a few coins. They have long lost the smiles and happy faces of children, from an early age they had to learn to be adults and to know the meaning of the hardness of work. Maybe they have never been brothers as much as they are now. They depend on each other and know how important this is for them to survive. Here, where a war seems to have broken out that will never end, they are also brothers in arms.
The clap dance
They don't have dolls or sophisticated toys to play with, nor televisions to watch children's programs or movies. They have to invent simple games and play with what they have, and not even the desolate landscape that surrounds them prevents them from enjoying wonderful moments of fun and happiness. They sing a song their mothers and grandmothers taught them while they clap their hands and dance with graceful leaps into the air. They play and are happy as our grandmothers were when they were children and didn't have televisions or fancy toys either, in a melancholy journey into the past.
Capoeira I
Capoeira is a form of cultural expression and sport that mixes martial arts, dance and music. It has its origin in southern Angola, when the shepherds celebrated the initiation of young people into adulthood with a ceremony called n'golo (zebra in the kimbundo dialect). It was later developed by the descendants of the African slaves who arrived in Brazil at the end of the 16th century. It is characterized by agile, complex blows and movements, and acrobatics on the ground and in the air. Unlike other martial arts, Capoeira is always practiced with music, its players take turns fighting and singing and playing the typical instruments.
A time for love
Whatever condition a mother lives and works in, whatever her race, creed or religion, the moments of love and care between her and her child are always magical and unique. They are able to make difficulties and uncertainties cease, to make time and destiny pause, to silence crying and affliction, to make us fall asleep and wake up in peacefulness. Each time we witness them they remind us how there is always a time to love
