ONE: Rodrik Menezes

Rodrik Menezes

A challenge I overcame: 
I lost the fear to live far from my family.

A dream for my future: 
To work in something that would really be useful for society.

A hope for the global community: 

That all types of prejudice cease to exist. 

Rodrik is a real delight, a warm hearted, happy-go-lucky Brazilian lad originally from the northern state of Amazonia who, like so many, came to Floripa to study.  He is in his final year of an economics course, which interestingly is plural and looks at economic systems that are alternatives to the capitalist models.

He and flat mate Luciane are couch surfing hosts who I met along with fellow couch surfer Wannes at the Bar do Boni one Friday of drinks organised by Step 1.  They were kind enough to host me for the good part of a week once I’d finished by studying, and happily I was able to go along with Rod to UFSC to make use to the quiet space of their library to catch up on writing.  What a great thing a public university is.  The open relaxed access is very different to the almost paranoid ID-checking that you get in London uni buildings.

In the time I was there Rodrik was thinking about applying to a volunteer abroad program called Cidadão Global (Global Citizen) that supports Brazilian students in traveling to Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and other Latin American countries to volunteer in socially focused projects.  At the introductory lecture I went with Rod to I was impressed by the number of students interested in the program and moved by the positive energy and desire to make a positive contribution in the world. There were some good slogans on the organisers’ t-shirts about positive change and each idividual making a difference that reminded of this track Love Someone from Bristol-based musician Dub-FX, that talks also about the difference we can each make in the world and the importance of educating the next generation.  

This is a video that I remember watching back in the UK, and then watched again this week at the house of another couch-surfing host Eugenio, who I cycled to Campeche beach to visit because we’d been in email contact for a few weeks.  Eugenio is another lovely lad, and another artist and musician, who interestingly is also friends of the peculiar-creature-graffiti artist N? who I've noticed around town (the graffiti in the photo below isn't his though).

Another great characteristic of Rodrik is he is a film buff (who according to Luciane falls asleep in films he hasn’t seen and narrates all the way those he has) and one of the movies we re-watched this week was City of Gods.  A beautifully-crafted film, it is based on the rue story of the development of the favelas and the gangs in Rio de Janeiro from the 60’s through to the late 70’s.  Rodrik pointed out where the film uses genuine news footage from the time, and explained that is is based on the book by Paulo Lins with two major differences: main character bandillo Li'l Zé was not in fact killed by younger kids but rather went to prison, and the narration character, Buscapé the young photographer, does not appear at all in the book.  I learned the Seu Jorge, who I’ve known for his music is also an actor, who plays Knockout Ned.  Here's the trailer for the film in Portuguese (I found it much harder understanding the POrtuguese spoken in the film than the Portuguese I hear in day-to-day life in Floripa... perhaps partly regional dialect / gang talk / kids language / and the general politeness of Floripans in talking slowly and clearly with we foreigners)

Rodrik, mutio obrigado por dividir sua casa e esses dias comigo. Foi un prazer enorme.  Espero que todo vai muito bem um seu último ano de estudos, e que desfrute suas viagens, em qualquer pais sejam.

Abraços.

:-)