À MARGEM DO RIO
Veronica Pinheiro
29 de novembro de 2024
Todos os dias da semana, desde fevereiro, mergulho no asfalto que leva à favela da Pedreira. Ora corpo e pensamento se deslocam pela superfície de betume espesso, ora o pensamento se desloca solitário por caminhos suspensos. Por muitos dias, as palavras surgiram antes do Sol. O luar era festejado com agradecimentos – retornar era sempre uma dúvida. O Sol era recebido com rezos e pedidos repetidos – “dobra a força do braço, não me deixe ir só”.
Just like the girl in the red hoodie, I walked along the way. Anything could happen on the Botafogo Road. However, unlike the girl in the red hoodie, I was never alone on the way. Between stops, in the text and by bus, I went along as a body in the world, willing to make friends with wolves and meet grannies.
Like someone who brings and carries news, I listened, took notes, observed, asked little so as not to lead the voice I heard. Eyes, ears and heart were attentive to the path. A fluid path, full of edges, crossroads and barricades. A place of intersection where the voice of the wind still speaks in the hearts of the children. We continued along the margins of the city of Rio de Janeiro, almost reaching Baixada Fluminense - the Pavuna region, where the school is located, is the boundary between the city of Rio de Janeiro and the city of São João de Meriti.
On the margins of Rio, we can find a life pushed into invisibility. A life I wouldn't wish to any child. There was, however, so much enthusiasm for living that the stories lived on the margins were spread around in the pages of diaries.
Ways of Knowing Diaries is a series of notes and thoughts. A tangle of speeches and narratives. It's a fabric made of wide smiles and hugs with short arms. And it is the reaffirmation of life and the claim for good living at school. I've heard that ‘reaffirmation of life’ is the new cliché. So be it! In a marginalised territory, marked by the early death of bodies and dreams, we greet life every day with reading, study, games, workshops and outings.
As crianças da Escola Municipal Professor Escragnolle Dória me devolveram o gosto pela escrita e pela sala de aula. Com Cristine Takuá ampliei o conceito de sala de aula e tive coragem de romper com as margens estabelecidas pelo currículo. De maneira geral, o processo de escolarização desterritorializa dentro do território. Deixa a identidade da criança em segundo plano, determina o que é importante ou não para se saber, determina o que comer, como se vestir, distancia o sagrado e impõe novos modos de vida.
The children and Cristine invited me to trust in life, to observe the treetops and listen to the wind. With them, I was a sumahuman, an ant and a bird. The Living School, expressed in the voice and gestures of Cristine Takuá, is a school for the strengthening of territory, a school of practices and sharing. The strength of a Living School lies in listening and awakening memories. Not being afraid to awaken memories is the greatest of all learning experiences.
No Living School is the same as another, there is no intention of creating standards. The territory and the memories of life present in the many layers stored in the body of time, in the body of the earth and in the bodies-territories point to paths that need to be observed and understood.
Nego Bispo says that”‘when we confluence, we don't cease being us, we become us and other people – we yield”.
What you've read over the past few months were pages that yielded from a teacher's encounter with a wise woman who invited her to embark on a canoe trip. Each text here was preceded by water. From this side of the margin, I say goodbye with asphalt under my feet and water in my eyes.
Awrê!
See you next school year.
