Correspondent in Brazil

What are the stories we aren’t hearing about on TV or in the news? In this series, correspondents write about their experiences in the countries where they are based. Here, Nina Jurna shares what it’s like to live in Rio’s Vidigal favela.

There didn’t seem to be an end in sight to the steep, narrow staircase you had to climb to get to our new house. Panting and perspiring, the movers lugged the boxes up the stairs. A refrigerator, couch and another load of boxes stood waiting in the burning sun at the bottom, ready for the next trip up. “They want more money,” warned Russo, the man with whom we had managed to get a good deal for our move, but only after considerable negotiation.

They knew beforehand that everything would have to be moved up the hill; the houses are situated high up in a slum like this, piled on top of each other and built against the many hillsides of Rio de Janeiro. “I hope they’ll want to stay,” he said as the movers grumpily started their third trip. “You’ll never get all your things up the hill on your own. Just pay 
a little bit extra and you won’t have to listen to their complaining anymore.”