VIDEO: First Family Visits a Brazilian "Favela"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Obama along with his wife and daughters spent some time among those less fortunate in the city of Rio de Janerio Sunday. The Obamas toured a slum shantytown community, known as a "favela." The word comes from a traditional Brazilian weed that pops up all over northeastern Brazil. These impoverished villages began as dwellings for freed slaves, but spread like weeds in the 1970s when people from the northeastern countryside migrated to Rio in search of employment. Today there are over 1,000 such favelas through Rio which house more than a million residents.
The First Family spent time with the children of the Ciudad de Deus Favela, taking in performances of Brazilian drumming, capoeira and even playing soccer with the youth team of the favela. Check out the video highlights below: