I woke up this morning around 8:30, and as I was getting ready to go to work, I could hear a noise coming from the street. It should have been a strange noise, but actually it was a quite familiar noise. Oh, you might say, fireworks fired in the distance sound just like shooting guns – so it could just be fireworks. Well, it wasn't. And I felt pretty sure they were shots, because of the rhythm. Rat-tat-tat. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat. Rat-tat-tat.

Only as I was heading to the street did I notice how loud the noises were, and how weird were the expressions in people's faces.

Then I heard the helicopters.

And I saw the two police officers standing guard at my corner. Oh, they were just standing there, having a nice chat with a couple passers-by. But the only reason there are ever police officers on that corners is there's trouble at Pavaozinho.

Because, you know, like most people who live in Rio, I live only a few blocks away from a favela. And the favelas are drug dealers land. So I am used to hearing shots fired through the night, and sometimes it is just fireworks, which are a coded way to inform others the cops are coming – or the drugs are arriving.

And it just struck me as incredibly incredible that I know all of those things, that I live where I live and that I am so used to it that I just left home, walked a couple blocks to the bus stop – heading in the direction opposite to the shooting, of course – and just came to work. Just another ordinary day. Just another ordinary shooting.

****************************************************

This is the favela (the houses going uphill) seen from the main street there.

This is a free translation of a news story about this morning:

Intense shooting between cops and drug dealers at Pavãozinho scares neighbours in Copacabana

Officers from the narcotics division and drug dealers got into a crossfire this morning at the complex Pavao/Pavaozinho/Cantagalo, in Copacabana. The intense shooting could be heard from afar and frightened the neighborhood. Two helicopters were covering the operation. The police did not inform the reason for the operation.

One person was arrested, according to the news crew at the site.

One man has been wounded. He was armed and shot during the confront, police sources say.

Neighbors say drivers stopped their cars in the middle of the street and tried to head back in reverse gear. Traffic became chaotic in the area. The street with the main access to the favela was blocked.

About 300 people who were working at a urbanization program at the favela stopped working due to lack of safety. In a nearby park, 15 children and their keepers hid in a playhouse when the shooting started.

At noon, about a thousand small packs of drugs had been apprehended, the police informed.