Mateus Conceicão, 18 years old, Rio de Janeiro, water carrier
My job: I deliver drinking water canisters, each weighing 20 kilos. I unload 600 canisters from a truck and stack them in my boss’s shop. 600 times 20 kilos. Then I deliver them to customers, on my shoulder. Six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s my first job. I’m helping my mother pay off debts.
And all of this in sweltering heat. In March, a new record was measured in Rio: a perceived 62.3 degrees, taking humidity into account. I remember the number exactly. 62.3 degrees. The last record was 59.7 degrees, in November. The city then sends a heat alert to the people – Alerta Rio. We have more and more heat alerts. In the past, the heat got better after the summer. Now summer lasts longer. Or it comes back in the middle of winter. Very crazy. And in the evening it rains heavily, but doesn’t cool down. At least the rainforests here in Rio aren’t burning down, unlike in the Amazon, for example.
I’m drenched in sweat all day. It’s hard to carry plastic canisters when your hands are wet with sweat. There’s no way to cool down. My boss has an air conditioner in his room, but it’s only for him, not for workers.
My mother works as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant. It’s even hotter for her. She stands at the hot stove in the sweltering heat. She peels crabs, sometimes all day. When she comes home, she can’t take it anymore and falls into bed exhausted.
In Brazil, there are two classes of people: those with air conditioning and those without. We belong to the class without. We only have a fan. We sleep in 35 degree heat. It is particularly hot in the slums. Everything is built up. There are hardly any trees, no shade, but narrow streets.
We Brazilians like the heat. We flock to the beach. But this is too much even for Brazilians. I know elderly people who have died from heat and exhaustion. I know people who choose their jobs based on where they have air conditioning. I know churches that attract believers with their air conditioning. Our service takes place in a hut without air conditioning, in the evening after sunset.
If someone manages to get hold of an air conditioner, up to eight people can sleep in one room. It costs 3,000 reais, 500 euros, two months’ salary, unaffordable for us.