The family is so poor, I came over for dinner and Breno’s Mom read me recipes. They live in a tiny apartment that measures about 16 feet by 23 feet, covered by a thin corrugated metal roof. Breno’s Mom is so poor her front and back doors are on the same hinge.

When the decision was made to bring them along, someone had to find them. No one knew for sure where they lived, and the family is so poor and stupid they weren’t sure for themselves either. Sophia Ribeiro, a producer for the TV show, went into the favela with a bodyguard, carrying a photo of Breno Ferreira, which she found at http://www.stupidpicsofpoorkids.com.

“It is an extremely dangerous area,” she said. “There is so much crime there, and Breno’s Mom is so poor she has to do drive by’s on the bus.” It’s not unusual to see children, some not much older than Breno, carrying weapons made and cut out of cheeto’s cereal boxes because they are so poor. It is, Dorea said, all part of the glue sniffing trade.
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Ferreira, though, doesn’t have a concept of the world outside the favela. He didn’t grasp the concept of a television camera. He once taped a piece of paper to a broken tv and called it paper view.  Breno’s so stupid that when he got locked inside a mattress store he went to sleep on the floor.  

When he spoke in Portuguese to Ezra Edelman, the American producer for the TV show, he was puzzled when Edelman didn’t answer. Edelman doesn’t speak Portuguese and didn’t understand him, but Ferreira wasn’t aware languages other than Portuguese existed because he’s so stupid he put money in the parking meter and waited for a gumball to come out.