Before we leave, Thushan asks him the question we've all been wondering: "If you have the financial means to live elsewhere, why do you continue to live here in City of God?"

"That's a tough question," he replies.

After a long pause, he says: "Most people here have dreams of moving out of this neighborhood. My dream is one of transformation."

He says that he will leave City of God only when he has children. Until then he plans to continue to live and work in the community that has raised him.