When we arrived at Hotel Los Heroes two weeks ago today, hardly a week before the explosion that rocked the 4 blocks surrounding Colombia's most well know radio station, all of us had the same stories to tell:
"Is you mom scared shitless about you being here too?"
"When you bought the Lonely Planet guide to Colombia did the kid at the register ask if you were really going there?"
"Well at least the ambassador thought it was prudent to give us the direct line to the Marine on call at Post 1 out front of the embassy...I mean that IS a good thing right?"
And yet I promise, all of us would also tell you that after our first 14 days here, Colombia is not the God forsaken country everyone in the US think it is. Instead it's a complicated country, a country much more complicated than any I have ever been to in my life (except maybe for Italy). For one, Colombia is intensely regional. Each of its 6 regions has its own cuisine, dance, weather, music, and "type of people". Colombia has mountains and the Amazon, the beach and snow, indigenous tribes and a European past...and the first ones to point out these differences are the Colombians themselves. Even the most recent rewrite of the constitution highlights the fact of diversity and commits the state to its protection. The most amazing thing is that even though every region expresses itself differently and has a people, almost all are adamant (and very vocal) about the fact that they are all Colombian. Second, the constant balance between "security" and freedom is not just something for the politicians, but also something that the people here are constantly grappling with on a more personal level (and it's one of the first things you deal with as a foreigner here as well). They have a phrase here in Colombia, "no dar papaya", and it basically means that the quickest way to find yourself in trouble is to ask for it. That means that walking around like a tourist and examining the "weird" money for cool water marks right in front of the ATM is a bad idea...as is "exploring" without friends. In Colombia you have to do your best to do as Colombians do, it's as simple as that. Obviously I need to point out that I have only been here for two weeks. I am sure that the longer I am here the better I will be able to grasp and go deeper into the complication of which so far I have only been given glimpses.
However, there are two things that I can say at this point with total certainty; one is that everyone I have met here is welcoming and very interested in our choice to come and live in Colombia. Second, the variety of fresh juice here (90 percent of which are not fruits we are familiar with in the US) is mind blowing and each is delicious. Oh and though "saldo" (money to recharge you phone/use the internet in 3 star hotels) continues to be a problem, Colombia is (far MORE often than not) a very warm country looking to welcome foreigners with open arms. As for my take on Uribe and Santos, Plan Colombia and the security situation in Colombia you will have to turn in next time....for this post I want to walk more on the lighter side.
First of all I have never been with a group like the one assembled this year by the Fulbright Commission in Colombia. Everyone is here because they are interested in knowing the real Colombia, or at least seeing it for themselves. They are from all over the country and from various universities like the Claremont Consortium in southern California and Kenyon College in Ohio as well as Alma College in Michigan, and their interests range from the fine arts to social welfare and informal recycling. All of them are good listeners who are genuinely attracted by life and more specifically by life in Colombia. Everyone involved is interesting. I sincerely mean that. It's actually not what I expected to be honest. I mean usually in Latin America you get two types of gringos/euros, those who have all the answers and want to save Latin America from impending doom or those that are trying to escape the commercialized and spoiled north for an alternative lifestyle of back packing and indigenous tourism (while avoiding showers at all costs since its bad for the dreads and the alternative image) in the south. Instead, we came to learn and for the most part it is clear that we have very few pretensions about what we supposedly already know. The more I spoke with (and consequently became very close to) those on the Fulbright in Colombia, the more it was evident that we came to Colombia because we didn't know something (or didn't trust what we thought we knew) and wanted to find something out. That kind of openness is not normal today (especially in academia where everyone knows the answers and has stopped asking questions) and I am excited to see the kind of stories it will generate amongst us during our time here in Colombia.
As for me, well I am doing well. I arrived in Medellín after my first week in Bogotá and am already loving the change in the weather. Bogotá is a rainy city with constantly cloudy weather. Medellín has its clouds but there is also always sun and it deserves its reputation of being the city of the Eternal Spring. This coming week I start teaching my classes and it's been stressful to be honest. I think life can be a really shitty thing if everything depends on you. For me life is a constant struggle with thinking that it's all up to me and then realizing that it's not. Which reminds me, one of the best parts of my time here has been coming across friends of mine that belong to the Catholic lay movement of Communion and Liberation. I say friends and yet I met all of them for the first time once I arrived and still it was like I knew them from before and our meeting was more like a reunion. A friend of mine in Milan had warned them that I was coming and the way they received me when I arrived is something that just isn't normal and something that demands explanation.
For them my arrival was an event, and I was the focus. Christians believe that everything is a gift and that even our mistakes or the bad in the world is something that is FOR rather than against us. This way of understanding reality is born from Christ´s experience on the cross, where even the most tragic of events was a necessary sacrifice to defeat death and sin. That is why they pelted me with questions from the time I got in the car with them that first Wednesday night to the end of the car ride home...they wanted to know about my life and who I was...and they wanted to know this because they knew that my arrival in Bogotá was just as much something for them and their lives as it was for mine. I live for the kind of conversations I had that night. The best part is that they are people I trust and people I know that I can ask about Colombia and get answers that, even if not perfect, desire to get to the very heart and depth of things rather than remaining on the surface. The same is true here in Medellín where a small group of the same lay movement also exists. The fact that they are here, in the same city where I am working is really a miracle for me...and I know it is FOR me. My friend Simon and I have a saying about coincidence...and that is..."What if coincidence happens everyday?". Well for he and I and many Christians it does...and for that reason it is a sure sign of God. In Colombia they call it Diosidencia.
There is more that I could say but I covered the most important bases. I'll continue to keep updating once a week. Probably on Fridays.
Oh, and the university where I work is the best public university in Colombia...its size and the seriousness with which it faces education reminds me of Berkeley and I already feel at home.
Tim
p.s. I want to take pictures but still not comfortable enough to do so yet...when I do I will post them
1 comment:
sounds crazy. not bad writing either, you sell yourself short.
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