Hello dear friends and family,
I am very encouraged by your continued support and thoughtful notes inspite of my recent break from blogging. It has been a very busy last couple of weeks and between moving and settling into my apartment and trying to get things in order with my job that it has been hard to find a time to get to an internet cafe(or find internet access) so I could finally upload the oodles of fotos that I have acquired over the last couple of weeks.
downtown prior to the march in response to the bombing
First of all some of you may have heard about the car bomb that we had in the Northern part of Cali earlier this month. Luckily there was only one fatality (a taxi driver that happened to be passing by at the time) but 34 people were injured and over 40 stores and houses were damaged. Apparently it was so strong that even people in the southern part of Cali felt it. As with most major events like this in Colombia, there have been a flurry of speculations of which group is responsible but it´s also quite possible that we will never know.
Police headquarters that was the target of the bombing
A lot of things get pretty fuzzy when it comes to trying to pinpoint the cause of many of the strugggles that Colombia is facing. So many aspects of the conflict are so interwoven between the guerillas and the paramilitaries and the narcotraffickers and the street gangs and the government that it becomes nearly impossible to isolate any one situation without it inevitably being connected to about a thousand others.
near site of bombing.
I´ve now been here almost 6 months and I´ve learned an innumerable amount of things but most days I´m left with the feeling that all in all I know very little when it comes to truly understanding the political, economic or social conditions of this country. And even in 3 years I will still only understand a very tiny bit of a fraction of the complexities that Colombians have learned to cope with over decades...if not centuries.
site of bombing
One of the speculations about the bombing is that it is connected to the 5 year anniversary of the 12 people who were kidnapped by the farc. (it happened almost 5 yrs to the day) and that Uribe did it to frame the Farc and to take the attention away from him for a while due to various accusations that have been made recently against people closely involved with his government.
site of bombing
I guess it´s just hard for me to wrap my mind around the thought that things could really be that corrupt. In general, I feel like a lot of the experiences I´ve had here have reminded me of the human side of many situations....which has both it´s advantages and disadvantages.
What Cali is with, is with me!
And how limiting our surroundings can be sometimes. As usual I hope that this entry is a reminder to you that there is much more beyond the 100 word blurb you may have caught on CNN about things like the car bomb....or that there is far more that goes on in places like Cali than finding large boxes of US dollars related to the drug trade. But unfortunately those are the only two things that have brought Cali into the headlines in the past 6 months....
The police live! We just want peace!
I am certainly not an expert on the situation...nor will I ever be. But I am living here among Colombians and hopefully reminding all of you of the human face that is INDEED connected with each of the headlines that we breeze through on a daily basis.
You can pull up a thousand flowers but you won´t detain spring
On a slightly different note....I figured that I´d also update you all on some of the things that have been going through my mind over the past couple of weeks....
Bycicle vehicle of Peace! No to the Violence! Cycle friends
Bonnie, my country rep came out to visit last week and we were able to sit down and talk a bit more concretely about my job and my life in general. I´ve gone through about a thousand transitions in the past year and while I feel like my life is more balanced than it has been in a while, at times it is hard for it to not leave my head spinning.
banderas
For any of you who have ever worked in cross-cultural contexts before, I´m sure that you fully understand why with certain aspects of my job I have experienced a significant delay. This does not mean that I have been sitting around twiddling my thumbs for 5 ½ months…it merely means that sometimes there is a lot more involved in getting a brand new program started than one would think.
Cali is clean and beautiful, Cali city of peace, Caleñans are people of Faith, strong and valient
One of the biggest lessons I´ve learned thus far is that sustainability takes time….a lot of time….and a lot of patience
and resolving conflicts between 2 people can sometimes seem hopeless…
try looking at that on the scale of a family, school, community, small sized city or an entire country…
At the end of the day I´m left with the thought that the only thing we can hope to effectively change are our own actions. And even that is a feat in itself.
Our silence has now become a cry for a humanitarian exchange now!!!
Here´s some food for thought:
Even after making several (what I considered) to be ¨sacrifices¨ in coming here…my quality of life and access to resources is still miles beyond most of my colombian peers.
1) I am living on my own, most colombians live with their parents until they get married (it is not unusual for someone to stay at home until their mid 30´s) mostly for financial reasons.
2) My monthly rent for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apt in a gated community is ¼ the cost of what my sister is currently paying for an apartment that is half the size in Sarasota, FL. → and I am still living in a stratus 5 neighborhood in a country where 6 is the highest stratus.
woman with elephantitis
3) I consistently have money for food and can even afford to go out to eat from time to time.
4) I was able to purchase some new items for my apartment.
I reject terrorism
5) I was able to purchase my refrigerator shortly after moving in.
6) As of right now, all of my appliances work…(more or less), my stove is convinced that it needs to add to my ¨electric personality;)
(I love this foto! take note of some of the details)
7) I may not have hot water, but I can drink the water from my tap.
8) If I am concerned for my safety, I always have money for a taxi.
The USA uses Us!
9) My toilets flush.
the list goes on and on...
all in all I am a VERY blessed person and I am living in a context that reminds me of that every day. Sometimes to the point that it verges on guilt. But once again...that is part of the growing and learning process that I chose to step into and I feel very lucky to have an opportunity like this so early on in life.
site of the bombing
God truly does work in mysterious ways....but I feel like my eyes are more open than they´ve ever been before.
thanks for joining me on this journey...
peace,
erin
tatiana(one of the many kindred spirits I´ve found in this life) clowns and I at the march
by the way....
Exciting news….
After 3 weeks of rehabilitation…The dove from the last entry was successfully released back into the wild today by yours truly. As he/she flew off into the horizon from the warmth of a dirty towel, erin was observed by various groups of onlooking perplexed colombians. One woman even gave me tips on how to get my lost pet back.
