A Trip and Some Random Observations

Photo #1: Carlos at the University of Antioquia.

Photo #2: Small mural at the university.

Photo #3: At the University of Antioquia.

Photo #4: Medellín at about 6pm...

Photo #5: Llarumo tree with silver leaves.

Photo #6: Beautiful house in the countryside.

Photo #7: Carlos and his Mama at el Peñol.

Photo #8: Looking down from the top of el Peñol.

Photo #9: La chiva.

Photo #10: On top of el Peñol.

Photo #11: Carlos and I on top of La Piedra del Peñol.


So I have been quite busy here doing things: I have been at the library or at Carlos’ office everyday finishing my thesis, which is almost done! We get up at like 6ish am to leave by 7ish. I started driving Carlos’ car too…which gets quite wild at times. Instead of following general rules of the road, there is a whole other system here and you need to follow the rules of that or it’s over. So people drive pretty much however they want and some are totally crazy with the driving. But so be it. I have 3 English students now too, which is great—at least bringing some money in. I am also starting to look for employment at a private university that teaches English. My ultimate goal is to get a job at an NGO, but I fear that my Spanish is not good enough. But I have been considering just trying, because that’s how I’ll learn anyway. I will start looking around for the NGO job too then.

On Saturday, we drove up over the mountains that surround Medellín to the countryside. We went to a huge, black rock that sticks up awkwardly out of the ground about 220 meters, called La Piedra del Peñol. There are stairs to the top where there is an amazing view 360 degrees around. It’s stunningly beautiful! There is an artificial lake among the hills and farms. There are beautiful little farms all around, where they grow plantains, corn, spinach, fruits of all kinds, etc. The houses seem mostly traditional Colombian style. They are ranch-style homes, typically white with different colors painted on the frame of the house, windows and doors. Lots of flowers all around too…it’s so beautiful! There are plenty of stands on the side of the road selling fresh fruits, food and juices. The colors are just amazing. Also more in the countryside, there are these beautifully painted, traditional buses called chivas. They are very intricately painted all over and the top part is made from wood. Very nice. Coming back down the mountain back to the city, we could see the whole city. Almost getting to our neighborhood, I could get a good view of La Sierra, the neighborhood that was in the documentary film called: “La Sierra”. Check it out if you can. It’s about poverty, youth, power, and violence in one of the neighborhoods of Medellín.

Sunday was Carlos’ grandmother’s 97th birthday—the same woman who birthed 20 children (of whom 18 are alive)! So we went to Carlos’ aunt’s house where she lives for a party. Only half of her children where there with other people as well, so believe that it was a huge affair. People eat in rounds because the table is only so big: so one group eats, then the next, and so on. Two musicians with guitars came and played traditional Colombian music all day, while people where singing and dancing. It was fantastic. Carlos’ family has taken me in like I was one of their own too which I appreciate more than words can describe after my experience in Sweden. They are incredibly nice and very interested. I like them a whole lot and I feel like I have a special little relationship with La Abuela (the grandmother), or the Rock Star, as I call her. Colombian people are extremely affectionate too, which I really like considering I’m quite affectionate as well.

I need to make a correction on something I wrote before. The poor neighborhoods are not just located on the outskirts, but all over the city. There are different neighborhoods of different classes spread out over the whole huge city. But I will say, I’ve recently spent some time in the rich neighborhoods and they are extremely high class. Some parts look nicer than anything I’ve even seen in the USA. It’s crazy, sometimes I feel like I’m just walking down the street in some beautiful part of Miami…I never expected Medellín to be so well-off in certain parts. There are huge mansions in gated communities, expensive private schools, amazingly sparkly shopping centers with everything from amusement parks to fancy restaurants, brand-new expensive cars being driven around, etc. It’s impressive, but at the same time, I wonder where all this money came from. I wonder how much of that richness comes from this country’s biggest export: cocaine. There must be a lot of money-laundering going on here as well. A few days ago they busted a ship carrying 5 ½ tons of cocaine off the coast of Colombia!!! That is worth about US$500 million…but considering it will be cut probably more than once (which means mixed with another substance to get more out of the cocaine), it could easily be double that: US$1 billion—just from one boat’s worth. Imagine what has to be done to “legitimize” that money!?! That is beyond what I can even imagine and I’ve been thinking how many hands that cocaine would pass through to get to its final destination and also how many hands the return profit would have passed through to get to all the people who helped in its production. It’s fascinating to be in a place where the most important commodity is an illegal one and to see how it affects the society. Back to the drug addicts on the street: Carlos and I saw a 5-7 month pregnant woman, sitting on the sidewalk, smoking basuco (which again is the waste product of cocaine production—clearly worse than even crack-cocaine) in the middle of the night. That was hardcore! There are so many of these people and they look so wild and do so many crazy things, we started calling them the “basuco-zombies”. They are literally like walking zombies, with no rational goals except to get high at any cost. It’s extremely sad and I think people in general here are desensitized to it, just like they are to the incredibly thick and horrifically unhealthy air pollution. I have heard people say that the people addicted to drugs on the street “want” to be there. Coming from a recovering drug-addict, believe-you-me, they don’t “want” to be “basuco-zombies” living on the street, eating out of the trash, washing in the dirty river, completely alone and destitute. Who wants that shit? No one in their right mind! They’re doing it because they have severe drug addiction problems, as well as other problems like homelessness, mental health issues, being internally-displaced people (by the conflict), etc. I have seen some terrible things here—just a few examples are the pregnant woman smoking basuco, people sitting and eating directly out of a trash bag like it was a plate, people sleeping on the cement covered by plastic bags (or sleeping on the side of the highway in this tunnel that goes through the middle of the city where the pollution is suffocating), people sleeping and laying half-way out on the highway, people crying and asking for money so someone doesn’t come to kill them, kids passed out on the sidewalk in the middle of the city and covered in nasty dirt with barely any clothes on, etc. It is HARDCORE. People here need help—they need access to drug addiction rehabilitation services or detoxification centers, etc. Also, they have a section in the newspaper called: "Missing Parents". Fascinating. Please excuse my graphic-ness. More to come soon…