Monday 17/06/13

On the monday I awoke quite early. I find it difficult to sleep in here because of the heat. This is the hottest room in the flat because its directly above the huge oven for the chicken restaurant downstairs. So when the sun comes up at about 6am ish, it gets harder to stay asleep because it's just too hot.
Juan Pablo, my buddy, invited me to his house for lunch and I accepted. He picked me up on his bike and we met Gemma and her buddy/host there. If I can remember correctly... we had some sort of traditional chicken soup, with sweetcorn and potato, followed by salad, rice, avocado. We also had fresh juice, as always. I saw juan's little sister and she's so cute.
After that we headed up the road to the Universidad de Tolima and I met Cristian Picon, the coordinator of placements. It was so hot and gemma and I were looking at the parakeets in the trees. I also met Alejandra. The difficult thing was, that they both spoke hardly any English, so it was hard work. (A week later I feel much more confident)

We got a taxi to the foundation. It's called Shekinah and this is when the reality of my situation began to dawn on me. I read the sign and it said something along the lines of it being a safe place for physically and sexually abused children. After being let in (you have to ring the bell and someone will unlock the door after checking to see who you are) I started to feel slightly uneasy. As the conversation with the heads of the Fondacion progressed it almost seemed like the AIESEC coordinators were trying to convince them to take me on... I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I'd just been pushed into deep water. Then I realised I was the first AIESEC trainee here, that I would be alone this week until someone from the US arrived, and that nobody speaks english. Overwhelmed is how I felt. Gemma was with me and she was reassuring but I just felt ...shocked. I hadn't really expected this at all. I was expecting to be teaching in the Uni, with older people perhaps, but this is certainly more than I expected. At the end of the meeting I was made to introduce myself to the children. We went into a big open room at the back of the building, with drawings of cartoon animals on the walls, and there were about 40 children staring at me. It was slightly intense. I introduced myself in Spanish and they seemed to all want to learn, which was a good sign. After that, we left.
I did feel quite overwhelmed. I still do, and it's a week later. Things are easier as I know the children better, but the language barrier is still a problem.
Cristian, Gemma and I headed into the centre of town. Now... I thought Ibague was busy, but the centre... is insane. SO MANY PEOPLE and cars, and smells and noises. It's great but mental. Cristian made us try this juice thats sold on the streets called Sanpicon. It's bright bright red/orange with bits of fruit in it, some familiar... others not so much. I really enjoyed it.
I'll try and describe the feel of the town to you.
The smell: Is sort of... a mixture of dry earth, petrol fumes(a lot), fruit from the stalls.
The noise: Horns, all the time, loud engines of cars and bikes, dirty engines from the buses, LOUD talking in spanish, very fast. Often, music coming from cars or buildings.
The feeling: It's hot, very hot in the sun, and you have to be comfortable with having no personal space, especially on places like buses or in the centre. You know you're a Gringa (foreigner) and people look at you differently, especially the men. I know I look very different with my red hair, and I just ignore it.

Tuesday 18/06/13

I don't really remember much from Tuesday. I went to the foundation for 8 and Tatiana came with me. I also met Carlos, who is below Cristian and is in charge of my project. We sat in the room with the children (lots of smiling) and we watched them pray. This lasted maybe 25 minutes. To be honest, despite not being a believer, it was a bit emotional, simply because of knowing what these kids have been through. Some looked so young, playing with a toy car and swinging their little legs off the chairs. Others at the back looked older, older in their faces than they should have been. Some of them were saying the words of prayer to themselves, while others looked at the floor.
After prayers loads of them swarmed around Tatiana and I. It was funny. They were all so curious to know about me. Here are some of the questions I got:
What's your name/ How old are you/ Where are you from?

What's england like? Do you like colombia? Do you like Ibague?

Some funny ones like: If I go to England will my eyes and skin change colour like yours?

And them some ones that I had to be careful wth: Do you drink? DO you smoke? Do you have facebook? (I had to answer no to all of these as some of the kids have had drink/drug problems and they need to see that there can be a life without them. Also facebook isn't allowed in case they contact someone that they aren;t supposed to. I'm also not allowed to take letters from them, let them use the phone or take photos of them.
Quite a lot of responsibility for little me.
They were very interested in England and I showed them a £20 note, and some coins. They really loved it. They also asked me to bring in photos of my family and my life in England.

Wednesday 19/06/13

Today I went to work and did a presentation on Nottingham. I showed them pictures of places there and told them about the legend of Robin Hood. They loved the pictures, there was lots of "muy bonito, lindo" Really beautiful. I also showed them videos of London. Santiago and Tatiana were with me. I also taught them a bit of English like...
Hola Hello
Como estas? How are you
Bien gracias. Fine thanks
Cual es tu nombre? What's your name?
Mi nombre es _______ My name is ________
Mucho Gusto Nice to meet you.

On the bus back I felt a little bit overwhelmed. I didn't think I could communicate without them there. Santiago noticed that I was a bit down and offered for me to "have a lunch with him". I accepted. He took me to his house where he lives with his mum, dad, brother, sister and grandparents. Its a really nice house, and i got the impression that he is quite well off. He took me up to the roof and showed me the views from the top of the building. They were really nice. It makes me laugh how he says "ciree" instead of city. We had lunch with his mum and his brother. It was spagetti carbonara. After that we dropped his grandparents off places and then went swimming at his uncles apartment complex. We both fell asleep by the pool. It was great :) He told me about his family and I think they own quite a lot of places. I told him I hadn't swam in about a year and he found that strange. I said it's normal as we don't have the weather for outdoor pools in the UK.
We went to have something to eat at a burger place. It was nice. Then he accompanied me on the bus back home. I do like Santi, he's a great guy.

Thursday 20/06/13

Today at the Fondacion it was just me and Santiago. I showed the boys videos of food from england and they loved it. Especially the desserts.
I still didn't know how I felt about working at the Foundation. It's hard because the children are so lovely, difficult at times, yes, but nice. The thing is that I find teaching when I can't speak the language so difficult.

Later in the day I went round the centre of town with Riacrdo and su madre )his mum) and we saw some people practicing for the desfile (carnival) at the weekend. The square is called Simon de Bolivar square, I think, and he's a very important historical figure of independence in Latin America. I tried some juice in a cafe (wish i could remember its name) and I really didn't like it which made them laugh. It was a weird tangy taste. Also ricardo took photos of me and his mum in front of a huge tree in the centre. Later I went swimming with Ricardo at his friend's apartment complex. It was nice. We had a race and I won (even though I did have a few seconds headstart haha ... more than a few). Ricardo played music from his car and it was nice to chill out. Alejandra, his novia (girlfriend) was working as a masseuse. Then we went to a bar and had some beers there with his friends. One of his friends, Carlos, speaks really good english and we were talking about his travelling. He has worked in the carribean and all over the place. I also talked to Shiga, a guy from Nigeria who lives here with AIESEC i think... Alejandra took me to have my eyebrows threaded, which was a new (and painful) experience but they look really good. :)
I decided to head back because the Aguardiente (like sambuca) was being brought out and I needed to get up early.

Friday 21/06/13

Tatiana was with me today and we did a few activities and then made the Union jack. Some of them found it quite hard, it is a hard flag to draw. I think I'll do more drawing activities because it takes up tme haa. Today I heard more about the girls stories. I saw the tattoos on their legs and I was told that most of them used to be prostitutes. They are mostly about 12/13/14/15/16. It's so sad. One of the girls is pregnant. It's hard to believe what they've been through in their lives. BUT they are all really happy and enthusiastic.
Later that day I had a Friday meeting with other Aiesec people on the roof of the uni of Tolima. It was good to get advice. People were suprised when I said I was on my own though. :/ I had a few beers with some people from AIESEC and met Iain, a new guy from England.
In the evening I got ready to go out. I was gonna take a Chiva ( music party bus) but it would arrive at the club too early. Instead I got a taxi, picked up Iain, Tatiana and her friends and we went to Calle quarenta y dos. Street 42. There was lots of people on the street because it was the beginnning of festival celebrations. We went to bar 42 and had a beer or two and then got taxis to El Faro.
El Faro is set in the mountains and up a long dirt road. Unfortunatley for us, the taxi stalled on the hill and we had to get out and walk because he just couldn't get it to go up. It was like walking through the jungle. We had a great view of Ibague at night. When we got there it was great. I drank many shots of Aguardiente (along with oranges to suck afterwards) and danced salsa and stuff. That's what I like about the clubs here, you actually dance... not just jump about a bit. It gets so hot though. El faro has a pool too which is an interesting feature for a club. It's nice there, justa a bit expensive.
I headed back later that nght with some others after the live band started playing. They weren't that good.