I'm in Colombia!

Greetings from Bogota! I landed in my native land last Wednesday, and finally began an adventure I've been wanting to dive into for quite some time.

Why am I here? Well, ever since I left Colombia at the age of eleven, I've wanted to do some work in the country. The longer I stayed in the U.S., the more I've thought about the gap of opportunities between middle-Colombians and middle-Americans, and it's bothered me for a long time to know that my family and I wouldn't have had the same opportunities if we'd stayed here. So once the opportunity presented itself (for these four months this fall) I took the plunge, and I'm here, working for an organization called Volunteers Colombia part-time, while also analyzing what the possibility of creating an organization around college access in Colombia might be.

The first week has been an opportunity to catch up with my family, to get settled with the necessary amenities (almost), and to get oriented in this vast, 8 million person capital. I've had some of the old, tropical fruit I hadn't tasted in years in juice and natural form (expect pictures), eaten the food of my childhood, spent time meeting and reconnecting with some of my large, extended family and simply gotten ready for the next four months. I don't remember Bogota from my childhood, (I lived in Cali for 8 years before moving to the States), but I lived my first three years here and spent two months during college in the city doing thesis research. It's fun to get reacquainted with the place, to take in its development, and to learn to navigate the busy streets of the bustling city.

Some things I've learned (and remembered) along the way:

- You have to give your national ID (aka. Cedula) number for EVERYTHING here. This isn't completely new to me, given my past experiences, but it's amazing to me that I have to give you my personal information every time I pay for groceries or a pair of shoes- cash OR credit.

My sister Karen and I, enjoying mora, mango and feijoa juices.

- Fresh. Food. Everywhere. Even the eggs look different, like the ones I used to eat at home in Long Island when we had chickens (it's rural New York, after all) during my teenage years. And though I probably shouldn't be too surprised by this, there's all kinds of yummy restaurants everywhere. I'll have to check on international restaurants, but so far, we haven't gone wrong. I'm tempted to just do a food blog with all there's to see and eat.




- On a professional note, the initial perspective I've gotten from some people is that NGO's are pretty much a dirty word in Colombia. In talking with some people about my potential project paths (NGO, social enterprise, advocacy group), I've gotten some interesting perspectives on the subject. Corruption, inefficiencies and their perceived support of guerrila groups have made NGO's the black sheep of social work in the country. Most of potential funders and supporters (usually right-wing conservatives) truly mistrust them. And in Colombia, politics is king, especially in a country where people have waged war against each other due to political allegiance since the times of independence. That's not to say that there aren't leftist leaning funders and organizations that would support NGOs (they do exist, after all), but the term comes immediately with a strong political connotation. Go figure. I guess in the U.S. NGO's may be perceived as liberal, but never really as violence-supporting entities. It's a good thing to be aware of, and a notion that I'll need to continue exploring.

- Foundations are the organizations of choice (again, for the right wing) and appear to be the "in" thing. The funny thing is that, from what I can gather at this time, foundations are really just NGO's, carrying out programs and fundraising in very similar ways, not like what you'd find in the U.S., where foundations tend to be more grant or support-giving organizations for NGO's. I'll test this further as I move along.

There's so much more I'm learning. So much more to share. But I'll stop for now, and catch you all up later. Thanks for reading up, and I can't wait to share this experience with you!

Stay in touch, and for the moment, many many abrazos from South America.