Happy One-month-aversary

It's officially one month since my arrival to Colombia! A lot has happened, including the unpleasant food poisoning rite of passage that I'm still getting over (salmonella, anybody?), and it's taken much longer than I wanted to really get settled in, but I'm moving along. It's been a month of adjustment, of slight disbelief that I'm here, of missing the people I've left behind, of reacquainting myself with my family, this city, this country, even just starting to think and speak fluidly in Spanish. I've dealt with a few personal battles that will hopefully lay the groundwork for stronger relationships, and especially for a wonderful visit from Cammie to Colombia in December. 

I've also felt a bit stuck on my personal project-- perhaps 'cause I've been working on the more urgent task I've been assigned through Volunteers Colombia. Part of me thinks I'm really afraid-- of it working out, of it not working out. But this is what it means to take a risk, to work for something you believe in, to try something new. I received an email on the exact 1 month anniversary of my arrival that lifted me up: it was an article related to the work I'm trying to do, of people invested in similar things, and I know that I'm headed in the right direction, that my idea is good and within the realm of possibility. (Thanks Val!) It's time to get moving on it. 

My first dive into my social enterprise was the much anticipated Es El Momento webinar I gave in partnership with Univision and College Week Live (thank you Prof. Reimers), and through which I talked about the College Application process in Spanish. That prompted me to create another blog (for all of you who say I haven't been blogging) for Spanish Language college information. It's www.lleguealcollege.com, and look, it even has a Twitter #lleguealcollege handle. It IS in Spanish, so sorry for the non-Spanish speakers, but I'm sure we all know some spanish speaking kid/parent in need of some college guidance-- (pass it along!). Next, I've been brainstorming with my dad on an action plan for interviewing potential customer segments, and we're getting going on targeting and talking to 30 different people about the project. And last, but perhaps most importantly, I had my first foundation meeting today (!) and it was a wonderful start to a long-term conversation. I'm VERY excited.

On a non-work level, it's also been a blast. I spent an evening watching Ensalsate, a musical production revolving around colombian Salsa dancing. The show, which featured international salsa champions from Cali (the city in Colombia), portrayed the growth of Salsa from its early roots to new fusion and innovations. And like any Salsa Caleña, (Cali is known as the capital of Salsa for a very particular form of dancing), tons of crazy footwork.

Salsa in Colombia is all about the fast footwork, less about pirouettes and turns, but still about amazing the viewer-- and having fun. Just to give you an idea, the taste for Salsa in Cali is such that stories say that when slow salsa songs got to the city, the only way to get citizens to be interested in dancing them was to speed them up to almost twice their regular speed. It really is all about being fast and doing footwork that is just insane.  Check it out:

I'd gotten a personal taste of this type of dancing less than a week beforehand (one of the trainers of the couple that most recently won an international dancing competition happens to give open classes at a place called Sandunguera) and danced salsa for 2 hours nonstop. It was HARD, but altogether fun and altogether exhausting. The absolute best part of the Ensalsate show was the piece below. Prepare for fast Salsa.... on STILTS. (Skip to about a minute into the video, the point when you can actually see their feet... I was too enthralled to actually be a good camerographer.)

A little bit after that, I went to an indoor pool with my cousins and their kids (I told you I'd be talking about them again!) and aside from being asked to leave the pool for wearing board shorts (don't get me started, it all worked out in the end), I had an awesome time reliving some childhood experiences and playing like a little kid. Aren't they cute? :D

Juanpis and his mama

Lupita in pre-fight, i mean pre-swim, gear

I'm also gearing up for a Nike Run Bogotá 10K this coming weekend, so I've started taking advantage of the weekly Sunday Ciclovía, a massive network of streets throughout the ENTIRE  city of Bogotá (not just a small portion) closed to traffic and open for bikers, rollerbladers, runners, dog-walkers and basically anyone. 

They also have great (sanitary) food stands along the way- so this past Sunday I helped myself to some yummy treats (but stayed away from others that I couldn't have due to my stomach problems, i.e. Salpicon, a medley of fruits that involves banana, watermelon, papaya, and anything you can think of chopped up and soaked in a mixture of orange, watermelon and mandarin juice to eat and enjoy as a healthy refreshment (see pictures at the end). Sooo yummy.

And yesterday I attempted to go to one of the largest parks in Bogota, el Parque Simón Bolivar, but it was closed due to one of the many free concerts offered throughout the year, this time it was Hip Hop Al Parque. Instead, we decided to walk around the nearby Virgilio Barco library, below! Note, the concept of libraries is relatively new to Colombia. These infrastructures have been built only in the last 5-10 years, a new network of lending libraries just like those we see in the U.S.. So this massive library is really cool, beautifully designed and kind of a big deal. It's cool to see :).

Waterfalls at the Library

Sunset through the trees

Flowers in the water

And finally, this week, after receiving the princess treatment from my Aunt and Uncle in the northern part of Bogotá, I'm moving into a new place-- wish me luck with the new adjustment!

Well, that's all the catching up. As a month-aversary present, I leave you all with some mouth-watering pictures of the awesome food I've been enjoying :D. Enjoy!

Nutty and delicious Colombian corn

Fresh mandarin juice at the Ciclovia

Salpicon with Sour-Sop topping

An "Aromática," basically a hot yerbabuena tea with fresh fruit- delish

Fried plantain and yucca strips 

Granadilla fruit, eaten much like a pomegranate. Delish.

Sobrebarriga (a specific type of flank steak) and Veal with gelatin sauce...

Candied papayuela fruit and cuajada (colombian plain cheese)

Catching up: Dancing women, gold treasures, toddlers at a barbeque and beer-drinking cows

I'm having a great time diving into work and getting into the routine of life here. There's been a lot of family visits, a lot of fun and certainly plenty of learning. Some things have been particularly entertaining and memorable throughout my stay, so I'll share some highlights!

The first day I arrived bushy tailed and excited for my time here. First order of business: cultural reacquaintance. My dad, sister and I went to see Maria Barilla, a musical based in the northern coast of Colombia at the turn of the 20th century, telling the story of the woman known as the best porro dancer of all time. It was a great show featuring only folkloric Colombian musical styles, with various famous Colombian actors, fun music, and plenty to learn about.  What's best? At the end of the show, performers went to the lobby to dance, grabbing unsuspecting audience members onto the dance floor to join in and celebrate. Guess who was one of the lucky people selected? My very own sister! See her in action (quickly, so she can't tell I put this up ;) )

That Saturday was spent hanging out with a former Ed School friend and now Admissions buddy, Adam! How we don't have a picture together escapes me at this moment, but we had an excellent lunch in Bogota's historic district (La Candelaria) and headed to the truly amazing Gold Museum.

Famous gold raft portraying the Sun god and gold offerings.

We hope you loved it, Adam! They'd renovated it since I last went, and it really was a cool experience that I promise to take anyone and everyone to as soon as they get here. :D

The next day was the much anticipated welcome back BBQ, full with two huge tubs of guacamole, amazing Colombian corn (bigger kernels, not as sweet and rather nuttier in flavor), and a "small" 25-person portion of the family and two awesome friends- Kate (from Ed School) and Luis Gabriel (from study abroad)!

Chef and Grill master extraordinaire, Uncle Luis Diaz

Yummm, Guacamole

Yumm

The stars of the day, however, were my two adorable cousins's kids (second cousins?): Lupita (the eldest of her generation), and Juan Pablo (Number 2!). They ran around, played around, and got presents from Karen and me. Lupita showed off her Sox gear, and Juan Pablo showed off his strength (and willingness to learn) from his brand new Little Einstein English word books.

Juan Pablo, weightlifting

Lupita, rockin' her Red Sox Gear with JP

You'll be seeing more of these two. They are absolutely adorable, so well-behaved and waaay TOO much fun. I've already offered my babysitting services. I'm gonna enjoy these two to the fullest.

Now, on a pretty unrelated note, I HAVE to share one of my favorite recent lunch adventures (alongside my dad, aunt and sister) was visiting a place called Burger Market. They serve Wagyu burgers from beer-drinking, massaged cows. You read that right: the cows get massages and drink beer. 5 times a day. (see pictures, below)

Plus, they have really great cuts of meat. What's the best way of showing you the cut of meat? Well, by getting a big chunk-o-meat at your table to describe what the cut of meat looks like, of course. 

Needless to say, the burgers were AMAZING. I'm not sure if it was the priming of the whole experience (they also had a full-out market at the entrance and a wall of lettuces as you walk up to the second floor) or the actual meat, but if any of you decide to come visit, we're going there. Note also, the most ridiculous onion rings ever.

Beer drinking cows. Note the cow massage.

Chunk o'meat.

My dad, eating the most ridiculously sized onion rings ever.

Market display at the entrance

I keep discovering new things-- I recently found out that Carlos Vives's brother's restaurant is 2 blocks from my job and even that Carlos himself stops by to play some tunes every once in a while. If you don't know Carlos Vives, you gotta check this out. In any case, the adventure continues, so expect some more! :) Thanks for reading!

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.