University life is coming to an end and this is devastating. Soon freedom is lost and I must embark on the dull and stressful life often termed 'adulthood'.
And before then, as fleeting as I have lived life, I felt I should make an effort to remember the very eventful 3 years I have had. Full of new experiences - places, work, people, love, and just learning to be. I am going to spend the little time I have left and attempt to write down things I remember of the past 3 years. Random posts of events that I hope to reminisce that day. I just don't know if I should leave out the emotion drama on another platform..
Long time since I updated. Two weeks ago, I visited a place called Dabeiba!
Apparently this is how Dabeiba looks like, but in truth I have no idea because we never made it to the actual town.
Dabeiba
Dabeiba was a 6 hour bus ride away from Medellin - imagine going there and back in just one day!
5am in the morning
Cris and I!
Stopover for breakfast
Gorgeous lake
Common to see (not smoke but) CLOUDS all around us
while travelling around the mountains
It wasn't a tour this time, the bus stopped in front of a tunnel on a street with mountain on the right and hill on the left. It was pretty much nowhere.
Nowhere
Except there were loads of people there and policemen patrolling the place!
Tiago and Cris!
The tunnel
Us :)
The truth about Dabeiba:
'More than 200 known civilians were displaced in 1997 by a military offensive and today find themselves in temporary shelters. They continue to demand the right to return to their land, even as new victims are added to their numbers. The tactics of destroying human life through psychological terror and actions of control continue in the municipality of Dabeiba through the development of a counter-insurgency military strategy, which although it is said to be against the FARC (Colombian Army), is directed more against the civil population.'
That day, Dabeiba hosted a gathering of youths from different cities and municipals of Antioquia. All there to spell what they wanted for the country's future. All to demonstrate support for the hurt population of Dabeiba. Cool.
The banner made from many squares contributed by each city/municipal
Paintings all along the tunnel
Picture with the locals
I am embarrassed to say that I took tonnes of photos that day. Only because all these people, especially the locals, have never seen an Asian before. Yup I was a rock star. Literally took photo after photo, and was either always stared at or surrounded and bombarded by one after another curious Spanish questions. Over-whelming! Guess I was born to be a star :D
In all honesty I was really embarrassed, until I spoke to this hippy-ish guy on the bus, who was really into karma/yin and yang and that kind of stuff. And he said today I made a difference and I helped some people understand the world out there. Well I really didn't do anything, and it really wasn't anything, but I felt quite :D.
For lunch we had hot and piping Sancocho! Cooked over a stove right on the spot!
Lunch queue
Steaming
Sancocho
Besides being 'representatives', we also had another mission. Product testing! Remember what I said about Tiago working on a fruit farm? They were producing a new juice drink intending to be signed to distributers in the cities, and it is time to test customer reaction to this new product.
The event ended with a mini concert and the hanging up of the banner. A symbol. Hope for a better future?
Took like 1.5 hours to get home from EAFIT when it usually takes like 15 minutes by taxi. Tried to go home by a different route today, which involved taking 2 buses. Bloody hell, how exactly do people know where to board the bus!?
There is something un-random about this randomness that I do not get.
I must have missed at least 5 of them while walking down the street flagging hopelessly. Until this dude chuckled and pointed me down the street, and still he was wrong, it was the wrong 'bus stop' (= crowd of people). So I walked some more till the next crowd of people and finally got onto the bus. Gosh might as well have walked home!
Did I mention Colombians are insane? Work starts at 8 and school starts at 6. Holy.
To quench everyone's curiosity, I shall try to explain my work -
I am working in EAFIT Social, which is the 'University Social Responsibility' arm of the Eafit university, similar to CSR of companies. They work with many different communities and peasant corporations, both within the city and in the rural/municipal areas.
How cool right? This seems very uncommon in universities, though I don't see why! After all most unis operate like a business, why shouldn't they have 'csr' too?
Us trainees are part of a project under Eafit Social called 'Huellas En Accion' (Translate: Footprints in Action). I mentioned the other trainees will be working in different villages/farms. For instance, Tiago is working on a fruits farm which makes their own juice. They're now working on marketing and selling this new juice drink to a company in a city. Tiago is helping them with a creating a financial model, marketing strategy and etc! He is also being fed 7 meals a day and apparently gained 4 kg in 6 days O.o Such is the hospitality of Colombians :D
The office
My lovely colleague, Cristina!
My table and seat
I am working in EAFIT Social, and now working on a proposal to improve EAFIT Social by studying what the other universities do. And I work from 8am-4pm! Totally awesome getting off at 4, but I get up at 6.30 ouch. The only thing that peeves me is the fact that I cannot understand Spanish. I could be learning so much more. :(
Watched my first Colombian movie in Spanish. I personally vouch that Ice Age is suitable for all kids, even if they cant speak nor listen yet.
2. AIESEC EAFIT 50th year anniversary!
Invitation Card
The conference
Mario Vargas, the director of EAFIT Social, giving a presentation!
Also: My boss and whose house I'm living in
Gala Dinner
Mann, AIESEC LSE should totally have an event like this too. Unleash all our pride as the founding AIESEC Local Committee in UK..
3. Shopping at Mayorka, the Outlet!
'Outlet' says it all - cheaper-than-normal prices! Desiree and Anthea at summer school, stop gloating about the outlets! Lol.
4. Cooking
Yup I am making it a personal mission and giving myself intensive cooking training. Friends, behold.
Mario's pasta
Mafe's eggs
MY meat omelet thing!
5. Birthday celebration and disco!
Mafe brought me to a friend's birthday celebration at a Japanese sushi restaurant and I just gorged myself. Absolute yumminess.
We went to a disco after (club) but it was kinda zzz because nobody drank a drop (driving), I was dead tired, it was absolutely empty (thursday night) and they were playing this awful music called 'Reggaeton', which seems popular here
6. Spanish lessons
I am going to start taking Spanish lessons, 2 hours a day from 16 July! Excites.
I found out on Sunday that Medellín has this cool thing called Ciclovía (translates: bike path) where city streets are closed from 8am - 2pm every Sunday to allow for cyclists and public enjoyment. Sweet! I can't believe Singapore doesn't have this yet. PSC Scholars, do something!
Am going cycling this Sunday morning! Very much needed for my soon bulging tummy (yummy colombian food, please have mercy)
That sunday we went to Olaya, where two of the trainees (Tiago and Yelka) are going to be working their magic. My first trip outside of the city!! I was all geared up for the trip because I wanted to see what the life and landscape outside the city was like. Did we really get it all wrong? Is Colombia really not the third-world country we thought it was?
Yelka, Tiago and me!
2 hour ride, with Mario and Cristina in the front!
Don't Colombian minimarts look the same as Singapore's?
Lovely scenery on the outside :D
We stopped over at this pretty town - Sucre. It's amusing how every town seems to have a 'square' where all the bustle is! In Europe too! The town's centre:
Markets
Most Colombians are catholics, hence the church in every town
Behold, a stage right in the middle of the square! Probably for the celebration of the Fruits Festival over the weekend, pity I couldn't witness it because it doesn't happen in the city.
Scrumptious colombian breakfast, and the reason i get fat.
People washing, bathing, playing in a nearby lake!
We left Sucre and went on to Olaya, Antioquia! Another small and neat town that's very similar to Sucre. Olaya is also one of the smallest and oldest municipals in Colombia.
Ribbons that say Antioquia
Olaya's church, and also one of the oldest in the whole of Colombia
Inside the church
Bike-taxis! How cool
We left Tiago and Yelka at Olaya (tearfully) and went on to visit Cristina's old home. It's an absolute Dream House. I literally could not stop gasping. And you'll see why -
Yup that's the house.
Yup, that's a pool on the far left. The view from behind the house!
The gorgeous interior of the house. I managed to take this ever so sneakily!
All thanks to iphone os5 for the volume/shutter button lol
Said hi to the family and proceeded back to Medellin!
Mountains and mountains everywhere in Colombia
Some important building because Mario started pointing and jabbering
in Spanish. I am sorry I do not know what this is
It was cool, visiting the towns. Somehow it reminded me alot of Malaysia! I would say I was pleasantly surprised. Though not affluent, the people were like happy villagers and the towns were pretty and neat. If so, Colombia is developing very well!
Going to wake up at 4am tomorrow to catch a 5.30am bus to another town, and this time all I know about the place is that it's called Daveiba and there are NO TOILETS. There is no way I am going to pee in the bush and get stung in the butt by a bee! I swear I'm not drinking a single drop of water.
