A Powder Sugar Disaster: Colombia Week 1
- Kjerstin Roberts
- Jan 17, 2020
- 16 min read
The next MANY blog posts are going to be about the best school year of my life: the year I volunteered abroad. I spent time working with kids in several countries for extended periods of time. I really love kids so much and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to go. I'm also grateful to my parents, particularly my mom, who encouraged me to go. She reminded me that I would never have this opportunity again and that I should take advantage while I could. My parents also normally pay me a monthly stipend when I'm in school to help with some of my expenses. They continued to do this throughout my time abroad because they knew I was getting a different type of education. They will never know how much that meant to me. Without further ado, let's head to Cartagena, Colombia!
P.S. This post will be a few days longer than just a week to accommodate for the days I spent traveling. Normally I plan to run Sunday to Sunday for the rest of my time abroad.
Day 1
I flew out on a late-night red-eye from Salt Lake to Boston. It was my very first red-eye ever and I was actually really nervous because my mom had talked up how terrible red-eye flights were. I flew JetBlue and actually found the experience to be quite pleasant. JetBlue is honestly the best kept secret of the airline industry. The legroom is amazing and the baggage allowance is really good. The snacks are also decent, which is definitely an essential. Mostly I just slept the entire flight and woke up in Boston. I was thriving.
Day 2
I flew from Boston to Fort Lauderdale early the next morning. I made it into Boston originally around 5am because of my red-eye and flew out around 6:30am. In Fort Lauderdale, I had to RUN because my layover was only like 45 minutes. I had just enough time to grab a bagel from the Einstein Bagel stand before boarding a plane once again. It ended up being several short flights, which, in my opinion, is worse than one really long one just because you have to keep going through the haul of loading and then unloading the plane. Regardless, I eventually made it to Cartagena.
Customs took ages, but when I finally made it through, the volunteer director Libardo was waiting to show me where to go. We took about a 35 minute taxi ride from the airport to my host family's house in Los Caracoles. It was pouring rain when I got to Cartagena, and I can with complete confidence say that there is NOTHING like a tropical rainstorm on the coast. Cartagena has massive drops (seriously like 1.5 to 3 feet tall) from the sidewalk to the street just for this reason. The streets will flood until the water comes up over the sidewalk (even with the tall drop) in under an hour. It's nuts. However, tropical rainstorms leave as fast as they come on, so it turned out to quite sunny by the time I got to my home for the next two months.
I was met by my host mom Marcela and her husband, who I can't remember the name of because he lived 6 of every 8 weeks in another city in Colombia because they paid him a better wage. He was in charge of banana shipments, one of Colombia's main exports, and making sure they were packaged correctly and shipped on time. They fed me a delicious lunch of rice, beans, and plantains with salad before I went with Marcela to her old neighborhood for the birthday party of her best friend's daughter.
After meeting all the adults, I ended up going outside to play with the kids. I always connect better with kids, particularly in foreign countries where language could be a problem. Literally no one in Colombia speaks more than like 5 words of English, so it was really good practice for me. I also had my first beer denial of the trip. Marcela's best friend's husband really wanted me to drink, but I was adamant and he eventually relented.
Outside, I was able to play with these two cute kids named Ashley and Cupertino. Their parents are so nice. Ana, their mom, still texts me at least once a week nearly a year and a half later. Their dad Cuper became my motorcycle taxi driver (it's a thing... I promise). Ashley, Cupertino, and I just ran around the block and were playing all sorts of games. They are so so cute. We turned into the best of friends in literally no time at all just because I would play with them. Also, I look absolutely wrecked in the attached picture, but that's what happens when you travel for 14 hours straight and then head straight to a birthday party. I knew I had to include this pic tho because the kids are so dang cute!
Day 3
I slept in the next morning because I was absolutely exhausted from the day before. When I woke up, I had a breakfast of steamed pumpkin and cheese. Cheese is a completely different texture and everything in South America. I think it's just less processed than the stuff in America. After breakfast, I read for a little bit before making plans with Libardo and my host brother, Cristhian.
Cristhian, Libardo, and I decided to go to Playa Castillo Grande (Big Castle Beach). On the way there, we had to break some of my cash because I had been given some really big bills when I exchanged some money at the airport the day before. I ended up buying the boys beers to break my cash, which is hilarious because I don't even drink. On our way there, we also passed what apparently is the biggest house in all of Cartagena. It was smaller than even a starter home in my neighborhood, so that was a real wake up call for me.
We went swimming in the waves for a bit. I found out that Cristhian and Libardo both didn't know how to swim and would refuse to go out past about chest deep because they were afraid. That kind of blew my mind. Someone also always had to stay back with our stuff because someone would steal our things from the beach 30 feet away from us. Colombia is definitely the scariest place I went. You couldn't even walk anywhere after dark because you might get robbed.
After finishing at the beach, we walked to El Centro, the historic district of Cartagena. We got some street hamburgers on our way there to tide us over til dinner. The hamburgers literally cost less than $1 and were surprisingly delicious. In El Centro, we walked around for a little bit before watching some street performers just outside the fortress walls. Cartagena was one of the main ports for the slave trade/triangular trade and also a massive Spanish naval base. Fortress walls as tall as 25 feet surround the whole old town with the beautiful historic buildings on the inside. There are only a few gateways into the fortress walls. El Torre del Reloj (Clock Tower) is one of them. Street performers gather there every day and night because they know tourists will come through and be willing to pay for them.
My least favorite part of Colombia is actually how willing they are to ask for money. Street vendors will follow you around and beg you to buy something from them, even after you have said that you are not interested. Street performers will stare you down forever if you don't tip them. People will accost you on the beach just to get the odd dollar. It's easily the WORST part of Colombia.
Eventually, we made our way home. Libardo lived a few neighborhoods over, so he had to take another taxi to get back to his place because we arrived home after dark and he couldn't walk home. After he left, I ate dinner with Marcela and Cristhian, as well as Cristhian's cousin Jesus. Jesus planned to live with us for the next six months because he could make better money in Cartagena than he could in his small home community. I was happy he was there because he was reasonably easy to make laugh and pretty darn cute as well.
Day 4
Warning: This day is about to be really long with no pictures. I have to explain quite a few things or the rest of the whole blog posts about Colombia will make no sense. I also have no pictures from this day, and it honestly makes me really sad. I started volunteering at a foundation. Honestly, I can't remember the name of the foundation I was working with. I'm sure I will encounter it at some point later on in my journal, but for now, it's a nameless foundation. We always just called it La Fundacion anyways.
When I first woke up, I got ready for the day in what I had volunteered in when I lived in Costa Rica. However, I was quickly informed that shorts were not okay when I showed up to the foundation. I hadn't really brought any long pants with me because I knew it would be like 85 or 90 degrees and humid. Later that day, Marcela took me to the mall to buy long pants.
One of the things that was most different to me was the transportation. I rode on a motorcycle to get virtually everywhere. My man Cuper was my driver and he kept me safe. I had never ridden a motorcycle before, so he taught me. I sat behind him on this teensy tiny seat and held tightly onto his hips. Eventually, I was able to relax and just chill calmly on the back seat, but it took me weeks to get there.
The driving is also crazy in Cartagena. From what I can tell, there are really no laws. It reminded me a lot of those pictures and videos you see of India. Stoplights were definitely more of a suggestion and you could go as fast or as slow as you felt like. You can drive on the sidewalks or on the wrong side of the road if you're really in a hurry. To leave my neighborhood, we had to take a right, cross four lanes of traffic that may or may not stop within 150 yards, take a super sharp U-turn, and then take an immediate right to go up a hill and then down the other side covered in speed bumps. It was an adventure every time and low key very scary. The traffic was something I didn't ever adjust to all the way just because it was so nuts. Ironically, I only saw one car crash in the entire time I was there, so the system must have worked for them.
When I got there, the foundation turned out to be really interesting. There were 26 kids in my class with only one teacher. We were teaching a class of two-year-olds, so this was understandably crazy. I also think that one of the kids had autism or was somehow on the spectrum. He was always attached to me and didn't ever want to go with anyone else.
I'm gonna give you a rough idea of the schedule now so you have some sort of idea of what I did:
7:30: Breakfast
8: First class
10: Snack
10:15: Clean everyone up and go to second class
11:30: Lunch
12:15: Get everyone dressed in a different outfit, do last potty run, etc.
12:45: Naptime
1: I left
The classes were quite loose in what they classified as class. We would do anything from art to dance to watching videos in our own classroom. Sometimes we would also get a little bit of playtime on the playground. However, there were about 15 other classes of 20-30 so those times were few and far between. Upstairs, there was also a baby room with around 10 babies as well as a training facility for unwed teenage mothers.
Our classroom was the only room in the entire facility other than the babies' room that had air conditioning. Because of this, other teachers would rotate in and out of our room throughout the day. The other rooms had steel bar doors and holes in various patterns of the cinderblock rooms. Fans were essential. All the classrooms were on one long hallway. We were right next to a massive bathroom that had no stalls. The kids would go in there and play with each other while peeing or pooping. It was disgusting. There was also a shower in there to clean up people who had accidents. We used the shower more than once.
Overall, my first day impressions were that the kids were under a super strict regimen. The teachers in South America are all really strict with their kids, seemingly for no reason at times. Mostly I was just getting used to things.
I headed home (still on the moto taxi) and ate lunch before heading to the mall with Marcela. We went to buy pants for me because of the foundation's strict dress code. I found some super lightweight pants that I still wear because they are so cute. I think it's absolutely hilarious that I am a size 18 down there because they are all so tiny. Those pants are even still floods a little bit just because of how tall I am (shout out to my 5'11 genes).
After buying my pants, we went to the supermarket inside the mall to look at some refrigerators. Marcela needed a new one because her old one had broken. We ended up looking at several different stores before settling on one. We also got blackberry McFlurrys (!!!), which are an absolute game changer. It's ice cream covered in hot fudge and blackberry juice that has chunks of chocolate and blackberries in it. I miss blackberry McFlurrys. On our walk home, we bought another fan for the house because there was no AC and we were down a fan with Jesus moving in.
We finally made it all the way home and ate dinner. After dinner, I watched Cristhian play Fortnite, which became pretty much a nightly occurrence for us. I had never seen Fortnite before, even though it was all the rage in the US. Cristhian spoke extremely broken English so he always wanted me to translate things for him so he could communicate back and forth. Sometimes I would make him swear just because I thought it was hilarious.
Day 5
I woke up and headed to the foundation to work for five hours. Those kids are so cute. When I got home, I ate some lunch before laying on the ground near the door with Marcela. The house only had one door. The whole house, or more like apartment, was pretty small. We had a small dining and living room area. Right off of that, you could find my bedroom as well as Jesus' bedroom. Kitty corner to us was the master that Marcela shared with her husband and also Cristhian for the time I was there. Because Jesus and I were both guests, we got the bedrooms and Cristhian had to sleep on the floor of his parents' room. We all shared one open concept bathroom. I say open concept because you could shower, pee, and wash your hands all at the same time. There were no curtains or anything to stop that from happening. Next to the bathroom, Marcela had a small washing station where she could handwash clothes before hanging them out to dry. There was some air flow from an intentional hole in the ceiling (for air drying), but things did get really wet when it rained. As far as other ventilation, we had our steel bar covered door as well as two steel bar covered windows in the living room and dining room. Things were small, but it also seemed like we always had enough space. Anyways, we laid on the floor next to the door to take a nap because it was over 90 degrees and probably 85-90% humidity.
It was also Cristhian's birthday.He turned 25. We didn't do a lot for his birthday on the actual day. His girlfriend of two years came over. while they were hanging out inside, I sat outside on the porch, which actually ended up becoming my favorite spot in the whole house. His girl stayed for the whole day. When Jesus got home from work, some of their other friends came over. We ended up playing FIFA for a while. I should say, they ended up playing FIFA for a while. I just watched and got hit on incessantly because I'm white and have blue eyes. Honestly, it's kind of flattering and I don't really mind. Being hit on can be fun if you're in the right mood.
Day 6
Heads up: another day with no pictures. Honestly, my life in Colombia could get monotonous at times so there might be several days like this.
At the foundation, the kids were having a really rough day. When the kids have a rough day, I have a rough day. There was a lot of crying and people were overall just sad. It breaks my heart to see them cry, but sometimes there's not much you can do about it. After work, I went with Marcela to the mall. I got some more long pants and a cute little summer dress for Cristhian's birthday party.
When we got home, everyone was there and waiting for us. Jesus had bought a new iPhone and needed some help setting it up. The only problem was that the entire setup process was in English. Jesus spoke absolutely zero English, so this meant that I got recruited to help with the process, which I did not mind a single bit. We got to add all the apps he would potentially want on his phone. He would always attempt to say what they were in English. My personal favorite was when he asked if he would want Google Sheets. However, instead of saying Google Sheets, he said Google Shits because that's how he thought you would pronounce it. I about died laughing. I wish I had a recording of that moment because I don't think I will ever forget his cute accent trying to say Google Sheets and getting stuck with Google Shits instead.
Day 7
It rained all morning long, so school was really boring. For some reason, they don't like the kids to get wet at all or go out in the rain at any point in time. Instead of doing something productive within our classroom (reading, art, telling stories, etc.), we ended up just watching YouTube video after YouTube video. The favorite channel was called Masha y El Oso (Masha and The Bear). Look it up if you want a terrible children's video with no academic value. I don't like not doing anything helpful, but it's not up to me.
When I got home, cute little Cupertino was there waiting for me. We got to play for a long time, which I loved. He's such a little cutie pie. He always has a smile and just wants to laugh and be happy all the time. He also thinks I am the absolute greatest human being. We were able to play around for a while and even mess around with the filters on my phone for a bit, which is just adorable. Mostly I just love all kids because they are so stinking cute.
After playing with Cupertino, I ate some dinner with my host family before going to watch a soccer game. Apparently, Jesus, Cristhian, and their friends all meet up at these soccer fields close to our house every Thursday. It became my Thursday evening tradition to go watch them play. They were all pretty good and would get so into it, so it was really entertaining to watch. The sunsets were also unreal to watch there, so that was a nice touch as well. Mostly I just went for the hot men though if we are being honest. Watching hot men do athletic activities is infinitely better than sitting at home doing nothing. This is a philosophy I still subscribe to.
Day 8
There are no motorcycles in all of Cartagena on the second and fourth Fridays of every month. It's honestly pretty crazy when there's not moto (the shorthand name for motorcycle in Colombia) because nearly everyone travels via moto normally. I had to take essentially an Uber to the foundation. Basically, I just used a car service, but I did have to physically call him on the phone. Luckily, I made it there and back all in one piece.
It rained nearly all morning again. I really don't mind the rain in tropical places. In Colombia, it was always low 80s when it rained and just a nice change from the extremely hot and humid climate normally.
At the foundation, I met a volunteer named Rosie. She was working with the mothers and the babies. I actually really liked her. She lived in Cuba for seven months as part of her schoolwork for university, so she had lots of interesting stories. She actually lived at Libardo's house. In the evening, I went out to a bar with her, Libardo, and Libardo's friend Jose. We went to a small neighborhood bar and ended up just talking for a while, which was an awesome change of pace. Neither Cristhian nor Jesus came because they were busy doing other things.
Day 9
On Saturday morning, I just slept in. The sun and humidity combined really take it out of you. Around 10am, we started preparations for Cristhian's 25th birthday party. We cooked this massive (seriously massive... like 20 gallons worth) pot of soup. In it, there were thirds of an entire corn cob as well as like three different types of meat. It was absolutely delicious. Marcela's best friend came over to help with things and she brought my two favorite kids, Ashley and Cupertino, with her. I ended up being able to play with them for the entire day, which I absolutely loved. Those kids are so cute and happy all the time. They are content to do everything because at least they are getting some small bit of attention.
The actual party began around 3pm. Tons of Cristhian's friends came over and started throwing drink after drink back. Colombians can DRINK. I am firmly convinced they can drink any person under the table. We had more cases of beer than I can even count. Because of this, people were absolutely nuts for this party, which was simultaneously fun and kind of terrible. Drunk people are either really fun/funny or really not. These guys were happy and more into the joking side of drunk, which was a plus for me.
Funny thing about Colombia: when they have birthdays, they have a tradition of throwing powdered sugar at literally everyone. Even the kids were getting involved. I didn't know this was a tradition and was absolutely FLOORED when they started throwing all this white stuff all over the place. Powdered sugar also creates frosting when wet, so it wasn't great to be as sweaty as I was when I first got covered. I definitely would not recommend the sweaty party of the experience.
If there's one thing I've learned about Colombia, it's that they LOVE to party at any and all times. Music is bumping at all points during the day from like 4am until 4am the next day. I don't know if there was ever a quiet time in Cartagena. You can, however, get noise ordinances and then the cops show up. This happened to our party around 2am. We had some super loud music and people were singing/dancing. I re-learned how to salsa dance that night, which was fun but also completely beside the point at this time. When the cops showed up, Marcela took care of them the best way she knew how: she gave them each a beer and then sent them on their way. Cops are super easily bribed in Cartagena, so it wasn't a hard sell whatsoever. After the noise ordinance, the party eventually wound down. I ended up going to bed at 4am, which wasn't great considering I had church at 8am the next day. Oh well! It was such a fun party and a great learning curve/insight into the Colombian culture. I don't regret a thing.
Life Lessons
Be wary of flying powdered sugar. You will not be spared, even if you are a guest. Maybe even particularly if you are a white guest.
Motorcycles aren't quite as scary as they seem.
Blackberry McFlurries are a MUST.
Make friends with the local kids.
Sleep on the floor next to your open door (except for steel bars) if it gets really hot.
Watch locals play soccer because it will probably beat the pants off anything you can see in the US.
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