“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” -Groucho Marx

Our team left La Merced last Sunday to spend our final work week back in Manizales.  I feel so fortunate to have had the experience of living in such a beautiful and unique place for the last two months.  I had never been anywhere like La Merced before, and I’m sure I will never be anywhere like it again.  The people I got to meet, the relationships I built, and the experiences I have had there will be carried with me long after I leave this country.  This community of close to 6,000 people holds more history than I will ever be able to completely comprehend, but I feel so lucky to have gotten even a glimpse into it. 

Nine weeks has absolutely flown by.  After living in Tanzania for over two years and seeing how quickly time disappeared there, I knew that a mere 2 months in this town would not nearly be satisfying enough.  But it’s incredible how much our team was able to accomplish within the 7 weeks that we were given in La Merced.  Upon arrival, we were still unclear on what our activities for the following weeks would look like.  I think that we all truly learned the meaning of “flexibility” and adapting to the needs of the community we were working with.  We were able to hold countless interviews, facilitate workshops, create a demand analysis, write a final report of our project, and present our findings to members of the municipal government, and to the university in Manizales. 

But after all of the meetings and interviews and analysis, what is there?  What do we really have to show for ourselves? Did we fail?  Did we succeed?  It’s hard to actually define these things when you are doing this job.  Essentially, our goal was to affect positive change within a community while also learning and gaining experience for ourselves in the field.  On a broad level, change is almost impossible to see, especially as an outsider within such a short period of time.  Even after 2 years in a small Tanzanian village, it was difficult to see any real change.  But change is a slow process, and I think that if we were able to open the minds of even a handful of people, we achieved success.  We left the Tourism Association in a very unstable place, and I can’t say that I am sure of what will happen to them.  But we did motivate and engage with certain members of the community who seemed to have otherwise lost all hope for the association.  I think that changing the minds of these people and empowering them to take ownership of the association is enough.  I can’t know if they will keep that ownership after we’re gone, but I can say that we gave them the tools they will need to do so.  And that is as much as we can do. 

We also created an incredible database of information on the local food system: which products are being bought and sold in La Merced, where they are coming from, etc.  Since most businesses and farmers don’t keep track of what they buy and sell, this information can be significantly useful in clarifying how inefficient the current market really is.  Hopefully, the agricultural office can build on this analysis in order to develop a more local market in which more profits stay within La Merced's economy.

On top of these deliverables that we produced, an even bigger indication of our success is how much we have personally gained from the experience.  All 5 of us had the opportunity to learn from each other and from La Merced for the past two months.  We have each gotten to know each other more than any of us could have hoped to, and the knowledge and insight that I have gained from each one of my teammates and from this project is invaluable.  It was amazing how well our team worked together this summer.  Each of us made our own contributions to the project, and the success of our work would not have been possible without the unique perspective and skills that each person had to offer.  We each had our own special power in La Merced:

 The Hair – Julián has long, beautiful, magical hair that demands attention when he walks into a room.  The power of The Hair is not only contained within his luscious locks, but also in what lies beneath them: his amazing brain.  Julián is one of the smartest people I have had the pleasure to work with, always exercising his mind with books and music.  He may remain tight lipped during discussions, but you know its just because underneath all of his hair, his big brain is busy at work, and before you know it, he is filling the room with insightful questions and thoughts.  He is one of the smartest people I have ever had the pleasure to work with, and our project this summer would have been significantly lacking without The Hair...not to mention the fun we'd have at La Mayoria when he'd let his hair down...

The Kid – I will always remember the many faces of Meg: the droopy pouty face, the perplexed furrowed brow, and the bug-eyed toothy smile.  The Kid is always full of exaggerated child-like emotion, and has the special power of reminding us to appreciate each and everything that we would otherwise take for granted: take your time, remember where you are and what’s important, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, stay optimistic and hopeful, and be silly.  Some days in La Merced were frustrating and discouraging.  It’s important to keep The Kid around during these times because we were sure to have more laughs, and even get more things done.  Thank you for keeping our minds young and open.

The Support – She may not be great at walking down mountains, but this girl has got your back.  Unsure of the methodology you are using for your workshop? Need help with a quick Spanish translation?  Want to talk out a problem that has been troubling you?  Or maybe you’re feeling self conscious on the dance floor or wishy-washy about a pair of pants you’d like to buy…These are all problems that can be solved by The Support. Katherine will always be there with the power of assurance and confidence. She has been known to defend her “sisters” from the local bartender’s gossip, AND, if you’re lucky enough, she may even sing her support to you as she dances around you.  The Support was an essential ingredient in keeping the team afloat this summer.  Thank you for your words of assurance and witty retort….bueno. 

 The Voice – I cannot emphasize enough how critical The Voice was for this team, and for me in particular.  Her power goes beyond her fluently Spanish voice, but additionally there is the power within her insightful, thoughtful, and personable words.  Larissa often found herself voicing the collective opinions, reactions, explanations, and gratitude of our group as a whole…no easy task.  The community’s impression of us and our work were essentially thanks to The Voice.  And if it weren’t for her superpower, I would have been sitting in meetings, twiddling my thumbs idly without being able to actively participate.  She is one of the most intelligent, considerate, and knowledgeable people I know, and I learned so much from her this summer.  Gracias por tu voz y tu amistad!

Post Conflict but not Post Consequences

This week, Larissa and I went to the hospital to talk to one of the nurses there.  I was interested to hear her impression of the young girls in La Merced and their knowledge of reproductive health, as well as her experience with women and what sort of resources the hospital had to offer them.  At the time, I had no knowledge of the unexpected direction that this interview would take.  I was told that Jenny was the head nurse and that she would be the person to talk to.  We met her at the hospital in the morning, and to my surprise she was a younger girl.  As “head nurse”, I was expecting to meet a woman who had been working at the hospital for decades.  Jenny has worked at the hospital in La Merced for the past 6 months.  Apparently, there is a national policy in Colombia, which requires all doctors, nurses, and dentists to do one year of social work as part of their degree programs.  Jenny had been assigned to La Merced for her year of rural medical work, and has 6 more months of work in La Merced ahead of her.  After talking with her for a few minutes, we learned that her role as head nurse was somewhat by default, since she is the only certified nurse working in the hospital.  There are 7 nurse assistants who have not received the same training that she has, and don’t perform the same tasks that a full time nurse would.  Needless to say, Jenny has been very busy for the past 6 months.  She also told us that until recently, there were 3 doctors working in the hospital.  Last week, one of them decided to quit due to “political reasons.”  The two doctors that remain are actually students in the same program as Jenny.  Not only do these doctors have minimal experience, but also they will only be working at the hospital for the next year, before moving back to a larger hospital in the city.  From what she has learned during her time here, she says that this is the normal cycle of staffing at the hospital.  Mostly, the nurses and doctors are working there as a part of this degree program and leave each year, while new interns arrive.  So there is never really a seasoned staff of doctors or nurses to treat the people of La Merced. 

When we asked Jenny why she thought that it was so difficult to keep the hospital sufficiently staffed, she told us about a meeting she had recently attended.  There was discussion about the paramilitary history of La Merced.  La Merced became a center for paramilitary training in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the municipality was strongly controlled by a paramilitary group.  The severe loss of population in La Merced is largely due to this history of conflict that has left its mark on the town.  Jenny told us that up until about 10 years ago, while the paramilitary group was occupying the town, they placed officers in the hospital.  These officers monitored who was coming in for treatment, and told the doctors which patients they were allowed to treat, and which ones they needed to turn away.  After hearing this story, it became clear why it was so difficult for the hospital to maintain a sufficient and capable staff.  Her jarring story reminded us of the very real violence and darkness that the town had been put through.  La Merced’s history is something that we have all been aware of even before coming here.  It’s something that sits in the back of my mind every time I learn something new about the town, or hear another person’s story.  But it’s not something that has ever been out in the open.  It’s not often that you hear people referring to it directly, so it’s easy for the stories and facts that we’ve read to remain intangible notions in my mind.  These facts take on a whole new meaning when they are brought into reality, which is what happened for me that day at the hospital.  The conflict may be over, but there are still very visible consequences that the town endures. 

You Know You're in Colombia When....

My image of Colombia will forever be colored by my time living in La Merced.  After 2 months of life in this quaint and beautiful rural town, here are some things I have learned:

You know you're in Colombia when...

...your 5 year old friend can work a soccer ball better than you could ever hope to.

…an arepa appears on your plate at least twice a day.

…you arrive at a meeting wearing sandals and sit down next to a 58-year-old woman wearing bedazzled 6-inch pumps.

…you tell people you don’t eat meat and they give you this face:

…standing up in a bar or restaurant and creating your own dance party is socially accepted and even encouraged.

…your office is 2 blocks from your apartment, yet you can’t get home without being offered at least 2 shots of aguardiente.

…you are woken up by banging noises at 5 am, and you simply go back to sleep because you figure someone is just setting off fireworks outside of your front door.

…you can never get enough coffee breaks.

…you order a cappuccino and you have to specify if you’d like it with or without alcohol.

…your name becomes obsolete and you are simply dubbed “La Monita.”

…you can’t buy shots of liquor, only bottles or half bottles.

…the street dogs outnumber the people.

 …a horse, a donkey, and the roof of a Jeep are all feasible modes of transportation.

 …"breakfast without chocolate isn’t breakfast.”   – Doña Jacky

…you have a naptime after lunch…like a little baby.

 …a walk through the mountains can quickly turn into a flight through the mountains.

 ...you can't imagine a world where you don't get to wake up to this:

…you are surrounded by some of the happiest and most beautiful children you’ve ever met.