CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA!

Wednesday December 12, 2012
Cartagena, Columbia

Columbia is the size of Texas and California combined. The lower 50 percent of the region contains 3 percent of the population. There are 45 million people. 40-45 percent are poverty status. 20 percent of people live on 2 dollars a day. It received independance from Spain in 1810. The capital is Bogota. Cartagena, which is a department of Columbia, has 3 million people. there are 6 economic and geographic stratas.

6 is wealthiest.

We visited 1.

Although they have little they are filled with joy. The children go to school between either 6am and 12 or 12 and 6pm. They have their summer vacation in December and January. They are 90 percent Roman Catholic and get one present from Papa Noelle in their bed on Christmas morning.

We visited the Granitos de Pas service center where they help those in great poverty by focusing their efforts on skills, housing, education, health and nutrition, recreation and culture. It is a foundation, which is where most of the social work is done.

Because it is a tourist location they have taught bartending and waitressing -and 90 percent of those who graduated got jobs which is changing the future. We saw all the children from 2 and up. The girls did a local dance and smiled beautiful smiles in their red frocks and bare feet. We played games with them, mostly fuze-ball. No translation necessary! They fed us cupcakes and punch.

Every place we went people came to us, stopped us in the street and said hello!

We then went to another place that helped those with extreme poverty help care for their children. A center in which children are taken care of. Fed, played with and educated. They were overjoyed to see us.

-and we were really happy to be there!

We were introduced to a revolutionary program called “Productive Patios” as endorsed by the Clinton Group.

What makes this program so revolutionary is that it allows local individuals to begin (with aid from the Group and governmental credits) their own backyard gardens and then sell to local markets their produce, spices, etc. This is wonderful and will effect the social economic cultures/structures in 2 ways: 1) It will allow individuals at the lowest economic level to begin to become self sustaining by way of earning money and having stability and 2) It gives hope and pride.

There are strict guidelines that must be adhered to -as well as a certification process that must be completed.

We then heard from an agricultural engineer and saw the Productive Patios at work. The people that do it (farmers) grow food to feed themselves and sell to restaurants. Basil is their biggest because they can get the most for it. They also produce a lot of spearmint because it is the main ingredient in mojitos. -They have three kinds of the spice: red, citric and regular. The citric smells divine, like lemon. Due to space constraints they grow vegetables and herbs from hanging sausage bags, painted tires, and window hanging bags. We then visited one of their homes. The couple had seven children and twenty three grand children. They were kind, open, warm and so proud of their home.

On the return we stopped at a part of a park de nationale.

We saw peacocks, mc caws, howler monkeys, pink flamingos and a trio of pelicans flying overhead.

Quote from George Moore: “A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”

Observation: Our appetite for the natural world, for creatures and plants is insatiable as is the desire to connect with those who desire it. There is more communication with a complete language barrier than in most months of talking with most people in the same language. The eyes, the smiles, the faces made us each come to life in a more meaningful way then any of the facts, interesting though they were, about the walled city and the many battles.

Bougainvillea is everywhere and the colors are breath-taking. And to think the flowers have no color. They are white. The color comes from the leaves surrounding the white flower, which like Poinsettas, are extremely colorful leaves.

Talk soon! L&F