It’s been a few days since my last entry and much has happened. First of all, I must tell about what I did this past Saturday. The AIESEC committees in Bogotá have decided to create a project around social entrepreneurship. They have decided to partner with an Ashoka Fellow here who is based in Ciudad Bolivar, the neighborhood where the most displaced people live.
So, after a long week and a night out to a club, Jean-Maxime and I ventured out on the Transmilenio (the mass transit system here) to the south of the city. We arrived perfectly on time, only to find that it was the wrong station. At this point, when we realized our miscommunication, we asked the advice of a transmil official who gave us slightly sketchy advice that I was almost tired enough to take. I’m grateful that Jean-Maxime was more on his game than I was at that time.
Anyway, I digress…we safely arrived at the station that we needed to be at in a taxi and after a short bus ride, we were in the thick of
Ciudad Bolivar. Unlike the other slum that I have visited, Bosa (reminded me of
Guatemala),
Ciudad Bolivar was unlike anything I have ever seen. I imagine it to be next akin to a Favela in
Rio only more spread out. It is grassy, underdeveloped, and filled with litter. The houses were barebones and the roads mostly were all dirt. This area could not contrast the rest of Bogotá more. The stories that Pedro Pablo (the Ashoka Fellow) told us were very difficult, yet inspiring at the same time considering the potential that there is for development work in this area.
A thought that kept recurring to me as I toured this neighborhood was that these same types of Slums exist in the
US, but nobody would ever expect to see American starving Children on an infomercial asking to feed the children. I have been quite critical of the Colombian government about their maltreatment of poor people in
Colombia, but come to think of it, they follow an example that is from my country, which is difficult for me to swallow.
Today, I went back to Ciudad Bolivar to visit the attention and orientation unit (UAO) of Accion Social and I encountered the same reality of displaced people, but I also encountered something new as well. I met the first Colombian, who I can honestly say is a straight shooter. I explained to him why I thought we were here and some ideas that I had about what I might want to do and he looked me dead in the eyes and basically told me, “If you think you are going to come in here and tell me how to run my show, you’re wasting your time. This is my department and I understand the issues and how to fix them.” This is the reaction that I have been expected to receive all of last week, but never did. The reason for this, I think was ownership. This unit director had ownership and passion for his work and he was slightly more intelligent than the others I think. He helped me clarify how I should be viewing this opportunity in order to get the most out of it, and as I walked home from Alcala, my transmil stop, I realized something that may seem simple, but was quite profound in my eyes. I never want to be a bureaucrat who pushes someone else’s paper just because it needs to be pushed. I need to own what I do to a degree. I think this is what has been missing from my work thus far and I will spend this week trying to create an action plan that leads me to understand the issue of displacement in Bogotá from a broad global perspective, while having ownership over my project and the work I choose to do.
The reason why this realization is important is because it is a value of mine that I have never articulated.
Life here is moving fast. Today was the month marker and I think culture shock is starting to set in. Not in a bad way, more along with the language than anything. My Spanish has greatly improved, but it is clear that I can’t fully express myself, which as many of you know is frustrating. My solution is to try to speak even more Spanish so that I can get over this hump more quickly. I am also not blind to the fact that gaining this ability will take considerable work on my part as well as the better part of a year. It’s going to be hell, but as they say, vale la pena mucha!!
