if only, if only the woodpecker sighs, the bark on the trees was as soft as the skies
the wolf waits below, hungry and lonley, and cries to the moon, if only, if only

I feel like I haven't written anything (worth reading) in this in a loooong time. Partly I was traveling in Peru and it was difficult/I had way better things to do. But also a lot of it is that I've been feeling really at home here in Colombia recently, and so I forget that I'm still traveling.

Two weeks ago I went to Pance, which is a town on the outskirts of Cali which a river clean enough to swim in. There are like 4 or 5 rivers in Cali but all of the other ones are too polluted to enjoy. From Pance you can access a national park with beautiful jungle and mountains. And the best part is that it costs only about $5 to get there and back, which is CLUTCH because I'm pretty much broke at this point.

I went with two Colombian friends, one of whom, Sebastian, used to work in the national park and so he knew all the guards and all the trails. We met up with Sebastian, the skinniest person I've ever seen, eating a bag of chips he had stolen on his way over, in a mall in southern Cali. From there we took the most crowded bus I've ever ridden on. I literally did not have to hold on as we swerved through the mountains because there were people holding me up on all sides. And, there were two seriously grumpy old women sitting in the front row of seats yelling at everyone to pack in a little tighter so that we could fit more people on the bus. I figured that because they were being so obviously rude, I was justified in unsubtley giving them some glares.

Once we got there we walked for a bit up to the beautiful river where we found a private waterfall and had lunch. I'm not even going to try to describe how beautiful the jungle is, because I won't even come close, but it is incredible to be in a place where everything is so alive. We swam in the river, climbed up the water falls, slid down on the rocks which formed natural water slides, incredible.

Then we decided to hike a bit more, but rather than pay the entrance fee to the park, Sebastian knew how to sneak in, so we did a little jungle trail blazing and bypassed the entrance. However, while we were hacking through the vines, without even knowing about my phobia, Sebastian goes 'oh, seriously, be very careful when you move the foliage. there are a lot of TREE SNAKES here and they are very poisonous' (!!!!). So obviously I couldn't really enjoy the offtrailing because I was freaking out a lot inside, but luckily we did not see any snakes. Just the most beautiful, huge blue butterflies, plus like 20 other kinds of butterflies, and some incredible birds whose name I can't remember but they are about as colorful and awesome looking as parrots. (Btw there are also parrots here. It's really crazy how many awesome animals there are here that people in the U.S. only read about.)

It's 1:30am and I am at gate b2 in the Quito airport. My flight back to bogota is in 4 and a half hours. I'm debating whether or not to try and sleep. Airports are really kind of creepy when you're the only one in them, and at the moment I am definitely the only one around. I've already done a lot of exploring, and there doesn't seem to be any food to 'borrow' but I did find some lovely red roses upstairs (random) which I've given a new home! Peru was incredible, but for now, I'm going to inflate my neck pillow (SO handy, I know) for a few Zzzzzs.

So when I said we were resting last night I apparently meant I was waiting until happy hour to drink a lot of Cusqueno beers and then spend hours dancing with a few people we met to a pretty good cover band. So this morning when we woke up to go mountain biking I had a pretty sweet hangover, but I got over it pretty fast since the Andes are BEAUTIFUL. I had one of those moments where you kind of mentally stop and  just try to take it all in and realize that you are actually where you are doing what you're doing. We biked first to some ruins where the Incas built these farming terraces in natural hole-shaped places in the earth, so the terraces are in circles descending down into the hole. Each level of circle-terrace is about 10 degrees hotter as you go down, so that they could acclimate plants from the jungles in Northern Peru to be grown in the colder highland regions. Brilliant Incas!

We also visited a salt mines, that are actually Pre-Inca, and have this really cool system of controlling the salty water to flow into these pools where the salt crystalizes and then is collected. It was a good reminder of how much work goes in to everything we have. Even table salt that I dont even think about using requires all of this pretty strenuous labor. I know, blah blah, Ive gone to Peru and had a revelation about economic exploitation, but I actually have. Its one thing to hear and know about, but its been such a different experience for me to actually see it. Ive been feeling really spoiled lately and I think Ive decided that Im no longer ok with just appreciating my priviledge and being grateful for it, I think that is not enough.

Anna and I are in Cusco! So far almost we have had a lot of classic tourist moments, but were having a really good time despite it. First, I dont have a lot of clothes in South America, so I had to wash all my underwear when I first got to Annas house in Lima. I put my 4 pairs (the only other pairs I brought besides the ones I was wearing) in the dryer. When I came back from them an hour later, they had vanished. My current theory is that the dryer must have eaten them, but that left me with zero pairs of clean underwear for the next week.

Then, Anna and I got on our coach (the nicest coach I have EVER seen, hands down) for the 20 hour bus ride to Cusco. It had these huge comfy seats like in first class on airplanes, and they gave you the softest blankets ever, and we got to watch movies for hours and hours. Unfortunately, we both got sick from the food, and have spent a good part of the last 48 hours on the toilet.

We made it to Cusco, which is BEAUTIFUL and surrounded steep and jagged mountains of the Andes. It is really touristy though, in a kind of confusing way. One American I talked to earlier today said he felt like the whole country was kind of like a jungle themed Disneyland, and in some ways it definitely feels like that. Everything is for tourists, and so it feels incredibly disconnected from what Peru is like for Peruvians. But at the same time, tourism is such a part of Peru that tourism has in some ways become what Peru is. I dunno, its weird, but I cant really judge since Ive only been here for 2 days now. However, neither Anna nor I will be taking many pictures, since both of our cameras have broken since we arrived.

A lot of things have gone well though. I ate cow heart yesterday - grilled on a stick with potato - which was not nearly as nasty as it sounds. I really couldnt tell it was heart since it was sliced up, and it was a little chewy but pretty tasty. Today we tried Alpaca - also grilled on a stick - and it was also really good!

Last night the hostel were in had karaoke, so after a couple Piscos Anna and I did a pretty fantastic rendition of Californication. Tonight were resting ourselves for a biking tour of some more ruines tomorrow.

Finally have internet at home again, and I got to borrow a friends computer all of yesterday, so I got to watch Modern Family episodes all day. I have never appreciated technology as much as I did at 10am yesterday morning, sitting in bed with fresh orange/passion fruit juice. The fresh juices here are AMAZING, probably mostly because the fruit is so delicious, and I never realized how easy it is to make. You just throw it in a blender, then strain it, all of which takes a couple of minutes. Like guavas, you don’t even have to peel, you just cut the ends off.

The FIFA World Cup U20 is happening in Colombia right now, so on Friday I went to a game in the newly renovated stadium here in Cali. We paid about US $20, and got to see a double header of New Zealand vs. Portugal and France vs. Mali. My friend Alex (a German girl I work with) and I were struggling with how we should decorate ourselves in this situation – how do you pick a country? Do you paint one country’s flag on one cheek and another on the other cheek? That’s a little confusing, maybe we should wear a neutral color like white and pretend it’s for the teams...The Colombians did not struggle with this though – about 90% of the stadium was full of people wearing the yellow Colombian jersey, their faces painted in the yellow, blue, red of the Colombian flag, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that Colombia was not playing in either of the matches.

They don’t sell any alcohol at football games, because apparently it is too dangerous. The fans are so passionate that deaths are not uncommon at matches, so it’s best not to encourage the passion with beverage. You also can’t bring any food in, and all they sell are hot dogs, chorizo, potato chips, this-roasted-pig stuffed-with-rice dish, and soda, and you can’t even leave to eat and come back in. Unfortunate. However, quite fortunate: ALL THE TEAMS stay in the nicest hotel in Cali, the Intercontinental, which is located 5 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE!!!! Obviously I will be spending a lot of time hanging around there the next two weeks….

Reader warning: this post is really just me just rambling to myself, maybe even verging on a philosophical rant, but it’s a ramble I’ve been thinking about for a while now so I needed to get it out of my head.

I think the biggest difference between this summer and last summer is that last summer I learned how beautiful life can be, and this summer I’m learning how ugly life can be. I don’t at all mean that life in Colombia is ugly, I’m just getting a different experience (I was on a train visiting beautiful cities last summer; this summer I’m working 9 hour days at a poverty-reduction agricultural research institute).

Last summer I learned a lot about enjoying life and appreciating everything I have, and I thought a lot about what I was doing with my life and what I wanted to be doing with my life and why I was doing any of it at all – the typical I’m-a-college-student-backpacking-through-Europe revelations, blah blah blah. And all of that changed me (I think for the better) because it forced me to question myself, and I kind of came to the conclusion that all of the stuff we do is a little bit pointless, but we take it SO seriously. Having just done all of the college application madness a year before, I think that was still pretty influential in my thinking. A lot of times I think we lose sight of the fact that we should be taking advantage of the moment rather than pursuing all of these lofty goals that we may or may not accomplish. People always say it’s nice to take time to stop and smell the flowers, but nobody ever actually does. I think people are actually criticized for taking time to stop and smell the flowers. People who take a year off before going to college, or take time off in college, or decide they’d rather study art than biology, or rather work in a lovely coffee shop than do research for a professor, etc. There’s a lot of pressure to ‘be the best you can be’ all the time. I still think all of that pressure is ridiculous and pointless, and a problem with our society. But I also realize now that my point of view is much more first-world than I thought before. Not that I was ever unaware I was from a first-world country. I just didn’t realize that my views about life were so affected by it.

This summer I’m realizing two things: first, that work is a huge part of life – having an actual job is soooo many hours of your life, and it’s usually not that fun even if you’re doing something you really care about (kind of a depressing realization), and second, that my laissez-faire attitude about the importance of working hard is from a societally-privileged point of view. There’s probably an actual term for it, but by societally-privileged point of view I mean that I know how to get what I want in society. I know what I’m supposed to say when and to whom, what kinds of things are expected and rewarded, etc., and because of that I feel like I could get a job pretty easily, anywhere. Maybe that is naively optimistic of me, but thus far (and I know that is only 20 years) I have never had trouble finding work or opportunities. Not because I’m a really good talker or really well qualified, but just because I know how to play the game because I was raised in it.

So last summer when I developed all of my ideas about how seriously things should be taken, there was no necessity factored in. Because, (and I could be wrong) I feel like I have a lot of security. If I needed a job, I’m pretty sure I could get one, so I’m free to do less long-term planning. I’m also pretty sure that I could make a lot of money. Not that I want to, but I know how I could if I did want to. And that’s not something that a lot of people could say; that’s a particular kind of privilege.

I finally caved and got haircut and pedicure on Monday. I haven't had a haircut since late March I think, so it was time, and I've gotten several comments on my gorgeous feet so peer pressure won. Luckily since this is Colombia and everyone gets their hair and nails done all the time, it's very inexpensive and there were 4 salons to choose from within a 2 block radius of my house. Not too shabby considering I have to walk like half a mile to get to the grocery store.


I walk around barefoot a lot (obviously) so I have callouses on my feet, and the floors in my house are reeeeally dirty (I wash my feet several times a day at home but it doesn't seem to do any good) so there was quite a lot of dirt ground into the bottoms and stuck under the nails. And the woman was clearly a little bit horrified, but she got working, quite aggressively I might add. She had this metal tool that she used to scrape a lot of dead skin or cuticle or something away from around my toe nails, and she really just went for it with the digging. She also rubbed a lot of dead skin off the bottoms of my feet, so they are now smooth and soft!

Only yesterday, I tried to play football with the same guys I usually play with, and it was SO PAINFUL. All the dead, hard, nasty skin on the bottoms of my feet was apparently serving a very important purpose of protecting my feet, because after yesterday I have two enormous blisters. Apparently I need to pick either 'Colombian feminine' with nice feet, or 'strange football-playing American' with nasty feet.

Such a good weekend. I still don't have internet in my house, hence the lack of posts, but it means I have lots of time to do other things. On Friday night I taught some Colombians flip cup, but they wanted to play with full cups, and I haven't been drinking that much the last few months, so I could only play a few rounds...We went out to a club we went to last weekend, and one of the really nice things about clubs here is that they place a variety of music. Doing the same dance move over and over for hours gets a little boring, so lots of clubs here switch between electronica, salsa, merengue, hip hop, etc, and it's a lot more interesting. It's also really hot and humid here, so you get really sweaty really quickly dancing. I also tried Viche for the first time, which is possible the most disgusting alcoholic beverage I've ever tasted. It tastes like sweet pee (not that I've ever tried pee) with the burn of alcohol (but it's not warm like I would imagine drinking pee is).

I also bought tickets to the FIFA U20 World Cup, which is in Colombia this year! Saturday night was Colombia's first game, which we watched in a Cuban restaurant. They destroyed France. I also ran up/climbed the Tres Cruces again, the hill that tons of people climb on the weekends, and went to the zoo, high. SUCH a fantastic decision - I've never enjoyed animals so much as I did yesterday. We spent several hours watching the monkeys fight with each other, and the fish swim around and around, and tons of butterflies land on us in the butterfly house.

I do work a lot here though, even though I never post about it. I finally started working on the project I came here to work on last week, which was really exciting. It took that long to finally get everyone in the same meeting to present about the project...everything here is really inefficient. It's a project with CIAT and Apoyo de las Poblaciones Rurales de Ascendencia Africana de América Latina, a non-profit which somehow gets abbreviated to ACUA. I'm working with several community organizations that produce either medicinal herbs or beauty products/essential oils from plants they grow. We're helping them develop their products and find more profitable markets, and also investigating the medicinal plants, which is the part of the project that I find the most interesting.

A lot of the commercial drugs in use now are just concentrated doses of active compounds found in plants, or synthetic versions of compounds found in plants. Investigating traditional medical practices can offer leads as to what plants we should be analyzing chemically for medicinal properties. Additionally, a good portion of the developing world doesn't have access to medical systems other than their traditional, plant-based system, and so research of the plants they are using could be helpful in making the ethnobotany (impressive big word?) more effective. Anyway, it's really interesting, and I'm honestly starting not to mind the 5:30am wake-ups as much.

Yesterday I had a really interesting conversation with a Colombian friend about the difference between collectively oriented cultures and individualistic cultures. I know there is an academic term for this idea, which I learned at some point, but I don't remember it off the top of my head and can't be bothered to search for it.

When I'm in the U.S., the idea that people should always put themselves first is never problematic for me. It seems pretty obvious that it's best to make decisions for yourself, not based on other people's needs or wishes for you. And I think even for an American I'm pretty individualistic. I had a conversation with Daria once about how I don't like doing things based on other people's needs or wishes because it makes me feel vulnerable.

But being here in Colombia, where there is a much stronger collective spirit, makes that statement sound SO selfish to me. People here do so much for each other all the time. I can't imagine how much time they must spend thinking about other people, but it makes the amount of time I spend thinking about myself seem really gross. People in my lab are always bringing me, and everyone else, presents. Nothing big, but every few days I'll walk in and there will be a little chocolate on my desk, and Christian or Juan Migel will say, "para ti." Just because. I never do things like that for other people. Not because I don't want to, but just because I don't usually think of it.

The conversation I had about this yesterday was with a friend who is an undergrad student here in Colombia, in his 5th and final year of study. Here, everyone does 4 years of classes and then they do a thesis, or research project, for their final year. Kind of like comps but bigger. So there are a lot of 5th year undergrads at CIAT doing their research. They receive a small amount of pay while they're working, but are definitely still on the student budget. Anyway, my friend Juan pays for his brother's internet, and for the oldest of his nephews to go to school. His brother is 10 years older and has three kids. Juan doesn't even seem resentful of it though, it's like he's really happy to support people he cares about. I asked him why he does it, and all he said was "no se...soy generoso?"


This is one of those realizations that I couldn't have come to if I wasn't in Colombia. There are a lot of things that seem so normal I don't even question them until I see a different way, and then it's like, "oh duh, that makes way more sense."

Also, I went to the cake place again. SO GOOOOD.

MEN HERE SHAVE, EVERYWHERE. No joke. I discovered this yesterday, when Nancy, Juan and I were sitting around the kitchen table after eating the best chocolate cake I've had in a LONG time. (From this place that is conveniently located right around the corner from my house, but I only just discovered it yesterday. I can't tell if it will be a blessing, or seriously bad news for my wallet/thighs.) We were talking about how well-kept Colombians are - they have the nicest teeth and finger/toe nails I've ever seen. And Nancy just casually drops in the fact that the men are really careful about their body hair too. AS IF men shaving all their body hair is casual. Obviously this led to me demanding that Juan show us his shaved body hair, and it is true: armpits, chest hair, happy trail, NIPPLES, facial hair, down south (although he didn't show us this), but not the legs. The legs are left hairy, interestingly...

The explanation for the shaving is that it is cleaner, and less smelly. More sanitary. Most young men here do it. Juan thought it was really strange that I was so shocked to learn of these shaving habits. I still think it's hilarious, so today at work I asked another friend Hector about it, and he lifted up his shirt to show me his stubble! And when I proceeded to make fun of him, he got really serious about how he thought all men in the whole world should shave. He thinks the only reason men in the U.S. don't shave is because they are insecure about their masculinity, and that shaving your body hair is a way to show that you care about your girlfriend and are willing to invest energy in making yourself look good for her. Oh and yes, he thinks it is a HUGE turn off if girls don't shave all their body hair, or don't take care of themselves in other ways, like failing to get regular manicures and pedicures. The thing about it though, is that Hector is not at all wealthy; the high importance he places on body image is not born out of an excess of money to spend on personal grooming, it really is cultural preference.

Moral of the story is that Colombians must think I am disgusting, walking around in the same pair of jeans every day, with prickly legs and dirt under my toe nails.

The internet is down in our house right now, and I don't have a phone, so I haven't been online, checked my email, or talked to anyone I wasn't looking at face to face in three days. That doesn't sound like that long, but it really is when you're usually online all the time and carrying a phone even when you go to the bathroom.

Friday was a staff party of sorts, at a finca outside of Cali. Everyone in DAPA took a big bus out to this gorgeous house surrounded by tropical plants including coca, and peppers, and these hanging flowers that looked fake. It was the house owned by the parents of one of the project leaders here, who host staff parties pretty frequently. (The last one was apparently the Christmas party, and it got quite rowdy from the stories..) I hadn't seen how really wealthy people live in Colombia before this, but the British pound goes a long way here!! They had a nice lawn, hammocks and gazebos with faerie lights everywhere, a fountain/pool thing, a parrot sitting amongst the enormous tropical flowers greeting everyone. The women who owned the house saw me trying to talk to the parrot, and so she tried to put it on my shoulder. But I think I'm afraid of parrots, and I think the parrot could sense my fear, because the parrot proceeded to squawk loudly and take a lot of anger out on my hair.

After a few drinks in the house everyone went to the nearby river where there was a swimming hole and a big rock to jump off of into the water. It's really weird to see all of the important, professional people you work with splashing around in a pool in their swim suits. But that was just the beginning of the erasing of the line between work life and social life...

We found a patch of grass that was big enough for some pick up soccer, so we played a good sized game. I should mention though that at this point it was me, one other women, and about 20 of the guys we work with, all shirt less and slightly drunk, and really competitively playing soccer. When it finally got dark and we couldn't play any more, we went back to the pool to rinse off the sweat. I don't know who started it, but soon enough the guys were removing the last bit of clothing they had on - their shorts - and swinging them triumphantly above their heads. Don't worry, there are pictures, which one day, I will add.

The rest of the night was pretty much just drinking and lots of dancing. Most people are super good dancers, but when they aren't dancing, people like to sit around the edges of the room and make fun of the people who aren't very good dancers. I don't really mind if people make fun of my dancing; I'm not under an illusions about the quality of my moves. Many people tried to teach me though, so I've now tipsily danced with most of my bosses and project leaders...

Colombians walk around after lunch to help with digestion. We usually finish in the cafeteria and then walk around the CIAT grounds for about 15 minutes. It's pretty nice. Also, Colombians brush their teeth after lunch, too. Everyone brings a toothbrush and toothpaste to work. 

We had a day off yesterday because it was Independence Day. Everyone went out on Tuesday night since there was no work on Wednesday, but I was too tired. I've really been feeling like a grandma lately. It's weird to be the one who never goes out, never smokes, and doesn't really drink that much, since at least in the last couple years I've been the one who always wants to go out. But everyone thinks I'm super lame here. I went to bed nice and early Tuesday night, and was just coming out of the shower on Wednesday morning around 8am when my 4 other housemates arrived home, still trashed and covered in neon paint. 

I've also had a revelation relating to Marx's ideas about labor, which I'm too lazy to write right now, so this is a reminder to myself to write it later.

Some things that don’t translate:

“It’s growing on me.” Nope, you cannot use the verb crecer to say that you are becoming more fond of something; I tried…

The importance of distinguishing between estar and ser. If you want to ask someone “If you were an animal, what animal would you be?” you use ser, not estar. Apparently, if you use estar, the person will think that you are asking them what animal they are with, as in, what animal are they sleeping with. Yes, I learned this one the hard way. However, I think the real question should be why bestiality is SO commonly discussed that use of the wrong ‘to be’ verb would yield this confusion…

I'm sitting on the balcony looking out at the lit up hills of San Antonio (the district I live in). Straight ahead is the florescent glow of the football stadium, on the hill to the right is Cerro de las Tres Cruces and below the hill is the San Antonia Iglesia. I just put chocolate chip cookies in the oven. Or actually, cacao-con-azucar-chunk cookies. You can't really buy chocolate chips here. I found a small, nasty-looking package of chocolate-flavored chips in the mercado but decided the cacao (which is actually for hot chocolate, and so has cinnamon in it!) would be tastier. Obviously I sampled a lot of it during the mixing process and it definitely is quite tasty. Speaking of chocolate, it is really hard to find good chocolate here!!! I went the last week and a half without any (impressive, considering I usually don't go more than 24 hours without chocolate), and so I have consumed two whole bars in the last 36 hours, in addition to the cookies. They sell little milk chocolate bars called Jet everywhere, but those shouldn't really be considered chocolate. Finally yesterday I found some real, good Colombian chocolate in the larger shop down by the river, so I stocked up.

Colombia was eliminated from the Copa America yesterday by Peru in a shoot out, and the US women's team lost the World Cup championship to Japan today, also in a shoot out, so it's been a rough weekend. I had a bit of fun though. Thursday afternoon 5 of us from work (3 Colombians, Theresa the German, and I) did a little chillmaxing in our house. It was about to storm so the air was really thick and humid, and we sat out on the balcony and smoked and watched the huge cracks of lightening. High person Spanish is much easier to understand because it is much slower. We eventually got hungry and walked around the corner to the sandwich shop, but while we were eating it started to pour SO HARD, and so we lazily decide to hail a taxi for the one block back to the house. Unfortunately I left my phone in the taxi, so I am once again disconnected and loving it.

Friday after work my friend took me to Chipichape (I think that's how you spell it? That's how it's pronounced at least) which is the biggest mall in Cali, and known for being a posh hang out place because a lot of the stores there are on the expensive side. Since Cali is also the plastic surgery capital of Colombia (and apparently lots of people from the U.S. come down here to get surgery too since it's cheaper) a large percentage of wealthy Colombian's have implants. Women mostly get boob (teta in Spanish!) or butt jobs, and men apparently like the pectoral and calf implants. So, people watching in Chipichape has another whole level of fun: trying to guess what's real and what's not! Spent several hours doing that and drinking coffee...

People watching has also led to the discovery that Colombian's do not have a concept of PDA. They don't seem to notice the difference between their bedroom and very public areas (malls, grocery stores, public parks, etc, etc) and will make out HARD CORE (grabbing, rubbing, caressing included) anywhere. Also, it's such a common sight, that other Colombian's don't blink an eye if people right next to them head towards second base. I think it's kind of hilarious, but it does still make me a slightly uncomfortable.

After the mall on Friday, we went to a club in this little party village called Manga. It's a strip lined with clubs and people selling snacks and cigarettes, located on the edge of Cali. It was a friend of my friend's 30th birthday, and so there was aguardiente galore. Like a lot of clubs here, the music was a mix of salsa, merenge, other types of latin music I don't know, and electronic. Whenever the type of music would switch, they would BLAST this fog horn sounding thing, which was TERRIFYING (to me at least...everyone else just thought it was funny when I jumped).

Now it's back to work tomorrow, but that's ok. I had a really good meeting on Friday, and there's another one tomorrow, and so it's finally becoming more clear what work exactly I'm supposed to be doing. Also, since I moved offices last week, my boss is paying for all of my meals (SCORE), which is a serious money saver and allows me to try a lot of Colombian foods. Everyday at lunch there is soup, rice, potato and meat, dessert or fruit, 3 types of juices, and salad. And it's actually pretty yummy. On Friday we had Tamales in banana leaves.

In the time it took me to write this, two batches of cookies have come out of the oven. I'm taking them to work tomorrow to thank my entomology lab, since I've now moved out into DAPA. Given the lack of normal ingredients, they taste ok but are not the most appetizing looking things...

I moved desks at work (from entomology to DAPA - the politically active branch of CIAT) so now I'm in the same building as all of my co-workers. It's a lot more convenient, but now they can all see when I'm not doing my work, aka on facebook/blogging. And it's kind of unclear how acceptable these activities are...I'm the only one managing my time, and I get everything done, but I guess it probably still looks bad if I'm on the clock chilling and checking out my friends photos...
But, I'm blogging anyways, hehehe. Or I should say, jajaja
Last night, I learned how to make arepas - the aforementioned cardboard like corn cakes. No wonder they lack flavor - they are literally just masa and water, mushed around a little and grilled. However, we also made a variation with sweet corn, that were pan fried and more delicious. They're usually eaten for breakfast, like pan de bono, these baked cheese-dough things. On Sunday I'm learning to make some national bean dish, and hopefully tamales soon!

I never paid that much attention to body language and tone and facial expression, but when people speak to me in Spanish and I can't understand the actual words, I've been noticing a lot more about the way people talk. And it's been a lot harder to get to know people in Spanish, but I end up getting to know them differently, based a lot less on what they actually say, and much more on the tone of the conversation and mannerisms. It's kind of cool actually. Except when it's weird (since I tend to kind of just stare at people while they talk to get more visual cues).

And I've been getting together with three middle-aged Colombian women twice a week during the lunch break to teach them English. And teaching English is so much harder than I ever would have thought!! Or maybe I'm just a really bad teacher, but I hope it's more just that we don't have a common point of understanding from which to start. My Spanish is a lot better than their English, so most of the explanations take place in Spanish, but it's impossible to explain verb tenses that don't really exist in Spanish, given that I don't even really understand them all in English. I thought I was pretty decent at English grammar, given that my mom is an English teacher and way too fond of grammar, and I can write without making a lot of grammatical errors. But there are all these tenses that I didn't even realize we use all the time that are weird. Seeing how Spanish-speakers try to understand English actually helps me understand Spanish though, because I'm getting a better sense of all the different ways that they think about language.

A little story I wrote to practice my new vocabulary: 

Por países en desarrollo, los pobres están en una peor situación que en lugares con infraestructura fuerte y más acceso a micro financia. En mi trabajo a CIAT, voy a examinar maneras diferentes para entrar mercados con empresas sostenibles, porque mediante mercados sostenibles, los pobres pueden lograr empoderamiento y conseguir ingreso. Hay varios modelos de negocios, y mi investigación voy a estar concentrado en una comunidad en la costa de Colombia. Esta comunidad ha usado el mercado de cosméticos para vende plantas homeopáticas, jabones, jarabes, y aceites esenciales. A través este enfoque, las mujeres han rescatado sus familias de la pobreza, y al mismo tiempo, han preservado saberes de su cultura de ascendencia africana. Lo que me interesan son las relaciones entre la comunidad y los otros actores en la cadena de valor. Esta cadena es importante como un modelo, porque en general, los pobres representan una población con rentables desaprovechados.

A veces, es difícil para incluir las pobrezas en la cadena porque hay muchas exigencias saludes, y a veces la comunidades faltan la gestión y capacitación. Pero, usualmente, estés poblaciones representan un buen oportunidad para incluir un nuevo porcentaje del población en una manera rentable. Es evidente para la trabajo del banco Grameen y el éxito de proyectos con micro financia.

I finally had a real weekend in Cali. Waking up at 5:30 every morning really destroys any prospect of a social life for me since I'm ready to go to bed at about 10pm, but I took Thursday and Friday off, so I was well rested for Friday night and Saturday. Friday we went out to some swanky clubs in Granada, a neighborhood that is known for being a little posher and stuck up. It's a trade off though, because since it is a higher class/more expensive neighborhood, Granada is also safer at night. The clubs either played a lot of American hip-hop or Salsa. And Saturday night I went out with my new housemate Nancy, an American, and a bunch of Colombians we work with. 

Sunday was by far the best though. We got up at 6:30 (the word for hangover is resaca) to run up a nearby hill called Cerro de las Tres Cruces, which, yes, has three crosses on it. It was FULL of Colombians, from little kids and their parents, to young adults, to the elderly. At the top of this hill there is a market of sorts every Sunday, with tons of little stands selling Gatorade, water, chopped up fruits (mango, papaya, banana, pineapple, coconut, yummmm), and baked goods. And all of these Colombians sitting around toweling off sweat, stretching, lifting weights in the little cinder block gym there, or, literally a few feet from the buff guys doing curl-ups, SITTING IN PEWS LISTENING TO SUNDAY MASS. Haha, Catholicism...

While we were doing a few sit ups with the dudes in the gym, we ran into two guys from CIAT, Juan and Hector! We ran back with them to their apartment, which reminded me a lot of student housing in the U.S. (dying house plants, no kitchen table since they usually just eat in their beds, etc), and familiarity is nice at this point. Since you can order in all different types of food (BRILLIANCE), we got Chinese fried rice, which Colombians are strangely fond of, delivered and watched Colombia beat Peru in the Copa America.

They say that when youre learning a language, you go from thinking you don't know anything, to starting to feeling pretty good cause you're getting the hang of it, to realizing how incredibly daunting it actually is to become fluent in another language. So while I suppose my recent frustration with my Spanish abilities is a sign of progress, it's still just frustrating to realize just how many different words there are and how I'm never possibly going to know more than a fraction of them.
Luckily, after 2 days of struggling through UN documents written in Spanish, Dan and Sammy (who speak no Spanish, though Dan would argue that he could teach Spanish lessons) have arrived in English.
Yesterday we went to our first salsa dancing class, which was kind of hilarious, but since Cali is the world salsa dancing capital, we kind of had to at least try it. We got quite stoned before hand, which probably didn't help with the hilarity, but definitely helped me keep the beat. Today we had our second lesson, but Sammy backed out at the last minute, so we told the instructor and everyone at the class that he was having really smelly, exlposive diarrhea, hehehe.

I've decided to learn how to swim! Technically, I can keep my head above water, but not for very long, and not moving very quickly. Mostly, it is just way too hot in Cali to run comfortably, and it's too dangerous to run in the evening when it starts to get cooler, and I'm so desperate for exercise that yesterday I finally overcame my catlike hatred of swimming and just got in there to do laps. Except holy jesus, swimming is really good exercise, or I'm extremely out of shape, because all I could manage was a lap at a time, and then I had to catch my breath for a few minutes before attempting another. At least there is clearly a lot of room for improvement, so hopefully by the end of the summer I will be a dolphin.

I also can't tell if it is possible to 'practice Spanish' in a non-flirtatious way. In the two weeks I've been in Cali, I've met a few Colombians, but the only ones who have suggested that we get together so I can practice Spanish/teach them English are guys. So does that mean if I accept this offer, it's kind of like a date? I wouldn't think so, but I guess it is a classic excuse for a date, and no girls have offered. Maybe I will just have to try it and find out, because I really do want to practice Spanish...

Side note: you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet because it clogs the pipes, so you have to throw it away in the trash can next to the toilet (like other Latin American countries I've been to, and maybe most developing countries?). This makes taking the garbage out DISGUSTING, but also provides a lot of insight into the folding/crumpling habits of others.

Back at work after the second three-day weekend in a row!! Colombians celebrate anything and everything, which I do not mind at all. Carleton should really get more in the spirit.

Anyway, I went on a little 2-night trip to a town called Salento, in the coffee-growing region of Colombia. I went with John, Theresa (seriously, there should be prizes for third-wheeling. I would win them all), and a few of their friends who I didn't know very well. Salento was beautiful; the town itself was very touristy, but most of the tourists were Colombian so I didn't mind at all. There were little stands lining the streets, selling arepas (these corn cakes that are really kind of like cardboard. I'm not sure why people eat them), and fresh mango and trucha (trout, the area is famous for them). On Saturday we took these jeeps up to this place  where we rented horses up into the mountains with cloud forests!! Unlike in the U.S. where there are lots of guides, and you wear a helmet when you ride horses, they pretty much just gave us the reins and said go, and off we rode. It was a little more exciting, just because I really was not sure that my horse was not going to go wild and throw me off down the mountain. Or that it wasn't going to fall on the really steep, rocky paths, that the horses slipped on more than a few times. But we made it, and then spent the rest of the day hiking up higher, and then all the way down through the beautiful forests. Cloud forests aren't the same as rain forests, but they still have different layers. There are some reeally, really tall trees, some shorter trees, and then some tall bushes with HUGE leaves. All of the plants looked really exotic and jungle-y though, and there were vines and enormous, colorful flowers everywhere, and tons of these huge butterflies.

So that was all good, except that the other people I was with were kind of weird. It's hard to get a sense of people when you don't really speak the same language, but after three days with these guys I've decided it isn't just a language barrier - they are not people I would be friends with even if I spoke Spanish. For one thing they are all about thirty, and you really do change a lot and enjoy different things at 30. But for another, sometimes you don't change a lot, apparently, since these guys seriously just made sexual jokes the entire time. Even after I learned the appropriate slang to understand the meaning of these jokes, it just was not THAT funny, not for 3 days. I'm not that good at being subtle though, and they could tell that I found them all a little bit annoying, so I feel bad about that. Seriously could not be helped though. Especially since one of the guys got pretty drunk the first night and would not stop asking me why I was single, whether I wanted to go out to eat with him when we got back, why I wouldn't dance salsa with him, etc, etc. And classically unsubtle, I finally just left the bar and went to bed, so HE FOLLOWED ME BACK, not understanding why I wasn't having the time of my life.

It's good to be back in Cali though, and Dan and Sammy are coming to visit tomorrow, so can't wait to speak LOTS of English!!

Work is finally starting to get interesting, which is great since I'm here from 7:30-4:30 every weekday. For the first week I was mostly meeting with people to try and find a project I could work on, but I think I've found one! We're putting together a guide for small-scale farmers that will help them apply a business model to their operation. My personal business experience extends about as far as the lemonade stands my brother and I had when we were little, however after all of the reading I've done on businesses, I now know that we used product development to increase our value proposition (by offering, not just beverages, but snacks also). Business models are actually a lot more interesting than I previously thought...Anyway, I get to work on section 1, which is about value chains, and something I know much more about to begin with. It's kind of weird, though, to be given so much freedom to do real things (i.e., write a section of this real guide that real people will actually read). Part of it, I think, has to due with the fact that everyone here assumes I'm a graduate student. I've been asked what my 'background' is dozens of times (and given dozens of different answers...)
CIAT, where I'm working, stands for Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, and conducts a lot of agricultural research specifically aimed to reduce poverty. Given that, it's really ironic how much hierarchy there is here. There are department leaders, who are given cars with diplomat status (that's weird..). There are all of the scientists and lab staff who work for the leaders, and then there are the farmers who do most of the labor of growing the crops that are involved in research. There are three different dining spaces, one for each of these groups to eat lunch in separately. Apparently the justification for this separation is that the field workers need to eat more so the portions are bigger, and the department leaders can pay more, so they have more expensive food....
Also, the mosquitoes here are fly way faster and are way smaller than the ones in the U.S., which is SO ANNOYING.
And, last night two french hippies moved into my house as well. It's a man and a woman couple, and then were high as a kite last night when we got home from a birthday party celebration, haha! Weed seems to be really common here, and costs like a tenth of the price as it does in the states, which doesn't make a ton of since, since food and other stuff is only maybe a third of the price as in the U.S.

Colombian phones make NO SENSE. There are like 4 different cell phone carriers, and so it is really cheap to call your same carrier, but really expensive to call other carriers. Because of this, no one uses their phone to make calls, just to receive calls. If you want to make a call, you go to one of the many people selling minutos on the street, where you can pay by the minute to use a phone of any carrier. These are apparently kind of illegal, but I say kind of since there are about 10 per street corner, despite an equally high number of policia on every corner also. Additionally confusing is the fact that the area code you dial for a number changes depending on whether you are calling a cell phone or a land-line. What?! I thought area codes depended on area...
Two guys who work in my lab tried to explain all of this to me on Sunday. They offered to give me a tour of Cali since they both grew up here and seem to have taken on the responsibility of making sure I don't get myself killed. They drew me a little map of where I can walk in the city and where I should not walk (which is about 3/4 of the city, and not an over precaution). The worst district is called something like Rosa Blanca, where there's a lot of gang activity, and where they both used to live (Cristian now lives with his grandmother in another neighborhood). And made me a list of things not to do, including walk around with an Ipod, ever, hail a taxi alone, etc. I'm still really surprised by how generous everyone here is though. I think these guys are the poorest people I've ever actually known, but they insisted on buying beer and pan de bono (or something like that, it's these little donut shaped dough things with cheese) and empanadas for us on the tour. It's really hard not to feel guilty. The other day Cristian, upon seeing my tattoo, said he really wanted to get one of his mother on his back. She just died at the beginning of this month, but he doesn't have any money to pay for it. What's the story of my tattoo? Uhh, I was in London, and my friends wanted to buy me one, so they did, because they could...It's also really weird to realize that everything I ever talk about implies that I have money. Like just the fact that I'm in Colombia traveling, and neither of them have even traveled in Colombia, let alone any other country. They're great though, and it's giving me a different kind of appreciation for privilege.
A lot of the Colombians who work here at CIAT had to work harder to get here than anyone I've ever seen, too. It's really common for people to have day jobs and have done college and graduate school at night. (And I know many people in the U.S. do that too, but knowing about something is not at all the same as seeing it up close.) Compared to that, it really is like I have the world just handed to me.
More about my house. It's affectionately been named the Earthquake House or Casa de Terremoto by the CIAT extranjeros who live in some swankier apartments up the street because "if there was an earthquake, there would be no house." I love it though; there is the most beautiful view of the city from the balcony, and the hallway and part of the kitchen is open to the sky, so when it rains (which is almost every day for at least a little bit), it rains into our house and makes a beautiful noise. Of course, there are also a lot of leaks in the roof, which isn't actually a roof, but plastic with some tiles laid on top. And sweeping is a new experience, since the floor is not really a floor, but boards nailed to some framework with lots of holes into the downstairs. So half the time I think I just sweep dirt down into Theresa's room...

Ive found people to play football with here. This weekend I've hung out with Theresa and John and their friends. Everyone is really, really nice and friendly, but it's still a little strange to be the worst at Spanish and the youngest by 4-15 years. Anyway, the guys of the group all get together and play football a few times a week. It's a mix of colombian and German men, all of whom are at least 26, mostly older, and then me, this 20 year o of female american. But it is really fun, and since women don't really play that much football here or in Europe, they all think I'm crazy good. I didn't bring any shoes I could run in thouh, so yesterday I walked down to the center to buy some tennis shoes. There is shop after shop filled with brand name - lacoste, addidas, Nike, etc - shoes, only when I went to pick some out, John explained that they're all fakes! So now I've got my own, super classy pair of knockoff addidas marathons.
Last night we went to this place called The Saloon, and heard this great live band, and I was somewhat forced to try aguadiente, the most popular hard alcohol, that tastes like cheap vodka with anise flavoring. Blehh.

I'm in Cali now, which is really different than traveling around. I'm living in in barrio se llama San Antonio, in this really cool, old house. Its open in the hallway and dining room, so the sun and wind and all come right in.
There are 3 of us now, me, a masters student from Germany who's doing her research at CIAT with me, and her Colombian boyfriend who I suspect is at least 30 if not a little older. He works on water pollution issues in the city. They're both really sweet people, and really good dancers so they took me out salsa dancing last night.
We get up at 5:30 every weekday in order to catch our bus, which means I don't have a ton of ganas for other stuff, but i can run in the agricultural fields at work which are really pretty.

SO MUCH FREE COFFEE AT WORK!!
Also, endophytic entomopathogens in frijoles, oh my!

The jungle is so cool! It`s like the safari ride at Disneyland except real. There are soooo many kinds of butterflies of all different sizes and colors, and luckily no snakes yet. Dan, Sammy, and I went to San Gil, which is supposed to be the adventure capital of Colombia, and so logically we went on an 'adventure trip.' I thought it sounded a bit lame at first, but, silly me, I forgot we're in Colombia where no one is afraid of following safety laws or getting sued...i.e. it was SUCH a sweet trip.

First, we all shared this local, hard cider drink, that is literally just water and sugar that is left to ferment. Apparently you get rum if you distill this cider. Then we explored a cave that indigenous people used to live in, that you had to crawl in to, and there were parts inside where we had to wade through really dark water (creepy). There were TONS of bats, and for a while we sat in the complete darkness so the bats would fly around. They never hit us (cause of their bomb sonar navigation obvs) but they got so close that you could feel the wind they made as they flew by your face. There was also a part in the cave that seemed to be made completely of clay mud, and our guide told us to cover ourselves with it because it's good for your skin (like when you get a mud bath at the spa??). I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but he covered himself in it so we just kind of followed along. I've probably never been so dirty in my life.

After we came out of the cave we had the next 4 hours to hike down a river bed through the jungle. So we climbed down these huge, moss-covered rocks, swung from tree vines, and walked through the river where it was calm enough, and then when we got to waterfalls, we repelled down them with ropes, or jumped down them if they weren´t too high. Right before the first jump that we came to, our guide goes ''make sure you jump feet first, because it is not very deep, so you need to be sure you will hit the bottom with your feet.''

Our guide, Miguel, was a Colombian who lived in London for the past 10 years or something and spoke really good English. He brought some bocadillos for us to eat on the trip, which is crystalized guava wrapped in banana leaf, and sooo good. Anyway we could just throw the banana leaves into the jungle to decompose, at which point Miguel gave us an impassioned speech about how crazy it is that we know how to use natural wrappings like leaves and yet we are still using plastic and styrofoam. ''People say they care about the environment, but no, no they dont care or they would do something!'' He also brought along some tobacco which he snorted right before we headed out, claiming that he uses it everyday since it cleans out his respiratory system!

Apparently buses in Colombia vary greatly, and there is a very good reason most of the bus stations have chapels to pray in before hitting the road. Ive tried two bus lines, going to San Gil and coming back to Bogota. The journey should theoretically take the same amount of time, since it's the same distance both ways. Wrong. On the way there, we took a swankier company, that was actually the nicest coach I think I've ever been on, complete with TV the whole ride, and bathrooms and really cushy seats that reclined! The ride took us about 7 hours, making 2 stops. On the way back, I took a different company, that more Colombians take. Every seat was full, and there was no airconditioning. We make about 25 stops on the way back, but it only took us 8 hours, because when we werent stopped, we were driving SO fast and carelessly it was actually like a video game. The driver made phone calls and texted while he was driving, and then passed cars in front of him when he got to them, without really caring whether or not he could see what was coming in the opposite direction. 

Some things:
It's been one week and still haven't found a warm shower.

9/10 Colombian families brews a pot of coffee every day (fact courtesy of Dan, who loves learning SO much he felt a need to share these juicy tidbits round the breakfast table)

I think Colombian men are required to join the police force for one year. We visited the police museum in Bogota and got a free tour by two young officers. The museum was not very interesting, but it was quite gross, with lots of pictures of dead and mutilated cartel members. And even a tile with some of Pablo Escobar's real blood! There was also this sign that said, in Spanish, "If you want to be happy for a day, party. If you want to be happy for a year, get married. But if you want to be happy for a lifetime, join the police force." I asked the officers, who by the way were wearing army garb and carrying really big guns, if that was true, and one of them said "Well, I think if you want to be happy you have to do what you really love doing." At which point the other officer chimed in " Yeah, for me it is music.  I love to play music."

I saw my first crime yesterday. I was in a taxi by myself in Bogota and we passed a taxi stopped in the middle of the road. Inside two women were fighting with their driver. Not arguing, but actually leaning over the seats grabbing and struggling with something. In the middle of the street. Since there are so many police around the city all the time, the taxi created enough of a commotion that some officers came running over with guns pointed right away, but it was still a little shaking. My taxi driver said something along the lines of "ah, everyday things of Bogota."

So Ive now met up with Dan and Sammy, my friends who flew in from England yesterday, and weve had a pretty good time. Granted, all weve done so far has been get drunk and go out dancing last night, and then this morning we went to a museum, but THEN we had lunch and I did the classic tourist move of ordering something off the menu even though i didnt know one of the ingredients. It was called frijoles con something, and it came with arroz and aguacate, so how wrong could i go, right? Anyway the food came and soaking in my bean broth was a pig foot. Seriously, it had four little toe things, and was pretty squishy, and you could see the bone and tendons that had been severed at the end. SOOO SURPRISING. The soup was really good though, so I guess pig feet make nice broth.Something to try in culinary house next year??

In other news, my Spanish is definitely getting better. I learned Colombian slang for cool, chevere, and i also learned how to say 'i want to tap that ass'. And thanks to Sammy's Spanish phrase book, which so very thoughtfully comes with a romance section, i can also confidently say ´'sorry, i cant get it up' and 'its ok, ill do it myself.'

Last night I found myself speeding through the streets of Bogota, packed into a little car with 5 other Americans, drinking Colombian rum (which is way tastier than cheap rum in the states), which spilled sometimes as we swerved to avoid 5-foot potholes, or when the other drivers arbitrarily decided there should one more or one less lane of traffic. They have lane lines, but, kind of like the traffic signals, they seem to be more of a suggestion than a law. I met one of these Americans at my hostel, and he knew a few people who live here and teach English. So we went to a Colombian house party, speaking a little Spanglish and listening to salsa music. I was definitely the youngest person there by about 7-10 years, but everyone so far is super friendly.

Im in Colombia!!! Got here at 5 this morning, and after a quick lil nap I went exploring. I did somehow manage to find the museo d'oro which has tons of gold stuff made by the indigenous people who lived in Colombia SOO LONG AGO. I didnt realize this but the first evidence of agriculture was here (as far as I understood in Spanish). Speaking of Spanish, I'm not really. It is so much harder to understand real people who talk so fast!! It feels unfair so far-like I'm not actually THIS bad at Spanish if only there were some pauses in between words. But i have managed to buy things!! Including mangoes and avocados yumm!!