colombia with the kids

Just over a week ago I finished volunteering in a children's centre in the city of Ibague in central Colombia. I had been there for two and a half months living and helping out there. The centre is part of an organisation called Manos amigas, which as well as the children’s centre has a home for the elderly and affiliations with other children’s and women’s centres in the city. The centre is run by Berenice, who along with her two children live in the centre. So they have been kind of my colombian family for the last two and a half months.
In Colombia, and most other south American countries, children go to school either in the morning or in the afternoon, so as to use the same school building twice and thus fit more children in. therefore the kids are either free in the morning or in the afternoon. The idea of the children’s centre is to give these kids somewhere to go when they are not in school. Therefore the centre has a programme for kids in the morning and one for kids in the afternoon. As well as this and probably more importantly it also serves lunch to 120 children each day as part of a local government funded scheme.
My role as a volunteer in the centre was basically just to help out wherever needed. During my time there, there was also two other foreign volunteers. Julie, a French girl who was there for my first month and a half and Emminna a finish girl who arrived about three weeks after me and is still there now.
The morning programme. This was the more tranquil of the two. Only six children came for this programme which ran from 7 till 10.30. When i arrived, Julie, the French girl was la Madre de la mañana meaning that she was basically in charge of the activities in the morning. In my first month or so the kids were still in school so they usually had some homework to do and if not they would complete work sort of school related. They would do this till about 9-30 and then after do something a little more fun. in my first week or so I just felt largely awkward as i couldn’t really understand a great deal the kids were saying as I hadn’t got used to the Colombian (or tolimense) accent and also the the kids spoke really fast. but as time went on, I got to feel more comfortable with what the kids were doing and with their accents and consequently became more involved in the programme and got to the know the kids a lot better. This was one of the best things about the morning programme as, as there was so few kids I really got to know them well and develop relationships with them. Sometimes it did feel a bit like overkill though when there were say three volunteers and maybe only four kids but it can only have been good for the kids. After a month or so of being there, the holidays started. In Colombia the main school holidays are over the Christmas period. The holidays meant that there was no homework and therefore, we, the volunteers (mainly Julie) had to organise the programme for the kids. This meant we had a week of French classes, which made me realise that what French I did have I had completely lost as it got lost amongst my spanish. We also had a week of finnish, in which I excelled, well not exactly excelled but I was surprised that I still remembered how to count in finish after my study abroad programme there three years ago. And I also gave a week of classes in English. Which i thought were the best, although thats only because i knew the answers. Otherwise, we just did a lot of random stuff. Lots of artwork, making swans from pieces of paper, making dragons from egg boxes and Emminna taught everyone how to make hand bracelets.
The lunches. In my first month in the centre there were no lunches as the local government had withdrawn the funding for them. When they eventually started though I realized what havoc they were. Within a period of less than two hours, up to 120 children would each be served a three course meal. During this time I was basically waiter, running around the centre with dishes of soup and plates of rice and chicken and salad or whatever else was on the menu, and also receiving cheek from the demanding customers. Preparing lunch for these 120 kids was also a huge job. This is where Pilar came in. Pilar along with Berenice was in charge of preparing all of this food. Pilar would be in the centre from seven o’clock every morning in order get this huge task started. As volunteers we would help out wherever Pilar needed us, whether it was peeling potatoes and carrots, chopping all kinds of vegetables, cleaning the dining area and setting the tables. My speciality was mixing the juice in the liquidizer, which broke, although it wasn’t my fault, I think…It was always a pleasure spending time chatting with Pilar while helping preparing the food even if chopping the vegetables for hours on end could get a bit tiresome.
Serving the lunch itself could often be a tiring experience, but I always had a good time with the kids and when we eventually finished the lunches it was nice to relax in the kitchen and stuff ourselves with whatever was left over. Also in my last three weeks there were no lunches as again the funding was cut. Although this meant everything was a lot more relaxed around the centre it was also sad as by then I had come to know most of the kids and new that for many of them the food they ate in the centre was pretty much all they ate in the day, and if not that, then it was definately the most healthy thing they ate in the day.
The afternoons. Roughly twenty five kids would come to the centre in the afternoon and along with Lina, a colombian who is training to be a teacher, we would provide a programme much like that in the morning only more hectic. Despite the fact that there was often four of us, it was often hard to keep the kids in order especially if Lina wasn’t about for some reason. The kids actually listened to her when she told them to do something. With me, especially at the start of my time there, they usually just laughed, mainly at my inability to properly pronounce the Spanish R, and more so, the double R. I remember my first couple of afternoons with the kids well, mainly because it was such an exhausting experience. Trying to get the kids to concentrate for practically three hours was truly hard work. But after time I learned that the most important thing was to be patient, and even if a child had to go on some half an hour mission to find a pencil or colour that they liked, they would eventually listen to me and do what i asked. In my last two weeks at the centre, Lina decided to try something different with the afternoon programme. Basically, what we did was divide the kids in three groups, based upon age, and therefore Lina, Emminna and I would each have our own group of children to manage. I landed what i initially thought was the short straw and was given the eldest group, kids from 10 to 13. I aslo had my own little classroom or the games room as it was known. Therefore, every afternoon for the last two weeks I would have to organise three hours of activities with my group of 8 children. We also decided on a timetable, which largely consisted of spanish and maths, but there was also a little bit of english and some art as well. The times when we had to do maths were relatively straight forward, as all of the kids seemed to like maths, and although they were all at different levels, every one of them would happily sit there and complete the problems i would give them, which also gave me time to try teach a few of them new things, although trying to teach maths in spanish turned out to be hard work. Organising activities for the spanish classes was the hardest thing to do as the kids abilities in reading and writing varied a lot. There were some in my group that despite their age still couldn´t read and there were others that could read better than me. i really wanted to try and teach those who couldnt read to do so, but given the short time and also the nature of some of the kids, it was impossible to do so. I really tried with some but unless i was with a specific child for the whole duration of the three hours i couldnt get anywhere. Therefore with those that couldnt read, most of the time i just got them to practice their handwriting or copy stories from books. With the other more advanced kids i would get them to write stories or i would dictate and get them to copy and then check their spelling and grammar (although what do i know about spanish grammar?) We would also play word games and things like that. English and Art were easy enough as the kids liked drawing and most of the time seemed quite interested in learning English.
Although the new afternoon programme was only for a two week period it was probably the most fulfiliing experience i had there. Basically, what ever i put in I got back. if i made a lot of effort in organising what we would do then generally things would turn out well, the kids would do some good work and i would be happy at the end of the three hours. Like wise if i was lazy, and didnt organise things well, things would most likely be crap and i would be in a bad mood by the end of the afternoon.
The kids. Everyone single of them was a joy to spend time with, and although at times some of them could be difficult, they all had something about them which made them more than worth the time and effort to get to know. I could probably write a blog entry for every one of them but i guess its not correct to mention them individually. Generally, as a group they came from poor or very poor backgrounds. The vast majority of them lived in a nearby neighbourhood called Dos Quebradas, little more than a shanty town. A lot of them didnt have their fathers around and if they were around they were more than likely destructive influences in their lives. Sometimes there mothers were too. They all seemed to have a sad story. But in spite of all their difficulties for the most part they seemed genuinely happy, and although they would moan about doing work, they were happy to be in the centre.
It was a genuinely humbling experience to spend time with them, it made me realise how much i have or did have in my childhood and how much to this day i take for granted. However, it also made me realise how some of these things dont make the slightest bit of difference to ones happines.
The most saddening thing about the children though, is that no matter how hard they try in their education, and in their careers and in their lives in general, there will always be an invisible barrier above them which stops them from reaching passed certain points in society and that this situation wont change.
Other Although it may not seem like it, i had a fair bit of free time in the centre. Mainly the weekends and the evenings. If during the week, the lunch programee was running, then on saturday mornings we would have an early start in order to get to the market ahead the crowds. We would have to by all of the weeks food supply in just one visit. So this meant carrying huge sacks of potatoes, bananas, plantanes, tomatoes, mangos and all sorts through crowded markets. By the time we had finished buying all the food we would have filled up two taxis worth. Although, it was an early start and quite hectic it was always adventure heading down there. Otherwise, two of my weekends i spent in the colombian countryside with Pilar and her family and also Julie and Emmina. Spending time with Pilar´s family was one of the best things about my time there. She has three daughters who also attend the morning programme and spending time with them was without fail, always fun and always different. I also spent a weekend with Julie and Emmina in Medellin, Colombia´s second biggest city. Medellin is, or was, the home city of narco trafiker extraordinaire Pablo Escobar, as well as Colombia´s most famous artist Francisco Botero who´s sculptures of all things fat and round are found all over the city centre. Most importantly though it is the home city of Aston Villa legend Juan Pablo Angel and there are shrines in his honour all over the city (this is a lie).
Sometimes, i would spend my evenings in Dos Quebradas with some of the kids from the centre. However, for the most part, my evenings were centred around the world renound colombian telenovelas (soap operas). I have to admit i was a sad, sad person and actually got quite involved in a few of them. My excuse is that they were actually a very good way of learning spanish. Julie claimed to have learned spanish through watching them alone. They were also quite funny... i miss them.
Anyway, at the moment i find myself in Lima in Peru, after too many long bus journeys from colombia. tomorrow i am taking another 20 hour bus journey to Cuzco. Where i plan to spend some time working in an organisation for street kids, and then do Macchu Picchu and all that...

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