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Published: February 4th 2007
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1. English first
2. Español abajo This is the way my girlfriend's country looks from the inside! This entry’s photos are mainly from the Carnaval de Antaño, a colourful prelude to the actual Barranquilla Carnival, which begins in just over two weeks. Although I am going to miss the Carnivals here this year, Rochy and I have tasted some of the colourful, chaotic experience. You can see this in the surrounding photos!
Apart from that, here are some of my thoughts on life in Colombia…
Muchachas Most middle-class families here have a ‘muchacha de servicio’, who is effectively a maid. She cooks, cleans, irons and washes clothes. In many cases, but not all, the muchacha actually lives in the house too. When I first lived in Colombia in 2002 I found this a strange concept, as the muchacha was more or less the same age as me. I was told that whenever I was hungry or wanted my clothes washed, I was just to tell her and she would take care of the rest!
Rochy’s family have a chequered history when it comes to muchachas. Once they employed a girl who
used to secretly siphon off clothes from the washing pile, wear them at night, and bring them back the next morning. Apparently she was found out because she turned up for work wearing a pair of Rochy’s Diesel jeans! They have also gone through several muchachas in recent years, hiring and firing them frequently.
Often the muchacha will use the formal ‘usted’ when addressing people in the house, but sometimes this is taken to extremes. Although older people are usually referred to as “Señor” or Señora, but Rochy’s cousins told me that their muchacha was asked to address them as “el ingeniero Andrés” and “la arquitecta Ana Milena”. I think they were making it up though. When a new muchacha started working part time at Rochy’s house last week, she was asked to refer to me as “el joven Ian”!
So far the new one fails to cut the mustard in the Granados household: the verdict is that she is lazy. As such, Rochy’s mum has already floated the possibility that the muchacha will get the chop as soon as a better one is available.
Driving in Barranquilla Roads here are generally in
a bad condition. I don’t drive here, and though in general I miss driving, I have no desire to do so here. On one hand roads in Barranquilla have certainly improved since 2002, when I remember there being many gaping holes and unpaved areas in the middle of residential streets. Now there seem to be fewer obstacles dotted throughout the city, though they still exist. The mark of a good driver here is not so much how safely or reliably he drives, but how capable he is of avoiding the holes on the road.
On the other hand the roads are now replete with psychotic motorcyclists; drivers who seem to enjoy testing who can squeeze through the narrowest gap between cars. They are highly aggressive drivers: they cut you up at traffic lights and overtake on both sides. I have been very tempted to spontaneously and violently open the passenger door when one of these motorbiking arseholes is crudely overtaking, sending them sprawling along the road!
Aside from crazy motorbike drivers, the roads in Barranquilla are full of strange and opportunistic individuals. At traffic lights on major roads, kids will rush up to your car with a window
cleaner and washing up liquid. Irrespective of whether you want your windscreen cleaned or not, these kids immediately get to work cleaning it. These kids are obviously quite poor and this is probably their main source of income. From their perspective, it’s quite a clever tactic to just start cleaning anyway, as most people will guilt-trip themselves into give them a few coins for doing it. There are also mimes, stilt-wearers, and people painted entirely in gold, all of whom approach cars at the lights and perform for them. The mimes are quite good, as they catch the eye of the children, who then pester their parents to hand over a few coins.
On the streets there are sellers of all kinds of products. I don’t mean on the pavements, I mean at traffic lights and on busy streets where traffic is congested. People tout DVDs, newspapers, posters, fruit juice, crisps and other snacks. Our favourites are the guys who sell glass bottles of delicious cashew nuts. There are also guys who hawk cigarettes, chewing gum, coconuts, bananas, scrap metal, wooden crates of strawberries and all sorts of odds and ends.
Imágenes vibrantes Las fotos que sacamos en el desfile del Carnaval de Antaño muestran la gama de colores que se ve en la gente carnavalera aquí en Barranquilla. Me ha impresionado bastante lo mucho que los costeños se emocionan por sus queridos carnavales. La reina del Carnaval (cuya cara aparece en varias fotos nuestras) sale casi todos los días en los medios de comunicación, y además las tiendas y los centros comerciales se aprovechan de la emoción del evento, decorando sus interiores según las imágenes carnavaleras y ofreciendo toda clase de promoción relacionada con las fiestas. Espero que, al ver las fotos, ustedes puedan captar un poco la electricidad de las festividades del Carnaval de Barranquilla.
Los oftalmólogos: parte dos! Desde la última vez que escribí pasé otra semana trabajando con los oftalmólogos norteamericanos en un barrio bastante pobre de Barranquilla. Tuve la oportunidad de pasar una tarde en la sala de cirugía, viendo de primera mano a especialistas realizar varias operaciones a pacientes colombianos. Entrando a la sala de cirugía, totalmente tapado y con las manos recién lavadas con antiséptico, pensé que ver ojos abiertos, sangre y más me daría asco, pero me equivoqué.
La mayoría
de las operaciones que yo vi eran para quitar las cataratas de personas de avanzada edad. Me apasionó bastante ver la confianza con la cual estos cirujanos, jóvenes y viejos, trabajan. Consultan, revisan la situación, utilizan sus bisturís especializados, hacen cortes, tapan y destapan áreas de ojo, aplican gel y otros líquidos y lo hacen todo con una familiaridad y un estilo que sugieren que ellos han llevado a cabo operaciones así miles de veces. Operan el ojo de alguien como si estuviesen mezclando un cóctel: son así de confidentes. Aunque me quedé impresionado por la experiencia, no pienso convertirme en médico, a pesar de las sugerencias y chistes de los cirujanos. Definitivamente no es lo mío!
El trabajo fue muy una experiencia gratificante, no obstante cuando estaba corriendo de un consultorio a otro, ayudando a pacientes a sentarse, dándole malas noticias a alguien, pues a veces me pregunté porque lo estaba haciendo. Estoy de vacaciones aquí: nadie me estaba pagando por levantarme a las seis, pasar una hora en bus cruzando la ciudad, y traducir términos médicos durante la mitad del día. Sin embargo, superé aquellos pensamientos negativos y pensé en lo útil y valiosos del proyecto: los
Lebranche - fresh, and big!
Rochy and I shared this fish at the beach. It was enormous, and delicious. oftalmólogos atendían a un promedio de 700-800 pacientes al día y trabajaban durante diez días. Es más, operaban a un promedio de 30-40 pacientes al día. En total, brindaron consultas, tratamiento especialista de láser, lentes, gafas de sol y gotas y otros medicamentos a alrededor de 7,000 personas en la cuidad de Barranquilla. 7,000 personas. Lo que impresiona todavía más es el hecho de que realizaron operaciones de catarata, terigeo, ojos cruzados y más a por lo menos 300 personas. Es decir, por lo menos 7,300 personas han podido mejorar o recuperar su vista gracias al trabajo de los oftalmólogos y sus asistentes. Impresionante - si o no?
Bueno, ahora me despido de ustedes porque la mamá de Rochy me acaba de brindar un jugo de piña bien frío y parece delicioso.
Estén donde estén en el mundo, espero que todos ustedes sigan gozando de 2007 y espero sus comentarios abajo.
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Jo
non-member comment
What a country!
Hi Ian, it has been absolutely great reading your blog, checking out the photos of this amazing country and getting to know Rochy's family! Enjoy the time that remains there and I hope to see you both back in the UK soon. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! Un abrazazo fuerte