a mini history lesson

i'm kind of ashamed to admit that i don't actually know very much about colombia. apart from a paper i did on the interactions between the Colombian civil war and the war on drugs, a few lectures on international policy, illicit trade, and human rights, and some general stuff about history and international development in south america, i barely covered it in college. and of course nada in grade school. that and news stories on drug trafficking. and shakira.

it's odd, because before i went to uganda, i knew buckets and buckets about it. i could discuss the intricacies of Gulu politics, linguistic variations in different regions, various development initiatives, international politics and trade relations with neighboring countries, and could recite a history of the country that went on for hours. i knew local politicians, military leaders, and journalists by name and even had some of their cell numbers.

but i'm reading up more on it, and finding out some interesting things:

• what do shakira, juanez, and gabriel garcía márquez all have in common? they're all colombian, of course!
• by some accounts, the first inhabitants of colombia arrived there 70,000 years ago. that's 68,000bc, for those of you keeping score at home. that's... a long long time ago.
• i'm very intrigued by this mysterious lost city of the Muisca people "deep in the jungle" and abandoned long ago. probably romanticized, but still.
• when the spanish arrived in ~1500, they were crazy about the supposed wealth of the indigenous people--specifically, the abundant gold religious offerings. that's what gave rise to the myth of "el dorado" (hence the title here) and the fountain of youth.

and in that vein, here's a rather darkly tongue-in-cheek video from everyone's favorite exploradora:

to do: todo!

i found a sticky note on which i'd written a to-do list of personal goals for while i'm in colombia:

• learn spanish. fluently!
• learn more about postconflict education
• dance! salsa & belly & whatever else anyone will teach me
• learn more about catholicism & religious syncretism
• liaise w/ IDP NGOs & development organizations
• have fun! :)

we'll see how these go once i get there. vamos y vemos!

IDPs in buenaventura

really interesting video about the displacement crisis in colombia. not sure if this is anywhere near where i'll be teaching, or if i'll even get to work with displaced communities at all, but fascinating all the same. so many parallels to central africa.

gitana

 

i'm not really sure why, but i've had the song "gitana" by shakira stuck in my head for the past few days. it's a pretty awesome song, i love the lyrics, and most especially the message, too. though the translation in the english version is pretty laughably awful. here's the spanish lyrics, along with a fairly literal translation to english. and here's the english version of the song. i was thinking it could be interesting to try to incorporate music--shakira songs in particular--into my english lessons. we could maybe look at the translations of shakira songs and see if the students could write better ones. and anyway, language lessons involving music were always my favorite--in spanish or chinese class.

in six weeks i will be in colombia. wow. the song seems fitting. 

aprovéchame 

que si llegué ayer 

me puedo ir mañana, 

que soy gitana.

introduction

starting in january 2011, i will be teaching english in colombia* through an organization called WorldTeach. it's a program out of harvard center for international development that matches volunteer teachers with schools and organizations in a dozen different developing countries for year-long placements. i'm still not sure where in the country i'll be teaching, but i'm eagerly awaiting my placement, and wicked excited to go!

*the country, not the university--this causes much confusion in conversation. also not the district of columbia. where i currently work. or columbia maryland. there are too many col[o/u]mbias in my life