Embracing Our Humanity

Colombia, One Month In

It’s been just a couple days more than a month since I made the move here to Cordoba, Colombia. The move involved at least a couple years of research and planning and several missteps, but finally happened! And while there are still several key documents I need to stay here officially and mountains of language and cultural norms I need to learn, my heart is calm while my brain is focused on what’s next.  

At times I miss the ease with which I moved from place to place in the US (yes I was over-reliant on a car), or the comfort of long-time routines (I had lived in my last apartment for 32 years), I don’t miss the stridency of U.S. political discussion. I can’t say I miss the terrible political dysfunction of U.S. politics, the Republican/Democratic Party duopoly or the absolute frustration of trying to be heard as an alternate political party. We’re even seeing, again, the suppression of opposing viewpoints within the Democratic Party. I don’t miss the limited political debate.

Street noise where I live in Colombia is much louder than in the Morris County suburban garden apartment complex in which I lived. Very loud motorcycles speed by all the time (better look both ways when crossing the street), but it seems poverty and hunger are the biggest threats to this community here. If you look throughout the country, violence against activists and community leaders is still higher than in most, if not all, countries, but so far, the endless stream of mass shootings that takes place in the US hasn’t yet reached here. I hope it never does. 

And while politics in Colombia are also corrupt and a concern for many, there are some signs that life for the people of Colombia, under Gustavo Petro, will make some improvements. On the other hand, I hold out very little hope for the U.S. Imagine a country in which a white vigilante and ex-Marine is hailed as a hero for killing an unhoused, mentally challenged young black man! Actually no need to use your imagination because it happened in the U.S. just one week ago. 

Of interest, though, is that Petro and Colombia recently rejected and suspended the U.S. proposal to build an 8th military base in Colombia on Isla Gorgona, or that Gustavo Petro and Colombia refused to send weapons to Ukraine or that Colombia sent the U.S. illegal choice for the presidency of Venezuela packing, leaving Juan Guiado to take up residence somewhere in Florida. 

It feels good to be on the correct side of history for a change. 

We’ll get back to politics momentarily.  

For the moment, let me focus on personal growth and challenges. 

I have learned, once again, the power and necessity of humility. It’s not a good thing to insist that I’m right, especially when Spanish is involved. It is so easy for me, a non-native speaker studying for about 3 years, but living here for only 1 month, to understand the general intention of a description or a directive but to miss key details or nuances. It is so embarrassing to think the victim of an accident was a woman, when it was actually a man so that you don’t know who to mourn. So much can turn on a missed “lo” instead of a “la” or an “el” instead of an “ella.” I know it will get easier for me each day or each week, but humility will always remain important. 

I am learning not to rush into something the way I was used to doing in the U.S. Most everything that needs to happen here will happen, if I can stay patient. It takes the pressure and the tension down just a little bit if I change my attitude.  I can’t tell you how many times my North American impatience has gotten me into trouble or caused me to question something, when if I had waited for 5 or 10 minutes, even a day, everything would have worked out. 

Going hand in hand with patience is persistence and flexibility. I’ve always had a healthy dose of persistence – one has to have it to be an activist trying to change the cruel system people live under in the U.S., but flexibility has always been a sore point. I like to stay focused and try to do things when I say I will do them. But that isn’t always possible. Learning to readjust my timetable and expectations is one way to stay focused, just not driven to achieve a goal on what is often, not always, an arbitrary time table. 

Back to politics now. I am slowly being drawn into Colombian politics. I have been asked to see if we can build alliances with any of the Green Party members in Colombia. I have, in the past, worked on environmental issues here in Colombia that overlap with similar environmental issues in the U.S. The issue of the megamines for gold and mines for coal and mines for silver all impact greatly on the incredible biodiversity of Colombia. U.S. consumer obsession with the monoculture, water intensive, chemically dependent Avocado Hass must be curbed to save the fertility of much of Colombian farmland. And the movement against fracking here in Colombia continues to grow.

On April 28th, I attended an environmental conference in Medellin. I posted something about it on Facebook. I focused mostly on my frustrations with understanding the Spanish, as related to one specific law, first published in 1993. The Petro administration is looking to change/amend it to be more relevant to today’s environmental challenges. Grass roots environmental leaders are frustrated with the piecemeal approach of addressing these important issues. I was honored to be part of the conference and understood the frustration, as well as the frustration over the need for more participation in developing these changes. This is something I will continue to follow. 

There will be more posts here about poverty and hunger in Colombia, the fierce pride of the campesino working to preserve a way of life under threat from agri-business, international solidarity and independent journalism, but I will leave this post right here, right now. It’s been a busy month and I still have much to accomplish before I can both say that I have contributed to a movement here and that I fully understand the issues, challenges with the Spanish language notwithstanding.