Estoy aca! I finally made it to the city and have found quite the place to live. I basically live in a frat--with 20 guys (all jesuits) who are so nice and helpful. I live basically on the campus of the jesuit university here--its about 4 times larger than Xavier. Its a gorgeous place with a heck of a lot more students than Im used to. I think i will really enjoy myself here if I am able to keep up with everyone. Today I went to Soacha where I will be doing my volunteering and, I´m guessing, a lot of my research. I have already been in dialogue with a lot of the people here about the situation of displacement and how to go about giving these people a sustainable life. It was really interesting today, in Soacha, when I accompanied one of my teammates to a regional meeting with other organizations, including UNHCR, OCHA, and WFP. It was a meeting about the neighborhood of Soacha and how they can best work together in order to help the people there. Whats interesting is that they brought leaders from the neighborhood to speak for the people instead of just making decisions. I thought this was really cool, but unfortunately, the displaced in Soacha don´t always get the help they need. These organizations aren´t there to totally help them, but to put pressure on the Colombian government to help with social programming. Its a difficult topic that I hope to have more insight about soon.
Soacha, although a poor neighborhood, has a wonderful view of the city and showcases the mountainous region where it lays. heres a picture of what some of the municipality looks like from below... http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnacabrera/400152317/in/photostream/ Think what one good rain storm can do...and does.
Right now I can{t find a good picture of the view online, so i guess its up to me to take one. I´ll post once I have some more pictures to offer.
Word of the day--chévere: cool, like in the sentence ¨que chévere!¨ : ¨how cool!¨
Que Dios le acompañe
Elisabeth
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