‘I arrived in Colombia with no job, no Spanish and no friends’
Why I love living in... Medellín, Colombia
Fiona
Dolan: ‘They are truly happy to see foreigners visiting what, less than
20 years ago, was the world’s most dangerous city, home to Pablo
Escobar and his infamous drugs cartel.’
This article was received as an
entry into the Generation Emgiration “Why I love living in...”
competition, which closes this Saturday, June 6th. For more information
on how to enter, click here.
In September 2014 I arrived in Medellín in Colombia with no job, Spanish language skills or friends. Eight months later I have gained all of these and so much more.
I have always loved to travel, and to my family’s
frustration, tend to choose locations a little off the beaten track.
Someone had told me Colombians spoke the clearest Spanish in South
America, and so after a small bit of internet research I came across
Medellín, the “City of Eternal Spring”. I was set.
We Irish are known for our friendliness but the
Colombians truly put us to shame. My Spanish has progressed quickly,
mostly because of locals’ constant encouragement and patience, even at
the beginning when I mostly communicated by pointing and trying to make
Spanish words sound English.
The beautiful weather means that the streets are
constantly full of people socialising, playing music, doing a bit of
spontaneous dancing or just watching the world go by. They are truly
happy to see foreigners visiting what, less than 20 years ago, was the
world’s most dangerous city, home to Pablo Escobar and his infamous drugs cartel.
The pace of change here has been remarkable, mostly
due the fall of the cartels and investment in infrastructure and
services. In 2013, Medellín was named the world’s “most innovative city”
and is constantly hailed internationally for its remarkable turnaround.
It has a metro and cable car, neither of which the
capital Bogotá has, and even a set of outdoor escalators going up a
mountain to serve one of its poorest and most marginalised communities.
Areas whose residents were previously unable to leave their homes after
5pm have been reinvented, with top class libraries and educational
spaces free to all.
Another thing that always strikes me is the
incredible entrepreneurial spirit of the city’s residents. People sell
all sorts of things on the street, and most bus rides are given a
soundtrack by a singer, rapper or accordion player looking for tips. ]
You won’t be bored in the all too frequent traffic
jams either, with people at the lights dancing, juggling, eating fire or
even walking across tight ropes in the hope of some spare change. I
have gambled for the first time in my life here, on a guinea pig race in
the middle of a busy street organised by its entrepreneurial owner.
That’s not to say life is easy for most of Medellín’s
inhabitants. I work in a private school, and am very aware that the
quality of education my students receive is incomparable to that of most
public schools. People work extremely long hours just to make ends
meet, and not always in the safest of conditions. Prostitution is
rampant including, horrifyingly, child prostitution, which is fuelled by
foreign tourists.
Medellín is also home to many of country’s five million dezplacados,
people who have been displaced due to 50 years of internal conflict. A
brief glance while ascending in the cable car gives you a snapshot of
these people’s lives, with families living in crowded and unsafe
housing, totally inadequate for the storms that Colombia’s rainy season
brings.
I’m trying to avoid the tired “poor but happy” cliché
which tends to do nothing more that romanticise poverty, but from what
I’ve experienced, many Medellín people live life with an immense joie de vivre and lightness of spirit that can often be lacking in Ireland.
Being away from home can be difficult at times, but
the experiences I have had, the things I have learned and the friends I
have made here in Colombia I would never exchange.
This article was received as an entry into
the Generation Emgiration “Why I love living in...” competition.
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