Pages

Friday, August 23, 2013

Real Cartagena vs Real Bucaramanga


It took me long enough, but finally after nearly two years I went to my first Real Cartagena soccer game.  A lot has happened with the team since I first got to site in January 2013.  The biggest change being that they no longer play in the top division, but were relegated to Colombia’s B division.  Needless to say they are now struggling to bring in fans.  This is a shame because the stadium is actually one of the nicer venues in Colombia and it’s 16,000 seats were filled not to long ago when Cartagena hosted a few of the games for the U20 world cup in 2010.  But really who can complain when you can get amazing seats for $5 and not have to wait in a single line?  Not this guy...

When I finally got to the stadium, 1 hour from site, I was immediately approached by ticket scalpers-- I wonder what gave away my gringoness?.  Now there is no way to tell if the tickets they were selling were real or not, but some of the scalpers made pretty convincing cases.  One lifted up his shirt to show me his Real Cartagena tattoo on his left peck as to say, "Would a guy with a local soccer club's tattoo on his chest really sell a gringo a fake ticket?" and another pointed to a tattoo of the team shield on his right calf.  But after spending some time in Colombia I thought it would be wise to walk the extra three minutes to the ticket window.  

I guess maybe I have been here a little to long because as I finally got to my seat the two teams had already been playing for 20 minutes.  Luckily I didn’t miss a goal and everyone left happy after the 2-0 Real Cartagena win.  If I had to estimate I would guess there may have been 1,000 fans inside the stadium, 200 watching from the outside, 75 cops, and 4 police on horses.  So even though the stadium is in a sketchy part of town the amount of police made the venue feel a bit safer.  However, the 100 diehard fans were by far more impressive than the sound security.  These select few were out of their seats jumping, singing various Real Cartagena chants, and whistling at the opposition and ref for the entire 90 minutes.  Now it is one thing to paint your face and yell for the home team when the seats are packed and everyone is doing it, but it was just crazy to see 1/160 of full capacity yelling as if the place was sold out and Real Cartagena were playing with a shot at the championship on the line.  With only a few more months left in Colombia I am glad I got to check a visit to the local fĂștbol club off the bucket list.            

And the crowd goes wild! 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Nothing But Respect


La Boquilla does not have any grocery stores or any type of chain stores for that matter, but what we lack in name brand establishments we make up for with the crazy amount of tiendas around town.  There are tiendas about every 100 feet which makes getting things around La Boquilla pretty easy.  Need a banana? Go to the tienda.  Need a baseball cap? Go to the tienda.  Need rat poisoning? Go to the tienda? Need a bag of soda? Go to the tienda.  

Living in a predominantly Afrocolombian community it was apparent from the moment I got here that the vast majority of the stores were owned by cachacos, people from the interior.  However, it wasn’t until recently, that I started to wonder why.  I started asking people all around town why this phenomena existed and was told every single time that, “Cachacos are good with money.”  Upon asking further questions I realized that there are only three families that own virtually all of the stores around town.  So that leaves teenagers working many of the stores by themselves. 

I have nothing but respect for these hard working cachacos.  They work everyday from 7:00am until around 10:00pm.  In my 19 months in La Boquilla I do not remember seeing the tiendas ever being closed.  Not on holidays, not on Sundays, not even on Christmas--for Christ’s sake, literally.  Not only are they open everyday for around 15 hours, but I tend to get stressed when standing around the store for more than 10 minutes.  First off there is no such concept of a line, the customers all know they get served on a come and see who can scream louder biases, so they adjust their volumes accordingly.  Unfortunately for these hard working cachacos the hassle doesn’t end there.  People get very impatient when having to wait, but with no concept of a line and if yelling isn’t your thing what else can you expect.  So it is very common to hear harsh comments thrown in the direction of these young cachacos, even if they are in a playful manner.  Also customers get really upset when they think a product should cost less than the asking price.  So this often leads to a debate where the cachacos are forced to pull out their notebook and add to the running total of store credit.  I am just glad they lowered the price on Powerade to under a dollar and for that I want to thank the two 17 year old boys that work at my favorite tienda. 

My favorite tienda

Thursday, August 1, 2013

MURALS site #1

After three weeks of battling what seemed like a pretty constant afternoon drizzle, we finally did it!  We painted eight murals at one of the schools I work at.  By we I mean: the high school art teacher, 5-10 high school boys (depending on the day), and some really appreciated  GRINGA help (Thanks Amigos de las Americas).  Let me start by letting you know that I am in no way an artist.  In fact my handwriting has been described as chicken scratch from since I can remember and I was actually not able to complete a high school art project because I was deemed inept by the teacher and had to instead draw dixie cups as the rest of the class painted still life--LOOK AT ME NOW PATRICIA.  However, I was not going to let that minor detail stand in the way of co-leading a successful art project.  And that is a huge reason I love being a Peace Corps volunteer.  No one ever questioned by ability, asked to see my resume, or attempted to long distance call one of my references before we started the project.  I just had an idea, found people who wanted to collaborate, and a school coordinadora that was looking to beautify her school.

I really had never done anything like this before so I had no idea how to start the project or set an accurate timeline.  But in the end like most things PC related projects, it somehow got done.  I look forward to sharing the pictures from future mural projects with you all in the future!  As I only ruined one pair of khakis I see this first mural project as a great success.