Colombia

I knew nothing about Colombia before we decided to adopt from here I am sorry to say, so if you are like me, this post is for you.

Colombia is located in the Northwestern corner of South America bordered by Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. The capital is Bogotá which we will have to travel to later to carry out some official business. Bogotá is a city of 9 million people, larger than NYC which has 8 million. Calí, is where we are staying now and is where our son was born. It is a city of 2 million people.

Colombia's main two exports are coffee and something else that escapes me right now? Soft drinks? Pepsi? Coke? I forget. Kristin wants to go stay over night at a coffee plantation, sounds like fun. The woman that took us too the orphanage yesterday is also a tour guide so we will probably go with her I think. I've been drinking coffee the last couple of days, which I never do, because I've been so tired. Still don't like it though.

Anyhow, it has been interesting to hear from the locals how they think things are going right now. Two people independently of each other have told me that they do not trust the police. If you call them they might show up a few hours later, but in all likelihood they are corrupt. It blows my mind to think of living in a place where you don't trust the people who are supposed to protect you. I'm so glad we live in the US. I don't agree with a lot the government does but at least I trust it to protect me and my family.

I get the sense that there is still quite a bit of political and economic strife but things are slowly getting better. Perhaps some of you have heard recently that Hugo Chavez, leader of Venezuela is severing diplomatic ties with Colombia. He has been accused of letting Colombian guerrillas set up shop in Venezuela. Some think that he is planning on attacking Colombia at some point in order to expand Venezuela.

There are several guerrilla factions at work in Colombia the major ones are three left wing ones and one right wing one. They began as revolutionaries in order to help those existing in extreme poverty but quickly became corrupt and now are heavily involved in the drug trade. They mainly exist and operate in the rural areas of Colombia. I was speaking with one of my students who is from Bogotá at the end of the last school year and he said that when he was a child he remembers his family giving money to the guerrillas because of their supposed noble intentions.

Despite all this crazy history, as I've said before, the majority of people here have been so warm, friendly and kind. It's a shame that there are so many troubles that limit the tourism that Colombia could attract. Calí is a very colorful, culturally rich city set in a beautiful mountain backdrop.