Bye Bogota - Hello Manizales!!

Wednesday morning we left for Manizales! With no more than about 100 kg luggage we boarded the plane in Bogota, and about an hour later, we were in Manizales. In Colombian standards, Manizales is a small city, but for us it is almost as big as the capital in Norway, Oslo. The airport in Manizales in rather small – for those of you who have ever been in Alta, it`s the same size. Outside the baggage area, a bunch of people where waiting – 12 of them were from the Red Cross in Manizales, and were waiting for US!  We were overwhelmed, and I hardly managed to say a word. What a surprise?!

Then we went to the Red Cross building, where we`re going to work the next few months. And there were more surprises! They had prepared breakfast for us – coffee, croissants and juice. And almost all of the staff, and some volunteers who had taken their time to meet us, were there. We all presented ourselves, told each other what we do in the Red Cross. It was such a nice start of the day!

Then we had to arranged some practical stuff – we had to take a blood test, so that we could find out our blood type – we needed this to achieve an identification card so that we have some certain rights in Colombia, then we had to take photos, go to an office and fill out some papers, take fingerprints (of all the fingers!) and wait. This took about 2 hours... and still we have to wait for the card for about 2, 5 months...

Later that day we had dinner with Jose Raul, with Jorge Enrique – which is our boss and contact person here in Manizales, with some volunteers (Jimena, Juliana, Natalia and Mario). After dinner we separated – the others said goodbye and left, and we got in the car with our bosses. Finally we were going to our home for the next nine months! The volunteers had taken our luggage earlier that day – so we knew that they had been there, and thought maybe they had done our beds, written us a Welcome note, or something like that. We were not expecting this; 32 volunteers waiting for us in the dark, turning on the light and screaming “Surprise! Welcome home!”!!!!! Wow! I was completely taken off guard! I started crying – of happiness of course! What a great surprise! What a great bunch of people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They made me feel SO welcome, and so wanted! I feel that they really would like to get to know us, and that`s a good feeling!!!  They had prepared videos about Manizales and about the Red Cross in Manizales, they had prepared snacks and drinks, they had bought fresh flowers, beautiful ones! It was the best "welcome" I could have dreamt of!

So – now we are here – in our house, our home. We actually live in a house – which we have all to our own! We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an extra toilet, kitchen, hall with sofas, a big living room with sofa and chairs, and dining table. We have a backyard with roof- where we have a washing machine. And we live in a very secure area, not far from the Red Cross office. I feel very lucky and happy to be here in Manizales, and to be living in this beautiful house!

Last day in Bogota

Today was our last day in Bogota. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Manizales!

Today has been rather interesting - we had three short meetings with the health department, the "doctrine" and security department, and with socorrismo (search and rescue) department. After that we were shown around in the district department - met a a lot of volunteers and saw with what and how they are working.

We also got to have a short meeting with the President of Colombia Red Cross. He was such a nice man! He is the youngest President in Colombias history - only around 47 years old. He was so nice- took time to sit down with us, and chat for a while - even though he had a big meeting going on in the next room. He will try to come to Manizales while we are there, so maybe we`ll see him again :)
We also met the previous president- who resently resigned because of illness. He`s a lovely, old man who also seemed interested in us and our work.

After work we went downtown with Olguita (Jose Rauls secretary) and another volunteer - to see the museum. The plan was to go up to Montserrate - a mountain with a beautiful view. But it was so clody that we desided to postpone in to the next time we come to Bogota. The rest of the night we spent packing out suitcases (yes, suitcaseS..), eating donuts and watching tv..
Then we had to say goodbye to Olesya - our new friend who is living in the apartment we`ve been staying in since we arrived. We will be picked up at 06.30 in the morning, so we had to say goodbye tonight. This was a bit sad - since Olesya is a really nice girl. But we hope to see her again real soon! :)

We`re ready for Manizales! Vamos!

ICRC and PANICA

The last few days have been busy and interesting. We have been spending almost every day, all day at the office of Colombian Red Cross.
On friday we spent the day at de ICRCs subdelegation office. Here we had a tour around the office - got to know exactly with what and how the ICRC works in Bogota, and the rest of the country. We got to know a lot about how they work with prisoners- visiting them in jail, and hoq they work with desplaced people, due to the conflict.

We even got to join in on interviews with people who were applying for help from the ICRC because they are displaced. I got to follow a first and third interview - the first interview is to see if the person really is displaced due to the conflict, whether or not the person has the right to help, how many people are in the family, how they came to Bogota, why they came, etc. If the ICRC doubts anything in their story, if they can`t document what they are saying - like if they can`t document that they have 6 children to feed - the ICRC will make a homevisit, checking out the situation. If they for some reason do not fullfill the criterias for recieving help from ICRC, they will help them knowing their rights - what kind of help they can expect to recieve from the government.

After a nice lunch with some of the delegates at the office, we went on homevisits with a fieldworker. We drove for almost 50 minutes, to a poor area called Bolivar, in the mountainside. It`s amazing where they can build houses! In the steepest hills they lived in shields. When we got to the area we suddenly understood why we had to drive a Landcruiser.. the roads were so small, narrow, steep and muddy. I didn`t understand how we could make it around the neighbourdhood, but we did.

The first house we went to, we had to leave without even going out of the car. This was because of some big, barking dogs who stood in the way of the door of the house. We didn`t want to risk any lifes, so we drove on. The next house we also had to leave without seeing the family - because there was no one with that name living on this adress. The third adress didn`t even exist - the road didn`t exist according to the local people. The fourth adress we almost didn`t find - because they lived in a steep hill, in a shield you couldn`t see from the road. They had to call the family and ask them to come and pick us up somewhere. An they did. So we got to see one homevisit. As I said, they lived in a small shield-like house in the mountainside. We had to almost climb down the hill to get there. In a small room lived an old lady, her son with his wife and to small children. They had one room for sleeping, with only two beds, and a small room for cooking etc. No isolation, no electricity. They sure need help. But it seems like they don`t fullfill the criterias for recieving help from ICRC, but the fieldworker said she would help them contact the government so that they could get the help they needed.

I am so amazed by the important work the ICRC does with the displaced people! It must be such a hard work, seeing so many tragic cases, hearing so many sad and awful stories. I really admirer these people for what they`re doing!

Today, saturday, we went with the volunteers to see how they work with PANICA here in Bogota. We were around 12 persons today, and were divided into two groups. My group went to a poor area to work with children, doing activities in the streets. I really enjoyd seeing how they do it in real life - I`ve heard so much about it. I also learned new games and activities I can bring with me home to Norway. The group of children which I was working with today was new - they just started up this fall. So they`re still getting to know each other and the volunteers.
I will write more about PANICA later - since I will be working with this in Manizales. They say that they do it a bit differently in Manizales, so I`m excited to see how they do it there!

In Colombia!

Finally I`m in Colombia!
We, Arezo (my fellow youth delegate) and I arrived on monday. We were picked up at the airport by a nice lady called Olga - who works at the Colombian Red Cross. She took us to the place were we are going to live for the next days while we are in Bogota. We also met Rilito - a former youth delegate, who is now working for ICRC here in Bogota. Olga and Rilito took us out to have dinner at night. We weren`t much company though, still tired from both the trip and the last three weeks of coursing..

Tuesday we went to the headquarters of Colombian Red Cross - a really big building with all the different departments of the Red Cross. We were taken aroung to meet people from all of the different departments - they all told us what they are doing in their department. We met so many interesting and nice people, but it was a lot of information at once. And of course its also a bit difficult to adjust to hearing and speaking spanish all the time..!

Today we had a meeting with the secretary general - a really nice man! He is the first former volunteer to have the job as secretary general. He is very interested in the volunteers -and their work. And also in us and our job as youth delegates. We lefte the meeting more motivated and happy! :)
We also had a meeting with Jose Raul - the director of Red Cross Youth in Colombia, he`s our boss. Today he drew up the structure of the Red Cross youth for us, explaining how it it and who is doing what. It`s still a bit confusing for me - but I hope and believe it will be more understandable when we will be working with the Red Cross in Manizales.

That sums it all up for now - check out the photos in my norwegian blog, if you want to see some photos from Bogota! :)