| SEE
ALSO |
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Stevie
Cameron
Stevie's in The Philippines.
Introduction
Diary
1
Diary 2
CSR Conference
Diary
3
Diary
4
Andrew
Webster
Andrew's in India.
Introduction
Diary
1
Diary 2
Culture Shock!
Diary 3
Diary 4
Diary 5
Jess
Rudkin
Jess is working in the Czech Republic.
Diary
1
Diary 2
Diary 3
Diary 4
Diary 5
James
Eder
James is sharing his marketing skills with local people in Colombia.
Introduction
Diary
1 - 2 -
3 - 4
- 5
Diary 6 - Aims
Diary 7 - 8
- 9 - 10
- 11
Diary 12 -
13 - 14
- 15
Diary 16 -
17 - 18
- 19
Working
with AIESEC
Jame Eder introduces the student organisation.
AIESEC
in Birmingham
Amaneeta Shokur explains more about AIESEC and how she is involved.
Scheila
Scheila came to Birmingham from Brazil on a student scheme run by AIESEC.
Students
index
Colombia
Profile of the South American country from BBC News.
Map
Follow James' travels on this map of Colombia from Lonely Planet.
James'
photos
Check out James' prints online. |
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| WEB
LINKS |
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AIESEC
Official
website for the UK.
The
BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
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| FACTS |
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COLOMBIA
FACTS
Population:
44.2 million (UN, 2003)
Capital: Bogota
Major language: Spanish
Major religion: Christianity
Money: 1 Colombian peso = 100 centavos
Exports: Petrol, coffee, coal, gold, bananas, flowers,
chemicals, emeralds, cotton,, sugar, livestock
AIESEC
FACTS
AIESEC
(pronounced "i-sek") stands for the Association
for the International Exchange of Students in Economics and
Commerce.
AIESEC
is the world's largest international student organisation
with 30,000 members in over 86 countries.
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a printable
version of this page. |
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The
last week at work
Now
it was a case of tying up loose ends - we only had two months for
the full duration of our work, Juliet and I had put together a coherent
proposal in English and in Spanish, with the help of local AIESECers.
We met with the main person directly in charge of us at the foundation,
Camillo and presented him with our findings and recommendations
for what needs to be done to gain a deeper understanding of the
foundation and how it can be improved and gain more help from external
organisations.
Usual
routine
Tuesday
night came around again and it was our last movie night in Barranquilla,
we saw Hombres En Llamas - which was all a bit surreal watching
it in Colombia as it was about kidnappings in Mexico City, which
might be, in many minds, associated with Colombia.
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| Preschool
children |
On
Wednesday - our official final day at work - we went to one of the
pre-schools and gave all of the children Colombian bracelets which
they all seemed very happy with. We only stayed for a few hours
but it was good fun and left me feeling hopeful that over the last
few months, we had helped in some way to improve the situation here
- really our impact will only be known further down the line, when
our suggestions are implemented and work continued. We will have
to wait and see…
Bee
gets funding
Bee,
who is working in Cali, sent out an email informing everyone of
her success, one of the organisations she had spoken to had agreed
to give her foundation funding - we were all so happy for her and
can not imagine how good that feeling would have been. Well done
Bee!
Dinner
with Juan K's family
In
the evening I took Juan K's family out for a Chinese dinner to thank
them for their hospitality. I can't emphasise how grateful I am
for all of the kindness they have showed me, welcoming me into their
home and providing all my food for the duration of my stay - without
their support my whole experience wouldn't have been possible.
I also
invited Enis, the maid, for dinner but she said no which really
was a shame. Juan K said whenever invited on occasions like this
she rarely said yes. As a thank you, I bought some flowers and chocolates.
It was her who made me all my meals, so I was disappointed she didn't
join us for dinner, but there was nothing more I could do to persuade
her.
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| Empinadas |
After
dinner, Juan K and I along with some other AIESECers had been invited
out to have traditional South American food, empinadas. Already
full from dinner, everyone else found it amusing to offer me a personal
selection which I simply could not eat. I discreetly offloaded them
to others near me without seeming rude...
Back
to Henry's
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| Salsa |
On
our last night in Barranquilla, we went to Henry's, one of the bars
we started off at in my first diary article. A small gathering of
the other internationals and a few of our closest AIESECers - many
people couldn't make it due to the pressures of their university
timetables and examinations, with some people starting as early
as 6am! We then moved on from Henry's and ended up in Bongo's for
our last Baranquilla salsa session - a surprisingly tame last night
in Barranquilla but after Dan and Sonya had already left, it felt
like we were ready to go.
Off
to the airport
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| Breakfast
at Juan K's |
On
Friday morning, everyone met at Juan K's for the last time to get
a taxi to the airport. It was hard to believe that we were leaving
with so many fond memories that the last few months have brought.
In
typical Colombian style, we were all waiting around, us UK lot under
the impression a taxi had been pre-booked. As it got closer to our
departure time, Juli decided to call for a taxi - we just looked
at each other and laughed at the laid-back Colombian way of organising
everything. Juliet, Dan Dos and I checked in and said our final
good-byes...
Written
by James Eder
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Barranquilla - arrow shows Juan K's apartment |
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