First days in Colombia

Ola.

I am finally here. In colombia. Unbelievable.

For those of you who are just joining, I have been fund raising for the past six months to go and work with street children in Colombia. And now I am in Colombia starting work next week. This is the details of my first week in Cali.

It is absolutely beautiful here. Just astoundingly beautiful. I think the people I'm staying with might think me a little special cause I keep walking round with my mouth open just staring at everything, ocassionaly coming out with an "ahhhhhh" or a "wow".

A typical day consists of waking at 6.30 to train. We go round the corner to a small park, see picture. Three hours of excercise at 6.30 is interesting when jet-lagged. We then get back to the house, which consists of four brothers, one of their sons, their mother, their mothers husband, a couple who are friends of the family, another close family friend and now me. There are five small bedrooms with just enough room for a double bed each. My contact in the house Fabian has been sleeping on the floor so I can have his bed and Rogerigo the other brother is sleeping on the floor for somebody else. They have little but they are overwhelmingly generous. The mother keeps saying to me, watch out, everyone in this house is crazy, I'm the only sane one, stick with me. So we get back to house where breakfast has been cooked and then we are free to do what we want for the rest of the day. But whenever we come back there is a meal cooked. This is the way it works, the mother cooks every meal and washes up and the boys help clean and earn the money. Which sounds chovenistic but there is definite equality in say and opinion. The women are definitely not swept under the carpet, if anything its them running the shop.

It is completely exhausting having to concentrate that much to try and work out what everyone is saying. I am napping alot. Also they are teaching me lots of new skills, my unicycling is improving and I think after many years of failed attempts I might actually become good at juggling clubs...we will see.

It is fascinating the differences culturaly. They are very direct and very honest. They talk about sex alot and very open with their feelings on it, not brittish in any way. I have started teaching a load of the younger ones english and they youngest brother Jason asks me to tell him infront of the girls how to say "will you have sex with me" which he then says to all of the girls, he is 19. In a very brittish way I feel quite awkward for a bit and then just get on with it.

Everyone told me Colombian women are the most beautiful in the world. They were right. No wonder south americans are so hot blooded, this heat and these women are a recipe for disaster.

Here is the recording studio Jason made in his bedroom out of plywood and egg boxes. He makes some epic hip hop. We just laid down a little romantic number together. He asked me to freestyle and the best I could come up with was, yo yo, Im in cali.....But when I told him I could sing before I knew it I was in the studio him rapping and me singing. Its a tune will try and upload it.

So to quickly summarise: I am in a house full of people that speak spanish and I speak very little spanish, I am being fed lots of beautiful Colombian food all cooked fresh, I am in an extremely beautiful country and I am slightly scared about what I am actually going to do here. We are meeting with a man who runs a community theatre to see if I can work for them as well. It is scary here.

It is very beautiful and lots of fun to be had but also dangerous. Lots and lots of poverty, Rogerigo who I am staying with put it well. In London you live for enjoyment and to better yourself in Cali people live to survive. Very fascinating place.

Here is the circus school and its dog.




I will be starting work teaching next week. I cannot wait!!

Last night!!!

So here we are, the night before I leave to Colombia for five and a half months.

Suppose I ought to quickly update you on what's been happening. Since my last post I have unicycled twelve miles across Wigan, organised and put on a Cabaret at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and we have brought our fund raising total up to 3'420!!! four hundred pounds over what we need. Cannot believe the generosity that people have been showing. And Hugo Rodallega who plays for Wigan Athletic (premier league I'll have you know) started off the ride, see pictures below.


There was a complete palavah attempting to get there on time. Everything that could have gone wrong that morning went wrong. We didnt know whether Hugo was going to be in Wigan until 9.40 on the morning of the ride. I got a friend of mine to cycle their bike to Leeds station for nine o clock, they slipped on ice and hurt themselves so were half an hour late. we found out that Hugo was going to be there two minutes before our train left, there was a mad dash to buy tickets and then carry a unicycle and a bike up an escalator to the other side of the station to get a train to Manchester. We got to manchester and ran and only just made it to our train to Bolton. Got to Bolton and fortunately had a little wait for our final train to Wigan. Got to Wigan at 11.45, we were meeting Hugo at 12. I threw Jenny Fitzpatrick, a beautiful beatiful human being who agreed to cycle along in the wet and the cold and take photo's, into a cab and rode the bike to the training ground. I got well and truly lost and a teeny bit stressed. I made it to the training ground five minutes late. Ran into where we were meeting and saw Jenny already there speaking to a south american man. He looks older than in his picture I thought, I ran over and said loudly and warmly "Hugo!" "This is Hugo's father" Jenny said very quickly. I don't know if he noticed and if he did he definitely didn't mind, he ended up showing Jenny all of his holiday photo's it was very funny.

It was a brilliant day though and Jenny was just fantastic, she kept my spirits up at all points, when I thought that there is no way that this can possibly continue her unwavering belief kept us both going. Even when the pedal fell off at about eight miles. To any rational human being a 10 mile unicycle ride with only one pedal is slightly impossible but Jenny didn't even flinch. With a quick makeshift fix with a piece of string we rode on past the ten mile mark and carried on back into town for another two miles. My bum was very very sore.

And the Cabaret was brilliant, we raised £785 in total!!!! How good is that! I worked so hard and it bloody paid off. However it would be a downright lie to say that I worked alone, I had so much help from so many and that is what made it so special. It was the generosity and the love that shone through and made it such a succesful night. I couldn't sound more cheesy and american if I tried, that last sentence was a bit disgusting.

Very excited, have everything ready and my bag packed down beside me. It all seems very very real. This time tomorrow I will be in Colombia. Flipping hell that is a mad thought.

Also in online check in I have reserved seats with extra leg room! yes!

Next post will be from Colombia, can't wait.