ao de junio ao++

vov.v, coioxni.
D
ear friends,
I am lucky to be hosted in Iopayn, Co-
lombia, after original plans for teaching in San
Agustn fell through. Te city of a:o,ooo has
long been a transit station between Cali, the
large Colombian city to the north, and Quito,
Ecuador, to the south. Te center of Iopayn
is a colonial relic. By local edict, the facades
of the one-story buildings in the historic area
are white, creating stunning glare but also
a sense of tranquillity and order. Religious
festivals are of vital importance. Irocessions
on Maundy Tursday and Good Friday have
existed since +::onineteen years after the
citys foundingwhen Spanish Catholics
started them as a means to Christianize the
indigenous population. Occurring at the start
of the Maundy Tursday mass in +os:, an
earthquake badly damaged the cluster of his-
toric Catholic churches in the city center, split
a Christ gure in a chapel at Catedral Metro-
politana through the heart, exposed mummi-
ed corpses and long-lost frescoes, and killed
hundreds.
Our guide through the cathedral, Felipe,
+o, the nephew of my host, said some believe
that God struck the city because the popula-
tion had become too interested in dancing.
But this is by far the least celebratory of the
Colombian locations I have visited. Many roads
have almost no tra c, except for the occasional
motorcycle and ubiquitous street dogs (perro de
la calle). A dog can sleep in the middle of most
streets and not encounter many disturbances.
I have been able to sleep for the rst time in
Colombia without ear plugs.
Te +o-year-old tour guide is one of
my students. I started class with +a English
students on Tuesday, as June. Most are Eng-
lish teachers themselves in public primary and
secondary schools in Iopayn and surround-
ing towns. Some travel two hours each way to
be here and use their limited vacation time for
the extra English practice. Some are struggling
to speak, others are nearly uent in English as
well as French. Te rst challenge is that, some-
where during the six-hour Andes bus hop from
San Agustn, located to the southeast, I started
to lose my voice. Now it is almost gone. I have
soldiered through two four-hour teaching ses-
sions so far. Vhile two other classes continued
in the afternoon, I was ordered to rest.
Te extraordinary generosity and hospital-
ity is evidenced by the number of home reme-
dies I have been oered. One student suggested
gargling with baking soda and salt, another
a combination of sweet tomatoes and honey,
served hot. Several students have passed me Vi-
tamin C chewables and other over-the-counter
tablets. I worry that I am contaminating the
populace, in the custom of earlier colonizers, by
continuing to engage in the required greetings,
exchanging embraces and kisses with women,
rc irrr, rnr rcr cr rnr rcr..\: c.rnrr.i, wnicn ccii.rsrr i: . ros: r.rncu.r: . riicu.. i: rnr usrc :rcrr cr
crr: .r: . c.rri. .rs nis r.ii. sr.rrr:r :r. rrr.rr:r.i ccyr:r:r crricrs cr c.uc.rcw: wirn ccurric:.
including teachers, students and passers-by
anyone to whom I might be introduced.
Lunches are massive. I dont know how
anyone can work afterward. Tese start with a
large bowl of broth with halved potatoes, small
ears of corn and scraps of meat oating within.
Ten the big platter comes. Beans, salad,
plaintains, chicken or beef strips surround rice
at the center. Ieople eat fast: Ive not seen a full
plate stand for more than ve minutes. Arepas,
which are ued corn tortillas, and empanadas,
a samosa-like pastry stued with chicken or
ham or cheese, are delicious. And Colombia
has exotic fruit of all description, served fresh
or pulped and combined with water or milk. At
a university juice bar in Medelln, almost any-
thing is available in liquid formkiwi, guava,
papaya, mango, banana, strawberry and all the
Colombian fruits I dont know the names of
yet. Granadilla is my personal favorite: its an
orange fruit with a handle. You smash it around
the middle with your knuckles, peel o the top,
and suck out the sweet seeds and nectar inside.
Coee (tinto), obviously, is always on oer, even
when you dont really want it.
My stay in San Agustn, which was sup-
posed to last through July, was only three days.
Because I cannot explain the unexplainable, I
say only that there was no one for me to teach
there. San Agustn is on the map because for
a centuries excavators have been uncover-
ing and documenting the remains of a pre-
Columbian society that left no language but
an array of stone statues of frogs, salamanders,
eagles, demonic gures and Jungian portray-
als of the double-self, or doble-yo in Spanish.
As is my way, I spent almost as much time at
the municipal football eld at the base of the
winding road leading to the archaeological
park. For me, this, along with the church, is
the Latin American or African or European
towns anthropological heart. Teams competed
on Saturday, eight per side, in front of about
:o people, horses and stray dogs: the eld
is not substantial enough for ++ v. ++. Tere
were several standing mud puddles as well.
Nevertheless, referees were e cient and kept a
meticulous disciplinary record.
In San Agustn I stayed in a hundred-year-
old home that overlooks the towns main cross-
ing, Carrera ++ and Calle :. Te house was
permeated by city sounds and weather. Breezes
and the rain passed through, as did clouds,
which often obscured the hills and the coee
farms ringing the town.
It was a festival period for Saint Ieter,
commemorated by several beauty pageants
that combined elements of Da de los Muertes
in Mxico and high school homecoming. Sary,
my host, pointed out her sister-in-law, who
was one of the queens. From her oat she
threw pineapple-avored candies and gum to
ciocwisv rox rov, svcio, nvix., cisri.v .n ox. i .
x.vsros ci.ss: rnv ciovv cnisr ricuv rn.r .iso iosr irs
n.ns i +os:: .n rviiow rv.cnvs x.ri. (siov.i.), .nv
(nviciux) .n vov.v nosr iuz n.i i ror or rnv c.rnvn.i.
children. Te parade passed below the balcony
where Sary and I were standing. Another rela-
tive of Sarys in one of the parade vehicles cued
the v. announcer, who was riding in front in an
ambulance. Ie identied me as a visitor from
the United States, and I was obliged to wave.
I have been passing for Catholic since I
have been here and attended two masses at
one of the San Agustn parishes. Te rst was
a hours, evenly divided between the churchs
interior and exterior. Inside, the music was
simple and deliciousa guitar and four voices
singing clearly, without aectation. I wish I
could attach a recording. Te three hundred or
four hundred participants in the mass clapped
along. Outdoors, with the church calendar in
anticipation of a major saints festival day, we
prayed at four stations in the basilica courtyard,
kneeling on cobblestones tainted with horse
dung and asking repeatedly for peace, peace
that the world does not know, peace that we do
not understand, peace that comes from beyond
ourselves. I thought of my Oakhurst church
community in Decatur and about how and why
I had been led to Colombia, an impulse that
came from beyond myself, an impulse I do not
understand.
I indulged my soccer interests in Medel-
ln for about a week. My friend Beatriz Vlez
(above right), who was anthropology professor
at the Universidad de Antioquia, studying the
gender dynamics of football in Latin America,
introduced me to many of her contacts and
guided us to an intimate street theater where
we watched the national nal between Nacio-
nal of Medelln and La
Equidad of Bogot. By
street theater I mean that
the proprietor of a corner
shop had run a cable from
his second-oor apart-
ment to a projector. Ie
ordered in extra chairs,
and we set them up in the
street. Beatriz and I were
honored with our own small table. Ve drank
Aguila beer and watched Nacional, in a very
nice match, win the championship on penalty
kicks. Fireworks (fuegos articiales) lit the sky of
this provincial, Andes-enclosed Colombian city.
It is still a dangerous city, Beatriz saysbut
nothing like her teaching days, during the
height of cartel-generated violence in the +osos,
when professors were assassinated in their
classrooms. Now it is a city in perpetual ower,
where it is safe to dance salsa in the open road.
I thank everyone for your support on this
excursion, for your prayers and for the blessing
of being kept in your hearts and minds.
Abrazos y besos, ion
rc irrr, r.ccrr i:rc rnr r.. .rrr rnr ccicri.: cn.ric:snir rrrwrr: :.cic:.i .:r i. rcuir.r: i: s.: .cusri:, i. .cuii. .:r r.