Touring and Volunteering in Medellin

My friend Molly is in town, stopping in Medellin on her month-long travels through Colombia. It wasn't until she got here and asked me what to do in Medellin that I realized I have not done much touristy stuff here. I haven't visited any museums, the botanical gardens, the planetarium, aquarium, nor a handful of the cool parks that are located throughout the city. Good thing I had Molly.Plaza de los descansos (Resting Plaza) right outside planetarium and near botanical garden

Today we went to the botanical gardens, which honestly didn't compare to the botanical gardens that I got to enjoy during the language program in Costa Rica in Turrialba. No foul smelling fruit trees, Chanel No. 5 plants, or bamboo forests. The orchid square was made up of maybe 5 orchid plants, and the butterfly gallery was a bit meager, with more dead butterflies posted about than live ones (definitely no blue butterflies landing on my shoulder like in La Paz with Barb).

Molly under a weeping willow-like tree.

But it was impressive walking through an expansive garden full of different types of plants, flowers, and trees in the middle of the city.

I found the name of this plant hilarious: "Tongue of Mother-in-law"

Later, Molly and I went over to the planetarium. This planetarium was fully equipped, educating us about everything from cave people, evolution, and the dinasours, to Einstein, astronauts, and la via lactea (the Milky Way, pretty much a literal Spanish translation). I couldn't remember the last time I had been in a planetarium, and it was nice sitting back and watching the 25 minute presentation about the stars, planets, and the Andromeda galaxy. Molly and I didn't actually realize that the presentation was intended for children until the end when the voiceover said "queridos niños" (dear children) and realized the language was maybe a bit simple throughout the presentation. But we enjoyed the planetarium, especially when a guide threw us into a room, closed a door, and told us not to hold on (or did she tell us to hold on?) while we simulated our way through the universe to Mars and other planets. Later we got some info from an interactive video about our very own country: apparently we own an archipelago off of Australia called the Mariana Islands. The video likened it to Puerto Rico in the fact that it is a territory of the US and its 69,000-something citizens share US rights. Who know? Molly and I felt a little nonplussed with ourselves for not ever even having heard of these islands that are part of the 'US Commonwealth' and for even knowing that a US Commonwealth existed!

Hangout area outside the planetarium

Yesterday I went with Eydis from la Corporacion Amiga Joven (where I volunteer) to a talk she gave to 5th graders in one of the poor neighborhoods in Medellin about sexual assault, violence, and prostitution. Controlling 40 11 and 12 year old boys and girls was a job in itself, but a lot of the kids were only craving attention, and become fascinated with me when they found out I was from the US and spoke English. They kept asking me to say things in English, and one boy asked me how to say Playstation in English.

Like most of the kids, Laura was obsessed with my camera and offered to pose for a shot. She complained after this photo that I didn't get her whole body.

Later I talked with Eydis about how it breaks your heart to see these kids throw themselves at you, grab your hand after knowing you five minutes, and want to help you with whatever you're doing, as opposed to the US where kids at that age are ridiculously shy and don't warm up to strangers that quickly. Talking about heavy topics like prostitution and pornography with this age group is uncalled of in the US and would have parents ranting and raving to the PTO. But here, the kids are already familiar with these topics, and that's why it's so vital to fill them in and make them aware of what is not ok at this age. They seemed to really get the message at the end, which was really satisfying. After, some girls came up to us and told us about friends or cousins who had been touched inappropriately by a neighbor or uncle, which makes me question why am I so different? Why did I luck out?