Day 1: CRJ-CASFA come together (Carlos and Alex)

Welcome to the official day 1 of CRJ-CASFA exchange! Your hosts for Saturday, 11/23, are Ms. Martinez (intro), Alex Peralta (12), and Carlos Loja (11). The day kept the students too busy to take pictures so this will be more chapter book than picture book!

Ms. Martinez: Our official day one started with a relaxed wake-up, breakfast, and time to make our way to the first meet-up with our Colombian partners. At 9:30am, we hopped on the bus and rode through the traffic-less streets of the city to get to CASFA and WOW did we receive a phenomenal welcome from the group right at the school gates.  These student pairs communicated through messages for six months before finally meeting today. The reactions did not disappoint! They immediately fell into friendship through icebreakers and activities. Unfortunately because of the turmoil around us, we had to change plans from going downtown to see murals of the city to learning in-house from the CASFA students. One extremely powerful moment for me was when Sister Carolina abruptly stopped our game of freeze tag to get us into a room for the students to do a presentation showing what life in Colombia and neighboring countries has been like for the past few years. I’ll let Alex and Carlos share what details and feelings they remember but there were tears, song, hope, and power in our gathering together this day. If day one provoked tears, imagine what the rest of the week will do to us! 

Alex: 

It was honestly such an amazing day! I was filled with emotions of excitement and nervousness on the bus ride to CASFA. Although I had talked with my partner for a few months, I did not know what exactly to expect. We were greeted with cheers of joys and high fives. From there, we moved to the courtyard and the CASFA students began with icebreakers. Songs were sung, names were memorized, people were dancing, and overall everyone was having a fun time. I finally communicated with my partner and it turned out so much better than what I thought it would be! Because of the turn in events in the city, we were placed in a room where we learned about Colombia’s biodiversity. A short break soon followed in which games were played in the courtyard.

After a game of freeze tag, we were called back in to go back in the same room we were in before. Music was playing, but it was the type of sad music which makes you deeply reflect. After getting seated, three students came out dressed up with half of their face painted as a skull. Each one of them told a story about a person. I’ll admit, it was very depressing. Each story was sad, talking about how their lives were taken away by Colombian paramilitaries, how they murdered, abused, and violated people. The experience was so deeply captivating as it brought a whole new wave of reality that this type of violence exists. After the stories were done, a unicorn pig was handed out and everyone wrote something on there which they wanted for the future. We then assembled in a circle and passed the unicorn pig around. Instead of passing it around in a circle, it was thrown to other people until Felipe (CASFA student) purposefully dropped it. I was honestly confused. But then he said that this is what happens, people shatter our hopes and dreams. And it was honestly such a strong and deep action which revealed what was going on at a larger scale. We were told to rebuild the unicorn pig even though its pieces were shattered all across the floor. Everyone in the room came together and grabbed the little pieces to try and tape it together. It resembled how we can work together to rebuild a community which has been destroyed by others even though there are scars left. We weren’t able to completely rebuild it but we do still have time until the end to try and piece it back together.

After such a heavy session, we took our lunch break and the time to leave came quickly. I honestly didn’t want  to leave as it was such an amazing experience which I wanted to continue. We departed from our partners and head back to the convent. The opportunity to exchange our money for Colombian pesos came up and we headed to the mall to do this. There was a supermarket nearby and we all went to pick up stuff. There was so much inside! I had to get the Colombian candy. The checkout was a bit confusing especially with the unfamiliar currency. Once we all paid, we headed back to the convent where we waited for dinner time. The food was delicious and we used time after to reflect upon our experiences from the day. We had our final reflection as a group and the conversations were quite heavy. After a day full of activities and deep experiences, we are ready to go to sleep and prepare for a new day.

Carlos: 

We all woke up and had breakfast together. To our surprise, none of us seemed tired, we were all full of energy. We talked and shared with one another and had a pretty good time. After breakfast, we went outside and admired the wonderful weather the day had given us and explored around for a little bit. We got ready and waited for our bus to come and take us to CASFA. We took pictures around and were just hanging out for a little bit outside. At 9:30 AM we got on the bus and were headed to CASFA. We were all talking about how excited but also nervous we were about meeting our partners for the first time.

We got there and when we entered we were all greeted by our partners and teachers with a lot of love. We started to recognize our partners we spent months texting with and finally spoke with them person to person. They led us to the court their school had and Francisco (one of the CASFA students) started the icebreakers. We began with some games they had and got everyone moving and dancing together, it was a really good time. Then we played games to get to know our names and stuff. Something that stood out to me is how everyone got along really well despite the fact it was the very first time meeting them. Through the games it felt like we’ve known each other for a long time. After all the icebreakers, we went to our room to watch a documentary of how Colombia’s environment and biodiversity was really amazing. We started to have conversations with our partners and got to know one another even more. In my case, me and my partner talked about what we liked (sports, music and hobbies). We even talked on how Colombia has been facing hard times but that it can be seen everywhere. I liked the way she thought about her country, she felt tired of the people getting treated like that because the way the government runs the country, it’s hard for everyone to have a better future. We had so much to talk about that they let us go outside to the courtyard. We ended up playing soccer, hide and seek, and freeze tag. We had so much energy and enjoyed playing as a whole group. I feel that moments like those make us more united and have a stronger bond.

After playing for some time we went back to a room that they set up for us. First we had a reflection and prayer. We then had a presentation by three students who wanted to share the stories of victims of corruption and abuse of the government. They dressed up and had make up and told the stories in the perspective of the families of the victims which really was impactful on all of us. Later they did an activity that is something I will never forget. They had everyone write a word that came to our minds on a piggy bank. After everyone had written their word we got in a circle and were instructed to share out loud. They started but then thew the piggy bank across the room to one another and I was like, “why are the throwing it? It might fall and break.” But then one of the CASFA students got it, Felipe, and threw it on the floor and broke the piggy bank. He then went on to say how by him throwing the piggy bank to the floor with all the words we wrote was how governments destroyed the hopes and lives of communities. That really stood out to me because it made realize how deep this problem was for everyone and that they hated going through these situations. Then we all worked together to put all the pieces together that represented a community having resilience and hoping and working for a better future.

Afterwards, we went to get lunch and had time to have to chill with our partners. The bus came and we said our goodbyes to one another. We headed back to our convent and on the bus were all sharing how we felt. In the afternoon we went to a mall to exchange our money for Colombian currency and thankfully it went really smooth and we went to a store and bought some things. We went back to the convent and had dinner, and just like breakfast, we all sharing and talking. We ended the day with our reflection and we shared on how today was a really fun day and what parts stood out for us. Hopefully the next 8 days are just like today because so far this trip has been phenomenal, in my opinion.

Reflection questions for the night: How did your interaction with your partner go for day one? Is there anything you would have done differently and be better? How did the presentation of Colombian history and unrest affect you? How did you feel in our space after a major change of pace from the morning activities?

General feelings for the trip so far are tiredness, thirst, excitement, and anticipation for what’s to come!

Until next time,

Alex and Carlos (and all of Colombia Crew)