Monday, November 17, 2008
The mountains above Bogota
Bea and I spent a day at her sister's place, a little house in the country just over the watershed from Colombia's capital, Bogota.
It's been a week, and we both needed a chance to do nothing. Every time I go to this place I feel like a little kid - mostly because the thin air (at 3250 m above sea level) makes me feel small and wimpy, but also because I get seriously molested by loving dogs, and it's been awhile since I've had that in my life. When a well-muscled boxer wants to show affection, your face is going to get wet. In a good way.
The other news in Colombia: four days of rain have caused flooding on the larger rivers, and a mudslide in the mountain city of Medellin. A financial scandal involving a pyramid scheme has shocked ... well probably no one, but a very big scheme has apparently collapsed. The President has accused a number of students at the national University of being left-wing terrorists - these students have subsequently received death threats. His announcement came mere days after a prominent General has resigned over a military scandal involving the massacre of several thousand innocents to meet what amounts to a quota for dead guerillas.
In La Candelaria, the old part of town, we are working with a group of artists to learn their methodologies for the creation of theatre. more on that on Aluna Theatre's website: www.alunatheatre.ca
Fabulous parties and shifting schedules. A city experiencing growth and decline. Beautiful, unprocessed food made by hand and no restaurants open in our area on a holiday evening. In a place full of contradiction, everything we do seems that little bit more intense.
