Week 4
As we sadly moved past the half way mark, our itinerary for week 4 was full of both project-related activities and further exploration of the city, the culture and the country.
Our Project: Sustainability and Art
This week, our time has been divided by our two intended outputs: the educational pamphlets and the mural for Picacho con Futuro's building.
On Wednesday and Friday, we ran workshops with the children from the 'ludoteca' at Picacho con Futuro, in partnership with our fellow scholar's communication project. Both of our groups planned for the children to create art relating to their life and their home, with my team instructing the children to create their homes, using mixed materials and media, with the intention to use recycled waste in the process to support growing knowledge of circular economy ideologies. Overall, it was successful, with many houses created over the two workshops that can be used in the mural we will be implementing next week, and the children enjoyed it thoroughly, given their excitable nature. However, it ran much smoother during Friday's session after learning from the Wednesday session, and at times, the kids would leave the exercise or would be less inclined to participate which did create challenges. Furthermore, the language barrier was difficult to navigate, so when 4 volunteers came to the Friday session, it was much easier to instruct and guide the children through them.
Alongside the workshops, my fellow scholars and I have been working on the educational pamphlets. We have finalised a design and its content over the course of week, approved via check-ins with Adrián, Dani and Sam. Here is (what we hope is) our final design!
The plan is to print 200-250 copies that can then be distributed to the local community at the eco-bazaar we are running at Picacho con Futuro on 9th August. It is exciting to work on an impactful piece of work that will become accessible to a community, and I have loved being creative again, as it not something I can do much in my degree at home.
Beyond the project, we attended another cultural fair at UPB, which was an international fair at the university's library. For our slot, my fellow scholars and I each shared myths and legends from our country, which was amusing given the impromptu presentation we had to execute as opposed to the stall we thought we were running. However, it was fun to attend and hear from new people at the university.
Cultural activities and exploration
In Medellín this past week, we utilised our free time as much as we could to continue to see the city. At the start of the week, we decided to try out a salsa class! I am not a good dancer in the slightest, but it was very fun and not too difficult to learn the basics, so I would love to try it again, especially as the music is so good. Later on in the week, we headed back to Comuna 13 for an afternoon, as we enjoyed it so much the first time, and explored the many streets and their respective street performances. I love the energy in the community, the views it holds of the beautiful city and the people in the area. We also got to witness a local rap battle on Thursday at dinner with Sam and Dani which, despite not understanding the lyrics fully, was very entertaining paired with some good choripanes.
At the weekend, 3 of us decided to head up to the northern coast to Cartagena to see a new city in Colombia! It was a beautiful city with so much to see, including the Rosario Islands in the Caribbean sea, the colourful streets of the old town and local dancing in the squares. It was such a great weekend and I wished we could have stayed longer, even with the extreme heat and humidity!
It was a great busy week and I am still enjoying every minute of this LiA with everything it has to offer!