I can't believe how fast time is passing with just two weeks left here- the past fortnight has been packed with project development, cultural trips and more exploring!  

Over the past two weeks, I have been running meetings with our local volunteers, which has been great to get to know more people my age here in Colombia. We have spent a bit of time at the local university in culture fairs and talking to students and teachers. The volunteers helped out with the two workshops we ran with the children in Picacho con Futuro. The art workshop was aimed at fostering a sense of collective social identity and recognition of the efforts of community building, but in a fun and engaging way. This exemplified Colombia's community-centred resilience in overcoming violence and insecurity. The workshops went really well, and I particularly loved how chatty and lively the children were, who asked us to stay and play football with them after.

 It has been a privilege to visit different neighbourhoods across Medellín to learn from locally-lead programmes. As well as developing my communication and collective social identity project ideas for Picacho, we also helped out with another community NGO, 'Mi barrio, mi sueño', who is implementing colourful parks across the mountain neighbourhood. Here, we also had a very nice Colombian soup for lunch with an amazing view across the city. 

Dani and Sam, our make_sense programme coordinators, have also provided a rich cultural experience of Medellín. Our visit to La Casa de Memoria grounded the current work of Colombia's social resillience and peace building with the harrowing past suffering, a reminder of how important the everyday work of community organisations is. Moreover, Dani and Sam have facilitated leadership workshops with us, providing us with a supportive mentorship to help with things like budgeting. 

Outside of the programme, I have spent a lot of time exploring Colombia with the other scholars. We rented an Airbnb in Guatapé and took another weekend trip to Cartagena on the North coast. Both involved (interesting) boat rides, but were very fun. We are just coming into the Feria de Flores in Medellín, a flower festival involving lots of parades and live music at night, which I am looking forward to. We have explored downtown, learnt to salsa (badly), been to thrift shops, museums, botanical gardens, football matches, and bars and restaurants across Medellín. As we come up to the final few weeks, I am preparing the final parts of my project and how to tick off all the items on our Medellín bucket list!