Week 5

Project outputs

For our penultimate week, we completed our outputs with our collaborating organisation, Picacho con Futuro. 

At the start of the week, we got to be creative as we made the background for our mural in Picacho con Futuro's building! The vision for the mural was a dedication to Picacho and Medellín, using the houses the children created in our workshops last week. Over 2 afternoons, we created the background by painting a mountain scene, including Picacho's iconic hilltop with the Jesus statue, a title of 'Mi Barrio' in the Colombian flag colours and an installation of cable cars using old yoghurt pots which turned out great! I really enjoyed being creative again, as I have always loved painting, and I think it turned out really good!

Another output we executed this week was our eco-bazaar on the Saturday. We had planned the session to run from 10-1, which included creating more houses with the children for the mural, finishing assembling the mural with the houses, handing out our pamphlets and running a quiz to win 5 hampers of food from a local farmers market to promote locally sourced food and a circular economy. 

It was a successful bazaar overall! It was not as busy as we hoped but it was a satisfying feeling seeing our pamphlets in a physical form and giving them to people to use and read. The mural ended up looking really great, with many compliments from the local people, and it was fun to engage with them during the quiz and feel like a part of their community. We printed 500 pamphlets so many remain at Picacho con Futuro to be handed out over time as people see them, with our intention with the design to be accessible to everyone in the neighbourhood. Everyone I have met is so kind and friendly, even with the language barrier, and I am proud of the work my fellow scholars and I have achieved. 

Impact tour and city exploring

Alongside our project, Dani & Sam organised an impact tour with Cesár, a representative from Picacho con Futuro, in Downtown of Medellín. We met in San Antonio, then proceeded to take the tram to end of the line to visit La Casa de Cultura of Las Estancias. Here, we learnt about the history of the house, and the others around the city, and their significance amongst the local communities and what they provide as a space for the people. It was very interesting to hear about the inspiring scheme that the people of Medellín have fought for and preserved over time. We also took a cable car to view the city and speak about the community dynamics, as well as visiting a renovated working space in the centre of Downtown to view the city centre and hear about more of its history. It was a very interesting tour and I thoroughly enjoying seeing and learning about a different area of Medellín. 

Beyond these organised activities, my fellow scholars and I continued to use our free time to make the most of our experience and time in the city. This week, Medellín has been holding its annual festival, 'Feria de los Flores', hosting a wide range of activities. Flower displays, music and people have filled the streets and it has been an exciting atmosphere to be a part of, particularly in Parque del Rio where we even managed to catch a glimpse of the very busy parade of flower displays. In addition, we enjoyed a delicious 'Foodie Friday' meal at Alambique in Poblado and visited El Castillo museum and gardens, all whilst trying to hide from the multiple thunderstorms that occurred this past week. 

I am gutted to be entering my final week here as I have found this whole experience to be amazing and unforgettable! I am very grateful for it and will certainly enjoy everything this last week has to offer!