Thinking Allowed: Medellin Immersion

At some point as I slumped into the seat of the airplane on the way to Colombia I realised that in not that long I would have been to 5 continents in the past two months. So much for the goal of slower travel! Still pretty great unknown personal goal achieved! The Medellin airport is far enough out of the city that we were afforded amazing views of mountains and forest as we cruised down into South America. We arrived on a Friday night which meant we were very quickly immersed into our new world of festivity and music. And Spanish! Our children have not spent any time in a Spanish speaking country so this was a new thing for them.

We found out a few days before we left that our visit coincided with school holidays. Tova, unfazed by the fact that she knows a handful of Spanish words immediately rejoiced at the prospect of summer camp. Tova’s not so secret dream is to never return to school but to just join a series of camps - preferably the sleep away variety. So two days after arriving we walked Tova to a building we had never seen and dropped her off at a camp we had only heard of a few days before. She is a brave child. She arrived home beaming at the end of the day and reported that although the kids spoke no English she had a friend! Given that the camp was only a few hours long we were all very impressed! The only awkward part of the language barrier she reported was that everyone thought she was a boy and she didn’t know how to tell them otherwise so she had to avoid going to the bathroom as she didn’t know which one to use. She also found it awkward when anyone wanted to know what country she is from (do I say Canada or Australia or nowhere?) Bolstered by new friendships Tova became determined to learn Spanish so she could understand her new friends. Gosh, she has dedicated herself to that mission with an enthusiasm that is surprising given her lacklustre study of French.

After a few days of camp Tova convinced Sophia that she should join as well. Both girls say that they don’t think they are learning any Spanish at camp but then it is interesting how when someone asks us a questions Tova will sometimes translate for me. Picking up language without directly ever learning it is so interesting.

Colombia is very into sports and we are fortunate to be not far away from Estadio - a Mecca for the training of all sports. In addition to a sports arena there is a large area for diving and swimming. We watched a diving competition of six year old boys and were very impressed. There is a large building dedicated to martial arts of all kids, a building for basketball, a building for soccer, a building for volleyball? and cheerleading type sports, a building for something else, and best of all a whole building for gymnastics. We chatted with the gym administrators and sent them videos of Sophia and they slotted her into a ‘gym camp.’ Sophia is very pleased that she gets to spend her afternoons doing gymnastics. I am very pleased that her coach, who does speak a bit of English, has required Sophia to learn Spanish phrases as part of her training.

Through an expat we met in a cafe we learned about drop in art sessions for kids. Our young ‘learn to draw addicts’ were excited to get to enter a real art venue. The first time I left just Tova who seems to care not a bit about the language barriers. I came to pick her up three hours after dropping her off and she said she was allowed to stay until 7pm and would not` look at me or take her eyes off of what she was working on. It is eerie and miraculous when Tova is quiet so I agreed to come an hour later. At six she agreed to come home but belligerently. One day it would be very fun to give Tova a very large canvas to work with, lots of paint and other supplies, and endless time and see what she produces. I suspect she is a child who could create big and bold. Regardless, Tova set the wheels in motions for a few more enjoyable art sessions for her and her sisters.

One of the things we feel the children miss out on when travelling is getting to do structured activities. Spending a month in one place and allowing them the opportunity to explore personal interests has been great (and busy!). It has also been an incredible way of getting them exposed to a new language and culture.