Cali

I met a guy named Jason from Minnesota USA, an ex math teacher that got bored with what he did, he turned to art, sculpturing, did some project in a Bogotá museum, and now is attending a circus school in Cali. Jason like me loves football, and he’ll never turn down the chance to play a game. We decided to try and find somewhere to play in Cali. We found some football fields next to the Chipi Chapi shopping center. We went and just hanged out there, in the hope that a group that is missing some players would invite us to make up the numbers. After an hour wait, we got our wish, and we got invited to play a game. I was warm and ready to go, as we practiced while waiting. I scored the first couple of goals in the game, and I think Jason scored the third, a nice chip over the goalkeeper (mine were just two poacher efforts capitalizing on defensive mistakes). The play was quite rough, and there are no fouls. Since we were playing 6 vs 6, it was a also bit crowded, and challenges were flying from all directions. At one point some guy charged into me, America football style, after I had released the ball, he hit with his shoulder straight in the ribs, knocking me back. I immediately felt the pain, and fell to the ground, grabbing my chest. I had previous experiences with rib bruises, and I immediately knew I gotten rib bruise again. Anyway no body paid attention to me, the game went on, and the idiot, who charged into me, did not even bother to ask if I was alright, or apologize for his crime (in reality I did not even know who the culprit is, who caught me by surprise, and I did not see who it was). Realizing no body cared, I just got up and went on playing, trying hard to avoid being hit again on the same spot. Halfway through the game I thought I was too tired to go on, and was thinking of retiring, or at least playing goal keeper, but when I remembered my bruise, that motivated my to go on, I was going to stay on the field, and do my best to ensure that the guy who hit me does not win the game. I got a second wind, and managed to play the whole game, I think we played for an hour and half or two hours. Every time I had played football in south America, I got myself hurt, four times out four. The first two times I sprained my big toe, the third time I broke a toe (I think I broke a toe, because it took a few month to heal), all playing on the beach barefoot. This time at least it was not my fault.

I hate rib injuries, they ache at any movement you make, getting up, sitting, turning around in bed, moving your arms, breathing, coughing (the worst). I don’t really know what to do with the injury other then rest until it heals itself. Back at the hostel I declined the temptation to go out that night, and went to bed to rest. But even though I went to bed early I had a hard time waking up in the morning. I had made an appointment with Thomas, to go see a kinder garden project. Thomas is a young guy from Switzerland, and he was interested in volunteering for the project, which is being supported by a Swiss donations. The kinder garden project is located in one of the slums of Cali, near the Cali dump, where most people there make their living from collecting stuff in the dump for recycling. We first headed to the offices which were in another neighborhood (for safety reasons they told us). Then we took a taxi with three of the women working in the garden, on the way the older woman suggested she keep hold of my camera, for safety. When we got there, the older women paid the taxi driver, and told him not stop for any reason until he left the slum. Then she worked in front of us with a stick in her hand, her daughter walking behind the rest of the group, watching our back. The population of the slum was almost totally black, at that time I could see only kids and teenagers, the parents are probably working, the teenagers did not like it when I looked at them, and responded with threatening looks. At the kinder garden, they had children between the ages of 2 and 5. The children were great, very welcoming, and always ready to play and have fun. But frankly I was feeling awful, the football game last night was tiring, and I felt I did not have the sleep I needed, so I decided to head back to the hostel and catch up on some sleep. Before I left I was given a lovely thanks card, which one of the girls working there made for me on the spot. I hanged it at the hostel, so people could see it and hopefully get interested in visiting the place. At the kinder garden, I tried to take some photos, only to realize that my camera was no longer working. I can’t really complain it served me well for three years, I guess it’s time had come. But now I am without a camera, and I trying to decide whether to get a new one. Three of the young woman working at the hostel, accompanied me, surrounding me like body guards, until we reached the main road, were I grabbed a taxi. I found it brave of them to do this project, in an area which appears to be quite dangerous.