As of Friday this week, CII-6 has been in Colombia for 6
months. At staging, we were strangers, but already getting to know each other
as all of us flew through a team-building activity. Six months later (and well
before now), we’re friends – good friends…maybe even lifetime friends, some of
us…because once you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer, you never really stop being
one…
This week, we had a few meetings and lots of time to spend
with other volunteers. On Sunday, we had our VAC regional meeting in Santa
Marta, and then we joined two people visiting from the office for dinner in the
middle of the week. I went to Stations of the Cross on Friday and joined a few
volunteers Saturday morning for our first mochila-making
class, which I’m very excited about! (The teacher is so sweet and helpful and
short, which made her very easy to identify! And now I have a tiny mochila circle started.) That evening,
we celebrated Kwanzaa (yes, Kwanzaa – a little late, but better late than
never!) as one of our Diversity events. We met at a local restaurant and
learned about the customs, symbols, colors, and 7 principles associated with
the holiday. We said libations for our ancestors and talked about the children
in our lives. We ate together and shared meaningful gifts and I was thrilled to
have the opportunity to learn about a holiday in which I’ve never participated
before and that one of our Santa Marta volunteers was able to celebrate and
share a tradition that is part of her family’s culture, but not typical in
Colombia.
- SENA offers a series of free classes, originally designed
to train women for the work world. This does not mean men cannot participate (some
of the class teachers are men), but that was the original intention. I have
heard of artisanal classes (mochilas,
shoes, palm branch crafts, etc.), basic working classes (how to handle food,
etc.), cooking classes (general cooking, desserts, etc.), and more. If you have
time (and, especially at the beginning of your service, you will), I highly
recommend learning about the classes and taking the time to train yourself in
one or two (or more) of those areas.
- I won’t try to give too much information about Kwanzaa,
since I’m definitely the wrong person to ask about most of the traditions. One
thing I did want to include, though, is a list of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven
Principles associated with the holiday. They are:
- “Umoja (Unity): To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
- Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
- Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.
- Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
- Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
- Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
- Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”
– Dr. Maulana Karenga
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