Incredible Cartagena July 25th, 2012

The highlight of our trip was a visit to the University of Cartagena.  This is where we were able to talk to a young man who was taken by the paramilitary at the young age of 12.  He had previously been living with an aunt who treated him like a slave after suffering abuse by his father.  He had been befriended by a member of the paramilitary, an older man, whom I would think would be a father figure for him.  Although he had stated he did not want to enlist in his organization, eventually he was taken and trained to do things that no 11 year old boy should even know about. (The information given would be too graphic for me to add to my school blog) Needless to say, we listened intently to him about his life story.  Thankfully he took advantage of a government initiative in 2005 that allowed people like him to return to normal life with a pardon of what had been done.  You can imagine the distrust of the people in the village where he lived.  He said it had been very hard to integrate again into a "normal life."  The professor from the university had received a grant to help others just like him and he hopes to make a film out of his ordeal and current life.  I have a scripted document of his life story if you would like to request a copy.  It is translated in a rough format but the gist is very apparent.

Next we were uplifted with a wonderful display of Colombian dance by the students of the college.  It was bright, lively and gave us a wonderful insight into this culture.