Nurses, Colors, and Landslides

One of my newest responsibilities as an English teaching-assistant is to travel once a week to ‘El Bosque’, the medical school campus associated with La Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB). While there I run a conversation club designed specifically for nursing students. 7 to 8 semesters of English are required for all UNAB students. However, students in the nursing program have an even heavier course load, as English is becoming more and more of a requirement in the nursing profession. I have to hand it to these girls. (All ten of my students are young women. Of the 80 or so students in the nursing program, only ten are men). Classes for these aspiring nurses typically start at 7 a.m. and most of them stay on campus until at least 7 p.m. After that it’s back home to study. After class ended at 6pm, one of the girls was catching a bus which would take her an hour across town so she could go to yet another English class!

I showed up late for this nursing class for this week (for the second time…out of two times) because for the second time I got on the wrong bus. I’m supposed to get on the bus that says ‘Carñaveral’…but with ‘Carñaveral’ written in yellow letters and not blue letters. I’m starting to see the holes in my liberal arts education. Here’s to hoping next week my kindergarten life skills actually work and I can tell the difference between two primary colors. Luckily all the nurses showed up late to class as well. I’m getting the hang of this not being punctual thing and I think I kind of like it.

At the end of the week I will be concluding my one month stay with my Colombian host family before I move into an apartment with other foreign students. This family has treated me exceptionally well, and living in such a nice neighborhood has made my transition into Colombiamuch smoother. I currently live in a neighborhood officially designated ‘Estratus 6.’ Colombiahas system whereby neighborhoods are given an official designation of 1-6, with 1 being the poorest and 6 being the wealthiest. I will be moving to an ‘Estratus 4’ (I think?) neighborhood soon. Not too much will be different…just a bit noisier, I won’t have a doorman, and my front door has 3 deadlocks.

I’m not going to pretend I have any real sociological knowledge of classism and wealth stratification here in Colombia, but the view from my host family’s front window provides an interesting glimpse. Looking east, one sees a mountain ridge covered in tropical vegetation. At the south end one sees this:

I think the technical tern is 'Really Nice House'

Panning one’s view to the north on the same ridge only about 50 meters, one sees this:

This structure is commonly called an 'invasion', at least by wealthy Colombians. It's a settlement constructed by poor residents with no official claim to the land.

And just about another 50 meters north, this appears:

Landslides like this are common in the mountains around Bucaramanga. Unfortunately, many of the precariously constructed 'invasions' fall victim to these landslides every year.

This ridge spans an entire social strata. I was struck by the close vicinity of the extremely affluent and extremely poor. It remains to be seen if this 'invasion' will one day be claimed by a landslide. The other day I walked less than 20 seconds into the forest behind my host family’s apartment (maybe not the best thing to do by myself?) and I stumbled upon a cow tied to a tree. We looked at each other for a moment and I was about to start a conversation (it’s sometimes easier to practice Spanish with non-humans) when I noticed a tin shack hidden in the trees a few meters back. There was a man in a torn red t-shirt in front of his dwelling, staring off into the distance. He didn’t see me, and I slowly retreated. With only a few small steps I crossed from the world of ‘Estratus 6’ to the world of ‘Estratus 0.’ From the world of the people who write the map to the world of the people who aren’t even on the map.