IPP Balanza: 13 januar 2010

Our last evening in Tame we were invited to watch a movie with the locals and some representatives from the School of Community Justice. This was something totally different from what we had expected. We arrived just before sunset to a basketball court situated in a poor suburb of Tame. There were children everywhere running around and playing. They were all curious and happy, and we decided to do a couple of energizers with them.

"Eeeeeeeeeel pollo! El pollo con una pataaaa, el pollo con la otra pata, el pollo con las alitas el pollo con la colita y ahora te toca a tiiiii!!"

More than a hundred kids, aged between 3 and 10 were dancing around with us doing silly moves. Their happy faces are imprinted in my mind and I assure you - it's a beautiful sight!

During the time spent in Arauca we met people with touching backgrounds. A couple of years ago they saw sights no one should have to witness and they still live in constant fear for their lives. One girl came up to me and told me that her smaller sister was actually not her biological sister but was a part of the family since both the sister's parents were killed in an attack two years ago. This is what we are here for, to listen. And even though I couldn't respond (not because of my poor Spanish, even though I would be fluent I would not find any words to answer her) now she knows that someone knows her story. We have the power to spread a voice of those that media don't care to write about. We can make them feel just a bit more secure by giving light to this conflict. The personal stories will always be the most touching ones, and even more powerful coming from kids.

These kids could talk about the most effective way of killing a pig or how they had witnessed how people they knew were brutally killed by different groups or how their siblings were forced to join one. Kids are kids wherever you go around the world, they will play around. Some people might say that it's too late, that these kids already witnessed too much and that their families are falling apart, but it's not true. The kids we met still have an amazing energy around them, a big will of learning new things and a way of looking at life that we all should learn from. They are happy about the small things in life, and eventually we did start to watch the movie, not that anyone really watched it...

What I learnt about happiness from the people we met is not only something that changed my point of view, no, I'll bring it with me every day and understand that whatever problems I have I do have a right to feel unhappy, but put in a bigger perspective I'm not in a position to complain.

If I spoke Spanish I would respond to the girls' story the same way as I did without the language skills; I gave them both a hug and a smile. I know that they understood exactly what I meant with it. And I'll tell you what, during this experience we never met anyone that didn't respond to a smile.