A night of Colombian culture

The following is a post that I wrote in my email in October of 2018, 1.5 years into this experience of living abroad. As sometimes happens,  I write because I know it is/will be an important moment or idea to me and then forget that I have a venue for sharing those thoughts and moments (albeit that said venue has all of 38 readers! 😁)

October 2018

Last night I lived the reason I'm here, to learn about the Colombian people and the culture. It was a perfect and unexpectedly cultured night when I mostly thought I'd be getting cocktails with friends and people watching, but it was so much more. 

Kai is young man I met in Plaza Trinidad where people gather to drink, dance, eat and generally be social. A pseudo "flashmob" broke out of older Paisas (people from Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío areas of Colombia)doing a dance that according to some guy from Bogota was called bambuco, that I had never seen before. I noticed a young man with a hand-held camera and we started talking about the dance, the culture and our experiences as non-Cartagenaros. It turns out that Kai is one of the indigenous people of Colombia known as the Aruaco and that he was travelling through Colombia to learn about other cultures but even more to help people know about his, because after all, his is from the most Colombian culture that is still around. So, to honor Kai and our conversations here are some tidbits that I found fascinating:

1) Kai has no age because they have a different system that doesn't use numbers. He knows that he was born on the 12th moon (December) but doesn't know a day or year.

2) Araucans do not consume alcohol or eat meat that isn't from their land. 

3) Kai has 12 siblings and 4 houses because all of his siblings don't fit under 1 roof.

4) Kai started learning Spanish (different from his indigenous language) at a young age having to trek miles down a mountain each day and is now trying to learn English and French just to further his mission of learning and teaching about culture.

5) Kai's father is a leader in their pueblo, so the expectation is that he too will one day lead but he feels that first he must educate himself and others.

6) Aruacans don't need money. They are rich in agriculture and if there is something they need from below the mountain, they will trade or barter for it such as horses.

7) The music and dance is very different with sun and moon dances to music played on a flute-like wind instrument.

8) Aruacans don't believe in God in the traditional sense but they believe in the earth, the sky, the sun and the sea and that animals are of no greater importance than humans and vice versa.

After about 30 or 45 minutes of chatting, Kai sat and started working on a bracelet while I looked at some of his other crafts. He gave me a bracelet that I wear and consider it's one of the things that most connects me to this experience. And when I look at the bracelet, I think about Kai and this moment and it humbles me.