Medellin (Colombia), the 3rd May, 2010

Latin Arabia in Colombia - one more step in this infinite path to Light

Time flies.
So do we when we believe to have wings.
I always believed I had wings, I dreamt with flying treaps (in those treaps I was a bird with no body, just wings or an unicorn with two huge, transparent wings that took me everywhere) and I always tried to see wings in another people (if I have them, they must have them it, right?!).

My treap to Colombia was an unexpected experience as it was the whole festival, a big effort and risk on the part of Luz - the organizer - to do something for her city, for her people.
So far, and in just a few days, I've learnt so much and, between the performance and the workshop I taught to a very sweet group of students, here are the things I could perceive:

1. Colombia is a magical place full of positive and negative energies. All potential is here, if only people chose the GOOD instead of the BAD. We're all learning so I am hoping eyes will start to open towards the Light.

2. Colombian people are the sweetest, most polite and delicate I've ever seen.

3. There is salsa, rumba and reggeaton (am I writing it well?!) all over the place (I like it!!!).
4. They registered me at the hotel as Joana SHAKIRA (not Saahirah) and that made me conclude - in a single step - colombians have a bit of egyptian's madness and good humour.

5. There is a strange adoration/fear about the local character PABLO ESCOBAR, once one of the richest and most wanted men in the world. Made in... Medellin.
He was a drug baron and an assassin who killed everyone who f.... him or simply bugged him - so, the bad guy! -but he was also a kind of latin Robin Hood who gave money and houses to the poor (so...the good guy?!). This kind of contradiction seems to say a lot about Colombia.

6. I 've learnt that there is a typical dish from Medellin - a peasant's dish called BANDEJA PAISA - that will keep you well fed and ready to carve a mountain for an whole day.

7. I've learnt that envy can be very destructive and harm the ones who try to do something from their hearts but what's WELL DONE will remain and produce consequences in the future. GOOD always beats EVIL in the end, I really want to believe in that.

8. I've realized, once more, that appearances deceive us and the ones you think you have less in common with can end up being your best friends and even soul partners.
Never judge a book by its cover. Colombia has taught me that.
9. Life is great. Even when things don't go as you planned them.