Hindsight

In hindsight that last post was way more of a hissy fit than I thought it was going to be, sorry y'all.  It was all just a bit overwhelming so I apologize for the less than alegre read.  Anyways, things have mellowed out but also gotten weirder since my last post.  I met with the principle of my school here in Pereira, and shit got weird.  All was normal at first as we discussed the fact that I had a lot of work to do, which I totally expected.  She really loved the fact that I graduated with a degree in Biology and we discussed all of the cool things that we could do in order to put steps in motion in order to make Pueblo Rico a place where tourists could enjoy the surreal paisaje of the place and also help out the town economy.  Anyways, things got a little weird as she started giving me words of advice about keeping myself safe.  Everything made sense at first as she was telling me to avoid unsavory characters and that I will undoubtedly be a center of attention as a gringo.  Then shit hit the fan.  So there was another volunteer in the same pueblo as me who had to leave because he gained a reputation as a bit of a partier and a pot head.  Not cool for a foreign volunteer.  Made sense, whatever.  Then she started telling me about how Pueblo Rico is different from most places because of the fact that people are not afraid to be openly homosexual.  Whatever, progressive place surprising but cool, right?  Wrong.  She started ranting about how a man from the town had developed a strong attachment to this male volunteer and stuff had gown down one night after a night of hard drinking.  The quote was something like "he was very drunk late one night and the man who had an attachment to him found him and, well… you know… and then he had to leave".  At this point I was more than a little freaked out.  I am sure that you all can read between the lines there, but this was not cool.  She then proceeded to tell me to be careful when accepting drinks from people, and that I had to be very careful of my every move.  I knew that the pueblo is filled with some unsavory characters already, but this was something else entirely.  I will not lie I had a nice little panic attack.  Anyways, I continued to talk with her and things were not any less weird, but I don't really remember the conversation as I was a little fixated on what she had just told me.  Anyways, this is the best part.

I got to lunch with the other volunteers and on the way I talk with this guy who actually knows the guy this happened to and told me that he had to leave because of his weed habit.  A little confused I didn't inquire further.  He gave me this guys phone number and I proceeded to call him to dig into the situation.  This was one of the most awkward calls of my entire life.  How do you ask someone about a recently traumatizing experience in order to best know how to protect yourself, when it may actually cause them a lot of harm.  Sensitively is what I did.   I asked him about what had happened in Pueblo Rico and such and he said that he had to leave because of the weed smoking.  Somehow I proceeded to ask something like "is that really all that happened" and he responded "yeah, why what did you hear".  Then I took the plunge into the deep end and just straight up asked if he had been taken advantage of.  I figured it was ok because he wasn't talking with any reservation and seemed not to be hiding anything. He said no.  No way.  Nothing even close to that had happened.  Technically a good thing I suppose, but still confusing.  Apparently this principle is an extremely opinionated person with lofty ideals who tends to jump to conclusions and such and has a reputation for firing people without just cause.  So I don't really know what the deal is going to be at this school.  Now super relieved that my greatest obstacle may be a slightly less than sane principal, not a town with a rape culture, I happily continued my day and now I am writing this post.  ALSO.  I am sure that I am interpreting what happened wrong to some degree as my understanding of the spanish language leaves many holes in my ability to comprehend exactly what people are saying.  So, I apologize to the karma gods of I am totally getting this wrong, but this is what I heard.  Don't worry, though, I will proceed with an open mind with this program as if none of this ever happened.  Can't do much good here if I am afraid to step out the door as they say.  Anyways, here's today's life lesson, my friends: don't be afraid to get a little weird.  I'm about to at the very least.  Until next time.

But again, sorry about how moody this post is too, but this county just keeps getting weirder.  I promise that the stories will get happier as time goes on.  Peace. Love.  The Gap.