Beating Extreme Poverty in Colombia

Though my job usually involves sitting in front of a computer and making maps, writing proposals, or looking for data, on Friday I was able to go to the field for a day and learn about the work of the ANSPE (Agencia Nacional para la Superación de Pobreza Extrema, or Nacional Agency for Overcoming Extreme Poverty). We headed to Cucunubá, a small town a couple of hours north of Bogotá.



The Red Unidos, the branch of the ANSPE that we were shadowing for the day, runs a program that aims to help the poorest of the poor in Colombia move out of extreme poverty. They have 10,000 field workers throughout the country with a presence in every single municipality (equivalent to the county level in the U.S.). Each cogestor/a is assigned to roughly 100-150 families to help them work towards certain goals to improve their situation.

The main plaza in Cucunubá

After a brief introduction in the town, we all split up to go with a cogestora to shadow her while she visited with a family. I was matched with Sonia, who was going to visit a family quite far out of town.

Sonia, the cogestora that I shadowed

After walking for about 30 minutes, catching a van for 10 minutes, then walking another 30 minutes, we finally made it to Flor's house. Flor and her 7 year-old son, Andrés, welcomed us in with open arms. She had prepared lunch for us - we all sat in her small kitchen and chatted while eating soup and lentils with rice. Plus fresh juice with berries that had been recently picked from her garden. It was a two-room house, plus a small kitchen and bathroom (with a flush toilet, a luxury). The roof leaks every time it rains and the adobe walls are cracked.

The scenery ain't half bad

After lunch, Sonia got down to business, explaining to us how she works with each family. During their first meeting, she sits down with each family to assess their current situation and rank them according to certain indicators - what have they already accomplished, what do they still need, and what doesn't apply to their situation. She then identifies the top 5 priorities and helps the family work towards those priorities. This can include anything from making sure everyone in the family has their government-issued ID to ensuring that the kids have all been vaccinated. The cogestora makes visits and keeps on eye on each of her families, letting them know when there are free trainings or vaccination days coming up, essentially joining together state and free private services with the people who need them.

Sonia then asked questions about how things were going in the house. Were Flor and Andrés getting along lately? How did Flor handle disciplining her son? Did she help with his homework? How were the leaks in the roof? How are her relationships with the neighbors, the teacher? Flor answered frankly, and Sonia talked her through strategies to help with her son. Flor said, "You know, sometimes I just don't know if I'm raising him right or wrong. How can you know?"

Flor with her dog and Sonia in front of the greenhouse

Flor and some of her neighbors took a class on growing herbs and were so excited that they formed a group to grow organic herbs, including thyme, peppermint, calendula, and chives. They're passionate about their garden, which includes a small greenhouse. They insisted on giving us some to take with us.

Flor and her business partner cutting herbs for us

The problem, Flor says, is that they now have all of these herbs and no one to sell them to. And from my perspective, as someone who buys these herbs so cheaply in Bogotá, how much could they realistically sell them for? They took the advice of the government to learn these new skills, but if they can't actually put them to any productive use, what's the point?

Though Red Unidos isn't perfect, it's an amazing investment by the part of the Colombian government in the future of its people. The agency follows the philosophy of its director, who says, "My father was a businessman, and he always taught me that you attend to one client at a time." These are the kinds of programs that will push this country forward.

Naturally, this experience got me thinking about my own place in the world of helping others. What can I do to help someone? It's so easy to live my comfortable life and forget about the Flors of the world. In fact, it's human nature to think, "Someone else will deal with that." I think about how the haves of the world exploit the have-nots, whether we know it or not, whether we see it or not. There will always be Flors out there, selling her herbs at whatever price she can get, so that I can buy them for cheap at the market down the street. Thus, the goal of Red Unidos is not to eliminate poverty altogether, but rather to eliminate extreme poverty. What can I do to help towards that goal?

Desaparecidos

Living in Bogota, it's easy to forget that this country continues to be at war. You hear about bombings all the time, but they occur in faraway pueblos or target oil pipelines.

And then I came across this scene on my bike ride to work.

I've worked in marketing, so I know that putting a face on an issue creates a much stronger emotional tie than listing a bunch of statistics. So hearing that a bomb killed 3 people or that there are over 4 million internally displaced persons in Colombia isn't nearly as effective as seeing the faces of people who have been directly affected by the conflict. All of these photos had the name of the person and the date of their "disappearance." I couldn't help but stop my bike and pay my respects.

So I can sit here in my nice apartment in Bogotá and feel great about life. And then I feel so helpless. What can I do to help this country? What can anyone do?

The Santos government recently announced that they are starting up peace talks with the FARC. Let's hope that they make some progress.

Arriba, abajo

We came to Colombia to perfect our Spanish. Here we are, over a year and a half later, and Spanish is so natural now that it's hard to remember a time when I didn't feel totally comfortable in the language. I went to the U.S. for a couple of weeks in April, and after just a few days away from Bogotá, I was dying to speak some español.


Yet, because it isn't my native language, I am constantly analyzing the words I speak and hear every day. As a geographer who thought about majoring in linguistics, I love finding the overlap. My favorite example here in Bogotá is when giving directions. The mountains are on the eastern side of the city, with the city sloping down towards the west and leveling out to a fairly flat valley. 

Monserrate and the other mountains to the east

When you ask a rolo or rola (local slang for someone from Bogotá) how to get from point A to point B, they often explain that a certain spot is arriba (up/above) or abajo (below) another landmark or street instead of using "east" or "west." At first, I had no idea what the hell they were talking about, until one day it dawned on me – they're referencing the mountains! Arriba means it's closer to the mountains, while abajo means it's away from the mountains. Though this isn't the same as the Guugu Yimithirr, it's fascinating how the local geography is deeply embedded in the language. I now use arriba and abajo daily without thinking about it.


While living abroad you constantly have to challenge your cultural assumptions and your comfort zone when it comes to language. At the office, one of my interns consistently refers to me as Ud. or Sumercé (an even more formal version of Ud., you, from a certain part of Colombia, Boyacá). Every time she says it, I cringe a little bit inside. I've thought about asking her to tutearme – refer to me with the more informal tú – but then I remember that she uses that convention because it makes her feel comfortable and I just need to get over myself.


Speaking two languages every day makes my brain work harder. Spanish is a part of who I am, and whenever we do go back to the U.S., I've got to find a way to keep it in my life.

Getting better all the time...

November???!!! Really? I apologize. Robin and I have really been slacking.

Coincidentally, November was when I got my job. That's right: for those of you who don't already know, both Tolochkos are currently gainfully employed. Robin at the Colombian think tank CEELAT as the head of their new mapping and data visualization laboratory, and myself as the Colombia country manager for Leonie, an American communications company. Who would have thought that quitting our jobs in DC and moving to a country that we had never visited before and where we knew no one would end up being the greatest career move we'd ever made? Life is GOOD.

The holidays were mostly uneventful, except that we were blessed with AMAZING weather and visits from our friends Stephan, Ben, and Angela, and Robin's cousin, Lauren. Next year though, we're going to get the hell out of Bogotá and take advantage of the country shutting down for a month to do some traveling.

2012 is shaping up to be a pretty amazing year. On top of the new jobs, Robin and I have finally gotten our act together and decided to start up our leather exporting company, Restrepo Leather. Now when I say that we're going to have a website and Etsy store up by the end of March, I actually mean it. We've hired someone to run the day-to-day operations of the company. This is really, truly happening.

In other news, my project at work should finally launch within the month, and our House Hunters International episode is scheduled to air on March 6. Feel free to join us in Bogotá for a viewing party.