A half-hour’s bus ride north of Medellín in the small
municipality of Barbosa lies El Parque de
Las Aguas, the metropolitan area’s only water park. At the suggestion of
recent volunteer Alex, a daytrip was organised to the water park for the kids from
one of Globalteer’s Volunteer Colombia Children’s projects in central Medellín.
This was the first time any kids from any of the projects
Globalteer works with in Medellín had ever visited the water park or been transported
so far outside the city but, fortunately, it proved logistically easy because
of Medellín’s excellent public transport system. As this particular project is
conveniently located next to one of the city’s metro stations, the twenty
children and five adults from the project were easily able to travel to the metro’s
northernmost station and then transfer to a local bus to Barbosa, all with a
cheap integrated ticket. Though Barbosa sits at a slightly lower elevation than
Medellín and therefore boasts a hotter climate, the weather on this particular Friday
afternoon was typically gorgeous for this part of Colombia, perfect for a paseo (outing).
Sadly, Alex was not able to come along on this adventure
as he had had to return to Canada unexpectedly early, but he was adamant that
part of his donation be used to take the children to the water park. Though Alex
missed out on the fun, new volunteer Carleen from London and ex-volunteer
Michael from Denmark were more than happy to help chaperone the outing.
Luckily, the water park wasn’t too crowded when the group
arrived early on Friday afternoon. The two accompanying social workers unpacked
the lunches they had brought along and the group sat enjoying a picnic under
the shade of several shelters. The children could hardly wait to strip down to
their bathing suits and were soon running excitedly hand-in-hand around the
park.
While Michael accompanied the four youngest children in
the kid’s pool area, the other chaperones were run ragged trying to keep up
with all the other kids who had either jumped into the huge wave pool, were
showing off to their peers on the steepest waterslides, or had taken refuge
from the heat in an inner tube on the slow river that circles the park. At the
end of the afternoon, it took quite an effort to track down all of the children,
most of whom had scattered all over the park and, of course, began running as
fast as possible away from their chaperones at closing time.
The journey back to their project was fun too. As all the trains were empty when they got back to the metro station, the children each
claimed a seat for themselves, surely more comfortable for the youngest (6 and
7) than sitting on the laps of their friends (or the Globalteer volunteer
coordinator) as they had done in the bus. Before long, however, the train began
to fill up, and bewildered passengers realised that nearly all the seats
were taken up by young children, who stubbornly refused to give up their seats
after such a tiring day at the park.
As the train approached Estación San Antonio the chaperones realised that they would have
to scramble to round up all the twenty children who had scattered throughout
the train upon boarding, but were now lost in a labyrinth of passengers.
Frantically weaving in and out of the confused crowd, the foreign volunteers
rushed to gather the children who were having such a good time climbing on the
seats and looking at the city pass by outside the window that they didn’t want
to get off. Unable to do a headcount until everyone had gotten off, the
chaperones were hugely relieved to discover that they hadn’t lost any of the
children on the metro!
Standing breathlessly on the
platform the three foreign chaperones were reminded that most things don’t
happen smoothly or as planned in Colombia, and that, while things get done and
eventually work out, it can require a lot of patience. Being flexible and having
an open mind are great assets in Medellín. Expect the unexpected
and be aware that every day will contain a new adventure or challenge.
That’s partly why everyone loves the place so much!
The children from two of the three projects that
Globalteer collaborates with in Medellín still haven’t been to the water park,
but that day isn’t far off. Will you be here to join them? See the details of
how to volunteer with Globalteer on our website.
