Soacha with 'U' for universality

If you know or have ever visited Bogotá, you may have heard of Soacha, a neighboring municipality of the Colombian capital that is the obligatory step for travelers who leave the South Highway to visit some departments such as Tolima and Huila. 

Soacha or, rather, Suacha, as its inhabitants prefer to be called the municipality, for some decades it has been popular for its delicious garullas and almojábanas that, by the way, are the gastronomic heritage of the area. However, it has always been characterized as a territory that, although marked by violence and inequality, has great historical richness and above all strong and hard-working people.

The City of the Man God

As expected, during pre-Columbian times, those who inhabited the Suacha territory were the Muiscas, an indigenous group that had a special connection with the stars and with nature. This is how they named this sacred land as Sua, in honor of the Sun god, and Cha, which meant male, giving rise to the title of City of the Male god. 

Later, the Muiscas and the Spanish chroniclers would speak of a certain Bochica, a foreigner who would come to these lands to teach the indigenous new tools to flourish as a more prosperous society, Bochica would be described as a man with white skin, blue eyes and blond hair…
On the other side of the world, approximately 9,842 kilometers away, 11 hours of flight time and hundreds of years apart; 17 young Poles with the same physical characteristics of the famous Bochica, were preparing their suitcases to travel to Colombia. 

Fifteen days before, these same young people had taught their country to other university students from Colombia: they were students from the Universidad de los Andes who would now be in charge of revealing to them the diversity of Latin American culture; young foreigners did not imagine that their Colombian guides would have prepared a volunteer activity for them that they would remember for a lifetime.
Thursday, August 1, 2019, was the last day that the young Poles would be in Colombia, so, despite the early morning and a bit of nervousness, since almost none of them spoke Spanish, they arrived at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow to Hontanar. 

Returning the cassette

Some time before their arrival in Colombia, they were already working on logistics, so with the help of the Monte Verde Corporation, they began the search for the place that would host them, the meeting point, the refreshments that would be given, the activities to be developed and one or another detail to take into account that day, such as ensuring that the buses could access the area without problems.

Young Poles enjoy the company of the children of the Jorge Vicente Micolta School in the municipality of Soacha, Cundinamarca.

Recapping
Being approximately 8:00 in the morning, all the young people loaded the snacks on the buses, received some recommendations and with happy songs they embarked on this new adventure. In Suacha, the group of young people from Monte Verde helped by guiding the Carpa Circo, the young people who would be in charge of the recreation; They, not knowing the area and taking into account that all the streets are alike, could not find the address.
Meanwhile, at the Jorge Vicente Micolta School, 210 children did not imagine that in an hour they would be enjoying a very funny circus show.
After 9:00 in the morning, everyone arrived at the place, quietly entered, arranged the refreshments in a space and went out to the schoolyard to meet the children.
One or another curious, who was not attentive to the classes, noticed the presence of the volunteers, so they began to ask the "teachers" what was happening, who were those young people with blond hair? on the other hand, and looking “from the sidelines” were the young Poles, who still showed some nervousness on their faces, like their Colombian colleagues, who for the most part had never visited the communes of the Suacha municipality.

The time has come
While the circus boys were putting on makeup, the volunteers did an icebreaker activity, a children's round that managed to unleash hundreds of laughter from the children and volunteers. Amid the hubbub, strange noises were heard, a drum sounded, and the clarinet burst onto the stage. The surprised faces of the children did not wait.
From a corner of the schoolyard, five clowns ran out carrying various instruments, a giant cube, juggling pins and a skateboard. UAAAH! was heard in unison. It seems that today it will not rain! Said one of the teachers, and it did, it did not rain, the sun shone brightly on everyone's heads and the show began.
Laughter went and laughter came, many of them had never witnessed something similar, according to Carolina one of her teachers; some had never visited a movie theater, much less witnessed a visit from a foreigner. For them, beyond the clowns, the surprise was in being able to share with the volunteers, also as if it were magic, that magic that the clowns of the Circus Tent printed, the connection was immediate: it seemed that everyone had known each other for a lifetime. Many of the volunteers without speaking Spanish had an experience beyond the language, beyond all barriers. Love, which is the same in all human beings, flowed and flourished in that place. All brothers, all equal, all citizens of the world.

Regardless of the age and language difference, children and volunteers play through traditional rounds.

The real work

After two hours of show, the clowns said goodbye; However, the fun never stopped, at that moment the real work of the volunteers began. The advantage was that the children with their charisma had already broken down the wall of shyness of the Poles, they even climbed "tuta" on their shoulders and walked the patio from side to side on their new friends. 

A scene that will always remain in the memory of all young people was how the children became interested in learning more about English, a language that until now they were not very enthusiastic about learning; However, the interaction with them generated curiosity and that is how one of the little ones ran to the rudimentary school library, which had about 15 or 20 books. There, in the middle of those old and worn books, a children's dictionary of English was found, which was the perfect input to communicate with foreigners.

Enthusiastic, they threw questions at them and some phrases in English, which they attentively took charge of answering. There, in the midst of the hubbub, everyone knew the value of humility and the true power of a smile! The young people of Los Andes who were also oblivious to this reality could only wonder, what is their secret to being happy?

At the end and as if wishing that this day would not end, the children went for their notebooks and asked the volunteers to sign some sheets to have the memory forever. What a pleasant experience for everyone, autograph? to me? They exclaimed, yes to you, the children responded laughing, who saw this as the last game of the day. 

Gone are the dusty streets, everyone's precautions before arriving, that small school housed for four hours the perfect definition of love and universality ...