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two days in Medellin

written march 3rd:

Got a bit fed up with Bogota so I up and left. This was right after spending all day trying to talk with two people whose receptionists said would be available at
such and such a time. The first was just a no show. The next was there but in a meeting. With a bit more latin america job hunting finesse I think I could of got in to see him. The trick is not to just say I want to teach english to the receptionist,no, better to say I spoke with so and so in the english dept and she suggested thatI speak to so and so. Maybe add that I would like information about looking for
work teaching english. ah well, live and learn.

Upshot was that I decided to move on to some other colombian cities to check out the centro colombos there. My efforts to find "good" schools were finding scant results so I decided to move on to Medellin. Kind of impulsively, I started
packing at 6 in the evening and by 930 that night me and all my worldly possessions were on the night bus. Quite cozy I might, with the strong airconditioning, two seats to myself and that pillow that IÂ´m so glad I brought. Woke up that morning in a mountainous, jungly kind of curvy road place. There were those plants with the big 10 foot long leaves that you sometimes see in Los Angeles backyards growing
all over the place. Everything was misty and grey. We kept going down and down until the jungle(cloud forest?) gave way to rolling farmland and then went steeply down
into a deep narrow long valley that cradles the city of Medellin.

After this pleasant start, things went over a rough patch. I took a taxi to hotel cordoba, listed in lonely planet, who got lost and after he made enough wrong turns to allow me to know where I was and where I was going I just said drop me off, were close enough. I donÂ´t know if he did it deliberately or not but I wasnÂ´t up for making a scene out of it. Then, after walking a couple blocks in this new city all vuneralbe with my luggage in hand, the lady at hotel cordoba says that they donÂ´t let foreigners stay there. Grrrr. So I walk a few more blocks trying believe that
its perfectly normal to be dragging around my luggage in the busy downtown streets. Oh look, theres someone else doing it, it must OK. Ofcourse, thats probably what she was thinking. Get to the hotel, and the lady isnÂ´t so friendly at the desk and it turns out theres no hot water. Still, freshing up feels good and I go out to sieze the day.

Talk to a teacher at centro colombo. Great guy. Made me want to teach there. Had a bad tasting lunch and talked with the director who I had corresponded with before. No job but I would be qualified to work there if there was an opening. He tried to warn me off being exploited by explaining what they pay, what the benefits are. Nice guy. Tried to make a distintion between different kinds of contracts, some
more legitamate that others. He currently has two native speakers there so hes familiar with the visa process and he said it took them 6 months to arrange the thing overseas.
I tried to press him why it takes so long, explaining what was involved in getting my documents together, which once I knew what to do, was basically one day schlepping
from one side of LA to the other and back. He said something about thats the difference between the US and Colombia. What that difference is however...central government
vs federal...corruption...IÂ´m not too sure. He said that the apostille was correct for the CELTA letter but that the police clearance letter was not necessary. This
was confirmed by the director of studies that he sent me to later that afternoonat a different university. This second place was the same story, seemed like a great
place to work, had foriegners working there, my qualifications were fine, but probably no job now. She did want me to leave my documents there tomorrow so theres a small chance this fish will bite. Said something about bringing it up to the committee.

One thing about Medellin is there are some super friendly people when it came to helping me out with directions from the first place to the second place. I had like
two hours to find this place or wait till monday. On two separate occasions a group of 3 or four people simultaniously helped me find the place. It was really over
the top. First days impression: the people here seem a lot more friendly than Bogota.

written march 4th:
An interesting morning jobwise. Took a nap this afternoon to chill out from whats been a somewhat fast pace.

Dropped off my papers and filled out an application with eafit for the receptionist who, although friendly, gave me the impression that no job was forthcoming. I´m beginning to think that there´s a little more to these receptionist´s jobs than just reception. At least in the good cop bad cop world, I´m beginning to see who plays what role. The receptionist gave me the name of another place which I went to. The director was pretty abrupt - no work visa, no job. He spoke excellent but accented english but the guy sitting accross the desk from him was an American who was there on business of his own. The american wanted to shoot the crap with me about the visa situation but it wasn´t his place so I only stayed a little while. Interestingly, he married a colombian woman but had to do it by proxy, with some other guy standing in his place. We all had a laugh over this as it seemed to easily lead to some unwanted conclusions over what else was being done by proxy.

The next place was more juicy, jobwise. The place was recommended by a place that was recommended by a place where I would want to work and I got a tentative offer from the owner who spoke very good second language english. However, some major drawbacks for me and one for the owner of the school. For the owner, my tourist visa was only for a month and she would want me to work for a bit longer than that. For me, the problem was mainly that she was unwilling to sponser a work visa so the work would be under the table as she put it. Also, it sounded like I would be doing some travelling to teach business classes which sounded like a pain. The main thing is the visa but she did a pretty good job of explaining her side. One thing is the commitment factor, which I had heard before. Another is that its a pain dealing with the red tape. Lastly, and what seemed like the most important, was that she employs teachers part time on an as needed basis. A work visa could only be for a job that conforms with colombian labor laws which would guaruntee me a full time salary regardless of whether there were students to teach or not. Not to mention all sorts of other benefits like health insurance etc. It seemed like this was the sort of job that other guy in centro colombo was warning me about. So we left it by saying lets not close any doors meaning I would continue to search for that work visa sponsor but would consider working for her should that not work out and I reconciled myself to or figured a way around overstaying my tourist visa.

So one more part of the puzzle and now I try to generalize my experiences. The work visa regulations don´t match the economical realities of engish teaching in colombia. In other words, a typical business owner, either through greed or just the need to price their classes competitively often hire teachers by peice work, thereby eliminating the risk of paying a teacher when there´s no students. Perhaps if an organization is large enough it can eliminate some of vacillations in enrollment allowing full time employees. Or maybe it just has to be a public institution that can´t get away with doing things efficiently, albeit illegally.

What this all means for me I´m not to sure except that I´m planning on going to the coffee region tomorrow, to check out the centro colombos there in three small cities clustered close to each other, Pereira, Manizales and and Armenia. I am in a sense entering the blank areas of the map as these places aren´t discussed in my trusty lonely planet guide.

This next part is for my mom who plaintively emailed me "where are you?" and anyone else who wants to read a firsttimers immpression of Medellin. Warning, this is going to sound like it was lifted right out of a guide book.

I´m in Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia, about 3000 feet above sea level. Can´t quite figure out the weather here. They have fans in the hotel room, its been cloudy today, sunny yesterday, rain in both afternoons. Its supposed to be the "city of eternal spring" but to me its decidely on the sultry side. Yesterday was supposed to be as hot as as it gets. People dress in in tshirts unlike Bogota but like over there no one wears shorts, even though its definitely "shorts" weather.

Medellin is located centrally northwest of bogota between the western and central branches of the Andes mountain range. The mountains surround the city and look inviting with clouds swirling about their tops. The people here call themselves paisas which I guess means people from the country, and seems a bit ethnocentric. Like an american indian tribe I read about in Micheners Centenial that called themselves "the people". It does feel a more country-ish as opposed to citified than Bogota even though its a huge city, with a light rail system. There seems to be less economic activity downtown than Bogota. I understood it to be the cultural or intellectual center of Colombia but that side has yet to present itself to me. It was developed in this century so there is little colonial architecture.

I´m staying in downtown which is a bit on the seedy side. The two resturants I´ve been to, as well as the street food have been lower quality and more expensive than what I found in Bogota. The hotel is 4 more dollars a night but is worlds apart from the place I stayed in Bogota. Although architecturally more modern and shaped like a standard hotel, there is no hot water, unused common areas, no fellow travelors to hang out with, and no kitchen. Although the fridge in the room had beers, sodas and peanuts which was a nice touch I availed myself to. Nothing like a beer and peanuts to finish off a hard days work. I problably should have stayed at the gringo hotel which has all that stuff but once I got settled it didn´t make sense to move. I´ll probably be moving on to Pereira tomorrow anyway.The area I looked for work, I think called el poblado, is another story. Lots of domestic workers out and about, mostly in uniform, landscaped front yards. Lovely decidious trees of unkown variety lined the streets. No loitering, panhandling, peddling or passed out riff-raff here! Its separated from downtown by big industrial area and a curious bridge complex for pedestrians on Las Vegas street which crosses a major highway. Very Dysneyesque ala tomorrow land or Dr Suess like in its excess of pedestrian choices. There were empty concession stands, two military guys, and way more molded concrete, curving on and off ramps than necessary.

By Jon on Mar 4, 2005, 17:59 in Friendly Talkzone.

dwmte says on Mar 4, 2005, 20:26:

jon you've probably left medellin, but you might want to try eafit in llano grande. more chances there and more straight shooting on the part of the staff.

llano grande is about 50 miles east of medellin, close to the airport near rio negro. you can bus or taxi up there for very reasonable. it's about a hour plus bus ride. as for hotels. you'll have to stay at one in rio negro...i guess. ask at the school.

if you continue along the road through llano grande you'll come to 'gualanday' a centro commercial which you'll find to be quite friendly and a good source for area information.

good luck.

i lived for a number of years in llano grande and was invited to teach at eafit. i turned it down as i did private teaching and had my own bar/restaurant/antiqueshop.

dw

0 funny, 0 helpful.

caslug says on Mar 5, 2005, 12:39:

good reading jon.. keep up the travel journal... i didn't realize finding a job as english teacher is so difficult in COL.

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stevens says on Mar 5, 2005, 13:39:

¨...the lady at hotel cordoba says that they donÂ´t let foreigners stay there.¨ Geez, not here, too. Sounds just like Japan. uh, I don't mean to pry, but is there anything about your appearance that might be offputting to someone who is ´conservative´and parochial?

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Jon says on Mar 6, 2005, 07:33:

hotel cordoba No offense taken. Could have been a problem as I had just spent the night on a bus and I looked a little goofy. I was wearing these baggy pajama like pants, white tshirt and dressy brown leather shoes. On the other hand it was odd because the place was listed in LP as "one of the few places downtown popular with foriegners."

Can anyone recommend hotels in Manizales or Armenia in the 5-10 us dollar range? Not having a hotel to go to in a new city ends up being an extra expense. I went to hotel mi casita in Pereira last night, about 15 per night and its a bit more luxurious than I need. This morning found a really seedy place for 4 a night and 7 dollar a night place that is more my speed called hotel la balconeria. mas or menos.

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