Posted 2015-5-9 by AGF

On the last day of my journey to Bogota in 2015 the final place I wanted to see was Simon Boliviar Square and once I arrived I was greeted by, what appeared to be a march into the square.  It was wall to wall people chanting in Spanish and the few people I asked spoke no English, so I walked down into the crowd just looking around to see if I heard anyone speaking English and to my surprise, I found a couple wearing ‘UMass Boston’ t-shirts.  I approached them and they explained all that was going on.  It was a rally for equal pay for women, this is something I never expected, I also never expected to make new friends that took me too lunch.

Their son was a student at UMass Boston, they’d even lived here for a few years until returning to Colombia and as the day went on, I met more people.  I met more people that spoke English on that day than I did in my two weeks in Colombia and a news crew approached me.  Within seconds the camera was on me, and I was being asked ‘how I felt about the rally?’  And fortunately, my newfound friend translated for me.  ‘This is something I never expected see, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it in the US, so I am very impressed and admire all that is going on.’  ‘De donde esta – I know this question – Estoy de Boston es mi primero vacacione en Colombia.’  Yo amor tu ciudad, los personas, y cultura, comida y estilo de vida, mi amor, la estoy pasando bien.’ 

Once I finished my interview we went to lunch and continued conversation and getting to know each other more talking about life in Boston, Bogota and everything in between and when the check was put on the table before I could even reach for it my new friend already had his credit card out.  How often do these moments happen on a journey?  Where complete strangers become friends, you are interviewed by a Colombian news channel and someone else pays for your lunch.  This what it’s all about, this is why I work the two jobs for moments like these.  The unexpected moments that make a journey even more.