what the world needs now is love, sweet love -and a humanitarian accord with the FARC

Last weekend was the long awaited amigos secretos party here in La Unión - sorta like valentines day displaced to September and without all the roses (did you know that Colombia is the second largest exporter or roses in the world? In fact, 2/3 of all roses sold in the US come from Colombia) and without the boxed chocolates (even though cacao groves surround the community). We celebrated Colombia’s Dia de Amor y Amistad a couple days late and with what almost seemed like elementary school rainy day indoor recess favorite game, 7-up. Amigos Secretos is a secret gift exchange organized by pulling names out of a hat –men pulling women, women pulling men- setting a price limit and allowing a couple of weeks for some good espionage in which everyone but Camila and I seemed to find out who had their name. Predictably, it turns out I had no secret friend. The one guy who was playing but didn’t show up or send his present along with someone was my guy. Apparently I am so unlucky in love that even my obligatory secret admirer can’t find the wherewithal to follow through.

I was lucky though with the name I had drawn some weeks before. I randomly chose one of the 15-year-old boys here in La Unión who I know fairly well. When I got here he was still an awkward and shy, not to mention much shorter, 14 year old, who first approached me to ask for help with his English homework. He has grown up a lot this year, attending the Saturday high school that many teenagers in the Community go to in Apartadó, now too self-conscience to ask for homework help and at least 6 inches taller. One thing that he has continued to do is come over to the house every once and a while to ask to borrow my CD walkman so he can listen to music in his own, quiet and personal way. When I plucked his name out of the hat I knew exactly what I was going to get him, I was just worried that it would fall way outside the spending limit. Fortunately, I came across a surprisingly cheap personal CD player, snatched it up and really can’t remember the last time I was so excited about giving someone a gift. He didn’t guess me either.

The way it worked was the person guessing would stand in the middle of the kiosk with two chances to guess his or her amigo secreto. If you guessed wrong, the crowd got to choose a punishment, like doing a silly dance or making a donkey sound or jumping around the kiosk on one foot or, the favorite of the night, tying a piece of twine to your back belt that has a pencil attached to it and trying to get the pencil into the soda bottle on the ground. Anyway, after my young friend did his “penitencia” I got to come forward as the secret friend. Later on when he opened it during the dance portion of the evening, I caught his eye as I was being lead around the dance floor and the shared smile was a sweet and lovely moment I won’t soon forget.

I think this small exchange was so meaningful because it provided me with a way to finally give someone something I knew they really wanted but couldn’t afford. I can’t really do that in my role here. There have been so many moments in which I have struggled with the fact that 10 dollars could really make a difference in someone’s life – help them with school, help them with a medical need or just allow them to buy that little luxury that they have their eye on. I realize this restraint is an important part of respecting individual autonomy, of maintaining our independence as international observers, not to mention discouraging a presence based on dependence and intervention, so I continue to hold back even though there have been many trying moments. This was a great chance to indulge myself.

After every pair was finally matched up, there was one more round of Bingo (Bingo had opened the night´s activities) and then after midnight, the music began. I am finally a bit more adept at the dancing here, which is somewhat shameful because it really isn’t that difficult, I mean we are not talking salsa – just a double shake then circular switching motion to the other hip to double shake and then circle back again while making tight circles on the dance floor. Apparently the problem is that much like a certain man in a little blue suit with spikey black hair, I am not an ambi-turner, I can’t turn or shake left.

As I was lead on and off the dance floor by many sweaty and shorter partners I realized that I now recognized all the songs, could almost dance to them and, more importantly, knew all of the people, save the outside visitors, who were crowded into the kiosk. Throughout the night, small moments had been re-enforcing this obvious recognition. Just outside in the shadows was the older man who, before arriving, I had only known as the face of the FOR Colombia Program – the nameless weathered, campesino face that gracefully looked out from the cover of our brochures and web page. Earlier, asleep on my lap was the little girl whose face appeared on the back cover of FOR literature and even was found on a blown up version of the same picture in the SF office. And at the end of the night I shared my last two sleepy dances with a man who just last week was finally released from the municipal prison after two long years of waiting for trumped up charges to be dropped. Until his release last week, I had only known him as a voice on the other end of the telephone, calling from prison and asking to speak with one of the leaders or his brother who lives here in La Unión.

----------------------------

In other news, Liberal Party Senator Piedad Cordoba, asked by President Uribe to negotiate negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of FARC kidnap victims, has been kicking some major butt. She met with FARC leader "Raul Reyes", brought Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez into the mix, is working with Frances newly elected President Sarkozy, (a man totally obsessed with securing the freedom of former Colombian Presidential candidate (and dual Colombian/French citizen) Ingrid Betancourt), invited the Presidents of Brazil and Ecuador to participate, and after she met with the families of the three US hostages, she has even managed to coordinate the participation of a delegation of US congress people. But all this for what, you ask? The big Chavez-facilitated meet up will take place in days, October the 8th, in Caracas. The FARC have consistently demanded that the Colombian government give in to their request for a demilitarized zone before any discussion of hostage release can take place. President Uribe consistently states that he will never give in to this request. It remains to be seen what, if any, progress comes from this meeting, but the fact that so many folks are on board is surely a hopeful sign.