Graffiti in Bogota

It's been a good old long time since I've put anything here.  Originally I wanted this to be a space not just to share my thoughts, but stories, images, and information that I'm privy to here that friends and family at home to have as easy access to.  A kind of way of spreading my experience around.  Welp, when I moved to Bogota I didn't have as many interesting emblematic experiences and I just stopped having as much time to devote to developing entries.  So, although I know I still don't have a lot of time I'm gonna be putting little snippets of stories and photos from my life here.

To start, I am consistently impressed by graffiti/street art here in Bogota.  There are three artists that I really enjoy.  I've got pictures below of some of my more favorite of the works of two of these artists.  Enjoy!

Graffiti in the works (taken during a march)

The People's Congress is Cool

I was recently inspired from afar. In early October, 17,000 delagates representing 220 organizations/communities gathered in Bogotá for the People's Congress. A tent city was erected in the national university and soup pots set to bubbling to accomadate the five day gathering. There were human rights organizations, small farmer collectives, indigenous communities, and others. The indigineous gaurd, who use community strength and a wooden stick with a red ribbon tied to it to provide security to their communities, were at the front of the marches that twice took over the streets. In the stadium of the university the conglomeration of resisters, defenders, fighters, activists, idealists and skeptics hammered out their goals, strategies, and resistance for the colombia they work for. Cool. I wish I could have gone, but I couldn't. Instead I watched this little video made by FOR and it made me happy that so many people are working for something outside of fear, control, and dependency.