What do people in poverty and need look like? Just like me and you

The situation in Colombia is getting unbearable for the locals. Thousands of people line up for emergency food and many have hanged a red flag outside their houses -  meaning that they are in need of urgent help with no food or water. Coming from a wealthy country with a well functioning social security system, it's first of all hard to understand the situation and even harder to witness all that threatening the people that you consider as your family here in Minca. It's even harder since I know that I can't help all of them alone. With this post, I want to to raise awareness and maybe trigger someone to donate to the Minca fundraiser. 

Can you tell who is (or might become a person) in need? I can't.

Video shot during the weekly grocery shopping trip in Santa Marta on Tuesday April 21st by Adam Walker (member of my quarantine family).

Imagine the situation: 

Basically everything, like your farm and source of income, was taken away from you during the time of Guerilla violence and later the government gave your family a piece of land to live in and start fresh. You start a family business in tourism industry maybe by driving moto taxis, running a hostel/restaurant, or maybe giving tours for bird watching or cacao farming. You live from hand to mouth, just enough to provide your family, but with no opportunity to save money. 

Then comes coronavirus with at least 1,5-month-long lockdown followed by rumours that the tourism industry might have to remain closed for up to 18 months. You cannot work, meaning no income, leading to no food and water. What would you do?

In Finland I would just contact unemployment office with few clicks and then receive part of my salary as unemployment benefits. The social security system would always support me.  I could use my savings, or in worst case scenario ask my family to help me out. 

But what about the people in coutries like Colombia where no such thing as social security system exists? 

This is what happens to them:

Colombians starve as funds to combat COVID-19 crisis embezzled

As governments struggle to reach all those in need, many have resorted to hanging red rags from their windows to signal they need help. (Read the whole article here)

(If the video doesn't work, click HERE to watch it)

Listen our chef Yainer (26yrs), father of 4, to better understand the situation here in Minca:

(This was really hard for me to listen, since I consider these people as my family. Have been teaching the kids English and to swim, as well as just playing around with these little angels. Truth really hurts.)  

(If the video doesn't work, click HERE to watch it)

Despite the horrible situation, these people around us are truly amazing and always greet me with a smile on their face  - and I really hope it can stay that way. To do something, the local business owners established Minca Covid Relief movement to collect donations to help the families in Minca - classified as poorest level neighborhood in the country. 

Luckily the fundraiser has started very well and it's now releaving the urgent life-threatening needs. Still, to help the community to become more self-sufficient in long run, more help is needed. If you want to help, click here to donate. Every penny counts 🙏

Stay tuned with social media channels:

Facebook: Minca Covid Relief

Instagram: @minca_covid_felief

These little angels just make my day 🥰 But they too will need some help.

Stay safe and have a great day 💚

Love,
Else

Losing control and finding comfort in having a gun aroud, wait WHAT?!?

I don't know what's happening, don't know how long this is going to last, can’t go out, can’t travel, can’t do groceries, can’t eat out, can’t go for a run, can’t see my friends and family... How do I feel about losing control? Or why having a gun at the property gives me comfort while I would be super anxious if there was one in Europe?

This was my 6th cancelled flight in one month, so should be used to these by now. But this one hit me extremely hard. Until this point I had my own flight, but now I'm officially stranded and fully rely on the evacuation flights with no idea when and if they will take place. So this simple notification meant that I had no more control over schedules, transportation or other planning.

l guess most of us are experiencing the feeling of losing control over many things that we never even thought about or knew to appreciate in our daily life. Inspired with these people around me, I have done a lot of self-reflection during these now 26 days in complete lockdown. I also realized how weirdly my mind works when I'm in strange environment with most of the control taken away from me. 

I have no or very little control over:

• Not able to plan anything (it’s kind of cool though)
• Not allowed to leave the hostel properties (don’t really want to go to Colombian prison for breaking the curfew)
• Where to stay (there’s no way I could leave during the lockdown, and most places are closed)
• When and what I eat (couple of options and timeframes for each meal)
• Cannot cook myself
• Who I spend time with 
• Not allowed to do groceries or buy what I want/need (e.g. sunscreen)
• No place to go for a run (normally my way to cope with difficult situations, clear my head and keep it together)
• How long does the lockdown last
• When and how I can go back home (no panic, I'm very comfortable here)

Breakfast (10am) - Lunch (2pm) - Dinner (7pm) create core for the daily structure, and like we learned in Finland: good food, better mood.

I even got upset cause I ran out of oats for my porridge and had to give up on making my own breakfast every now and then (now I have some more, so panic is over). Sounds ridiculous, but that was one of the last “my own things” that I had control over, so in a way that totally makes sense.

It took some time for me to notice how these small and simple things give me a lot of comfort, just because I (unconsciously) have control over the following:

• Daily routines
• Yoga, workouts, other activities
• Working / Studying
• Reading
• Also the mealtimes create important structure (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
• Mindset: trying to think positively and see the bright sides of everything, but also allowing the sad feelings come and go
• Having a clear action plan for basically every possible scenario

Daily yoga and meditation keep me sane by being super important part of my daily structure as well as keeping me physically active. (But the mosquito bites all over legs make me go crazy)

A week ago, we had a meeting to discuss action plans for every possible scenario from someone getting corona symptoms to the situation getting unstable in the area. We got to know that there is for example a gun behind locked doors and people around who are trained to use it. Desperate people with no food and money might do extremely desperate things and since we are in Colombia, where for example the police is not like in Europe, you really need to be aware of safety matters. I’m in the middle of the jungle far from big cities, so the likelihood for something happening is small, but the possibility still exists.

This is where I realized how my mind does very weird things to keep me sane and survive . Back home I’m quite strongly against guns (hunting is an exception) and being around guns makes me very anxious. But this situation is so absurd that after the first shock I actually felt very safe to know that basically no scenario can come as a surprise since there’s an action plan for everything. I feel I have control over one thing. What else could I do? Freak out, pack my backpack and leave during a lockdown? It’s crazy how human mind can really make great things to survive, at least for me, just by accepting the situation and trying to see things in positive light. I guess this is also how all the brainwashing during difficult times work, since people want to believe good things. 

My hide-out and happy place, takes about 20 min walk in and by the river to get there

But all good here, I actually really enjoy the time I have for all the self-reflection, doing meditation, or just lying in a hammock or sitting by the waterfall to watch butterflies (there are A LOT) and how water flows and carries all the leaves and branches. And don’t worry, I’m not swimming in those deep waters with my deepest thoughts all the time. There’s a lot of cocktails, fun and laughter to balance it out. Like our yoga and dance teacher Adrian said: I feel I’ve got a new family and home far away from my home country.

Love,
Else

Sky on fire - The most amazing sunset so far

About my quarantine family and birthday party on Corona Cruises

We are 11 guests, 4 volunteers, ~15 staff members and their kids, coming from 13 different nationalities: Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, France, Lithuania, UK, Slovakia, Israel, Hungary, Netherlands, Germany and me from Finland. 

My quarantine birthday party with bunch of tourists on Corona Cruises

Fun fact is that basically none of us guests decided to come of stay here, but somehow we all still did. It’s funny to think all the coincidences and small decisions that brought us all here. Maybe we should believe in destiny? 

We have been here now for 3 weeks in a complete lockdown, but it feels like I've known these people for much longer time. We became really close super quickly (latest after the first party :D ) and I love the family-like feeling here, with strongly blurring the lines between staff and guests. Everyone collects their dishes, help picking mangoes and doing other things. We sometimes take turns to act as guest chefs with our amazing kitchen staff (will devote one post later just for the great food here).

Birthday special

One of the most memorable days was of course my birthday on March 25th. I knew that I will be abroad and might celebrate it with some new friends (plan was to be in Medellin), but nothing special. First we our daily morning yoga with a birthday special. And because I love organizing parties, decided to throw a theme party – tourist party on Corona Cruises ship simulator. Loved the effort everyone made for their outfits!

My dream cake 😍

The cocktails here are dangerously good

“Never have I ever” bingo, learning Finnish group dance Letkajenkka and limbo, as well as amazing tacos, tequila shots and my dream come true: a mango cake! Huge thanks for everyone here who made it happen, I had a blast <3

Love,
Else

Becoming a multitalent - How do I spend my time during the lockdown?

Finally getting to the fun stuff: all the awesome activities we do. One could get very bored and passive during a lockdown, but definitely not here. I feel like I’ll get a burnout before getting bored 😄

Here’s what our weekly schedule looks like:

Additionally we have e.g. massage course, evening meditation and this Saturday will be sushi workshop. So normally my daily schedule looks about like this:

6:30 - 7 Wake up

Drink coffee and chill, watch the sunrise

8:00 – 9:30 Yoga (6 times per week)

9:30 - 10:15 Workout (3 times a week)

~ 10:30 Breakfast

Self-picked mangos and avocado 😍

Pool / Chilling / Working / School stuff

~14:30 Lunch

Continue pool / Chilling / Working / School stuff

Pool train - When life gets stressful, get to some kids' plays and everything's a bit better!

Meditation challenge (20 min daily)

16:00 Drawing / Photography class (both twice a week)

Never thought I could draw (still have a long way to go), but really proud of my progress so far. Thanks to our teacher Pablo!

19:00 Dance class 3 times a week: Bachata / Salsa / Reggaeton OR Spanish

~20:00 Dinner

~22:00 Go to bed

So what skills am I learning? 

• Handstands (daily)
• Headstand and other yoga "acrobatics"
• 3 dances (Salsa, Bachata, Reggaeton)
• Meditation
• Drawing
• Photography
• Spanish

I guess that’s enough for one quarantine 😅

I also call with friends and family, write my blog, read books, listen to podcasts, etc. Haven’t even got to Netflix yet, so still have a lot of room for more boredom!

And visit the private waterfall located in the hostel's own land, so it’s allowed during the lockdown 😍 Since walking on streets is not allowed, we sometimes take a walk in and by the river.

We made a small plantation too to make sure we won't be starving

Coming up more about this awesome group we have and how I celebrated my birthday last week!

My quarantine family 💓

About finding a safe place and trying to stay positive

Before actually going deeper to our activities, I would like to tell about the place where I am quarantined and how I got here as well as little bit about what kind of fears and concerns are running through my mind these days. 

Visiting Casa Elemento before the quaratine

While for many my life might seem very carefree (and definitely cannot complain about the conditions here), the ones who know me also know that staying positive, keeping the brave face on and not thinking too much about the things I can’t change are my coping mechanisms to not let the fear and panic take over. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t cry because I felt super anxious mostly for my friends and family, wasn’t battling in my head if I should try to get on an evacuation flight or stay here and wait hoping it gets better, or wasn’t afraid that the situation here gets unstable and dangerous. It just means that I try my best to make the best out of every day and handle the situations as they come. Otherwise I would go nuts no matter where I was.

How I got here?

I was in Bogota when the situation in Colombia started to get real and many people had come there to try to find a way to go home since the international airport is located there. That said, the hostel was packed with many hysteric and panicking people. As the rumors about possible lockdown started to spread, I made a very quick decision to fly to northern Colombia as fast as possible to make sure that I was at least somewhere nice in case of a lockdown. I had had Minca in my mind as the place to go, so booked a flight to Santa Marta for the same night and a hostel for one night to continue to Minca in the morning.

At the hostel in Santa Marta I met two kinds of people: the panicking ones wanting to leave as soon as possible and the ones who had decided to stay. It’s very confusing to be around the panicking people who can’t even think clear anymore and try my best to calm them down or help them by borrowing phone or sharing the info I had (thank you Finnish Embassy in Colombia, your great and fast information flow has helped so many of us). Being around them really makes you question your own decisions and easily takes you down to the same hysteria, so I wanted to get away from those crowds as soon as possible. The following morning I found out that two other travelers had the same plan to go to Minca, so we decided to share a taxi instead of catching a bus. It ended up being a great decision, since the police had stopped the buses and were giving hard time to travelers.

After first night in another hostel in Minca, we got a good offer and decided to book a dorm from Siembra Boutique Hostel to move there in couple of days. Once we were there doing the booking, a friend of my texted to ask if I had got the information about the curfew starting that day. Of course I hadn’t, cause no one really had any info. That’s how all the information flow has gone here so far, nothing really from official sources. So I had to walk for 1 km throught the empty village in dark during curfew and try to explain the police with guns out in Spanish that I was lost and on my way to hostel to avoid 300.000 COP fine or even jail. I was seriously about to shit my pants. After this experience and all the growing rumors and panic, I made the decision with the other two to move to Siembra already the next day. And I’m very glad I did, since they decided to start a self-quarantine that very day and wouldn't accept any more guests the upcoming weeks.

Siembra Boutique Hostel - my home for now

Sun deck (=yoga room) and restaurant on left

Working space

This is a paradise where we don’t really have to worry about a thing and I’m extremely happy and thankful to be here, especially with great people that already became like a new family. The food is so amazing that I had to start limiting the eating to be able to walk out instead of rolling down the hill :D We are about 25 people (including staff) with 14 different nationalities and also staff staying here on premises to ensure complete quarantine isolation. I especially appreciate the fact that the panicking people are gone and even though every one of us have their concerns, we are trying to stay positive and not to stress about the things we have no impact on.

"Your life looks so amazing and carefree"

First, I really hesitated to post anything to social media since it feels unfair that I get to stay in this paradise while many have to stay locked inside their small apartments. I was very positively surprised after getting the courage to post something: all comments were only positive and asking to keep posting, since it brought so much joy to them. While my social media might look really chill, it’s a continuous emotional rollercoaster like anywhere else. I’m afraid that the situation gets out of control either with the virus or then people start stealing etc. due to shortage of money after losing businesses. I'm also worried that I get the virus and can't get medical treatment. I'm mostly terrified that one of my friends or family gets seriously ill especially when having many loved ones that belong to the risk groups. But at the moment I feel very safe where I am and try not to let the fears take over.

The toughest part by far is to talk with people back home that feel very anxious and have hard time because of the situation and I’m not able to be there for them. But even though I was back home I couldn’t meet and hug them due to curfews and stuff. So I’m trying my best to be there for friends and family. And for my friends and family: I really want to know how you actually feel and what's happening back home, even the worst parts. It also helps me to understand what is the situation like outside of this paradise and make me more prepared to face the world after this minimum 4-week quarantine.

My favorite hobby: watching these amazing sunsets

I’m living in this perfect bubble on top of the hill with no idea what’s the situation even in the Minca village 1,5 kilometers down the hill. It will be super scary to leave this place one day and enter the outside world. It really does feel like a Big Brother house where random people are put together and isolated from everything (well, we do have news and social media, etc.). The national lockdown is supposed to end on 14^th April, but no one know if it actually does. So at I’m trying not to worry too much about the life after that, because no one has an idea how things are afterwards making planning quite pointless and impossible. Making the best out of the situation is the best I can do. 

So next time more about our activity schedule and how we’ll be awesome multitalents after leaving this place, thanks to all the mostly self-organized program.

Love,

Else

In Finland we feed ducks, here hummingbirds are casual guests

Travelling during Corona: Why I decided to stay in Colombia?

No one can tell which decision is good or bad, no one has been in a situation like this before. I trust that everyone makes the decisions based on what their gut feeling tells them is the best thing to do. No one has the right to judge others' best decisions. Some stay home, some panic, some sleep at the airport to find a fastest way to get home. Some decide to stay where they are. I decided to stay.

I have been asked multiple times why I didn't return and got even criticized for staying, so I hope this gives a bit more perspective how it definitely isn't that black and white.

There's very controversial info if the masks work, but I decided to wear one at the airport and during flight.

Imagine yourself in this situation:

You're abroad (in my case Colombia) with bunch of rumours and hardly no official information. Some people around you start really panicking, some handle the situation more rationally. Your government sends you an email that you should try to return to your home country within 48 hours and contact your airline company to organize it. They also give you information about possible flight that got cancelled before you even had a chance to book.

Your options are:

1. Stay where you are and find a safe and comfortable place where you're prepared to stay for longer time of it comes to that.

2. Try to fly back home with no possibility to reach airline companies. Therefore you're left with the only opportunity to travel hours (my case 1 hour by car and a flight) to get to the airport (Bogota) to line for hours to sign up on a list so that they can tell you if you get a seat on some flight with 2 hour notice. The flight would cost you 1800-3000 euros (easily enough to cover living costs for more than 6 months in Colombia). This then means that you will be forced to stay at the airport to catch the flight if you get one and spend possibly for days there and sleep on the floor or the brought sun chairs with thousands of others (with a huge risk of getting the virus from the crowd). Still there is a very high chance that you won't get a flight and you're stranded in a big city (Bogota) during a complete lockdown with nowhere to go and lot of hostels/hotels not accepting people or even closing and kicking people out. And then it's too late to try to return to the original spot where you were.

What would you decide? It’s not so simple, right?

Crowds at El Dorado airport in Bogota (Source: Las2Orillas)

The government suggestions are great in theory, but what a lot of us really needed was information and facts about the real situation instead of rumors, and instructions that we could actually follow in real life. This question list by David Abraham in FB group Coronavirus Forum for Nomads & Remote Workers really helped me when struggling with my decision: 

• Can my basic needs (prescriptions, funds, etc) be addressed in this environment, for longer than usual?
• Am I in a place that feels comfortable for me?
• Am I ready to be flexible for interruptions to plans just made?
• Are there people (or a person or community) around me who I can ask for help?
• Has a government issued a travel ban or requested people to refrain from traveling to your intended destination or leave?
• Would I be a burden on the local society by taking resources or using limited services?

First week of complete quarantine/ national lockdown done, 3 more to go! In the next post I will tell you more about this place and how I spend my time while not allowed to exit the hostel premises (not even for a walk or doing groceries).

Stay safe and healthy 💗

Love, Else

All good in quarantine paradise.

Hiking and Camping on Great Wall - Trip I will never forget

Hiking on Great Wall had been my big dream for a long time, and once we figured that there's nothing scheduled for us on the weekend, I started checking for options for 2-day hike. Luckily my classmate had a good tip from her friend: a 2-day trip including camping on the wall. First I was hesitating a bit, since hiking only couple of hours the both days sounded a bit too short for me (you probably already know that I’m that all in or nothing kind of person 😅). I decided to join, since the price was quite cheap and some other classmates were going there anyways.

A bus picked us up from about 3 km away from our hotel and we drove about 1,5 – 2 hours to a tiny village called Chenjiapucun. There we got the tents, sleepingbags and some more water and started walking around 15:00. The trip was supposed to start earlier, but since it was about 35 degrees, the pick-ups were delayed with about 2 hours. Probably good, since it was still really hot.

The first 15 min we walked along a road, but since we saw the Great Wall very high on top of the hills, it was quite obvious that it wouldn’t be that flat the whole way. We were about 45 in the group, including two 10-year-old boys, who were not too prepared for the hike. I felt so bad for them carrying the tents, etc. on their hands that I offered to take first one “mattress” and then one tent, since I was able to hang those to my backpack (did regret this couple of times later on, but it would’ve been close to impossible for them to climb with the stuff).

Left: Destination from starting point. Middle: Carrying all my stuff with style :D Right: Here starts the climb.

We weren’t informed that it was going to be a serious climbing and hiking crazy steep paths, but as we arrived to the Wall (which resembled more of a stone pile there) and saw the path and hill, we started to figure what was ahead of us. Still probably none of us really knew what challenges were waiting for us over the next couple of hours. We started together as a group, but quite soon some kind of “speed groups” started to form. I was with the first group with about 8 people and a local villager leading the group. The good thing there is that there is only one path along the ruins of the Great Wall, so it’s close to impossible to get lost. We had one guide leading and one with the last ones.

Climbing the Wall, which is mostly a pile of rocks, and some amazing views on the way.

Every now and then we stopped to wait for others, catch our breaths and enjoy the views, but after a while we just passed the leader, since she was constantly stopping in very random spots. Like when she reached the flat spot and the rest of us were still on a very steep hill with our legs already shaking and just wanted to keep moving instead of collapsing there :D The last hour was definitely the hardest one, since climbing with all four limbs was necessary in many parts. And I can tell, that doing something close to bouldering with shaking legs and all the baggage was definitely not easy. But after a bit more than 2,5 hours, 4,5 km and 515 meters of altitude our group finally reached the top. Realizing that we made it AND seeing the breathtaking views just made me feel super happy. And the views totally made it worth every single second of the climb. Warm beer had never tasted that good!

Made it! The starting point is around in the middle, towards the electric lines.

We waited there for everyone to arrive, and last ones made it in about 4 hours total. After eating some snack, resting and taking a lot of photos, we headed a bit further to our camping area. Most stayed in the tower, but our group of 8 (studymates) set our camp a bit further up. The evening consisted of chilling, eating some cup noodles and helping a kid with an unfortunate incident that led to heavy bleeding. Luckily the situation calmed down soon and people had some first aid supplies with them.

Left: our tentplace. Right: our guide cooking water for our delicious noodle cups.

Probably the coolest part of the whole trip was just lying there on the wall with friends for hours and watching stars. We just took our sleeping bags there once it was getting a bit chilly. And it felt so amazing to breath and actually get some oxygen in after coughing my lungs out because of the bad air quality in Beijing. We even witnessed some shooting stars and got to know some fun facts about satellites from our walking Wikipedia :D Finally around 1 am we got to our tents to get some sleep.

We got up at 4 am to see the sunrise and walked about 10 min for a better view. As it was very foggy, the sunrise wasn’t as cool as the sunset, but it was still worth waking up. As the sun got up it was quickly getting really hot, so no way we were going back to tents to boil. It was a nice morning, just chilling and enjoying the views, but we could’ve started walking a lot earlier to avoid the hottest moments. Finally at 9 am we started walking along the wall for some more stairs (going down the stairs was a real struggle with tired legs). After about 20 min it changed to a path and it was quite easy just going downhill and trying to avoid slipping on the path. Our group reached the bus in less than an hour.

Sunrise (4am)

Once we got the group together, the bus drove us back to the village for lunch and further back to Beijing. I can tell that shower and scrubbing off all the dirt and sweat felt really good. This was definitely one of the top things I have ever experienced and will be a really hard one to beat. I think the extreme hike up made it even more unique and rewarding, but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not in shape (and willing) to do the crazy climb. We also learned that camping on the wall is not legal, but lot of people still do it. This experience was definitely worth breaking the law. Thanks for the great group and CET for organizing! And special thanks to Andy for carrying hos drone all the way so we can enjoy the amazing photos and videos.

TUM survivors, tired but super happy

Both pictures taken from the same spot: left is the renovated part and right how it mostly looks like.