Changing Perceptions: Project Colombia

As I mentioned before my job will be in Medellín, Colombia - yes the famous city for which Pablo Escobar ran his cocaine cartel in for over 10 years. Since his death and the crack down on other major cartel leaders, the city and country have changed dramatically - thanks to new democratic leadership of their President Uribe. However, Colombia still has a bad reputation around the world, which has been proven over and over again from all the reactions Ive received when I tell people that I'm moving to Colombia for a year. They all say the same thing "Really?!? Is that safe?!", and contrary to popular belief yes. Be that it may, there are still some areas in the country that aren't safe, but overall the country is safe and doing a lot to promote tourism back into itself.

During my last semester at Laurier, I had the chance to make friends with three Colombians, and started to learn a lot from them about their country - because just like everyone else I had my perceptions about Colombia. As I began to learn more about it from native Colombians, and a lot of research I did while in my interview process for my job, I started to realize that Colombia is not the country I thought it was. Which then got me thinking - if I can change my perceptions about the country then I want to try and change my friends and family's perceptions about it as well. So that's what I want to accomplish over the next year while living and working down there, and is what Im going to call "Project Colombia". I want to show my friends/family that Colombia is different than what people think it is. I want to try and remove that stigma, even if I only do it through my circle of friends at least I'm helping to change some people's thoughts - and really that's all that matters, because if I help to change 10 people's perceptions, and those 10 people pass along their new perceptions to other people then good things can start to happen. If anyone has seen the movie "Pay It Forward", you kind of get the idea of where this is going.

So stay tuned, because over the next year through my experiences Im going to share different facts, information and what I personally experience in the country to try and help shed a new light on Colombia.