It was really fun for me to travel again, but this time to South America, Medellin, Columbia to attend a second phase training in human rights, peace and security sponsored by the Swedish government and organized by INDEVELOP Consultants.
The first phase was done in January to February in Uppsala, Sweden for three weeks. Participants were drawn from post conflict countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Timor Lester, Cambodia and Columbia.
The Sierra Leonean delegates Ibrahim Samura from the Sierra Leone Police, Fatmata Kanu from Access to Justice, Christian Lawrence from Campaign for Good Governance and I from Awoko Newspaper were supposed to start our trip on the 27 August shortly after we received our visas from the Columbia embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
Our August 27 trip was canceled due to our flight schedule and transit visa. Well prepared for the trip after we have spent our energy and time to proceed to the Lungi International Airport, our hope was cast down as the profiling officer at the Airport told us that “I cannot allow you to travel with Air Maroc simply because you do not have transit visa for Madrid. Our original itinerary was to travel with Air Maroc to Casablanca, Madrid, Bogota and Medellin which will be shorter for us. But documents could not allow us. We had to spend the night at the airport because it was 2am. We managed to sleep in a room given to us by one Police Officer. But before we slept we made several phone calls to the organizers in Sweden and there and then our travel plans were changed this time to a long and tedious one.
Due to the urgency of the programme two of our participants Ibrahim and Christian were first allowed to travel on the 28 August with Ethiopia airlines going through Guinea, Lome, Mali, South Africa, Sao Paulo, Panama City and then Medellin which will take them 2 days.
Fatmata and I left on Sunday 29th with Kenya airways to Ghana, Nairobi, South Africa, Sao Paulo, Panama City and then Medellin.
We spent 2 hours from Freetown to Ghana, five hours from Ghana to Nairobi, three and half hours from Nairobi to Johannesburg, 10 and half hours from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo and 7 hours from Sao Paulo to Panama City and one hour forty minutes from Panama City to Medellin. We spent almost 30 hours in the air.In Johannesburg airport we met our Liberian counterparts and a Nigerian gentleman heading for Sao Paulo to attend a Lawn Tennis competition.
The Nigerian lawn tennis coach was treated like a criminal; his passport was taken from him at the airport and was later given to him when it was few minutes to boarding time. We had to intervene because he was a black and from West Africa not knowing that his intentions of traveling was not genuine.
What was puzzling us was his visa that was questioned by the immigration officers, one of the Liberian participants Allison spoke to him and he told us that he can pay the officers whatever they want for him to travel to Sao Paulo. We became afraid and had to distance ourselves from him, but he kept coming closer to us so that we can help him negotiate with the immigration officers.
Time to board the South African airways, he was skeptical and asked us many questions and begged us to help him. Suddenly one of the Liberian participants Satta told us that if we continued to encourage the Nigerian guy we could end up in jail. We panicked and our mood changed towards him. In the 10 and half hours flight to Sao Paulo which was his destination while everybody was asleep this guy was not. Each time we woke up we saw him in different seats. I had to take my hand luggage from the cabin and placed it under my seat for safety. When we arrived at Sao Palo airport, the guy was behind us. One of us asked him where he was going and he said he was just following us and we advised him to go through immigration since he is stopping at Sao Paulo. Later while waiting for our Copa Airways flight we saw him with immigration officers and when we asked him he said he is being deported and the next flight will take him home. He still came to us and told us to help him negotiate with the officers as he was ready to pay them whatever they asked for him to travel. We changed our seats from where he was to another place to safeguard ourselves. Even his Nigerian brother that we boarded the same flight with could not help him.
The problems we encountered in Sao Paulo airport put all of us off as our passports were taken from us and handed over to one of the cabin crew of Copa Airline. We were the last to board the flight almost 10 minutes for depature to Panama City. We were treated like illegal immigrants and not transiting passengers. The reason was that because we are blacks and the nasty things our black brothers and sisters are engaged in. In Panama City our passports were handed over to one of the cabin crew who helped us to get our boarding passes and we were the first to enter the flight. We were only 11 in the flight going to Medellin. It was fun all the way.
But in Medellin airport it was really tough for us because our passports were handed over to the Immigration Department and we spent almost an hour going through security checks. One thing that amazed me was when during security checks I saw so many sniffer dogs big and huge. We were all afraid of the dogs because of their size and their ugly looking as if they are going to eat us. I have never seen such dogs before in my life. One of the Sierra Leonean participants Fatmata could not trace her luggage due to the tense hurdles we went through in Sao Paulo.
Before we left for our trip, I had many naive preconceptions of Columbia. I imagined mainly a war country, with sporadic drugs dealing, mainly in Bogota. I figured Bogota, and possibly Medellin, would be the only true cities of the country and they would still pale in comparison to New York City. Needless to say, I was proved horribly wrong. Medellin turned out to be a beautiful city with picturesque mountains and rivers standing in the background of many cities and towns, most all of them well past the process of modernization.
However, the trip to Medellin was perhaps the most interesting trip I have ever been on. It takes time to digest the many impressions as we got in just a few days ago. Our hotel, Hotel Park 10 is a five star hotel The Park 10 Hotel is an exclusive all-suite hotel in El Poblado, near the commercial center of Medellin. It is the best I have lodged in since I started traveling even in China and Sweden. Hotel Park 10 is the best.
Nestled in the stunning Aburra Valley in the mountainous Antioquia terrain lays the magical city of Medellin, Columbia: “The Land of Eternal Spring” and “Capital of The Flowers”. The population of Medellin is almost 3 million people. This modern city is capital of Antioquia Department and has an average temperature of 24 degrees C. Medellin is highly regarded in Columbia because of it’s well-organized and economically lively community. Its people are hard working and industrious. Major industries include coffee and flower export, information technology and hotel services. Medellin has more Internet hook-ups than any other Colombian City. It is also the fashion capital of Colombia. And each year the “Feria de Las Flores” (Flower Festival) attracts visitors from all over South America for parades and conventions. The city’s fast and efficient “Metro” is the only public transit subway system in Colombia. And the “Empresas de Pública de Medellin” is widely viewed as the best public utility service in the country. In culinary delights, Medellin is said to have created Colombia’s ubiquitous “arepa” – a bread and corn patty stuffed with cheese, and often chicken or beef. Meanwhile, Medellin’s historical traditions are evident in Pueblito Viejo, a squared section of town with homes and shops preserved as they were 100 years ago. Safety in Medellin is a much discussed but often misunderstood topic. Medellin City is absolutely safe, while the trend in all the major cities and Colombia generally is much improved with all the recent efforts of the Uribe government such as the Democratic Security plan.
By Abibatu Kamara in Colombia