Cartoon life


This is Medellín’s festival week: horse shows, flower parades, and even a black gospel choir from the States. I went to hear the choir perform in a large shopping mall in the north of the city: enthusiastic, talented and with hardly a word of Spanish. “Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away” reverberated down the mall, and around my head for the rest of the night.

Travelling home on the Metro train the man beside wore a red, throw-away sombrero, on it was the slogan “Everything deserves a Pilsen”. Pilsen is a popular beer. Declining his advice, I walked the 20 minutes from the Metro station to our Exito supermarket. And there a live Caribbean band played us down the aisles and got our feet tapping in the check out queues. I felt I was living in a Simpson’s cartoon.

Arriving home I scanned the news headlines: Pakistan floods kill 800; Germany mourns dead; and Bogotá denies war plan. Reality is a sobering experience even without a Pilsen.

Olwen arrives on Tuesday – another reality check.

Photo: “Oh happy daaaaaaaay,when Jesus washed my sins awaaaaaaaaaay”

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