Two more days in Cartagena

What a couple of days I have had. Yesterday, I went to a mud volcano. It was a 15 metre high volcano of mud. You climb up it and there is warm mud to soak in in the middle. It was amazing how high it made me float.

I met some good people there. We went fro drinks after and a couple of us ended up dancing for quite a while in a really cool small club with some nice local folks. I think there were 6 of us in the club, the size of crowd I like.

After the club, I was walking a fantastic woman I met in the hot springs back to her hotel. We decided instead to get something to eat and go for a swim in the ocean. Then the night took a nasty turn for the worse. One of two street kids who were harasing us for money stole her wallet that she had tucked in her skirt. A mob of local street people caught the kid and turned him over to police. He had gotten rid of the wallet somewhere in the chase whcih thankfully only had cash (about $25us).

Quite a fuss was made over it, but my new amiga was in tears and just wanted to go back to her hotel. The small mob didn´t want this kind of thing hapening in their community and wanted justice. I told the police that we don´t want the kid to get beaten or anyhitng, just to scare him a little. I walked her back to the hotel with a quick cab ride to avoid some people following us who didn´t seem to happy that a hungry kid was being persicuted for steeling some grinka´s money out of desperation.

I woke up in the morning with a bit of a hangover, but what really made me feel bad was the realisation of the kids desperation. I realised that when you look at the big picture, he was the real victom and resolved that I had spend some money on food to feed homeless people that night.

After being stood up by a smoking hot local girl I actually felt pretty good. Now I could go by chicken for the poor. On the way to the poor part of town, I saw some incredible afro-caribean dancing by kids of about 12 or 13 years of age. Seeing it gave me a big high as the beats were fast, and the dancing was the fastest I have ever seen. It really was great.

I went to a fast food chicken joint and ordered a lot of KFC style chicken and some other cheap starchy potato like vegitebles. I walk around the streets and parks where people were sleeping and handed out the goods. I thought it would make me feel going, but I felt terrible doing it. I got some big thank-you´s, but most of the people jsut had desperate, bewildered looks and took the food quickly and quietly. There wasn´t nearly enough to go around. I gave some money to people digging through the days garbage telling them it wasn´t necisary tonight. I also found the kids one of whom stole Charlette´s wallet and gave them money as I was out of food. Oh, one decaying hooker I gave the a potato type thing to offered me a blow in reaturn - I declined.

After I´d given out the food and all the money I could part with, I walked back to the rich part of town, looking for this internet cafe. I was so disgusted by the fake boobs, fancy clothes and expensive wine. I couldn´t even look at the people I was so disapointed in them and myself. I like them have jsut been walking over the poor.

It may sound like I´m a good man for doing this, but it really was nothing. Most of these people will be hungry tommorow and some will die soon. I offered no solution. I wish I had the cash to do more. You can feed people here for about a dollar a day, but I have to watch my money so I can go back to my world that creates this poverty by screwing 3rd world countries out of their resources and ensuring they stay poor so there is a place for cheap labour and God forbid some kind of South America Socialist revolution.

I´m sure I will feel better tommorow. Writing has already lifted a lot of weight off my chest. I hope I return home more determined than ever to rise up against the western world´s Paul Martin Steven Harper Tony Blair Goerge Bush WTO G8 Halbitron and the rest of the cartel´s neo-liberal war against the poor.