Hug a Foreigner Day!

I hereby declare Novemer 22nd Hug a Foreigner Day!  Take off work!  Cancel appointments!  Get out of the house and celebrate!

Why is it Hug a Foreigner Day, you ask?  Well, it's not just that the 80's rock band Foreigner is awesome (because they are), it's because after being treated so well by the people of Manizales, Colombia it's the quickest way I can think of to pay them back for all of their hospitality.

Ok, some background here.  We were planning on passing through Manizales for one night just to break up the long bus ride between Medellin and Cali.  Before going, it didn't seem like the town offered much more than a bed, a roof, and four walls.  While I was completely wrong on that point, we also met some of the nicest people we have met in Latin America.  Not nice like, "Oh, he gave me good directions.  How helpful."  More like, "He gave me good directions, then walked me there, then asked me questions about my travels, and seemed genuinely excited to talk to me."  Let's lay out the cases to prove my point:

1.  It's supposed to be closed, but...

From a distance, we saw an impressive looking blue and white church and decided to visit it.  Apon arriving, though, we found out it was closed for the rest of the day.  While we would have been just fine without seeing the inside, we heard the church officials saying, "...but they came from so far to see our church."  Before we knew it, they were letting us inside and telling us all about the history of the church.  While most of the history is not particularly noteworthy, they did tell us that the church contains the largest organ in all of Colombia.  I wanted to tell them that the heart is the largest organ in Colombia, but I don't know how well that translates.  Plus, I probably would have started laughing at the sheer corniness of it all.


2.  Church Lady leads us up the hill

After leaving the church, one of the church officials asks us where we are headed.  We told her that we wanted to go to a lookout point that we heard about but we have no idea where it is at.  Well, not only did she tell us where it was, she offered to personally take us there.  While walking up a steep street with a 70 year-old lady might not be the fastest way to reach a destination, we took the offer because she was just so darn nice.  On the way, she asked us the usual travel questions about where we had been and what our impression was of Colombia.  While the 4 block walk took us probably 15 minutes, it was well worth the time spent with that sweet old lady.

3. Need directions?  Go to the bookstore!

After carrying around our postcards for nearly 3 weeks and across who knows how many miles, we decided we should actually mail them.  Unfortunately, there is no signage or easy way to find the post office.  In fact, it's called "472", which is just downright confusing.  After getting nowhere with directions from people on the street ("We have a post office?"), we walked into a used bookstore with 4 middle aged men reading.  After asking where the post office was located, they preceded to ask us an array of questions about our travels, etc.  They were genuinely proud that we liked Colombia and were intensely interested in our answers, as if our response would help them win the lottery.  After prying ourselves away from the conversation, we headed toward where they told us to go.  Soon enough, though, one of the men was beside us, offering us to walk us to where we were going.  On the way, he told us about his family and a bunch of other stuff that I couldn't understand (he was talking fast because he was super excited).  In his excited state, he was oblivious to what was going on around him and he almost fell completely to the ground when he tripped over the curb.  When we arrived at the post office (turned out to be the wrong place, it was more like a FedEx...) he gave us his business card and told us to call him if we had any questions or concerns.  I can't get that kind of customer service even when I pay for it!


4. Get your peanuts here.

Since we were staying blocks away from a soccer stadium, we headed to a game.  While soccer fans are not exactly known to be the most upstanding citizens, we somehow found seats next to some gracious ones.  When they weren't in the intensity of the game ("Kick it!", "Cross it", "Hurry up!!") they joked with us and offered us some peanuts.  Sure, giving us a bag of peanuts isn't like saving our life or anything, but how often does someone give a stranger a bag of peanuts in Wrigley Field?


So, what's the point of all this?  Listen, Manizales isn't the most exciting town in the world.  From a pure tourist point of view, it's ok.  But, I still want to come back only because I felt so welcome and content to be there.  The people there made me think even more highly of not just Manzinales, but of Colombia as a whole.  So, if you want people to be proud of your town and/or country and you want them to have a good impression of where you live, go out and help them!  All it takes is for you to be nice and their whole perception could change.