Fingerprints needed
[Notepad-typed notes on the flight to Mexico City]
Two days since my last post from Brazil and we’ve already been to Colombia and gone.
So here we are, on a plane to Mexico right now and Mexico City is in some way what everyone in the crew has been looking forward to: we’re half-way through the tour and also this is the only place where Coldplay will play twice in the same venue so it means a bit more time for everyone.
Last night show in Bogotà was in the huge (how many times will I use this word again? Place your bet) Simon Bolivar park from where you could see the green mountains surrounding the capital. We’ve also been blessed with sunshine all day long, except some drizzle just when Coldplay went on stage. As usual.
It was the first time in Colombia for Coldplay. 32,000 people made it to the show despite a quite impressive public transport strike; they were all there, screaming their lungs out when Chris successfully attempted some local slang in Spanish!
Maybe some of them are still wearing one of the three wristbands that Oxfam volunteers have been giving out yesterday. Three wristbands - three messages, because Oxfam Colombia is full of energy and wants to involve as much young people as possible with initiatives that they can feel close to:
DIGNA: a collective movement for recovering dignity in the Colombian society affected by years of conflict. Leave your fingerprint here: www.vozdigna.org (English and Spanish version)
Violence against women: Colombian women have suffered and still suffer sexual abuse and violence in the conflict.
Mercados Campesinos (farmers’ markets): a great community project that helps small farmers to connect directly with Bogotà’s consumers. I’ve never been good with numbers, but apparently only by cutting the chain of intermediaries, local farmers can get up to 65% more profit and consumers get a price that is 30% cheaper than standard (thanks Paul for explaining!). It’s a win-win: less poverty in farmers communities and more food security for consumers.
Thanks Damaris and thanks to all of you lovely Colombian volunteers, you’ve been working so hard: I was panting most of the time since Bogotà is quite high-up. I had such a good time!
Besides my Oxfam-duty, I’ve also been upgraded to advanced confetti-shooter: I now sit all on my own below one of the delay towers and even have to use a radio. Amazing progress eh? Who knows what I could be doing next.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 7:49 am and is filed under Latin America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Coldplay has invited Oxfam on their mammoth Viva La Vida World Tour. Throughout 2008 the band played huge shows across 3 continents and 18 countries. Oxfam volunteers were there every step of the way, talking to 100,000s of people about how they can take action to overcome poverty. Now in 2010, Coldplay continue this tour with shows across in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Oxfam groups around the world will again join the tour, blogging as they go.
