The Emeralds of Bogota

August  21st 

Yesterday morning, my events for the day were 

- Trip to the police station

- brownie making

- teaching adopted children English

- organizing the theater closet for the children of the orphanage

Well, the trip to the police station turned into the longest trip EVER. 

This is what happens when you get mugged: 

#1  go to the police

#2 the police will try to help but nothing really happens

#3 they tell you to file a police report online

#4 go online and find out that you can only file police reports online if stuff is lost, not stolen by 3 men 

#5 Get an angry Colombian lady, 4 other mugged volunteers, and find out where to file the report

#6 Find the building but realize they are closed and go back the next day

#7 go back the next day and the building will be locked, there will be a cop that you think can help...but instead he decides to not care 

#8 Follow the angry colombian lady to the main building, have her yell at the police and demand you are not going anywhere without the report

#9 Sit in a police room for 4 hours 

#10 BAM, you have your report

SO EASY RIGHT. 

not. 

BTW, the angry Colombian lady is the woman who is in charge here. Her name is Monica and she is the nicest lady you will ever meet. She knows anybody and everybody. She is passionate about her job, the volunteers, and making Bogota a better place.She is like our mom here in the house and always gives us hugs good morning and good night. 

 After finding out what happened to us, she has been on a mission to catch the guys who did it and put an end to this madness!

Anyways, I was not exaggerating about the process to get a police report. It's almost like they did not want to help us!!! 

We found out that the laws here are really horrible. The man who finally helped us make the police report said that they know who the men are that mugged us. They do this to local women all the time, and I suppose maybe even other tourist women like ourselves. It will take about 6 months for an investigation and EVEN IF everything went smoothly, the boys/men would only be in jail for about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks they are back on the street and now the cops have enemies. 

How sad is that? The cops are scared of them. The locals are scared of them. What is the point in having so many people fear you on a daily basis. I just want to yell down their neighborhood "GET A JOB!" (but i will not do that because i'm never setting foot on that street again lol) 

Well after about 4 hours of telling the police EVERYTHING, we were finally done with the long process! The two men that helped us were so kind. They felt very bad that this had happened to us, and didn't want us to have a negative outlook on Bogota after this. 

It's hard to not be mad after this event, and then the events with the police that followed. BUT, like i keep reminding myself, this could happen anywhere!

I have a friend that posted on facebook about her boss being robbed at gunpoint yesterday in Dallas, Texas. See, guns and stealing money. It happens anywhere! 

The only thing we can do is learn from our experience and try to make a difference for future volunteers, tourist, and even the locals. 

(BTW, my mom found out that i can get money from my insurance for my camera. I can get up to $600! woo hoo, nicer camera for me!) 

HAPPY EVENTS: 

The rest of the day was wonderful! Monica (lady in charge) treated us to the Emerald Museum!

Emeralds are the gem of Bogota! They have the best emeralds here and you can get them for a VERY good price!

 (I could not take pictures so i just found these on Google)

The size/shape of the emerald does not determine the best quality/cost of the emerald, its the color! 

After the emeralds are cut they make beautiful jewelry,  like this necklace! :) 

It was a really neat place. Plus I'm a girl, so I loved looking at all the shiny items at the end of the tour. 

After the museum, Monica's dad took all of us out to lunch. We had a great meal, dessert, and just an all around great afternoon. We were treated with such kindness. I know they felt bad about what had happened to us, but they did not have to go through such extreme measures to make us feel better. 

Even though we saw the worst kind of people on Monday, we were shown that kindness is still out there and it doesn't take much to put a smile on someones face. 

How interesting to see the worst of Bogota and the best of Bogota in just two days. 

Well, that's all for now! Later I'll post about my day at the orphanage. 

ADIOS AMIGOS!