Padrino- The New Godfather

Something really great happened recently. My buddy, Jeff (36, Canadian) broke up with his girlfriend. It was truly a blessing. I was getting pretty desperate for a "wingman" amidst all of the women working here. All the guys at this school are either married or have girlfriends, which makes it tough for me to go out and meet "Paisas" (Colombian women), unless I want to go out and look like a loser or go out with a bunch of girls who absolutely ruin any chance I might have had.

So, after another incredible happy hour of martinis, buffalo wings, and nachos, we go home and get spruced up for hopefully, a successful night on the town. I get back at about 8PM, we meet up and have some rum (Ron Medellin is the local rum and it's good by itself and of course, cheap) and then head out onto the town. It's absolutely dead. We wander around town, go into every discotec, and can't find even one place that looks like it's got promise. We end up having a couple drinks and call it a night. However, we swear that Saturday will be different and make a pledge to ourselves that things will be better.

The next morning, Jeff calls me and says we should go to Ovellido, which is a huge mall. It's a good idea because I had been wanting to shop for some new clothes. We get there, wander around a bit, and I stumble upon the greatest clothing store I've ever been to in my life. I probably spent an hour and a half in there and tried on half of the clothes in the store. I literally had employees running around the store bringing me more clothes to try on. It was an absolute spectacle. I left with three new pairs of pants, four awesome long sleeve shirts, a sweater, and new shoes, all for less than 200 bucks. The whole point of this shopping day was that he and I both wanted to be "dressed to kill" for our night on the town.

Later that evening, three girls from the school, who live in an absolute mansion of an apartment, hosted the annual back to school bash. Jeff and I decided that we'd show up early and tell people we had to leave because we had dates. We stayed there for about an hour, and quickly snuck out the door. We jumped into a taxi and headed out to Sabaneta, which is a town that's maybe 15 minutes outside of Medellin. There, we would meet more down to earth girls and maybe even be a novelty item. In Poblado, where we live, people have money and lots of them have traveled to the US and other European countries, so we're nothing special. We get to this club called "Pueblo" and it is absolutely "going off." We walk in and order a bottle of, you guessed it, Ron Medellin and Jeff finds us a table near the bathroom. His strategy is that all the girls will have to walk by the bathroom at some point, to which I replied, yes that was true, but they weren't going to want to stop and talk. I also felt that his whole theory was somewhat trashy and that we needed to head into the action. I found a table with four very eligible looking Paisas, and we made our move. I met, and danced with Adrianna all night, and let's just say that this has real potential...

The next day, I headed into the barrio with my co-worker Allison and Dan Locket, a 55 year old teacher who has been here for 18 years, and who works extensively with streetkids and poor families. He wanted to introduce me to some kids in the hopes that I'd find one that I'd like to sponsor. The barrio is absolutely out of control. It is total chaos and the people there are poorer than poor. We met up with a family he has worked with for years, and picked up his 1 year old adopted son, who he basically saved from being aborted. Long story. Anyway, we slammed a few people into the car and did a little taxi service. He asked me if I wanted to meet some more kids, and of course I did. He pulled up to a house and told me that we were about to meet some of the greatest kids I'd ever meet and that when they came outside, we should open the doors because they'd all want to jump in and give us love. They came charging out, and sure enough, we open the car doors and they are all over us. They were so sweet and obviously, very happy to meet us. He introduced us to their mother, who has had 14 kids. The kids who jumped in were four girls, age 7 to 12. It was great, because I could actually speak with, and understand to some extent, what they were saying. We were going to take them up to Dan's farm so they could interact with the animals. We're about to leave, but before we do, the mother, Patricia, wants to know when I'll be back, which I thought was really touching. I know...this story is starting to go soft...but it gets worse. We're about to leave, when this boy, Isaiah, who is 9 years old, jumps into the car. It turns out that he's the only son, living with all of these sisters. This is the happiest looking kid of the bunch, and he instantly takes to me. I'm thinking that this could be the kid that I "adopt", and then Dan seals the deal. This kid goes out and begs everyday, and about a year ago, he was abducted and, let's just say, seriously abused by some drug crazed guy. He was hospitalized and obviously doesn't trust men much, but Dan took him under his wing and helped him recover. Dan tells me that he's never seen Isaiah take to somebody the way he did to me, and that's when I tell him that this is the kid I want to work with. When he asked Isaiah if he wanted me as his "Padrino" he lit up. I told Dan that I was going to spoil this kid to death. In fact, that's what I immediately did. I told Dan to take us to an ice cream shop, and I bought all of the kids sundaes. What was so neat about Isaiah, was that he wanted to make sure that all of his sisters got theirs first. When he had had enough of his sundae, he ran off to go find one of his friends on the street to share with. When we got into the car, he tried to put on all of our seatbelts. He was just so caring. I looked down and noticed that he didn't have any shoes. I asked him if he owned any, and he said he didn't. I told Dan that we needed to go buy him shoes right then. Allison bought shoes for one girl, Dan the other, and I bought Isaiah his. You've never seen kids more excited in your life. From there, we leave and drive by a carnival and the kids go ballistic. Dan asks them if they'd rather go there than to the farm and of course they do. We get into the place and jump on a few rides. They were all pretty tame, so I asked Isaiah if he wanted to go on this roller coaster type loop ride where you go around and around, upside down. He didn't want to at first, but with a little coaxing, he says he will. Now, usually I'm good with roller coasters, but I can tell right away that this is going to be bad. We do about 10 loops, and I'm ready for it to be over. I look over, and he's not having fun either, but of course, the ride is far from over. I'm thinking I'm going to puke any minute, as I had just slammed a piece of pizza minutes prior. The ride finally ends and I almost puke getting off the ride. The operator finds this amusing; I don't.

Here's the kicker. I get off the ride and get a call from Jeff, who reminds me that we have a date in an hour. I have no idea what he's talking about. He says, "Don't you remember calling the girls last night to go to a movie?" Of course not. I tell him that I'm super nauseous and that there's no way in hell that I'm going to be able to socialize, but I'll try. We head out and take the kids home, and I'm feeling sicker than ever. In fact, I wanted to die. I got home, called him, and told him that I needed to lay down for a few minutes. I asked him to tell Adrianna what had happened. Then, I fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and tried calling him back. He told me that she wasn't upset at all. I got on the phone with her and tried my best Spanish to tell her what had happened and to apologize profusely. She was totally fine with it, and it was made better by the fact that I'm taking her to dinner on Wednesday. I'll update everyone later with regard to how that goes.

OK, I seriously have to get to work. I start my Monday mornings with about 2 hours of prep, but end up using it all to rant on this stupid blog. I think I'd better do something productive. I hope everyone's doing well. Talk at you later.

Ben