Colombian Winter

Just as Bostonians or New Yorkers start complaining about the cold as winter seeps into the northern US states around November, Colombians this year have their own weather gripes. Usually Colombian seasons are divided into either summer or winter; summer = sun and winter = rain. Every two months the seasons alternate, and until 2008 the rainclouds and sunshine punched in and out like disciplined factory workers. This year however has brought considerably more rain than anyone (especially in Antioquia) has ever seen, and is a constant negative conversation topic. At first it was fun when every afternoon around 4:00 the thunder would roll out a monsoon-like downpour, stopping just in time for me to get back from the university. Around the end of October it started raining almost all day every day, bringing with it an untropicalesque chill to the air. Because the water table is overflowing and the earth is completely saturated, these continuous downpours are wreaking havoc all over the country.

Since the government directs the majority of their funds into military and police troops to fight the Colombian civil war, public works have been neglected for over 25 years and the roads are in pretty horrendous shape. This 'winter' has eroded away some of the main arterial highways between the large cities, causing huge travel delays for one of the only ways to get around the country. No fun.

Every day after a particularly heavy rain hits the city headlines mourn the death of at least five more people. Usually the displaced folk who build their corrugated tin houses precariously on the hillsides get washed away when the streams flow over. But one time a new housing development was engulfed by a landslide, taking the lives of several entire families. At the Facultad de Salud Publica there is an area of study completely dedicated to disasters, and their public billboard is constantly filled with new announcements of the tragedies taking place throughout Medellin.

During my trip to Coveñas I drove through the northern cattle lands, completely inundated with recent rains. Rice patties were rotting under the fields-turned-lakes, people had to transport themselves around town by boat, and government aid was nowhere in sight as public health risks escalated.

While global warming is melting ice caps and causing extreme droughts around the world, here along the American equator people are drowning in an excess of precipitation.