I’ve been in Medellin about 3 weeks and everything is fabulous. I bought a freedom-bestowing motorcycle. It cruises around the winding roads and mountains day and night. It’s therapeutic. I’ve learned a lot more about my new job. I’m not in handcuffs. My motorcycle hasn’t been towed. I dodged a bullet. 

I was flying my drone filming a parade during La Fiesta de Las Flores, Medellin’s biggest soiree. This area of the city is restricted by the authorities, and this lead to my drone being forced to land, per orders of the air traffic control. Problem was that I was over a highway. I couldn’t control it and it flew in the path of traffic. It got hit by a vehicle. A motorcycle. It hit the motorcyclist in the face. I felt so bad. I offered to give him money. He declined but accepted a little: 20,000 pesos. He could have called the cops. He could have shook me down in the sympathetic state I was in. This could have been really bad for me if he would have insisted on taking it further. I apologized profusely. When the impact happened I picked up my fallen drone and ran to him. He has holding his face. I thought,”Did it hit him in the eye?” It didn’t. He had pulled off to the shoulder. I went and asked him how he was. He was rubbing his face and complaining of pain. I told him I had to go get my backpack and that I’d be right back. I gathered my stuff that was about a block away and jumped on my motorcycle. I actually thought of high-tailing it. But I also thought: “That’s not who I am.” I returned. We talked and everything turned out fine. I’m very relieved and very lucky. I couldn’t have been fined, tied up in lawsuits, sued, or even jailed, deported and my motorcycle lost.

Later I wonder if he had been fibbing. I never saw any damage on his face. He complaing about a pain in the mouth, like it had hit his teeth or gums. Later I saw the footage because I was filming at the time. It looked as though it hit his helmet instead. 

Shit. Here’s an event. I was riding back from the other side of town and it was raining cats and dogs. It was hair-raising. Mini rivers coming down the steep streets. We had to go uphill steep then downhill. Once, I lost traction in the front wheel and almost spilled. Then very close to home I was going up a steep incline when the narrow road made a sharp turn to the right. A blind curve, to boot. I had to hug the right side of the road which is difficult because the road sloops down steeply towards the shoulder. I saw the headlights. All of a sudden a white car is coming right at me. I gotta spill to the right into mud to avoid being hit, but my left handbar made contact and scrapped along his driver side door. I was fine, though. He stopped. I surveyed the damage. My clutch handle was broke but everything else was fine. I’ll take the other route up for now on. 

So I wrote them a resignation letter stating that this job relationship is not working out. That we are not a good fit. It’s like this if a company hires you, you’ll be on a probationary period during which they can decided if they want to keep you and if not, release you with little restriction. And the same goes for the employees. The employee has the company under his ‘probationary’ period. So that’s me. I’m cutting ties with the company because I deem the company not up to my standards.

Yet, I’m still not 100% comfortable with my decision. I don’t like to quit. And I don’t like to quite on an organization that I have joined. I feel guilty. Like I’m letting them down. 

I just turned in my resignation letter to BBE Languages, my employer. I wasn’t getting paid enough to pay my bills without going bankrupt in about 3 months. I told them that I needed to remain at my current number of hours per week because I took on a 2nd job to supplement my income. They appeared ambivalent about it. Then they added another class that started at 7 in the morning. WTH? They did the opposite. The only way I’d keep my teaching job is if I have enough time to do my 2nd job. I need the money. I am paid about 300 dollars a month, which is the price of my rent. If I continue to work at that company my bank account will soon dry up no matter how many pennies I pinch. In addition to teaching, I had to lesson plan, which took at least an hour, and write multiple progress reports for every student. All, not paid. Yet, I would like to have the work visa and health care that comes along with the teaching gig. So I wrote them a resignation letter stating that this job relationship is not working out. That we are not a good fit. It’s like this if a company hires you, you’ll be on a probationary period during which they can decided if they want to keep you and if not, release you with little restriction. And the same goes for the employees. The employee has the company under his ‘probationary’ period. So that’s me. I’m cutting ties with the company because I deem the company not up to my standards.

Yet, I’m still not 100% comfortable with my decision. I don’t like to quit. And I don’t like to quit on an organization that I have joined. I feel guilty. Like I’m letting them down. 

I’ve been diving head first into on-the-telephone sales job. I like how all us salespeople are compared publicly via a ‘top 10 sales earners released at the end of each month. When I learned of this competition being a factor, I immediately wanted the job more. 

This area I live in is extremely hilly. The residents of carved their houses and neighborhoods into the sides and crevices of these mountains. They are ‘mountain people.’ Articles and books have been written about the difference between mountain people and flat-landers. The cultures are different. And our perception of reality changes when we are in the hilly/ mountainous areas vs a flat area. 

I’ve been talking to this girl who works at a store near the center of San Cristobal. It’s a store that sells plastic stuff from China. She looks to be 100% Native American. She’s Venezuelan. She’s short and dark. Not a classic beauty, but she’s attractive. I find her attractive. Oh, and we went out on a date. It was me, her, and her cousins. We danced in a bar.