miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2015

Lovaina, mayo 11 de 2012

Mi hermosa

Escribo en la oscuridad mientras tu papá y la abuela Rocío duermen. Sí, tu abuela ya está aquí y estamos muy pero muy felices. Yo no creía que esto fuera posible y lo fue gracias a ti, al amor y a la energía que has traído a nuestras vidas.

La abuela llegó llena de regalos para ti. Trajo un plástico para tu colchón y unas frasaditas para acostarte a cambiarte el pañal. Mi tío Mario, la tía Diana y la bisabuela Liliam te mandaron platica, con la que he estado comprando las cositas de tus pañales que me hacían falta para que fueras una bebé ecológica y respetuosa del planeta y los seres vivos con los que compartimos este lugar.

Mi tío Hernando te mandó una toalla verde y mi tía Lucía te tejió un buso, unas manoplas y unas polainas. Mi tía Estela te mandó una muñeca a la que yo le puse Josefina, y a la que tú le darás el nombre que quieras. La abuelita Elsy te mandó una chaqueta rosada con una flor en el medio y tu tía Adriana unas aretas de oro y una bolsita para que guarde tus teteros. La tía Lina Flores te mandó un movil para tu cuna y todo el mundo te ha mandado mucho amor y buena energía para que vengas al mundo.

Yo quiero que nazcas hoy o mañana, ya te siento abriéndote campo entre mis piernas. Seguimos con dudas acerca de cómo te debes llamar. Esta semana pensé que deberías llamarte Candelaria, "la que ilumina", pero a tu papá no le gusta.

La verdad es que el único nombre sobre el que hay consenso es Violeta, nombre frente al que yo he puesto resistencia porque así se llama la hija de un compañero de la universidad. Sin embargo, siento que si todos me gritan ese nombre,  es porque es el que te pertenece.

Ya puedes nacer mi amor, el sol está brillando para que nazcas con su energía.

Sal de ahí Frijolita, sal de ahí de ese lugar...  






miércoles, 7 de marzo de 2012

Transnational mommy




I start this section of my blog introducing myself. I am a journalist from Colombia, who is in Leuven, Belgium, doing a master’s degree in Anthropology and… I am pregnant. 

Being in an alien society isn’t something new to me, but I have to reckon that I have involved myself in this process little by little. I lived alone in Bogota, 9 hours from my home town, for 4 years. I lived in London for almost two years and I have been 6 months in Belgium. In the first city, I faced different costumes and some kind of loneliness, but it was not difficult because I was in my country, I knew the language and I knew how things were. To the second city I arrived with my savings, some scant notions of the language, some acquaintances and without any idea about anything.  To the third city, actually town, I arrived with a loan, registered in a serious university without any notion of the language and with my boyfriend.

So, from the information given above, it can be inferred that to be in a train stopped in the middle of nowhere without understanding what is going on is normal for me. As well as being governed by unknown laws that aren’t written in my language, eating food that I don’t know what it contains or being questioned, from time to time, about my incomes and how I get them. 

Nevertheless, being pregnant really is something completely new in my life and the uncertainty to be a migrant is not fun anymore.  

This is my situation: I will be giving birth in three months time and I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING CLEAR. I don’t know if my mum will get the visa to come to visit me; I don’t know who is going to take care of my daughter when I’ll go back to classes after the delivery; I don’t know if my boyfriend will be able to renew his visa in order to stay with us until I finish my studies; I don’t know if I will be able to carry on paying the studio where I live… In conclusion, I don’t know anything! But I have the hope that all these things will be sorted out in a miraculous way, and I would like you to accompany me through this process.

I have to inform you about some things. The first one is that this account will be as well an exercise of the exemplary research of my class of Ethnography, so it might get boring sometimes; the second one is that English is not my mother tongue, so my texts will be full of mistakes (feel free to correct them through the commentaries). And, finally, the third one is that pregnant women are fussy, so in this section there will be plenty of complaints that, to some of you, might seem exaggerated. That’s all.

Welcome to the new section of my blog!