Every morning i wake up at 5:30am and have my bed made before 6:00am. The bus comes at 6:45am and it's a half an hour bus ride to school. The bus is always surprisingly quiet, mainly because we're all exhuasted, and i stare out the window, starting to reconize the streets, and the people. There's the homeless man near the supermarket and the mattress store who talks to himself, the woman who makes plastic pieces on string come to life flying through the air and the little kids cheer for her as the traffic passes. One of my favorites is the man who lets his daughter ride on the fruit cart. Everyday i see him wheeling this thing that almost reseambles a giant wagon down the street, filled with fruit and his daughter sitting on the side, like it's nothing to cross the biker-crazed roads like this. I don't know if she goes to school or not but everyday I see her sitting there, content with the familiar morning sounds. There's some people selling gum in carboard boxes walking through the car lanes, and there's the guy i've internally nicknamed "the mango man". He walks passed the cars with bunches of mangos slung accross his arms, in that netting that you can buy packages of onions in at the grocery store. He's older but not elder, he always wears a ballcap i can never make out the letters on and he walks at a pace where i'm not sure if he's selling them or just really likes mangos.
On the way home from school; there's a woman with dreadlocks juggling bowling pins and the little kids cheer for her too. Different people selling more gum in their boxes and police roaming the city, occasionally with rifles.
The mango men, fruit cart girls, and police avoiding citizens of Medellin do not know each other. But they all have the connection of pride. Weather the people i see sell: mangos, gum, coffee or just a preformance they all seem to pride themselves in being able to do it well. And they appear at ease with their sunrise routine.
. So on days like today when my friend and i walk around exploring the city of 1000 springs surronded by moutains, old men ramble at me in spanish i am just begining to get an ear for and the one word i always reconize is "mona". Even the people at the grocery store check-out;....spanish.....spanish...."mona"!!......spanish... hahaha :)