Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Brothers Alejandro and Carlos Ospina make a good team and together they are working to show the human side of coffee cultivation and production in Colombia. Hailing from Bogotá but having both spent a significant amount of time overseas, the Ospina brothers decided that it is time to delve into and share the wonders of Colombian coffee with the public by creating experiential tours and a blog (https://www.travesiacoffee.com/blog) detailing their travels and the people they meet along the way. 

These young coffee entrepreneurs don't stop here, the plan is to produce a book "Relatos Cafeteros" for sale in December of this year. The book will illustrate 11 different coffee growing destinations across Colombia and will be written by Carlos. Here's the fix...for the project to fly, a little bit of cash is needed, so if you have a few spare dollars, feel free to throw it at their indiegogo page "Relatos Cafeteros - una Travesía por Colombia" and make sure this becomes a reality.

This week in Colombia Calling Episode 193 we are pleased to have Simon Winograd back on the show. This time though, we get Winograd, a Michigan native, and Director of Customized Academic Programs for the Colombian Project (http://colombianproject.com/colombian-project-academics) to talk about his work here in-country and also introduce you to Sam Johnston of Victoria, BC, Canada about his internship at the Paloma y Angostura company in Bogotá. Read the blog here (http://www.projectpaloma.com)

Having met in Chiapas, Mexico Winograd and Johnston hit it off and the long and short of it resulted in the latter coming down to work with a Colombian fashion label that seeks to build peace through design by creating jobs for former combatants of the Colombian conflict. How cool is this? Extremely, I'd say. 

So, tune in to hear about how two people are pitching in and making a difference in Colombia.

On the back of former interviews with adoptees from Colombia and with Marcia from Plan Angel, I had the amazing fortune of being contacted by Christine Herman from Minnestota, USA. Christine's husband Mike is an adoptee from a very young age from Bogotá and in this intensely emotional episode she shares with us Mike's journey to Colombia with an ultimately happy ending. 

Tune in to hear a tale of persistence and joy and one which shares an overwhelmingly positive image of Colombia.

On the road as an "enrichment" guide for a group of tourists from the UK and US, your host Richard McColl takes a different look at the recent news in Colombia. McColl on Colombia Calling explores the issues of "fake news", "hearsay" and "rumours" surrounding the Bogotá bombing before moving on to lighter topics such as the route of the trip he has just accompanied through colonial Colombia and then on to answering a question put of him by many people, both foreign and national...."how do you live in Colombia?"

For this episode 190, as a result of the bomb placed in the CC Andino shopping mall in Bogotá, Colombia on Saturday 17 June, I feel that there is little more than to do a show illustrating the futility of such an action and to lament the loss of three young lives.

Thank you for understanding

This week we get some amusing air time with Brendan Corrigan, author of the blog, Wrong Way Corrigan and host of the increasingly popular, IQuiz - Bogotá Pub Quiz. Read his hilarious entries and personal experiences and scrapes on Colombia's largest national daily newspaper El Tiempo as well as on Fb (https://www.facebook.com/wrongwaycorriganblog)

When he's not busy defending himself from the onslaught of trolls taking offense with his excellent and to the bone descriptions of life in Colombia and the idiosyncracies found here, he can be found travelling to far off parts of his adopted homeland or auditioning for parts as an extra in TV shows and commercials.

Did you watch Netflix's incredibly successful series, "Narcos"? If so, cast your mind back to Series 2 and a scene where a phone call received by a worker in the German Embassy from one other than Pablo Escobar....yes, Corrigan was that German!

So, tune in to hear an excellent take on life in Bogotá and Colombia from a seasoned and engaging journalist. And if you are in Bogotá on the last thursday of the month, check out the Pub Quiz.

Marcia Engel is on a mission to provide hope and reunite Colombian families who are searching for their children given up (voluntarily or not) for adoption and adoptees seaching for the their families.

Herself an adoptee originally from Bogotá, she was raised in Holland, Engel has grappled and bested the challenge of locating her biological family. After this experience she set up the human rights foundation Plan Angel (http://www.planangel.org) to help others with their search.

Some of you will remember that we had Engel on the show on Episode 158, now we have her back after a very successful visit to Colombia where she was able to meet with families searching for loved ones in Bogota, Cali, Medellin and Cucuta.

We talk about her experiences, the complications of the investigations she undertakes and about how her foundation works. Now, in this ever more connected world Engel has had great success and has been working by getting families to submit their DNA to the Family Tree Center in Houston in the hope of being able to solve more cases.

This week in episode 187 we sit down with Colombo-Croat photographer Andre Kanayet and discuss, life, Colombia and the role of a photographer in today's connected society.

As Kanayet has an exhibition of his photography beginning on June 1 and running for the whole month at the EK hotel (Calle 90 No. 11-13) it is appropriate that he is on Colombia Calling to talk about his passion.

In an flowing conversation which covers the story behind how his Croatian grandfather came to Colombia - it involves spies! - and why he moved in to photography and what the industry means today, we learn about what makes Kanayet tick and why he's a success in his field.

Tune in for an interesting and entertaining episode and be sure to check out his work on instagram @andrekanayet

Being more of a grunge and punk aficionado, I cannot speak for the masses of Metal fans out there and their music, so this is why we have turned to freelance music journalist and filmmaker Alex De Moller in the UK today to tap into his ample knowledge on the subject, in particular the metal groups which sprung up in the mid 1980's in Medellin in rejection of the drug cartels, Pablo Escobar and the violence being lived in that city.

Earlier this year, Medellin mourned the loss of Elkin Ramírez Zapata, its first rock superstar. After losing his battle with brain cancer, Ramírez passed away on January 29th, 2017. His funeral brought Medellín to a standstill, and for the first time in its history, the city's Metropolitan Cathedral was packed with metalheads and punks—fans, friends and well-wishers who shed tears and sang together as his band Kraken performed their final concert.

Medellín today is a different picture. It's not perfect, but it's a far cry from the 1980s. Kraken's music still blares from the parches and bars frequented by the city's many metaleros and those who once threw stones now claim to revere the sound of "true" heavy metal.

So, think of the importance and the role that heavy metal played in Medellin during the city's darkest moments...

In this week's show we get on the line to Sheffield, UK to talk with academic and football enthusiast Pete Watson. Currently pursuing his PhD, Watson comes to Colombia Calling with a vast knowledge of Colombia and football here and indeed his dissertation will explore how football has influenced public policy in this country.

We discuss three periods in Colombian history, pivotal for both the politics and indeed football, 1948-53, 1985-94 and the current day. Our conversation takes in the peace process between the Government of President Santos and the FARC guerrillas, the Bogotá bandits during Colombia's "El Dorado" footballing period, Hungarian footballers exiled in Santa Marta, mafia and cartel involvement in the beautiful game and much more.

Football is seen by Watson as a nationbuilding instrument for Colombia and his enthusiasm makes for a fantastic show.