SOLELab: The future's Library in Boca de Camarones

Elainer's family has prepared a spectacular afternoon for us, we could not imagine the display until a dreamy sunset found ourselves on the beach of the lagoon... or the Camp Nou, as Elainer likes to call it. 

Isela and Sugelis tell us what we are doing there: we are going to witness a typical Wayuu party afternoon, where they are going to share with us dances, food and happiness typical of their culture. We will become Wayuu for an afternoon... or maybe we are already Wayuu and we did not know it.

We women dress in colorful clothes, with their typical woven shawls. Isela makes us up with her extracts, drawing butterflies and sea waves, caressing us with her brush. The drummer starts up. Elainer and Isela dance. Elainer invites her, courts her, takes off his hat and chases her across the sand. Isela shies away, parties, flutters, flutters away... and when we least expect it, she trips Elainer and he tumbles to the ground, Isela has done it! and we all laugh and applaud her dexterity.

Then, we all dance and practice what we have learned. The sun goes down listening attentively to Isela, who tells us about the most important rituals of Wayuu life, the enclosures, their relationship with those who leave this world, the family and the land.

Sugelis delights us with a delicious goat and her well-known empanadas. We also have chirrinchi and Elainer enjoys thinking that he will see us rolling in the sand, but not for the dance ;) Some other time! This time he didn't make it.

We go to bed happy, tired and with the feeling of having opened our hearts.

Tuesday dawns. Early in the morning we meet Elainer and Sugelis. We are very anxious to receive news and it has become a world to respect the times of the Community, which we are only able to watch with our hurried eyes. Sugelis seems enlightened, we want to talk to her and tell her well. So far she has remained a spectator of all the dynamics and, at the same time, nourishing the energy with her very careful cooking and her discreet presence. Somehow she lets us know that she is there, present through the flavors, she nods behind the windows, she watches how we move, how her family moves, what reactions all this racket awakens.... When he sits down in front of us, we explain the details of the project, even though we know he already has the information he needs. The moment he answers "yes", we jump with happiness and give each other a warm, loving hug, full of illusion. Ready! We start!

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La familia de Elainer nos ha preparado una tarde espectacular, no podíamos imaginar el despliegue hasta que en un atardecer de ensueño nos encontramos en la playa de la laguna... o el Camp Nou, como le gusta llamarlo a Elainer. 

Isela y Sugelis nos cuentan qué hacemos allí: vamos a presenciar una tarde de fiesta típica wayuu, donde van a compartir con nosotros bailes, comida y felicidad típica de su cultura. Nos volveremos wayuus por una tarde... o quizá ya somos wayuus y no lo sabíamos.

Las mujeres nos vestimos de colores, con sus mantos típicos tejidos. Isela nos maquilla con sus extractos, dibujándonos mariposas y olas de mar, acariciándonos con su pincel. El tamborero arranca. Elainer e Isela bailan. Elainer la invita, la corteja, se quita el sombrero y la persigue por la arena. Isela rehuye, festeja, revolotea, se aleja... y cuando menos nos lo esperamos, le pone la zancadilla a Elainer y este cae dando una voltereta en el suelo ¡Isela lo ha conseguido! y todos reímos y aplaudimos su destreza.

Luego, bailamos todos y ponemos en práctica lo aprendido. Cae el sol escuchando atentamente a Isela, que nos cuenta los rituales más importantes de la vida wayuu, los encierros, su relación con los que dejan este mundo, la familia y la tierra.

Sugelis nos deleita con un chivo delicioso y sus ya conocidas empanadas. También tomamos chirrinchi y Elainer disfruta pensando en que nos verá rodar por la arena, pero no por el baile ;) ¡En otra ocasión será! Esta vez no lo consiguió.

Nos vamos a la cama felices, cansados y con la sensación de haber abierto nuestro corazón.

Amanece el martes. Temprano por la mañana nos vemos con Elainer y Sugelis. Estamos muy ansiosos por recibir noticias y se nos ha hecho un mundo respetar los tiempos de la Comunidad, que sólo somos capaces de mirar con nuestros ojos apurados. Sugelis parece iluminada, queremos hablar con ella y contarle bien. Hasta el momento ella se ha mantenido como espectadora de todas las dinámicas y, al mismo tiempo, nutriendo la energía con su cocina tan esmerada y su presencia discreta. De alguna forma nos hace saber que está ahí, presente a través de los sabores, asiente detrás de las ventanas, observa cómo nos movemos, cómo se mueve su familia, qué reacciones despierta todo este tinglado... Cuando se sienta frente a nosotros, le explicamos los detalles del proyecto, aunque sabemos que ya tiene la información que necesita. En el momento en que responde "sí", saltamos de felicidad y nos damos un abrazo cálido, amoroso, lleno de ilusión. ¡listo! ¡empezamos!

Links:

• Our Instagram Profile
• Our LinkedIn profile
• SOLE Lab details in our website

We got up strong and after breakfast we started the expedition: we wanted Elainer to tell us where we could build the SOLE Lab. 

We started off with a wonderful lot, in Palaima, on the other side of the sand sleeve. It is a magical place, National Park and Nature Reserve. A settlement where most of the people live from fishing. A place where there is no running water or electricity, but there are chickens running around, trees like the divi divi, mangrove or slime, a desalination plant that doesn't work because the solar panel it needs had a breakdown, some people who rent spaces in their houses for tourists to live the experience of getting away from everything, lares in the houses and hammocks. We see a kiosk that belongs to Colombia’s National Parks. The land that Elainer shows us is next to the kiosk and another old construction that looks like a house… there is a bathroom next to it. It used to be Sugelis, Elainer’s mum's home. We measure, take photos, feel the wind on our faces and make our own map of emotions.

The second location is next to Elainer's mom's kiosk, the one on the road to Boca de Camarones. Elainer's mom's kiosk is called God's Blessing. It is a smaller piece of land and perhaps less beautiful because it is less virgin... although, thinking about it, this makes it a clear advantage in this experience of setting up the SOLE Lab: we can count on electricity, running water (from jagüey), account with Elainer's mom's shop on the next lot and it seems much easier to create the flooring plate to mount the structure of the building. Here we also measure, we make the map, and the corresponding daydreaming, knowing that we still do not have any response from the community and we do not know very well how the times work.

In the afternoon we invite the Community to do SOLE... not everyone knows how the methodology works. Not everyone knows what Elainer has been doing for so long and today we are going to show off. 

Once again, people begin to arrive slowly... although they already know that Elainer's mother has prepared some of her own delicacies and, like the day before, she will be distributing them. The Great Question that the Community voted on was: Why in dry streams, puddles or places not connected to the sea or river, after the rain, do little fish or living beings appear moving in the water? Big question! and everyone (when I say everyone, it means everyone) starts searching. Some already know the way to ask. internet for things… although it seems like they never have, at least in the context of learning new things. The younger ones have fun and make jokes... It seems that they are in a game, but they all want to give an original and elaborated answer. The harvest of this SOLE is marvelous: adults, children, and young people participate with determination and fun in equal parts. 

We end with "The System Game" where we all realize that "the flight of a butterfly can cause a typhoon in another part of the world" and that we are ALL connected.

At the end of the day, the SOLE Ambassadors have been self proclaimed: Elainer, Jhoyllys, Caril, Óscar and Marcelo. Isela and Sugelis are the guardian angels of this SOLE. Excited by the appointment and eager to start working, we closed the day with the Community and received our families to spend a dream weekend, getting to know the Wayuu culture and this wonderful enclave... although one more night, we are leaving to bed without knowing what decision they have made.

Links:

• Our proposal for BOLT, call of the Internet Society Foundation

We start the day with a delicious breakfast by Sugelis, Elainer's mother, who has a shop a few meters from the hostel. There he sells things and also cooks. In the afternoons and evenings, the neighbors buy delicious arepas and empanadas, with a chili pepper invented by Elainer's brother, which he learned to make on YouTube. 

We made an appointment with Elainer to have a morning of work. We wanted to show him what the day-to-day life of the project has been like. We also want him to know about the activities that we have prepared, so that he can actively participate in the development of everything and infect his own community with the enthusiasm that we bring.

We talked with him to find out where he thinks a good place for the SOLE Lab might be. For the first SOLE Lab, because who knows, maybe in a near time we can build another one.

We ate Sugelis delicacies for lunch and prepared for the afternoon activity.

It was my first live experience with SOLE Colombia. Years ago I premiered as a Granny, from The Spanish Granny Cloud  (Abuelita, de La Nube de Abuelitas) so I was always on the other side of the screen. Today, in addition, I was in charge of the photos and supporting Sanjay with all the logistics. It was very hot and very windy... the truth is that it made you want to stay for a nap, but our emotion could move a mountain. 

People begin to arrive, we introduce ourselves. Little by little, the guests, the neighboring children, are getting closer... this is taking shape. We start with "Mi ranchería" (something like my neighborhood), a beautiful activity where the objective is to draw an Emotions Map with all those places in town where your heart moves, whether the emotion is pleasant or unpleasant. We are about 25 people participating and people are beginning to let go... we are finding ourselves at home. 

Children always take the first step... because they sign up for everything, because there is little shame, because they follow instructions and don't think about it so much. 

The maps are becoming very complete. They agree on many points where their hearts move!

Then comes our inspiration SOLE Colombia... we tell them how Elainer and his community have been a bastion of SOLE's power since the project with MINTIC, as well as other testimonials of SOLE's work in all these years.

... and we jumped into the water! Would Boca de Camarones want us to build a SOLE Lab?

We go to sleep exhausted and a little undecided about how to feel because with our city rush we don't know how to interpret the messages we have received.

Links:

• Our proposal for BOLT, call of the Internet Society Foundation

This will be the story of the First SOLE Lab in the world... We want to tell you everyting!! Do you want to follow all the adventure? 

On November 22, 2021 we received the incredible news: WE WON the BOLT call from the Internet Society Foundation. We would have part of the financing to build the first SOLE Lab in the world, placed in the Community of Boca de Camarones, Guajira. We also will develope an Autodiagnose and Solutions to conectivity tool, called VOLTAJE to help people to know the status of their connectivity in situ and how to improve it.

This meant that we would fulfill a dream. This serie of weekley reports will tell the story as it was lived, We hope you will enjoy it.

9th 2022. We landed in Riohacha with a racing heart and many illusions. Let's accept it, we are also thinking that perhaps this project will not convince them, or they will not find a connection with us... sometimes those of us from the city come with a great desire to do things, in a great hurry, many "truths"... and in the end we do What we get is nothing: the communities end up mistrusting our solutions, they end up knowing that what comes from outside is never adapted to what they need. At the same time, we know that Elainer trusts SOLE, trusts us, and knows what SOLE does... Her community knows what she has achieved with SOLE!

What will they tell us anyway? What will they ask us? What shall we answer? Will they like it? How can we build it? Will they want to participate? Where will it be? Endless questions.

Elainer and Éicer, Elainer's cousin, pick us up. Hugs at the exit of the Riohacha's airport, a lot of emotion. Elainer wants to take us to know his land. We take a walk around Riohacha and have a beer looking at the sea.

We hit the road. Elainer tells us how she studied technology, where the SENA headquarters were where she trained as a technologist. He tells us that every day he came from his ranch, in Boca de Camarones, by bus. The bus leaves every few hours, but only if it is full. They already had a plan for when the bus was late. He tells us that he was doing SOLE, but since he did not know when he would be able to arrive, if his cousin and his brother covered the activity until he arrived. He also tells us that he worked in a hotel, in the technology and support area. There he met his wife, Isela. Thus, talking, we arrived at Boca de Camarones.

We take a quick turn and arrive at Hostal Flamingos, where we are going to stay. Don José attends us. Two simple rooms. The place has a swimming pool and a kiosk with hammocks. The next day we realize that it also has a glass room, where we see the hammocks hanging... with air conditioning. curious thing

We are going to have dinner with Isela and Elainer at Boca de Camarones: patacon with a lot of delicious things. Julieta, the owner of the place, tells us that she also comes from Bogotá. She does massages and aesthetics in a hotel and helps another woman, in a foundation for work with children diagnosed with attention disorders... "How cool!" We thought, "Maybe I can do a tandem with Elainer and help more people." It would be nice if these two communities were able to work together and enjoy the SOLE Lab.

Don José receives us. He is a "Guajiro de la Alta", as Elainer tells us. Her features are very different from Elainer and her family. "La Alta" is the name Guajiros use to call the northernmost area of the Colombian territory, the Guajiro territory. It's a desert. Don José will be the one who lodges us during our visit.

Links:

• Our proposal for BOLT, call of the Internet Society Foundation