It's All Performance Art 5

My life, right now seems full of Colombians, with one Mexican thrown in. Combine ingredients and stir. But they are not ingredients. They are persons. Very diverse and amazing persons. One has become a particularly close friend whom I will be visiting for three weeks in February. Yes, I will be staying with him. In his home. I am not worried about this. I feel this is someone I can really trust and be safe with, and the feeling seems to be mutual. He lives in a town near Bogotá. We have been in contact, usually twice a week, for well over a year. Our sessions on Skype often feel like we are actually visiting in each other's homes. Which is kind of cool given that we are at least three thousand miles apart from each other. Another friend on Skype, from conversation exchange, is a young man who lives with his family in a city on the Caribbean coast, with whom I have been in contact the last couple of months. And now I seem to be in touch with a woman who lives in another town near Bogotá. The Mexican is a university student studying in my city, and he will be returning to Mexico next month. We can actually have coffee together (we had our first visit yesterday), since he lives here. The others I visit on Skype or Hangouts. I always want to speak and practice my Spanish, and improve it wherever possible. I also enjoy making new friends, especially from different cultures. And I also like helping people improve their English, or at least learn the language. And I simply enjoy being there for others, and being a good supportive friend. It often isn't easy forming stable, long-term friendships under the most favourable of circumstances. People come and go and friendship, especially among people who marry and raise families, is often undervalued, or for younger people, friendship becomes a kind of cheap and easy substitute for long-term relationships and matrimony, so that once they have found The One, they tend to abandon all their friends, and once they are raising children, simply aren't going to have time for anyone else. It can be particularly daunting, connecting meaningfully with others, on social media, such as the Conversation Exchange page that I refer to for language contacts. People have a variety of motives for participating. I suspect that quite a few of them, young males anyway, are hoping for an easy pick-up site. You know, one stop shopping. I suppose this is inevitable, and especially with women, it can be uncomfortable and somewhat risky. This is why I usually will not cold call a female member, but if a woman wants to do language exchange with me, I am content that they contact me and it does usually work out well. I simply want everyone to feel safe, and otherwise I don't pay attention to gender. With men, especially younger men, it can be a bit tricky, because I don't think they are always that sure about their sexuality, or some of their motives and needs. Given that they live in rather homophobic cultures, being Latin American, and I think also for some of those who live in Spain, it can get to be rather awkward at times because people are going to want to connect and there are so many currents that flow under the surface that it can be a bit of a challenge keeping things focussed mainly on language. However, except for one unfortunate contact from a Central American country, I have never been inappropriately targeted, and everyone I have interacted with, so far, has been as good as gold. And we are not in it merely for the language. We actually do want to connect. As friends. I don't think anyone actually is trying to pick anyone up, by the way, (outside of some of the young males) but there is a certain loneliness that also motivates us to reach out this way, along with the desire to learn and grow in a second or third language. Whatever happens, I welcome these contacts because of how many windows and doors they open for me on other cultures and on the lives of other people, as well as the whole adventure of exploring life in a new language. I do not try to control or plot out my friendships with people in language exchange. We are friends, and if we are willing to actually stick together as friends, and hopefully stay together, then so much the better. It's way better than nothing, Gentle Reader, and this is actually quite a wonderful experience in facilitating global community. Kumbaya, anyone?