CPTnet
November 27, 2001
COLOMBIA: Geography on your kitchen table

by Matt Schaaf

[Note: The following piece accompanied Matt Schaaf's letter home. (See
November 24 posting.) The CPTnet editor thought it would help give some
context to geographical references that have appeared in the Colombia team's
releases.]

Get a piece of paper and a pen. Mark an "x" in the centre of the paper.
Then, from the top centre of the paper draw a line down to the "x", passing
through the "x" and curving off to the left below the "x". Got it? It
should look like a backwards letter "C".

A bit below the curving line, below the "x", make a shape like a puddle. A
squiggly line goes from the curve line off to the right a bit and down past
the left side of the puddle.

Next, in the upper left hand quadrant of the paper, write the letters "VC".

Translation:
The "x" is Barrancabermeja (111m above sea level). Our rented house is over
the railroad bridge and has a patio in the back where we wash and hang our
clothes. The curvy line that swoops through the city is the River Magdalena
(it flows "up" to the top of the page and into the Caribbean.) We drive our
boat up and down this waterway. The squiggly line is the River Opon on
whose banks lie the villages we accompany and live in. The puddle is the
swamp, kind of like a shallow muddy lake bordered by brush and hills.

For the overachievers in the group:
You need two glasses of water, a banana, an apple, a pancake, a cookie or
other baked good, and a raisin.

Place the objects in a circle around the paper (you've got this all set up
on your kitchen table, right?). Start with a glass of water at the top left
corner of the paper. Then put the banana just to the right of the glass,
curving off to the left. Another glass of water to the left of the banana.
Next, put the apple on the right side of the paper, the pancake (whole wheat
is best) at the bottom of the paper, the cookie on the left side of the
paper and the raisin, too. The raisin goes above the cookie, next to the
first glass of water.

Legend:
Glass of water on the left: Pacific Ocean
Banana: Panama (make a canal with your finger)
Glass of water on the right: Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean
Apple: Venezuela
Pancake: Brazil -- squish in a line for the Amazon and its tributaries
Cookie: Peru
Raisin: Ecuador

The equator (a piece of red yarn) runs across the raisin and over the
pancake.

Now you have your very own relief map of Colombia. Congratulations.

Cartographer: Matt Schaaf