Of all my trips “south of the border” this one one has a glaring and difficult not to notice difference . An almost complete lack of interest, though not on my part. All previous trips to Colombia I’ve enjoyed have entailed a ceaseless barrage of questions about the United States …” How much money can you make ? … how much does this cost… or that ? is rent expensive, do you have a car ?” and the like. Not this time.
This time like a switch was thrown the interest has waned to just about zilch and I barely fielded a question about life in the North at all . One person did ask how the economy is doing up there though he didn’t bother to wait for an answer . Another questioned me ceaselessly about dog racing ……. dog racing. As in greyhounds. And he was more than enthused to hear I have attended dog racing numerous times in the past .
I went on to inform that in my own state of Florida live dog racing has been banned as it has been deemed that training dogs to race around an oval in pursuit of a mechanical rabbit is cruel . His blank non comprehending stare urged me not to bother mentioning that the same state has no qualms about calf roping but that’s another issue. He did get a kick out of my story of once attending the dog races in Adelaide, Australia one night when the electricity went out mid race . Three minutes later when the lights came back on that fake rabbit was a shredded lump on the track.
Last night I watched two kids on one bicycle racing for all their might through the center of heavy traffic , a large and barking dog directly on their tail , until they were out of sight . I sure hope the lights didn’t go out for them ……
