Family Memories - By: Victor Manuel Velez Bedoya

Good evening. My name is Victor Velez. I am marine biologist and I was born in Medellin.

When I was a child, I was playful, messy and crazy. I have two sisters and three brothers, but I was good friend with my two younger brothers. They were my fellow adventures and follies. These were unforgettable moments. We were unbearable, for example, we couldn´t go together to the grandparent´s house, because always we were doing damages. We used to play hide and seek and tag with our neighbors until high hours at night. My family is beautiful.

I remember, that my mother prepared delicious dishes, one of the special dishes that my mother made was “indios”, this dish is made with: cabbage, chorizo, potatoes and herbs, and eaten with rice.

My family is very religious, for example, my mother wanted us to go to church every Sundays, but I don´t like go to church and I don´t like pray.

I prefer make others activities like: go to another city on vacation with my family, for example, we went to the beach several times. It's a beautiful place. There we like to know different species of the sea: fishes, crabs, sharks, dolphins and turtles. Also, we snorkeled in the coral reef.

I remember, when I was a child, I played with my brother. We thought that we were cowboys, from time to time my brother was a cowboy in other time he was the horse, the same with me. One day, while my brother was the horse and I was the cowboy, I had a pencil like a cigarette and he neighed, then with his head he stuck the pencil on my palate. We were afraid, but it was nothing serious. Since that, my mother doesn’t allow children to play with dangerous object.

The celebrations were always in the grandmother´s house. The celebrations were very fun and almost always we used new clothes and we ate a lot.

My grandparents are from Yaly, which is a town near Yolombo Antioquia. My grandparents had twenty children, four died when they were young, the others sixteen, aunts and uncles, lived in different cities of the country, but when we had family meeting at grandparents home, there were unforgettable parties with a lot of foods, drinks and activities.

My grandmother was a good cooker; she prepared delicious meals of all kinds like: desserts, chicken, meat, rice, soups and delicious arepas that we stole and we ate with butter.

That is all. Thanks.