I traveled last year to Colombia and fell in love with Medellin, like a lot of foreigners I wanted to come back to this city with the lovely lights at night, nice people and so many things to do.
In Belgium I am a teacher of art and religion for children with disabilities. I was asked to take a year off to start up a project. With a friend, Magali, I collected money in Belgium to start a food truck here.
We looked for a Belgium non-profit organization in Medellin that we can give the food truck to after. We found Sueños y Huellas del Mañana. They told us about their plan to start up a restaurant, we talked a lot and we decided to put our strengths together and start up a restaurant together instead.
The point of our restaurant is that all of the profits go to Sueños y Huellas del Mañana, they work with children that live in tenement housings and girls with a difficult background. They help them to get their lives back together.
The girls get a chance to be waitress at the restaurant, but we also help them to study and follow there dreams.
The opening day of the restaurant, we were very exited to finally open the project we worked so hard, painting, decorating, buying everything and then the big day!
I worked the volunteer shifts in the restaurant and organize events. We have for example every Thursday: jueves de idiomas. You can come and talk to people from all over the world, and practice languages.
I’ve been a volunteer for a year here, I worked in Belgium for 7 years and I have 3 jobs. So I saved every month to go my year to Medellin.
The restaurant is in Parque Boston, a lovely neighborhood in the center of Medellin. Not really popular with the tourists but definitely worth visiting! And if you are there, look for Lili a la carta, my restaurant + Instagram: lili.alacarta
I love Colombia, Salento is one of my favorite place to go and relax and also Ipiales I liked a lot.
It’s not a matter of where, but when. Time is precious and my time spent living and experience the cultures of this world is what I lust for. This is why I created this website, to share true, genuine experiences and not just typical touristy info. Travel, the love of coffee, and food!
