Student - April 12, 2007

Quiz broadens view on Colombia

‘There is more to Colombia than the war and drugs that the country is most known for,’ tells Angela Lewis from Studium Generale. A few Colombian students in Wageningen were getting sick of this limited view, so they held a special evening with a quiz to enlighten those who wanted to learn more, on 10 April in LA13.

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More than thirty students and other interested people turned up at the Studium Generale building in Wageningen to find out more about the South American country. ‘My boyfriend is a Colombian, but I know nothing about his home country,’ said Dutch biology student Kim Buisman. She regarded the evening as a good opportunity to learn more about his background.

Studium Generale had invited Colombia experts Antoine Cleef, professor of Tropical Vegetation Ecology and Mapping, and Anita Brus, who studied modern Colombian literature, to help compile the ‘Colossal Colombia Quiz’. The multiple-choice test consisted of questions about famous and less well-known authors and the rich biodiversity of the Latin American country.

‘It’s good to talk with other people about my country,’ commented one of the organisers, Enrique Diaz Gonzalez, about the choice of subjects. ‘Foreigners know so little about Colombia. Tonight we wanted to introduce them to less known subjects like anthropology, literature and biodiversity.’ The questions were challenging: even the Colombian students didn’t know all the answers. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ was Angela Lewis’ reaction. ‘At least they got to hear about a different side of their country, and it was more fun than just a presentation.’