Colombia

Down In Colmbia

Down In Colombia

The year was 1960. It was a hot sunny day in July and I needed to start working again since my account was running dry. To me Colombia has always been hot, but since I lived here my whole life I got used to the extreme heat conditions. For many years I have lived in the city of Medellin, Colombia with my two sons Alex and Julian. We lived in a small house with a total of 3 rooms which was becoming too small for the three of us. So I started searching for work again in order to save up some money.

Although searching for work wasn't going as well as I thought it would, I thought of one place that no one would ever go to knock. And that place was Pablo Escobar's mansion that was at the top of the hilly area in Medellin. So on Friday afternoon around 1, I got into my Ford pickup and drove to his mansion hoping Pablo himself would give me work. When I got to his mansion, I was surprised at how many armed men were guarding each corner of the house. As I got through the gate, I asked one of the armed men if he could ask Pablo if he could give me an opportunity to work for him. Since I didn't have luck elsewhere. 

"So I hear you're looking for work," Pablo said.

"Yes, I'm a master mechanic and I can keep your cars and trucks tuned up without a problem," I replied.

"What's your name and do you have any family here?" Pablo asked.

" Victor Hernandez and all the family I have is my two sons Alex and Julian." I said.

"When can you start?" Pablo asked.

"Right away." I said.

"Okay then the three of you can stay in the guest house and I will pay you two thousand a day." Pablo said.

As soon as I finished talking to Pablo Escobar, his guards opened the gate and showed me the way out. Even though I didn't want to tell Alex and Julian that we were working for Pablo, sooner or later they would find out. As soon as I got home, I told them starting tomorrow we are working for Pablo and moving into his guest house. Since we were moving to Pablo's guest house, I decided to put our house on the market to see if anyone was interested in buying it. Besides I was hoping someone would buy our house in order to save up the money it sold for. Even if the house were to sell I would still save up money in order to buy a bigger house on the hill of Medellin.

One year has gone by and Alex has now turned 19 and has graduated high school, and Julian is now 17 and is entering senior year in September. Although I thought the house would never sell, it finally sold 3 months after I put it up on the market. It sold for a total of 190,000 after I did renovations in the kitchen and living room. With that money added to my bank account, I now had 330,000 and I still planned on saving up more money. In order to buy the bigger house on the hill. The house on the hill was probably the size of Pablo's mansion or smaller and offered 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and baths, a 4 car garage and 2 acres of open backyard land. And it retailed at 550,000.

Overall, working Pablo wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because he wasn't that bad of a person as everyone said he was. In addition, working for Escobar wasn't bad because he liked the work I was doing to his cars and trucks. Something Pablo greatly appreciated, was when I replaced all his vehicle windows with bulletproof glass. He was also proud to hear when I tinted all his windows black. Even though it seemed like I did all the work, I leave the dirty jobs to Alex and Julian. But Alex and Julian are also part-time gardeners making sure the grass is cut, flowers are watered, and also making sure the yard looks nice.

For example, when it came to oil changes and changing the filters I let Julian and Alex take care of that so I wouldn't get my hands dirty. But of course, I would give them a helping hand here and there to make sure everything ran smoothly. But after awhile Pablo began trusting us enough that he invited us into his home for the gatherings he would have with other powerful drug lords. But eventually, he trusted us enough that he gave the three of us guns for our own protection. I didn't really approve of letting Julian and Alex having guns but they were old enough to handle one so I let it slide. I also let it slide, because I never knew when someone would try and ambush Pablo and might end up shooting at us so I figured we keep them for protection.

While Pablo was becoming closer and closer with the three of us, I asked him to if I could borrow a small loan to by the big house on the hill in Medellin. As I stood there waiting for his response he spoke out and said

"No, I'll buy it for you," replied Pablo

" I said thank you, Senor Pablo."

"Anything for you your work with my vehicles is amazing it's the least I could do," Pablo said.

In conclusion, Pablo bought us the house which was the greatest gift anyone could have ever bought the three of us. Meanwhile Julian and Alex packed up our belongings from the guesthouse. I worked harder than ever before on Pablo's vehicles to show how greatly I appreciated his gift of buying us this house. Finally, when we moved all of our stuff into our new home, I invited Pablo and his men to our new home to celebrate the gift he bought us. As we partied all night I thought to myself and said this is a night to remember. While people continued to say he was a bad person, he is one the greatest bosses I ever had in my lifetime.