¡Feliz Día de la Resurrección!

April 5 – April 11

     ¡Feliz Día de la Resurrección! Easter was quiet and awesome. I went to Mass in the morning and we sang happy songs and heard about Jesus’ conquering death. I made Easter egg coffee cake with raisins and coconut for my family and I hid eggs the night before, so my host mom excitedly found a few today. My US parents sent my Colombian family an Easter basket, too, so I pulled that out and we shared the treats inside. ¡Jesús ha resucitado! ¡Qué viva!

     Going back to school was good and I heard lots of stories about what students and teachers did during the break. Then, on Wednesday, a group of volunteers celebrated 2 volunteers’ birthdays at one of many delicious local pizza restaurants. This week, I’m starting Food Literacy Educator training with The Cookbook Project, so I’ll be excited to see where that takes me.

     Friday was Jean Day at my school, so the students wore “street” clothes and we had a dance party during recess. On Saturday, I went to a vegetarian restaurant in the Centro with a volunteer who works near my house…the restaurant was down a side street, so hopefully I’ll be able to find it again…

- I started wishing everyone a Feliz Pascua, but there were a few people who didn’t know what I was talking about, so you might want to specify the Resurrection when you wish people a happy day.

- I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but students in public schools wear uniforms here. In fact, even the private schools here seem to require uniforms. The argument is that this creates equality among students and I’ve heard many opinions either way, though uniforms most likely won’t be changing any time soon, if they ever do.

- Govinda’s Vegetarian Restaurant is on Calle 16, just off La Quinta. If you’re not sure where that is, just walk up La Quinta and turn onto the street with the tall black wall and all the smoothie and juice vendors. Govinda’s has a corriente menu with a soup, an entrée with a main dish and salad, and a drink all for about 8 mil (that’s 8,000 Colombian pesos – gotta love Spanglish!), so it’s a good deal for good food.

- Ronda de Vocales (a children’s song about the vowels):

Salió la A. Salió la A. No sé adónde va. 2x

A cómprale un regalo a mi mamá. A cómprale un regalo a su mamá.

Salió la E. Salió la E. No sé adónde fue. 2x

Fui con mi tía, Marta, a tomar té. Fue con su tía, Marta, a tomar té. 2x

Salió la I. Salió la I. Y yo no la sentí. 2x

Fui a comprar un punto para mi. Fue a comprar un puntico para ti.

Salió la O. Salió la O. Y casi no volvió. 2x

Fui a comer tamales y engordó. Fue a comer tamales y engordó.

Salió la U. Salió la U. ¿Y qué me dices tú? 2x

Salí en mi bicicleta y llegue al Perú. Salí en su bicicleta y llegó al Perú.

A E I O U (¡A E!)

A E I O U

A E I O U (¡I O!)

A E I O U

¡Feliz Semana Santa!

March 29 – April 4

     ¡Feliz Semana Santa! On Sunday, we celebrated Domingo de Ramos by gathering in Parque Central with our palms and branches before processing to the church, which was extremely full. I saw my former host mom and we hugged and chatted a moment before heading into the church, where we listened to the story of the Passion. Despite the sadness of that reading, this is probably the happiest holiday I’ve been a part of since el Día de las Velas in December!

     Holy Thursday Mass was beautiful and the church was decorated with candles and red flowers everywhere. We finished with a procession around the church, singing the same song in Latin that we sing at home at my church in the US. We stayed with Him a while after Mass and continued to pray in anticipation of Good Friday, which is the most “celebrated” holiday here. The service Friday was beautiful, too, though sad, of course. People went up to the front one by one to adore the cross and kiss Jesus’ knees or feet and looked forward to His Resurrection.

     Holy Saturday, I went to Easter Vigil, which was beyond amazing! Everyone had a hard time keeping their candles lit with the wind, but we listened and sang and clapped and just felt excited for Jesus’ return to life. Our church bells rang alongside bells from churches all over the city and must have rung for 5 minutes straight, while we kept singing our hearts out. “¡Qué viva Cristo! ¡Qué viva el Rey!”

- The church was really full this week, so at least for Semana Santa, try to get to church early if you plan to go to Mass (and even if you’re not religious, I recommend going to some of the services just for the cultural experience).

- Unlike in the US (for the most part), Latin culture celebrates both happy and sad holidays. Americans party mostly for happy things like Jesus’ birth and Resurrection, while here, the focus may be more on Good Friday. There are other examples like this, too, like days celebrating battles that were lost, but show the strength of those fighting, or celebrations of the lives of loved ones who have passed on, and other things like that.

- Peace Corps service is, obviously, a good time to try new things. You’re having new experiences every day anyway, so why not try personal stuff you’ve never done, too? This could be something big, like going on a trip, or just a personal goal. I’m not much into exercise just for the sake of exercise, but I went on a run by choice for the first time ever this week and I’m looking forward to seeing how long I can keep it up.

- Being part of a family is wonderful aspect of service here because you get to experience the culture from within and participate in whatever is going on in your host family members’ lives. This includes ups, like births, marriages, and visits from far-away family members, but also downs, like illnesses and deaths. Please pray for my family – my mom’s brother passed away this week…que en paz descanse.

- This seems like such an inconsequential story, but even little things matter so much here, that I thought I’d share it anyway. On the way home from the grocery store, I saw a man half-kneeling, massaging his dog’s ears. The dog looked so happy and that made me happy, too, since dogs are usually considered guard animals here and it’s nice to see one treated with so much affection.

- During Mass on Holy Thursday, the priest included in his Homily a quote from teachers that is truly the story of education here. Translated roughly, it was, “If at the end of the school day, you do not have a backache and headache, and feel exhausted and mistreated, that day you did nothing.”

- “Si no sabes amar, no sabes perdonar, tú necesitas amor.”

- I’m not usually one for giving money to people on streets, but I do give them food sometimes. There’s a young man who always sits outside the Olímpica, so occasionally, I buy him food while I’m inside. There are so many people in the street, so I figure this is a good way to make sure someone gets what they really need, like food.

- For el Día de las Velas and Easter Vigil, you’ll need a candle and you’ll need to bring your own, just so you know. Or, you can do what I did and just try to help everyone else keep theirs lit!

Reconnect

March 22 – March 28

     On Sunday, I came with Caitlin to our Camp GLOW meeting in Barranquilla. The meeting went well and I’m very excited for everything we’ll be doing at and preparing for camp!

     I stayed with one of the volunteers in Puerto Colombia on Sunday and Monday night and, on Tuesday, I moved into Hotel Puerto Colombia for Reconnect. Wednesday’s training was on medical and security updates, co-planning, and CII-6 volunteer experiences, which were probably the most interesting and useful. Thursday’s training was about technology and working with counterparts. And Friday, we talked about individual projects and said, “Que Dios les bendiga”, to Viviana and Olga – we’ll miss them here and we wish them the best as they begin this new chapter of their lives. Saturday, the Samarios returned home rested and motivated to get back to work.

- There’s a Middle Eastern restaurant down the street from the Berlinas in Barranquilla called Terraza Libanesa. The food is wonderful and I highly recommend it, especially if you want to stay near Berlinas. (I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the Berlinas van service is the only way volunteers are permitted to travel between cities on the Coast, so most everyone knows where the Berlinas is in each city.)

- Good places to eat in Puerto Colombia include an Italian restaurant about a block from the hotel and an Arabic/Greek restaurant over the bridge and heading out of town (still walking distance from the hotel as long as you go in a group). If you like pizza or fried chicken, there’s a place that sells both at the end of the block and another sit-down pizza place near the Italian restaurant. You kind of have to check to see what’s open and just be flexible.

- During PST, you’ll write a letter to your future self, talking about who you are, what you’re doing, and questions you have. You’ll respond to that letter at Reconnect and to both letters at COS. Think about what you want to write because the letters act as an amazing record of how much you and your life have changed throughout service.

- We got new smartphones at training…yup…we got smartphones at training. They’re really neat and some volunteers who don’t have access to Internet will now. Hopefully, we can just not get them stolen and we’ll be great.

- Trainings are, in many ways, like PST all over again. Some people are excited for a break and others don’t really want to go at first, but it’s always amazing to see everyone again. From walking together on the pier seeing the beauty of the stars and power of the ocean to ending training with our hands-in-the-middle, “1, 2, 3, PCC!” to nights just hanging out talking on the hotel’s roof, it seems like being apart really just brings you closer together.