Santa Marta

October 19 - October 25

This week was a whirlwind from our 2-day Counterpart Conference to our 3-day site visits. I met my counterpart, who teaches 4^th and 5^th grade English at my school in Santa Marta, IED Edgardo Vives Campo. I met other Santa Marta volunteers, attended a full day of school (both morning and afternoon jornadas), went to a Peace Corps-led community English class, and was introduced by a volunteer to her workplace, Wiwa Tours. Site announcements were stressful, but I feel blessed and honored to have been assigned to Santa Marta.

- Sunday – I went to Mass this morning, which was about giving God your heart and which felt uplifting for me right now. In the afternoon, our family went to my host brother’s friend’s birthday party and later, I found beautiful pictures of Santa Marta while playing around on the Internet.

- Monday – Today, we had the 1^st day of our Counterpart Conference at a hotel close-ish to my house. I met my counterpart, who teaches 4^th and 5^th grade English at my host school, IED Edgardo Vives Campo. I am very excited to teach and learn with her and to be working with primary grades – I have only a little experience with younger students, so learning new things every day will be wonderful!

- Tuesday – Greetings from Santa Marta! This morning was day 2 of our Counterpart Conference. Then, we headed out for our site visits. As our van neared Santa Marta, another volunteer turned around and asked if I was awake, telling me to look around. I was awake and, in a dazed, sleepy voice, exclaimed, “Mountains!” and smiled, happy to be back in a landscape that feels a bit more like home. The volunteer going to Minca continued into the mountains and the rest of us checked into our hotel. We went swimming in the afternoon and joined other Santa Marta volunteers at Pizza Vómito for dinner, which is a lot more delicious than it sounds! The other volunteers were wonderful and it was exciting to here that volunteers here are like a family, meeting often and supporting each other in projects. The city may take some getting used to, but I feel blessed and honored to have been assigned to Santa Marta.

- Wednesday – Wow, today was crazy! I visited both sedes of my school with my counterpart, starting with Sede 2 in the morning and then going to Sede 1 in the afternoon. Well, actually, we went to the temporary “Sede 1”, since the actual Sede 1 is under construction and students are taking classes at another school. In 4^th and 5^th grade, I helped teach the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, which was fun and definitely kept students interested! After that crazy day, I continued to 3 volunteers’ community English class, where everyone seemed motivated and completely fine with doing all the “strange” (not typical of Colombian classrooms) activities the volunteers had in mind.

- Thursday – This morning, another volunteer and I met with a CII-3 volunteer to visit Wiwa Tours, where she works and where we hope to work soon, as well. She has several project ideas for us, so I’ll need to keep those in mind as we move forward. After that, we met other volunteers at a café near the Catedral and ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant before heading back to Barranquilla. Our craziness wasn’t done, though, and that evening, a bunch of volunteers attended the Atlántico Big Band and Totó la Momposina concert, which was wonderful!

- Friday – We were back at the Colombo today and talked about our site visits and student-centered teaching. We also told stories about our trips in Spanish class and I was very interested to hear about my classmates’ experiences in Barranquilla, Tubará, and Minca.

- Site announcements are stressful. People try to pretend it’s not a big deal, but it is – it’s your life for the next 2 years! So I’ll say what most people won’t listen to, but should try, anyway. Try not to have expectations. Express any preferences you may have to the staff during interviews and via email, but understand that they likely won’t use half of them in their decisions and you don’t get to pick the ones they do consider. Recognize your own stress and roll with it however works best for you. Think of the site you want least of all and try to convince yourself (using specific examples) why you would be happy there. Whether people were happy with their site assignments or not, just about everyone pretty much broke down last weekend from all the stress. Just breathe – wherever you are sent, that is where you are meant to go.

- If you go to Rodadero, outside Santa Marta, definitely try to eat at Pizza Vómito. I have no idea what their schedule is, but evenings are generally a good bet for pizza places. And try the actual pizza vómito, not just the regular stuff! It sounds awful (even once you hear the ingredients), but it’s delicious and unless you’re a football player or very active athlete, you will be completely full after 1 piece!

- Cut off the top of a maracuyá, dump 2 spoonfuls of sugar into the shell, and stir. Consume. It’s quite a treat and I had forgotten how delicious it was.

Site Announcements

October 12 - October 18

This week was the Feria del Inglés para el Trabajo and also our site announcements. The Feria went well and we had the opportunity to hear several speakers discuss Colombia’s Plan de bilingüismo. On Friday, we finally found out where we will be spending the next 2 years as Peace Corps Volunteers – I will be serving at IED Edgardo Vives Campo in Santa Marta.

- Monday – ¡Feliz Día de la Raza! It’s Columbus Day, so we had no classes today. Two other volunteers and I went to a really great Chinese food restaurant (in Colombia – who would guess?!) and then went to the mall to see a movie. One volunteer and I didn’t want to see the scary movie everyone else was watching, so we watched Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which was cute and had a nice ending. I also cooked dinner for my host family this evening – stuffed shells and garlic bread.

- Tuesday – We learned about HIV/AIDS and STI prevention and worked on writing prompts with another Spanish class. One volunteer had the genius idea to do a secret gift exchange, “Secret Encouragers”! That should make the week a bit less stressful as we near site announcements on Friday. For our exchange, each person drew a name from a bag and will somehow sneak a small gift or encouraging note to that person each day for the week. After class, I finished reading El rastro de tu sangre en la nieve by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Wednesday – We had practicum this morning and students did a neat reading with feelings as characters. In Spanish, we played a detective game called pelican soup and read an article about blaming everyone else, Es la culpa de las vacas. After classes, I went with a CII-3, a CII-4, and 2 CII-6 volunteers to La Playa just to explore. That was neat and showed me another example of what my site might be like.

- Thursday – Today was the Feria del Inglés para el Trabajo, which was held in the Sonesta hotel in Barranquilla. We listened to speakers talk about English for Special Purposes and the el Plan de bilingüismo before heading back to the Colombo. Then, we had sessions on resiliency and expectations and travel policies. After classes, a group of us went to La Dulcerna to hang out and eat sweet things, like cherry cheesecake.

- Friday – This morning, we learned about teaching primary grades and using technology, as well as how to start using PACA tools. (Don’t ask me what that stands for – no one seems to know!) We also found out who our secret encouragers were, which was very exciting! In the afternoon, we had site announcements. Everyone was so stressed before the announcements, a volunteer decided we should all play Duck, Duck, Goose to lighten the mood while we waited for the office staff to show up, since our chairs were already in a circle. I love us! I will be going to IED Edgardo Vives Campo in Santa Marta.

- Saturday – This morning I went to the library to work on a Spanish report. I’ll be doing mine on Rafael Pombo, so I got to read a bunch of children’s poetry, which was fun.

- ¿Y para qué llorar? ¿Pa’ qué? Si duele una pena, se olvida. ¿Y para qué sufrir? ¿Pa’ qué? Si así es la vida, hay que vivirla, lalalé. Voy a reír, Voy a bailar, Vivir mi vida, lalalalá. Voy a reír, Voy a gozar, Vivir mi vida, lalalalá. – Marc Anthony, Vivir mi vida

- Pizza with parmesan and pineapple is surprisingly good.

- Colombian single-origin chocolate is amazing, as are granizados de maracuyá.

- “To find the root cause of a problem, ask, ‘Why?’ 5 times.” – Es la culpa de las vacas

- Take any opportunity you can get to explore Barranquilla. You definitely get into a routine, but if a volunteer says, “Hey, do you guys want to come explore my neighborhood?” the answer is, “Yes!”

- Did I mention animals make life happier? Well, one of the cats at the Colombo had babies, so there’s a bunch of tiny kittens and a whole lot of happiness there right now!

- “Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say ‘We have done this ourselves.’” – Laso Tzu

"I have family here."

October 5 - October 11

*Alright, so I’m WAY behind on my blog posts! As a result, the day-by-day section is about to get a lot shorter or, at least, more concise. Honestly, you didn’t need to know (and may not have wanted to read) all the fluff, anyway. I still included the topics we covered in training and anything else I felt like sharing, but this will make writing much faster.

- Sunday – Today, we went to my host mom’s sister-in-law’s birthday party. We mostly sat and visited with everyone there and it was nice to see my host brother and niece playing with other kids.

- Monday – Spanish classes have been switched to the afternoon, so the technical trainers have us more awake for teacher training in the morning. (We’ll see how that goes…) We learned in technical training about teaching reading and more about teaching grammar. We also talked about resolving host family conflicts. I had my mid-term language proficiency interview and I think I did fine…guess I’ll find out later.

- Tuesday – We learned about building school relationships and incorporating music, games, and drama in English classes. We also had an end-of-term Spanish party in class, which was wonderful, though I’m going to miss being together, wherever we end up for the rest of training. After class, I went with a few other people to Spanish conversation club at Crepes and Waffles, so that was fun and delicious.

- Wednesday – This morning, we had our volunteer project fair, which was amazing, though I wish I had time to see even more! I went to sessions about ABC English, Library Project, Letter Writing, Fundidiomas, and Chicas Poderosas. During Spanish class, we had a salsa lesson, which was great, since I know very little about salsa and would very much like to learn!

- Thursday – At the office today, we learned about nutrition, common challenges when working with Colombian adults, integration, and the state of PC Colombia. I had lunch with George, our country director, and a group of fellow volunteers, so that was nice and gave me a chance to get to know everyone better. After training, I went with a group to La Gelatería, which is an excellent ice cream parlor within walking distance of the office. I then walked home with a friend as the Sun set, which was beautiful.

- Friday – We learned about curriculum design and lesson planning this morning and then had another salsa lesson before lunch. I’m finding I quite enjoy these lessons, even if I’m not particularly good (compared to Colombians)! We have new Spanish classes (and mine includes most of the people from my previous class, much to my excitement) and we read a story today by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Saturday – We had training this morning on giving feedback and teaching writing. I also got my 2^nd letter from the US today. This evening, I went to English conversation club at Mazzino’s. Apparently, conversation club was cancelled, but of course, none of the CII-6 volunteers knew that, so a bunch of us showed up and happily celebrated a CII-6 volunteer’s birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” much too slowly in English and just visiting and being together.

- The batido alegría at Crepes and Waffles is expensive, but delicious – mango, piña y maracuyá.

- “The weirdness becomes the norm.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “I was born in Chicago, but I grew up here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “Do you think you’ll come back?” “Oh yea – I have family here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- It takes about 1 month for mail to arrive from the United States – plan accordingly.

- As you walk down the street, you will likely see a variety of birds you’ve never seen before. Most of them will remind you of birds in the United States – pretty, but not gorgeous. Then, you’ll stare at a singing tree until a parrot flies out and you realize half the “leaves” are actually bright green birds!

- If someone mentions “Gabo” and you have no idea who they’re talking about, it’s probably Gabriel García Márquez, a world-famous Colombian author, who everyone here calls by his nickname, since he’s from Colombia.

Happy October!

September 28 - October 4

Not surprisingly, the leaves don’t change color here in Colombia. However, there are plenty of things to recommend October, like Semana Uribe, which is basically a week off from school. Though we won’t be “celebrating” it this year, we will be next year. Also, October marks the beginning of the end of training. We’re Swearing In so soon…

- Sunday – As usual, our family met for Mass and then we went out. This time, we went for Chinese food and then for ice cream, which were both wonderful (vegetable rice with sweet and sour sauce and Nutella ice cream later – yum!). I also cooked French toast for my family in the evening and they all seemed to enjoy that.

- Monday – Now, we’re really getting into grammar in Spanish and we learned about subjunctive today, which was definitely challenging, but helpful. In technical training, we learned about teaching listening and Colombian educational standards, which for us, are recorded in our Guía 22.

- Tuesday – Subjunctive in Spanish again today. Thankfully, it’s slowly getting easier. We also practiced making phone calls, which was really helpful, especially since I got a scenario about a broken computer, which is a problem I’m actually having right now. In the afternoon, we learned about curriculum design and how to make rubrics. After training, we went to Crepes and Waffles for Spanish club, which is a Peace Corps Trainee conversation group in Spanish that we started that mixes people at different levels, so we can all improve our language skills. I definitely learned a lot just talking to people and I had a wonderful dinner, as well.

- Wednesday – Happy October! This morning, we went to the schools for practicum, though at my school, much of the day was taken up by a traditional music concert, which I certainly didn’t mind. The group had truly wonderful percussionists, especially for high school, and I enjoyed listening to their music. Though the concert took most of the morning, my teaching partner and I still had time to teach our lesson on our states’ cultures, which was made even better by the students’ already having significant information on each of our states. As a final bonus to the day, I got my 1^st letter from home – mail is so exciting!

- Thursday – It’s Thursday, so we were at the office. We learned about facilitating teacher trainings, drug and alcohol policies, and bystander intervention. I also had my first truly delicious lunch, which was some kind of peppery tofu and wouldn’t have been that great in the United States, but I was so excited to have something with serious flavor that I was thrilled. As usual, we had soccer after training and I enjoyed talking with several other volunteers while we watched the game.

- Friday – This morning, I gave a presentation on my trip to Tiputini in Ecuador during Spanish class, which was mostly exciting because another volunteer in my class had also been to Tiputini, so we were able to share memories. We also learned about superstitions, which provided an interesting conversation topic. In technical training, we learned about Colombian teachers’ perspectives on having us (native English speakers who may or may not have significant experience teaching) in their classrooms and a bit about teaching English grammar.

- Saturday – I spent most of today doing homework and looking up camp songs in Spanish because I get random bursts of excitement about Camp GLOW, which is a girls’ empowerment camp the volunteers hold in Minca once or twice a year. This evening, I went to English conversation club at Mazzino’s, where I made new Colombian friends and we played card games, like Taboo.

- Even foods you didn’t particularly like in the United States become delicious because they remind you of home. I don’t really like Doritos, but for some reason, they taste amazing! And macaroni and cheese shouldn’t be nearly as exciting as it was when I saw the back of the Kraft box that said, “Imported from your childhood.”

- Sweet and sour sauce translates almost directly as salsa agridulce.

- “Santo, santo, santo es el Señor, El cielo y la tierra llenas de su amor, Bendito el que viene en el nombre del Señor.”

- Colombian educational standards are written in Guía 22, which will apparently become one of your best resources for lesson planning. Even if standards bother you in the United States, try to use the guide because curriculums aren’t so common here and even though standards seem silly some days back home, here they are even more important simply because they help align what students learn and they aren’t widely used.

- Last Thursday, I helped someone who hurt her ankle in soccer and this week, she gave me a card to say, “Thank you.” That may be one of the highlights of my week because I didn’t really think much of what I was doing at the time (other than about how I could help), but I guess it was special to her. Moral of the story: Keep doing nice things – they mean more than you think. J

- Teleoperadora is a short film about a guy trying to get a custom service agent to tell him the phone number of a friend of his girlfriend, so he can get back in touch with her, since she is about to leave the country and head to New York. It’s really an adorable film if you have the opportunity to watch it (with or without English subtitles).

- Fun dinámica: On pieces of paper, create equally sized groups and give each group an animal name. Give every person a piece of paper with one of the animals written on it and tell them to spread out before they look at the paper. Everyone should look at the paper and then close their eyes and stop talking. To find their group-mates, they make the sound of the animal they are and, keeping their eyes closed, move around to find their friends.

- There are few things more wonderful than receiving mail when you are far from home. If you are far from home, ask people to send you letters. If you are “home,” please send letters!

- Taboo is a great card game for learning English and can be great for teaching vocabulary and circumlocution (how to talk around a word you don’t know). Be sure to scaffold the game for whatever level you are teaching.