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.