All Volunteer Conference

November 23 – November 29

            This week, we had All Volunteer Conference (AVC) at a resort near Puerto Colombia. The place we stayed was gorgeous and we appreciated the opportunity to be together for a few days. We heard about the state of Peace Corps Colombia and met or re-met some of our new staff members. We participated in professional development stations on teaching, community service, and what comes after PC service; and learned about the different volunteer committees we may be able to join. We also heard a presentation from Vicky Colbert about her Escuela Nueva, which seems like an amazing program for rural schools – it allows students to work at their own pace, which is important for students who can only sometimes come to school or who frequently change schools.

            Aside from work, VAC had their silent auction and I enjoyed walking around the resort and on paths through the woods. I heard and saw birds I did not recognize and tried to photograph a few of them. On Thanksgiving, I woke up early and went with another volunteer to watch the sun rise, which was so beautiful… Later, we all gathered for Thanksgiving lunch. A volunteer read a story from another volunteer in Guatemala about being thankful for everything we have and everything we’re doing and experiencing. Then, we ate delicious food (including butternut squash soup, maracuyá juice, and pumpkin flan, among other things) with our Peace Corps family, which oddly enough, made today actually feel like Thanksgiving – I’m really glad they brought us all together today.

            After lunch, I finished my affirmation notes for all the CII-6 volunteers and, thanks to another volunteer who lent me her phone, talked with my family and wished them a Happy Thanksgiving, which made today even better. In the evening, I went swimming with a bunch of other volunteers before heading back to Santa Marta the next day. This week has been informative and amazing! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

- Dessert recipe: Sliced fresh peaches topped with fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce (strawberry jam, sugar, water, and chopped hierbabuena). Serve chilled.

- VAC stands for Volunteer Advisory Committee. They are your volunteer government and the liaisons between volunteers and the Peace Corps office for issues that affect all volunteers. Know who your representatives are, so you can go to them with questions throughout your service.

- Take advantage of the VAC silent auction! Volunteers donate things they no longer need (or cannot fit in their bags to go home) to help raise money for our volunteer government, which then uses the money to help finance small projects. I got a duffle bag of gently used clothing and a few other things for less than 50 mil. Clothing is expensive here, so go crazy!

- In case anyone was wondering, it’s extremely difficult to photograph birds, even with a fairly decent digital camera. They tend to run or fly or hop away and not enjoy when you get close to them.

- At AVC, each volunteer wrote affirmation notes to other volunteers. Affirmation notes are just nice notes on little pieces of paper that volunteers can pull out of their bag any time they need a pick-me-up. I wrote notes for all of CII-6, since I know them best, but some volunteers wrote them for everyone. Each volunteer had a plastic bag taped to the wall and we collected our bags at the end of AVC. That activity was an excellent idea and I’ll definitely look forward to reading notes from everyone throughout my service.

Moving to Sites

November 16 - November 22

OK, so starting from now, I’m going to try to make these entries a lot shorter by cutting out the day-by-day section and just making the beginning section longer. You’ve now read everything that everyone does during PST, so from this point on, my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer will be a lot more my own experience and much less the same thing everyone else is doing, so a detailed account may not be quite as useful as it was during PST. Hopefully, this will make reading these entries less tedious, so we’ll see how this goes.

This week was our first at our new sites. Another volunteer came to my apartment in Barranquilla to help me get my stuff down the stairs and out the door and our little dog, Sony, followed me the whole way. I love my Barranquilla family and I love that little dog! At the office, we picked up our water filters before sleeping on each other’s shoulders on the way to Santa Marta. Once we got there, we had a host family meeting and I met my new host mom. Later, we had dinner at another volunteer’s house – I’m very excited to get to know the CII-5 volunteers, who all seem like wonderful people.

We spent the week exploring in and around Santa Marta. A group of us walked around the Centro and saw both the Museo del Oro and one volunteer’s Soy Wiwa exposition at the Museo Etnográfico. A volunteer helped me with buses and finding my church and I really appreciated her accompanying me everywhere until I can get the hang of my new city. We celebrated a volunteer’s birthday in Minca on Friday and hiked up to La Victoria, a coffee farm about 2 hours up the mountain. We toured the farm and drank tinto before heading back down.

- If you don’t have a Pinterest account, I highly recommend getting one. It’s especially good for teaching ideas…and ideas for whatever else you like.

- The Bendito Café, which is in the same plaza as the Catedral, has a nice atmosphere and is a good place to meet with people in the Centro.

- Colombian coffee is amazing. I don’t drink coffee, but I’ve had it here several times because, well, I’m in Colombia. Even if you don’t drink coffee, try it – like in the United States, drinking coffee is a social event here and the coffee’s almost universally good (and the organic or single-origin coffee’s even better), so why not?

Swearing In

November 9 - November 15

This week was crazy! We had Host Family Appreciation Day on Sunday and then wrapped up training throughout the week. We had our task force presentations and learned the Colombian “Himno Nacional”. We took our final LPIs and reviewed the Volunteer Handbook. We met our new Country Director and my host family had a going away dinner for me with my whole extended host family there. Our Swearing In Ceremony went wonderfully and we listened to speeches from our Country Director, the ambassador, and the mayor. We took the oath and are now officially Peace Corps Volunteers! That night, we celebrated our last night together (for now) by taking a chiva around town and dancing and having a good time with all our CII-6 friends.

- Sunday – Today, we celebrated Family Appreciation Day in a side room of a church in Santa Domingo. Before the event, we had sent in happy memories with our host families and those memories were written on hearts that decorated the room. We also had a bunch of performances by talented volunteers, from singing to playing guitar to reading poetry to anything. We played a game with baby pictures where families had to guess which one was their “baby” and at the end, we all sang “Home” and thanked our families for everything.

- Monday – Our housing coordinator talked to us about switching host families and we gave our task force presentations. I’m on the 4 Skills task force and I think our presentation went pretty well. During Spanish in the afternoon, we had our final LPIs and talked about the movies we had watched as homework over the weekend. After we all had our tests and got through a brief discussion, our LCF decided we were distracted and stressed and should probably have the rest of the afternoon off, so we went to Buena Vista for ice cream and more talking about the LPI before heading home.

- Tuesday – Happy Veterans Day! Thank you to all the men and women who have served and are serving our country. Today, we had a full day of Spanish classes. We started by learning about Colombian patriotic symbols and then practiced the “Himno Nacional” of Colombia. We also found out that a volunteer had to be medevaced (evacuated for medical reasons) to the United States. We hope he’ll feel better soon and be able to come back and join us again.

- Wednesday – After a full day of Spanish yesterday, today we had a full day of CORE training. We played Jeopardy to review the Volunteer Handbook and met our new Country Director, who seems nice. We also had a guest speaker who taught us about the Colombian political and economic systems. This evening, my family had a going away dinner for me. I was definitely surprised to walk into the dining room and see a beautiful white tablecloth set out and I was even more surprised when my whole extended host family came to join us. They all told me how much they love me and that I’ll always have a home and family with them. I love them very much, too, and I hope I will always feel at home when I’m with them.

- Thursday – Today is our last day of training, so we went over a lot of site-specific topics, including our questions and a few things on water safety, since we’re all on the coast and some of us even live on islands. In Spanish, we continued practicing the “Himno Nacional” and then, we presented our technical trainers, LCFs, and Resiliency facilitator with gifts and cards to say, “thank you.” We found out who our new host families will be and gave our Commitment to Service speeches, which was powerful and emotional for all of us. After classes, we all went to Hotel Caribe 79 for a pre-Swear In celebration. Hanging out with everyone was wonderful, as was hearing a repeat of a wonderful performance of “Hallelujah” from Sunday.

- Friday – Happy Swear-In! We are officially Peace Corps Volunteers!!! Congratulations CII-6! This morning, we had our Swearing In Ceremony at la Universidad del Norte, with speeches from our Country Director, the United States Ambassador to Colombia, and the Mayor of Barranquilla, among others. We watched a dance group in which one of the CII-5 volunteers participates perform traditional Colombian dances. We listened to one of our CII-6 volunteers sing the U.S. National Anthem and then we all sang the Colombian “Himno Nacional”. We said the oath to make us official Peace Corps Volunteers and took lots of pictures afterward. That evening, we all met again to take a chiva around town to different clubs. There was a Colombian band on the chiva and the clubs were neat – I definitely danced quite a bit before heading home. I’m so excited we finally made it!

- Saturday – This has been a busy week, so relaxing today was great. A group of us went to see Interstellar, which was excellent. “Do not go quietly into that good night.”

- Task forces are groups of trainees who are experts in a specific area. Each trainee is on a task force (or, at least, that’s how it went for our PST). We had task forces for the 4 Skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), Classroom Management, and Youth Development, among others. Each task force meets several times during PST to create resources for other trainees on their topic and then presents what they have made at the end of training.

- I may have mentioned this already, but LCF stands for Language and Culture Facilitator. They’re the awesome Colombians who help you learn Spanish and how to function around Barranquilla and in Colombian culture.

- The Volunteer Handbook is your big resource of everything. Before you struggle asking a million people in the office who you should ask about whatever question you may have, check the handbook. Not everything in the handbook will make sense during training, but all that information you don’t understand now will be very helpful during your service.

- “Do not walk behind me – I may not lead. Do not walk in front of me – I may not follow. Walk beside me and be my friend.”

- “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

- Like the “Star Spangled Banner,” the “Himno Nacional” is much longer than what Colombians sing as their national anthem. Usually, they sing the chorus twice, first stanza, and chorus twice again, though I’ve heard it sung just the chorus twice and then the first stanza.

Himno Nacional, Letra: Rafael Núñez, Música: Oreste Sindici

Coro:

¡Oh gloria inmarcesible! 

¡Oh júbilo inmortal!

¡En surcos de dolores 

El bien germina ya

El bien germina ya

Cesó la horrible noche 

La libertad sublime 

Derrama las auroras 

De su invencible luz. 

La humanidad entera, 

Que entre cadenas gime, 

Comprende las palabras 

Del que murió en la cruz

Last Week of PST

November 2 - November 8

I can’t believe we’re here…the last full week of Pre-Service Training! We spent the week wrapping everything up – learning helpful things for the first few months of service and finishing documents we’ve been working on throughout training. Some of the CII-4 volunteers are heading home and, though we’re sad to see them go, we’re grateful for what they’ve done, confident in all that they will do, and very excited to Swear-In next week!

- Sunday – ¡Feliz Día de los Muertos! I went to Mass this morning and we heard about the blessed dead and how they are still with us. This afternoon, I went with a few friends to see Dracula, which was very good and perfect for Day of the Dead!

- Monday – Not much to report today other than that we didn’t have classes, so I just relaxed and enjoyed a rainy/windy power out.

- Tuesday – We learned about working with displaced students and watched Los colores de las montañas to learn a bit about the way life used to be for of some of our displaced students. I found out that Colombia is 2^nd in world (after Somalia) for percentage of the country’s population that is displaced, which is part of why the Peace Corps is here. In the evening, we had a despedida for one of the CII-4 volunteers – it’s always hard to say goodbye, so I prefer what he said. “See you in two years!”

- Wednesday – We learned about various aspects of Colombian culture today and about the subjunctive in Spanish. We talked about the subjunctive yesterday, too, though today was a bit easier, since we’re starting to get the hang of it.

- Thursday – We learned about what to do during our first few months at site, as well as what to do in medical emergencies. We talked about facilitating behavior change and conducting a needs assessment. At the end of the day, everyone went upstairs to the office for a volunteer’s close of service bell-ringing ceremony before our last day of soccer at the cancha.

- Friday – We finished our PST chivas and debriefed our practicum experiences. Then, we heard from líderes de bilingüismo and representatives for the secretaries of education in each departamento. In Spanish, we played a game like Clue, where we answered random questions before we could guess who committed the crime, with what, and where. In the evening, a bunch of us went to a CII-6 volunteer’s concert – she’s integrating extremely well and is part of her family’s band as a singer. Needless to say, they were wonderful!

- Saturday – Today I watched La vendedora de rosas for Spanish class and also joined another volunteer for Chinese food, which was good.

- “For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.”

- Santa Marta’s líder de bilingüismo is actually a counterpart, as well. He seems really nice and is very open for ideas and questions.

- Los colores de las montañas is a story about the lives of displaced children before they were displaced and is told from their point of view. The film takes place in Colombia and is a good resource for learning about the displaced population here.

- Your PST chiva is a document that tracks your progress and learning in PST. You’ll work on it each week to check your understanding of topics covered that week and identify questions you still have or things you still need to work on.

- La vendedora de rosas is a Colombian film about the lives of children living in drug-torn Medellín. Medellín may not be quite the same now, but the film was made not too long ago and life for many of the actors is much like it was in the film. In fact, the actors are children actually pulled from the street and taught how to act. The filming company paid for everything for them, but unfortunately, I believe they were not actually paid, so they had to return to life in the street after the film and publicity were over. The film is sad, but good for understanding some of the children you’ll be working with in schools.

Happy Halloween!

October 26 - November 1

Happy Halloween and Happy November! Friday (Halloween) was definitely the most fun day this week! I dressed up as Jane Goodall for classes and we had Trick or Treat and a very interesting Spanish class in which we told scary American and Colombian legends. After classes that day, a lot of us helped with the Noche en el Museo event held at the Museo del Caribe. I was dressed as an ánima, a spirit, whose job was to climb up quickly onto the stair rails every time someone passed to surprise them! I’m not sure how many people were actually scared of me, but a lot of children seemed fascinated by my costume, so playing with them was fun. I was glad to be able to celebrate this holiday with friends, doing fun things, just like always.

- Sunday – My host family and I went to Mass and then to the beach, where I helped my host brother/nephew and sister/niece build a sandcastle and decorate it with shells. I’m still working on trying to fix my computer and another volunteer came to my house to help, which I really appreciate, especially since it STILL isn’t working… I cooked dinner for my host family – creamed eggs and biscuits with pineapple on the side. I think that was a hit, mostly because my host mom asked for the recipe!

- Monday – In technical training, we learned about content-based instruction and how to teach critical thinking. During Spanish, I gave a presentation on one of many theories of 2^nd language acquisition. The vegetarians had an amazing orzo dish with mushrooms and tomatoes and nuts and craisins at lunch – truly delicious Colombo lunches are kind of a rarity, so that was exciting!

- Tuesday – We learned about youth development and working with people (particularly children) with special needs. Both sessions were really interesting and CII-6 volunteers taught the session on special needs, so that was cool, too. In Spanish, we played a guessing/charades game and, after classes, a group of us went to the Museo del Caribe for a pre-event meeting. I’m very excited for Friday!

- Wednesday – We had practicum this morning and my teaching partner and I were able to actually teach a class this time, which was good. In the other classes, we helped students solve a mystery written in English. Later, we learned about monitoring and reporting and many of us were excited to see that the tiny kittens have opened their eyes!

- Thursday – At the office today, we learned about the volunteer experience and heard a safety talk from a representative of the Embassy.  In the afternoon, groups of us went to different schools to help celebrate el Día del Bilingüismo. My group sat at a table with the whole school in assembly and answered very basic questions in English. A few groups of students also performed 2 Carnaval dances for us, which was surprising and wonderful. Everyone was so nice and we were very happy to be there.

- Friday – Happy Halloween! For classes today, I dressed up as Jane Goodall and almost everyone brought candy for Trick or Treat! We learned about youth volunteerism and creating camps in the morning and had a very interesting Spanish class in the afternoon. We “followed the spiders” to a candle-lit room, where we told scary stories (that we had researched in advance) and acted out the Colombian legends we had been practicing. I talked about the White Lady of Beulah and was the medicine woman in El hombre caimán. This evening, a big group of us helped with the Museo del Caribe’s Noche en el Museo. I was an ánima and stood at the bottom of the stairs to crawl up onto the railings when people passed. A lot of children were fascinated by my costume, so playing with them was fun. Toward the end, another ánima and I joined hands and followed people around, which was also fun and delightfully creepy. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and this has been a very Happy Halloween!

- Saturday – Happy All Saints Day! And Happy November! This evening, there was a nocturnal animal event at the local zoo, so a group of us went and were thrilled to see all the interesting things happening there. We saw amazing dancers doing animal-like dances in astounding costumes and makeup, as well as lots of nocturnal animals (the diurnal ones were sleeping!).

- Masamora is rice cooked until it is very soft with banana, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, and milk and it’s delicious for any meal of the day.

- Apparently, there are places in Barranquilla that deliver gift baskets. They make excellent presents for other people in town or for you from friends and family back home, especially if you want to save them the cost of shipping! My parents sent me a gift basket from Jardín y Floristería Pétalos, which was very exciting! They have a version of their website in English, too, which is helpful.