I’m still American.

February 1 – February 7

     Happy February! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! Happy Groundhog Day! Happy Everything! Yup, I’m definitely still American, even after these months in Colombia. On Sunday, I went with a group of volunteers to see the Superbowl at La Brisa Loca. The commercials were local ones, so they weren’t quite as good as normal Superbowl advertisements, but the game was the same. Then, with between 2 and 1.5 minutes to go, ¡se fue la luz (the power went out)! There was nothing to do but laugh, so I did – ¡que viva Colombia!

     At school this week, I observed classes, as usual, and also helped a 1^st grader with his classwork. I think he just didn’t understand the directions, which were to write the numbers 1 through 10 three times. He needed me to check his work every time he wrote a number and he paused for long periods between numbers, so it was slow going, but eventually, he got it done. I appreciate how welcoming the teachers are at this school – I knew from training that lots of teachers here (and in the US, for that matter) don’t really like your observing their classes, but the teachers at this school don’t seem to mind too much. I learned a lot from observing one of the 2^nd grade substitute teachers, too – she kept the class more or less quiet using a normal voice volume and had teams of students compete to see which group could copy the board fastest, so that was interesting and I’ll try to use her ideas in the future.

- Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow, so we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter…well, the US will anyway…pretty sure it will stay quite warm in Santa Marta…

- Eating raw vegetables is not normal here, which makes sense considering how recently it was even possible to clean vegetables well enough to eat them raw without getting sick. However, encouraging healthy eating is always good, so I took a red pepper to school one day for a snack. I sat in a chair eating my red pepper and quickly had a group of 1^st graders staring at me, confirming with one another that I was, indeed, eating a pepper. I let one of them try a piece and she liked it, so hopefully, more of them will try raw vegetables in the future.

First Week of Classes

January 25 – January 31

     Happy First Week of Classes! 3^rd grade entered school on Monday, 2^nd on Tuesday, and 3^rd on Wednesday and now everyone’s at school. I made nametags for 1^st grade, taught a short lesson on colors in 2^nd grade, and observed a few classes this week. I feel like I’ve done most of my teaching and learning, though, during recreo (recess). I taught a group of students how to play Down by the Banks in English and they taught me how to play Perro muerto and Café, chocolate, té in Spanish.

     I met a few volunteers on Thursday at Carambolo for frozen yogurt and visiting and then one of them took me to the Museo Etnográfico to meet a few people I might work with in the future. Then, on Friday, we had two of the volunteers’ despedida. The party was wonderful, with lots of friends and good food. Just visiting and talking with everyone was great – like I said before, I’ll miss these volunteers, who have also become my good friends, but I’m glad to have met them here and hope I’ll see them again in the United States.

     Saturday evening, I went with a volunteer to see another volunteer dance in a Carnaval parade as part of her comparsa (dance group). The event was extremely Colombian and didn’t start even close to on time and no one knew where they were starting or going and the leader of our friend’s dance group and the parade director got into a fight and the group ended up not dancing. However, we watched quite a few kids from the neighborhood dance and they were awesome, so the evening turned out great.

- How to play Perro muerto: Sit in a circle with your hands on your knees, palms up. Each person should put his or her right hand on top of the left hand of the person sitting to his or her right (so your left hand should be under the right hand of the person sitting to your left). Sing the following song, including a number from 1 to 9 in place of 1 (in Spanish, of course). Hold hands and swing them back and forth while you sing. Then, go around the circle with each person saying the next number (in counting order), skipping the numbers that contain the number that you sang earlier. Each time someone says a number, (s)he picks up his/her right hand and slaps the hand on top of his/her left hand. Example:

“Abajo de mi cama,

Hay un perro muerto.

Él que diga uno

Se lo come muerto.”

“2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 22, [etc.]”

(Notice how we skipped all numbers that contain 1? We skipped 1, 10-19, and 21. Do the same, replacing “uno” with other numbers 1 through 9.)

- How to play Café, chocolate, té: Stand in a circle, holding hands. Begin to walk in a circle (either direction), chanting, “Café, chocolate, té”. Immediately drop hands, take a step back, and shout “¡La tengo yo!” while raising your hand. This is where it gets confusing because there’s no real turning-taking order – the next “It” is just someone who hasn’t gone, yet. The first time around, the group just picks someone with his or her hand up to go and subsequent rounds, the person who went the last time picks. Whoever is “It” has 1, 2, or 3 (depending on how you’re playing) steps to try to step on another player’s foot. Players are not allowed to move except 1 step to “defend themselves” by moving their foot out of the way. If “It” steps on someone’s foot, the player whose foot he or she stepped on is out and then the game continues. If not, the game just continues.

Registration Week

January 18 – January 24

     Happy Registration Week! That means this is the last week of vacation for students before school. Teachers are working trying to get students registered and just doing a lot of paperwork. On Monday, I met my counterpart’s daughter, who is 11 and very cool. She speaks English very well and I enjoyed spending much of the morning talking with her. On Wednesday and Friday, I looked at one of my counterpart’s Grade 4 unit plans and worked on pulling it back into 1^st through 3^rd grades and also looked at English textbooks for 1^st and 2^nd grade. I didn’t have a lot to do this week, but I was glad to be there and meet some of the other teachers.

     On Saturday, my host sister and her fiancée came to visit. We talked for a while and then my host mom and I ended up going with them for pizza at a nice little busy pizza place around the corner. Hanging out with them was good, and so was the pizza.

- You will most likely have lots of time for home improvement projects. Make a list of what you can make better or fix and make your world happen.

- Coser y Coser is an adorable craft store just off La Quinta. You’ll have lots of time for craft projects, too, and that’s one of the best craft stores in town. The people in the store are also helpful when you’re not sure exactly what you need.

- Mercados Campesinos (farmers’ markets) are everywhere and probably the best and cheapest places to buy produce. I like the one on Libertador between my school and Buena Vista, but you can go to a million other store-like ones and the Centro always had a huge open-air market, too.

- Naps are awesome. People take naps here, usually after lunch. If you work in the morning, trust me, especially as the weather gets hotter around midday, you’ll take naps, too. And then you’ll go to bed early because you have to get up the next day or just don’t want to mess up your schedule. But isn’t it wonderful that you have the freedom to sleep almost whenever you want?