This week seems like a pretty standard week here. On Sunday,
I went with a bunch of volunteers to Taganga to relax, visit, and swim.
Throughout the week, I worked on motivating 1st graders to finish
their work and then helped 3rd graders learn about English greetings
and family vocabulary.
On Wednesday, I met with my main counterpart to explore
Santa Marta. She showed me two libraries in town and then we went to dinner at
CarePastel. I had not been in the libraries before and it was good to talk with
my counterpart and learn more about the resources I have available here.
Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s not really celebrated
here, since the whole month of September is that of Love and Friendship, but
I’m still sending happy thoughts of love and friendship to everyone around the
world! People here are focused on the beginning of Carnaval. I watched the Batalla de Flores parade on television
with my host mom and the costumes were beautiful! I also found out I will be
able to go to Barranquilla for the rest of the celebration, so I’m definitely
looking forward to that!
- Students here love stickers! I know that’s often true in
the United States, too, and it’s definitely true here! Lots of notebooks here
have a sticker page in the front and students exchange stickers (that are often
written in English) with their friends. I’ve heard a lot of volunteers use
stickers as part of their classroom management strategies, so I’ll probably
need to try that at some point.
- The libraries here are different from those in the US. One
of the libraries my counterpart and I went to had way fewer books than the size
of the building would suggest. Upon entering the library, you have to leave
your stuff in a locker just inside the door and you’re not allowed to take books
out, just read them in the library. The children’s room was beautiful, but I
was surprised that there weren’t more books in such a big, beautiful building.
The second library was more of a professional resource center for teachers and
you have to have a membership and pay to take out materials. Both libraries
showed really great ways to not have books stolen (especially considering how
expensive books are here), but I was still surprised at how different they were
from what I know.
- Carnaval really starts way before the official
holiday. In fact, as soon as school starts, more or less, so does Carnaval. Just
be prepared for no one to be particularly focused on learning at your school
until after Carnaval…until then, enjoy the festivities and all the neat
culturally relevant things your school is doing.
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