Happy Mother’s Day!

May 10 – May 16

     ¡Feliz Día de la Madre! I’m so excited to be able to celebrate this year’s Mother’s Day at home with my American mother and family. In the morning, we went to Mass (in English!) and when the priest asked a group of little kids who they loved, one little boy raised his hand and said, “My mother,” receiving a laughter-filled round of applause from the parishioners. Later, we went to see Avengers 2 and eat Chinese food. I also gave my mother a cross-stitch project I had been working on in Colombia.

     The following day, I joined my mother for brunch with a group of her (and my) friends. It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many of the people from my hometown and it was nice to catch up with everyone. In the evening, my family watched a movie together (Selma, which was very real and quite good), which we had to finish the next day because the power went out. I liked knowing that power outs in my American home cause no problems in the short term and, though not as expected as it would be in Colombia, are actually enjoyed just because they are unusual and give us a chance to light candles and sit around the living room and talk.

     My last day in the United States for a while was mostly spent packing and just being outside. I played my recorder, and watched birds fly by and turkeys and bunnies run through our yard. And, of course, I hugged my family a million times. Colombia, here I come! I got this (I think…)!

- Miami airport is shaped like a horseshoe. I got really lost and had to go through security twice, so hopefully, knowing that it shaped like a ‘U’ will help me not get lost next time.

- If you’re traveling through the airport, know that there is a tax for leaving Colombia (that is likely included in your ticket price, but check regardless), but not for entering the country.

Home for Graduation

May 3 – May 9

     Greetings from the United States! This week, I had the wonderful opportunity to go home and attend my brother’s college graduation. The flights were long, totaling a day of over 12 hours from Santa Marta to Bogotá to Miami to Pittsburgh, but I met new travel friends and enjoyed exploring the airports along the way. Seeing my mom, dad, brother, and other friends and family was almost surreal, especially meeting my parents at the airport.

     I then spent the week running errands, meeting with friends, and spending time with my family. We did a lot of shopping and even stopped by our local farmer’s market. I did a few Goal 3 things, like make arroz con coco and agua panela for my family, and I admired many aspects of US culture, especially astounding customer service and my family’s ability to walk around outside safely after dark.

     Graduation was very American (as is every graduation) and I was excited to be able to find my brother amid all the similarly dressed graduating students on the floor of his university’s convention center. I am so proud of all that he has done and I cannot wait to see what he will do next! Congratulations, Class of 2015!

- My flights from Santa Marta to Pittsburgh may have made for a long day, but booking the flights was easy, since one of the benefits of being a Peace Corps volunteer is that you have access to SATO, the travel agency that helps members of the military and other government employees travel around the world. The people at SATO are extremely helpful and even gave me several itineraries, so the day would be as little of a headache as possible.

- Going home? Don’t forget Goal 3! Of course, you will tell family and friends lots of stories, but take the opportunity to bring stuff home from your host country, too. In addition to your stories, that could be food (though keep customs rules in mind) and souvenirs or even recipes and local cultural traditions (like dancing).

- Agua panela: agua + panela + jugo de limón. Everything is “to taste,” so you will want to figure out your own ratio for water to panela to lime juice. Also, I brought panela from Colombia, since I could probably buy it somewhere in my area, but I do not know where.

- US customer service is amazing! Some places in Colombia also have wonderful customer service, but here, it seems to be almost universal. Everywhere I went, I could not help but appreciate how much people were doing to help me (or anyone around me).

- Don’t forget to keep your US cards updated! For example, I needed a new debit card so, while I was in the country, I got a new one. That was one of my examples of amazing customer service – my bank got the card in the mail to my house quickly and it arrived before I left. So, check expiration dates on your cards to make sure they will still work when you get home.

- I have also begun to appreciate the opportunity to be safely outside after dark. In my Colombian city, by the time the Sun sets (around 1830-1900), I am usually in my house and make it a point not to go out again, unless I am meeting friends somewhere to eat or see a movie or something like that. In that case, I would always take a bus before 2000 and a taxi after that, being careful to call taxis, rather than hail them off the street, if I was returning home around midnight. Being able to walk outside after dark is a blessing not everyone has, so I was glad to be outside at any time of day at home in the US.

- Another aspect of American culture that seems to me slightly more common in my home country than on the Coast of my host country is that we are frequently very kind to strangers. I have met many nice Colombians who will help you figure out where you are going, explain something you do not understand, or even just want to stop and talk. However, the extent to which Americans go to help strangers sometimes surprises me. My mom and I were grocery shopping, when we noticed that an elderly gentleman had hurt himself on the bathroom door. We stopped and helped him cover the bleeding and, soon, a few more people were around us, getting paper towels and the manager, so he could bring a first aid kit. It was nice to see so many people stopping to help a stranger.

También, soy turista.

April 26 – May 2

     Sunday, most of the Santa Marta volunteers came to my house for a potluck to celebrate a belated Easter. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating way too much food, and coloring eggs like we do in the United States. Two volunteers had actually never colored eggs before, so that was fun, too.

     On Thursday, I went to be a tourist in the Centro. I took pictures of the Catedral and la Iglesia San Francisco. I shopped for artesanías, dodging the paro to buy a mochila from the ladies by the Banco de la República and coffee from Juan Valdéz and Ikaro. Friday, then, was the 1^st of May, which is International Labor Day and probably one of the reasons the paro is happening now.

- I baked banana oatmeal cookies for my former host mom and took them to her house. She wasn’t home, but I was able to leave them with the guard at the gate (and I left him a few, too, of course!). I hope she likes them and I’ll probably take her more in the future – it was nice to see her on Palm Sunday and I hope to have a chance to talk with her again.

- My host mom taught me how to make arroz con coco! I learned a while ago from my host brother, but then I tried to make it myself and it didn’t work, so I really appreciate her taking the time to teach me again. I wrote down the recipe and turned it in for a Cookbook Project assignment on food cultures. I’ll need to try the recipe for my family at home, too, and I hope they’ll like arroz con coco as much as I do.

Arroz con coco

Ingredients:

1 coconut, 3 cups water, 3-4 tablespoons sugar, 1½ cups rice, 1-3 teaspoons salt, and lots of love

Instructions:

1.     Put the coconut meat in a blender with just enough clean water to cover it. Blend on low, then medium, then high for about 10 seconds each. Pour the coconut/water mixture through a sieve into a bowl and use your hand to squeeze as much liquid out of the blended coconut as possible. Put this primera leche on the stove on high heat and return the blended coconut to the blender. Add sugar to the primera leche (start with 3 T and add more if you like).

2.     Add 3 cups of water to your blended coconut and blend on low then medium, then high for 10 seconds each. Drain like before and set this segunda leche aside. Keep the blended coconut for another recipe.

3.     By now, your primera leche should be boiling. Let it continue to boil…and boil…and boil… Once the water has boiled out of the primera leche and only the coconut oil remains, lower the heat and stir frequently until the coconut oil and sugar caramelize (reach a dark gold/brown/just starting to burn color).

4.     Add the segunda leche to your coconut oil and turn up the heat, again. (Be careful – it will steam!) Add salt (start with 1 tsp. and add more if you like). Add your 1.5 cups of rice.

5.     Allow rice to cook until the water level lowers and you can see the grains of rice above the liquid. (Now would be a good time to add more sugar or salt if you like.) Cover the rice and let it continue to cook for 30 minutes over very low heat.

6.     Taste test to see if the rice needs more salt or sugar. Have every member of your family currently in the house try your rice and give their opinions, as well. Finally, serve and enjoy!

- The day after the Inauguration of Sede 1, teachers across the country went on strike. They’re still on strike a week later. Teacher strikes happen frequently, partially because teachers have to renegotiate their contract every year. There was a demonstration in Parque Simón Bolívar while I was shopping for artesanías and, though protests are rarely violent, I was careful to skirt the edge of the crowd and not wear yellow that day, since people wearing yellow supported the protest and Peace Corps volunteers try not to make political statements.

- Don’t forget to whereabouts! Exact policies vary by country, but in general, whenever you sleep somewhere other than your bed, the office will want an email with your full name, your departure and return dates, your destination, and contact information for you and one other person who is with you (or the place you are staying, if you are alone). They may also request a text or call when you return to your site.

- “Nada es imposible con Dios.” “Nothing is impossible with God.”

La Inaguración de Sede 1

April 19 – April 25

     Finally, Sede 1 is open! The Inauguration of IED Edgardo Vives Campo’s new principle campus was on Tuesday and I attended the ceremony that evening. At the beginning, one of the mayor’s representatives talked to us about the initiative, “Santa Marta Está Cambiando”, “Santa Marta is Changing.” Then, the mayor spoke, as did several representatives from the school’s student government. After that, one of our 3^rd graders recited a poem, “El hijo del pueblo”, and a girl from the high school sang, “My Heart Will Go On,” in her gorgeous voice that actually made me cry at one point. I know I never really knew the way the campus was before, but it is nice to have our school back!

     Saturday was el Día del Niño, a holiday that calls attention to the basic rights of children around the world, and the Day of the Good Shepherd, so we quietly celebrated both holidays. I also met my host cousin, who seems very nice and is extremely sociable – I look forward to getting to know her better in the future.

- At Mass, one of the songs we sang was, “Yo le resucitaré”, which I believe is, “I Will Raise You Up,” or something similar, in English. I was so happy to hear a familiar song that we sing at my church at home in the US that I happily sang the song in English, while everyone else sang in Spanish…funny how things turn around – at home, I was the only one singing the song in Spanish, while everyone else sang in English!

- A Cookbook Project recipe adapted for Colombia: 1 c brown rice, 1 c lentils, ½ c shredded carrots, 1 bunch of spinach (you know how they come at the farmer’s market – just grab 1 of those), juice of 1 limón, olive oil, salt, raisins, peanuts. Soak lentils overnight. Cook lentils 30 minutes and add rice. Continue to cook, covered, for 30 minutes. (Be sure to clean your produce appropriately before using it.) While that’s cooking, sauté carrots in olive oil with a pinch of salt for 5-10 minutes. Add spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, but still bright green. Add peanuts, raisins, and limón juice and continue cooking a few more minutes. Once the rice and lentils are done, stir everything together. So many food groups!

- Sometime in the middle of the week, my host sister was visiting us and asked me to go for a walk with her, since it was dark outside and she had to run some errands. I said that I would go, of course, and discovered a new nearby tienda and that one of our neighbors makes and repairs clothing. Take the time to explore your neighborhood – you never know what (or who) you’ll find!

Never smile at a crocodile…

April 12 – April 18

     This week, I had a few positive teaching moments and a lot of positive Spanish language moments. I asked my 3^rd grade students a critical thinking questions while we studied the numbers from 11 to 20 and at least one person in each class got it, so hallelujah for that! The question was, “Why are jóvenes called ‘teens’ in English?” The answer is because many of the numbers 11 to 20 end in “teen.” Critical thinking questions don’t seem particularly common in schooling here, so encouraging students to think for themselves is challenging and extremely important. Later in the week, I taught a 1^st grade class their English lesson by myself, which was definitely a test of my classroom management skills and I’m finding that I’m getting slowly better at managing a room of 35-ish primary students.

     On Wednesday, my host sister’s fiancé came to stay at our house. He got bit by a caiman while swimming in a river near his hostel and came into town for surgery. He will recover at our house and his brother and dad came to stay with him, as will. I let them all know that I’m “a la orden” if they need anything and I translated several times between his dad and my host mom. That part was actually quite fun because, although he speaks little Spanish and she speaks little English, they seemed to be getting along just fine without me because they were both trying so hard with the few words they knew and lots of facial expressions and gestures. I definitely wish all the language learners I worked with were like them – unafraid to take risks, be wrong, look silly, and do whatever it takes to get a message across. I sat down with them a few times to interpret and there were still lots of gestures and facial expressions and that really brightened my week. That said, as much fun as I’m having interpreting, I hope my soon-to-be host brother recovers quickly and feels better soon.

     Saturday, I went with the same volunteer to lunch at the same vegetarian restaurant that we went to last week. He had just finished working at his school’s granja for the morning and told me about a running joke among his students. He was always telling them, “¡Cuidado!”, “Be careful!”, and they were yelling it after him on his way out of the school. Apparently, the students like to climb trees with axes to gather mangos and light brush-burning fires next to the school library. I just laughed – it sounds like he has a Boy Scout troop working at the granja!

- The soda, H₂Oh!, came out while we were in training and, though I was hesitant to try any soda that seemed to pass in the Colombian market as “flavored water” (it’s definitely a diet soda, but diet sodas aren’t very common here, so I guess that’s why it went better as “flavored water”), I now have recipes (mostly for smoothies) that go with every flavor. You can mix the limón one with just about any fruit, though with watermelon is particularly good. Maracuyá goes well with, well, maracuyá. And frutas tropicales can be mixed with a peach, a sugar mango, and a slice of pineapple and frozen to make a really good no-sugar-added sorbet.

- “A la orden”, is a phrase that means something like, “happy to help,” though in some situations, it can also mean, “thank you,” or, “you’re welcome.” You’ll hear it a lot in stores from attendants and cashiers and sometimes when you give someone a compliment about something they’re wearing, they’ll say, “a la orden”, instead of “gracias”. The idea with the latter is that you’re welcome to borrow it if you’d like to, but that’s not a particularly serious offer and it’s really more like saying, “thank you.”

- There are lots of good ice cream places and chains along the Coast. One chain in Santa Marta that’s good is Yogenfrüz – there’s one in the Centro and one will open in Buena Vista soon. You tell them what size container you want and whether you want vanilla or chocolate. Then, you pick a fruit and they blend it into your frozen yogurt. It’s really quite good and I’ve been there a few times now (and will likely go more when they open in Buena Vista).