May 31 – June 6
Over the weekend, I was in Minca helping the volunteer there
paint one of her school’s campuses, in Monte Cristo, which was about a
45-minute walk up the mountain from her town. The school is about 1.5 rooms – a
classroom and a “technology” room – and a patio with a not-quite-finished-yet
bathroom and an open area to play or do just about anything that requires an
open space outside. We met my friend’s counterpart at the school and figured
out that we would paint the outside of the building and inside of the
classroom. Slowly, more and more people showed up from the community and soon,
we had a lot of help! In fact, we had so much help that the whole school was
painted in 4 hours. This. Is. Peace Corps.https://oistecolombia.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/fresh-coat/
On another successful note, oh my goodness, I finally have a
planning schedule with teachers at my school! Setting up times to plan with
teachers has been kind of a mess, but this week, I got as much planning done as
I could with the teachers in 1st through 3rd grade. Some
of us just got through this month, but others got as far as October! Now, let’s
see how many of our plans we can carry out.
Happy Birthday to me! I feel like I’ve been celebrating my
Birthday all week! My US mom keeps sending me adorable e-cards and I made
brownies to share with everyone at our host family meeting on Saturday – the
meeting was canceled, but I still found ways to share my Birthday brownies with
people! On top of that, my US parents had a cake and a soft Birthday bear sent
to my house and my neighbors sang “Happy Birthday” to me.
- The best projects are created and spearheaded by
Colombians, which is probably why my friend’s project in Monte Cristo went so
well. All she had to do was make sure the supplies got from Minca to the
school. The main campus bought the supplies and the community did most of the
painting. Applause to everyone in Minca and Monte Cristo for a job very, very
well done!
- I may have mentioned this before, but although Colombia’s
international mail system isn’t very good, their national mail system is. My
parents sent me birthday presents and cake from companies in Santa Marta and
everything got to my house exactly when it was supposed to. So, if a loved one
or friend back home wants to send you something, consider suggesting that they
use a local company to do so, if such a company exists at your post.
- There are three kinds of cake in Colombia –
cake, tres leches cake, and pound
cake. The first one is not good, so ignore that. The second two are amazing.
Don Jacobo, the company that made my birthday cake, makes amazing pound cakes –
the one my parent’s sent me was as big as the cake my mom usually makes for my
birthday, but took twice as long to eat because it was so rich! And tres leches cake is also rich and
delicious and definitely not something to be missed in Colombia!
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