Site Announcements

October 12 - October 18

This week was the Feria del Inglés para el Trabajo and also our site announcements. The Feria went well and we had the opportunity to hear several speakers discuss Colombia’s Plan de bilingüismo. On Friday, we finally found out where we will be spending the next 2 years as Peace Corps Volunteers – I will be serving at IED Edgardo Vives Campo in Santa Marta.

- Monday – ¡Feliz Día de la Raza! It’s Columbus Day, so we had no classes today. Two other volunteers and I went to a really great Chinese food restaurant (in Colombia – who would guess?!) and then went to the mall to see a movie. One volunteer and I didn’t want to see the scary movie everyone else was watching, so we watched Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which was cute and had a nice ending. I also cooked dinner for my host family this evening – stuffed shells and garlic bread.

- Tuesday – We learned about HIV/AIDS and STI prevention and worked on writing prompts with another Spanish class. One volunteer had the genius idea to do a secret gift exchange, “Secret Encouragers”! That should make the week a bit less stressful as we near site announcements on Friday. For our exchange, each person drew a name from a bag and will somehow sneak a small gift or encouraging note to that person each day for the week. After class, I finished reading El rastro de tu sangre en la nieve by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Wednesday – We had practicum this morning and students did a neat reading with feelings as characters. In Spanish, we played a detective game called pelican soup and read an article about blaming everyone else, Es la culpa de las vacas. After classes, I went with a CII-3, a CII-4, and 2 CII-6 volunteers to La Playa just to explore. That was neat and showed me another example of what my site might be like.

- Thursday – Today was the Feria del Inglés para el Trabajo, which was held in the Sonesta hotel in Barranquilla. We listened to speakers talk about English for Special Purposes and the el Plan de bilingüismo before heading back to the Colombo. Then, we had sessions on resiliency and expectations and travel policies. After classes, a group of us went to La Dulcerna to hang out and eat sweet things, like cherry cheesecake.

- Friday – This morning, we learned about teaching primary grades and using technology, as well as how to start using PACA tools. (Don’t ask me what that stands for – no one seems to know!) We also found out who our secret encouragers were, which was very exciting! In the afternoon, we had site announcements. Everyone was so stressed before the announcements, a volunteer decided we should all play Duck, Duck, Goose to lighten the mood while we waited for the office staff to show up, since our chairs were already in a circle. I love us! I will be going to IED Edgardo Vives Campo in Santa Marta.

- Saturday – This morning I went to the library to work on a Spanish report. I’ll be doing mine on Rafael Pombo, so I got to read a bunch of children’s poetry, which was fun.

- ¿Y para qué llorar? ¿Pa’ qué? Si duele una pena, se olvida. ¿Y para qué sufrir? ¿Pa’ qué? Si así es la vida, hay que vivirla, lalalé. Voy a reír, Voy a bailar, Vivir mi vida, lalalalá. Voy a reír, Voy a gozar, Vivir mi vida, lalalalá. – Marc Anthony, Vivir mi vida

- Pizza with parmesan and pineapple is surprisingly good.

- Colombian single-origin chocolate is amazing, as are granizados de maracuyá.

- “To find the root cause of a problem, ask, ‘Why?’ 5 times.” – Es la culpa de las vacas

- Take any opportunity you can get to explore Barranquilla. You definitely get into a routine, but if a volunteer says, “Hey, do you guys want to come explore my neighborhood?” the answer is, “Yes!”

- Did I mention animals make life happier? Well, one of the cats at the Colombo had babies, so there’s a bunch of tiny kittens and a whole lot of happiness there right now!

- “Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say ‘We have done this ourselves.’” – Laso Tzu

"I have family here."

October 5 - October 11

*Alright, so I’m WAY behind on my blog posts! As a result, the day-by-day section is about to get a lot shorter or, at least, more concise. Honestly, you didn’t need to know (and may not have wanted to read) all the fluff, anyway. I still included the topics we covered in training and anything else I felt like sharing, but this will make writing much faster.

- Sunday – Today, we went to my host mom’s sister-in-law’s birthday party. We mostly sat and visited with everyone there and it was nice to see my host brother and niece playing with other kids.

- Monday – Spanish classes have been switched to the afternoon, so the technical trainers have us more awake for teacher training in the morning. (We’ll see how that goes…) We learned in technical training about teaching reading and more about teaching grammar. We also talked about resolving host family conflicts. I had my mid-term language proficiency interview and I think I did fine…guess I’ll find out later.

- Tuesday – We learned about building school relationships and incorporating music, games, and drama in English classes. We also had an end-of-term Spanish party in class, which was wonderful, though I’m going to miss being together, wherever we end up for the rest of training. After class, I went with a few other people to Spanish conversation club at Crepes and Waffles, so that was fun and delicious.

- Wednesday – This morning, we had our volunteer project fair, which was amazing, though I wish I had time to see even more! I went to sessions about ABC English, Library Project, Letter Writing, Fundidiomas, and Chicas Poderosas. During Spanish class, we had a salsa lesson, which was great, since I know very little about salsa and would very much like to learn!

- Thursday – At the office today, we learned about nutrition, common challenges when working with Colombian adults, integration, and the state of PC Colombia. I had lunch with George, our country director, and a group of fellow volunteers, so that was nice and gave me a chance to get to know everyone better. After training, I went with a group to La Gelatería, which is an excellent ice cream parlor within walking distance of the office. I then walked home with a friend as the Sun set, which was beautiful.

- Friday – We learned about curriculum design and lesson planning this morning and then had another salsa lesson before lunch. I’m finding I quite enjoy these lessons, even if I’m not particularly good (compared to Colombians)! We have new Spanish classes (and mine includes most of the people from my previous class, much to my excitement) and we read a story today by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Saturday – We had training this morning on giving feedback and teaching writing. I also got my 2^nd letter from the US today. This evening, I went to English conversation club at Mazzino’s. Apparently, conversation club was cancelled, but of course, none of the CII-6 volunteers knew that, so a bunch of us showed up and happily celebrated a CII-6 volunteer’s birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” much too slowly in English and just visiting and being together.

- The batido alegría at Crepes and Waffles is expensive, but delicious – mango, piña y maracuyá.

- “The weirdness becomes the norm.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “I was born in Chicago, but I grew up here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “Do you think you’ll come back?” “Oh yea – I have family here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- It takes about 1 month for mail to arrive from the United States – plan accordingly.

- As you walk down the street, you will likely see a variety of birds you’ve never seen before. Most of them will remind you of birds in the United States – pretty, but not gorgeous. Then, you’ll stare at a singing tree until a parrot flies out and you realize half the “leaves” are actually bright green birds!

- If someone mentions “Gabo” and you have no idea who they’re talking about, it’s probably Gabriel García Márquez, a world-famous Colombian author, who everyone here calls by his nickname, since he’s from Colombia.

Happy October!

September 28 - October 4

Not surprisingly, the leaves don’t change color here in Colombia. However, there are plenty of things to recommend October, like Semana Uribe, which is basically a week off from school. Though we won’t be “celebrating” it this year, we will be next year. Also, October marks the beginning of the end of training. We’re Swearing In so soon…

- Sunday – As usual, our family met for Mass and then we went out. This time, we went for Chinese food and then for ice cream, which were both wonderful (vegetable rice with sweet and sour sauce and Nutella ice cream later – yum!). I also cooked French toast for my family in the evening and they all seemed to enjoy that.

- Monday – Now, we’re really getting into grammar in Spanish and we learned about subjunctive today, which was definitely challenging, but helpful. In technical training, we learned about teaching listening and Colombian educational standards, which for us, are recorded in our Guía 22.

- Tuesday – Subjunctive in Spanish again today. Thankfully, it’s slowly getting easier. We also practiced making phone calls, which was really helpful, especially since I got a scenario about a broken computer, which is a problem I’m actually having right now. In the afternoon, we learned about curriculum design and how to make rubrics. After training, we went to Crepes and Waffles for Spanish club, which is a Peace Corps Trainee conversation group in Spanish that we started that mixes people at different levels, so we can all improve our language skills. I definitely learned a lot just talking to people and I had a wonderful dinner, as well.

- Wednesday – Happy October! This morning, we went to the schools for practicum, though at my school, much of the day was taken up by a traditional music concert, which I certainly didn’t mind. The group had truly wonderful percussionists, especially for high school, and I enjoyed listening to their music. Though the concert took most of the morning, my teaching partner and I still had time to teach our lesson on our states’ cultures, which was made even better by the students’ already having significant information on each of our states. As a final bonus to the day, I got my 1^st letter from home – mail is so exciting!

- Thursday – It’s Thursday, so we were at the office. We learned about facilitating teacher trainings, drug and alcohol policies, and bystander intervention. I also had my first truly delicious lunch, which was some kind of peppery tofu and wouldn’t have been that great in the United States, but I was so excited to have something with serious flavor that I was thrilled. As usual, we had soccer after training and I enjoyed talking with several other volunteers while we watched the game.

- Friday – This morning, I gave a presentation on my trip to Tiputini in Ecuador during Spanish class, which was mostly exciting because another volunteer in my class had also been to Tiputini, so we were able to share memories. We also learned about superstitions, which provided an interesting conversation topic. In technical training, we learned about Colombian teachers’ perspectives on having us (native English speakers who may or may not have significant experience teaching) in their classrooms and a bit about teaching English grammar.

- Saturday – I spent most of today doing homework and looking up camp songs in Spanish because I get random bursts of excitement about Camp GLOW, which is a girls’ empowerment camp the volunteers hold in Minca once or twice a year. This evening, I went to English conversation club at Mazzino’s, where I made new Colombian friends and we played card games, like Taboo.

- Even foods you didn’t particularly like in the United States become delicious because they remind you of home. I don’t really like Doritos, but for some reason, they taste amazing! And macaroni and cheese shouldn’t be nearly as exciting as it was when I saw the back of the Kraft box that said, “Imported from your childhood.”

- Sweet and sour sauce translates almost directly as salsa agridulce.

- “Santo, santo, santo es el Señor, El cielo y la tierra llenas de su amor, Bendito el que viene en el nombre del Señor.”

- Colombian educational standards are written in Guía 22, which will apparently become one of your best resources for lesson planning. Even if standards bother you in the United States, try to use the guide because curriculums aren’t so common here and even though standards seem silly some days back home, here they are even more important simply because they help align what students learn and they aren’t widely used.

- Last Thursday, I helped someone who hurt her ankle in soccer and this week, she gave me a card to say, “Thank you.” That may be one of the highlights of my week because I didn’t really think much of what I was doing at the time (other than about how I could help), but I guess it was special to her. Moral of the story: Keep doing nice things – they mean more than you think. J

- Teleoperadora is a short film about a guy trying to get a custom service agent to tell him the phone number of a friend of his girlfriend, so he can get back in touch with her, since she is about to leave the country and head to New York. It’s really an adorable film if you have the opportunity to watch it (with or without English subtitles).

- Fun dinámica: On pieces of paper, create equally sized groups and give each group an animal name. Give every person a piece of paper with one of the animals written on it and tell them to spread out before they look at the paper. Everyone should look at the paper and then close their eyes and stop talking. To find their group-mates, they make the sound of the animal they are and, keeping their eyes closed, move around to find their friends.

- There are few things more wonderful than receiving mail when you are far from home. If you are far from home, ask people to send you letters. If you are “home,” please send letters!

- Taboo is a great card game for learning English and can be great for teaching vocabulary and circumlocution (how to talk around a word you don’t know). Be sure to scaffold the game for whatever level you are teaching.

Defining Success

September 21 – September 27

- Sunday – As usual, my family went to Mass this morning, and then we went out. This time, we went to Buena Vista just to hang out and go to City Park, which is like an arcade for children. It was raining outside, so we couldn’t really go anywhere because of the arroyos, so we stayed there for a while until the rain passed. My sisters even somehow managed to convince me to go on the bumper cars with them, so I had fun attempting to skirt around everyone. This evening, I also made dinner for my family.

- Monday – In PST, we learned about classroom management and heard from a counterpart in Cartagena about what we can do to be helpful in the schools. According to our speaker, the most important things are that we have a good attitude, smile, and work hard. Aside from that, everything is flexible.

- Tuesday – In Spanish, we listened to a song called, “Pedro Navaja”, as a listening activity. The song was very good and I still have it stuck in my head! We also learned about some of the characters we will see during Carnaval, like marimondas and other typical costumes. In technical training, we learned about assessment and co-teaching. After class, I explored a new mall, Americano, with 2 other volunteers.

- Wednesday – This morning, we had practicum and my partner and I helped students listen to and translate 2 songs, Change your Life and Imagine. In Spanish, we learned about travelling in Colombia and I did my 3 Zones dinámica, which seemed to go quite well.

- Thursday – We were at the office today and started with an, as usual, awesome resiliency session on coping skills and defining “success” in Peace Corps service. Success in Peace Corps comes in little things. As one person, you may not be able to change the world, but you can make a difference in someone’s life. We also talked about Peace Corps policies and budgeting, the latter of which was particularly useful, since most of us weren’t sure exactly what the money they’ve been giving us is for.

- Friday – Today was the last workday for one of the most awesome people in the Peace Corps office. Of course, he needs to go back to Central America and his Peace Corps country and he was just here temporarily, but no one wants him to leave. He’s a wonderful guy who’s open to anything and has a great sense of humor. I hope he has an amazing time kayaking through the Amazon in search of pink dolphins before he heads home. Aside from that, we continued to learn travel words in Spanish and learned about teaching morphology and phonology, as well as vocabulary in technical training.

- Saturday – The short version of today is that my host sister and her husband came over and we visited for a while. They’re both wonderful and, if it’s what she wants, my sister is going to make a wonderful mother someday.

- If you are having trouble finding fiber supplements, bran cereal is a good substitution. Unfortunately, bran cereal is very expensive here, but fortunately, granola is not and frequently contains a lot of dietary fiber. Consider switching from cereal to granola, especially when you are not feeling well.

- For being relatively cheap, Popsy ice cream is actually quite good. I highly recommend chocolate belga, which, right now, is definitely my favorite flavor.

- Unlike in some other Latin American countries, ice cream made with milk is quite common here, though you can still find your favorite fruit flavors made with water, as well.

- I may have mentioned this already, but no one travels when it’s raining because, about 2 minutes after the beginning of anything more than a sprinkle, there will be 1-foot-high water covering many of the streets and serious arroyos in some parts of the city. That means that arroyos and rain are also a perfectly acceptable excuse to be late to just about anything.

- Power outs and problems with electricity are relatively common, so be sure to bring a surge protector. For those who use Macs, the white box on your charger that plugs into the wall is not a surge protector, so you will still need to bring one.

- Make sure your computer and other things are insured for your entire trip. A friend of mine had his computer break 3 days after his Apple Care expired. If you don’t have insurance for your stuff already, clements.com has a nice plan for Peace Corps volunteers.

- Único is probably the best place to buy relatively cheap, but still quality, clothing. However, Farabella also has really good sales and some of the supermarkets also sell good clothing.

- I think the main supermarkets in Barranquilla are Olímpica, Éxito, Jumbo, and Carulla. Carulla and Jumbo seem to be more expensive than Olímpica and Éxito, but I’m still working on putting them in order.

- Submarinos are Twinkie-like cakes filled with different creams and are relatively good if you like Twinkies (or, like me, can’t remember the last time you had Twinkies or if you’ve ever had them, but still like sweet things).

- Colombina hard candies are good, but go with the coffee ones unless you really like banana. The fruit ones had 4 flavors, but after being in the bag together, they now have just one – banana.

- Colombina cookies are not very good.

- Colombina chocolate, however, is delicious, especially ChocoBreaks…like the ones filled with arequipe.

- Technically, you’re supposed to be the only one in your family with a key to your room. Trust me, you are not the only one in your family with a key to your room. Someone has a spare somewhere, which actually does come in handy when you accidentally lock yourself out of your room.