¡Feliz Semana Santa!

March 29 – April 4

     ¡Feliz Semana Santa! On Sunday, we celebrated Domingo de Ramos by gathering in Parque Central with our palms and branches before processing to the church, which was extremely full. I saw my former host mom and we hugged and chatted a moment before heading into the church, where we listened to the story of the Passion. Despite the sadness of that reading, this is probably the happiest holiday I’ve been a part of since el Día de las Velas in December!

     Holy Thursday Mass was beautiful and the church was decorated with candles and red flowers everywhere. We finished with a procession around the church, singing the same song in Latin that we sing at home at my church in the US. We stayed with Him a while after Mass and continued to pray in anticipation of Good Friday, which is the most “celebrated” holiday here. The service Friday was beautiful, too, though sad, of course. People went up to the front one by one to adore the cross and kiss Jesus’ knees or feet and looked forward to His Resurrection.

     Holy Saturday, I went to Easter Vigil, which was beyond amazing! Everyone had a hard time keeping their candles lit with the wind, but we listened and sang and clapped and just felt excited for Jesus’ return to life. Our church bells rang alongside bells from churches all over the city and must have rung for 5 minutes straight, while we kept singing our hearts out. “¡Qué viva Cristo! ¡Qué viva el Rey!”

- The church was really full this week, so at least for Semana Santa, try to get to church early if you plan to go to Mass (and even if you’re not religious, I recommend going to some of the services just for the cultural experience).

- Unlike in the US (for the most part), Latin culture celebrates both happy and sad holidays. Americans party mostly for happy things like Jesus’ birth and Resurrection, while here, the focus may be more on Good Friday. There are other examples like this, too, like days celebrating battles that were lost, but show the strength of those fighting, or celebrations of the lives of loved ones who have passed on, and other things like that.

- Peace Corps service is, obviously, a good time to try new things. You’re having new experiences every day anyway, so why not try personal stuff you’ve never done, too? This could be something big, like going on a trip, or just a personal goal. I’m not much into exercise just for the sake of exercise, but I went on a run by choice for the first time ever this week and I’m looking forward to seeing how long I can keep it up.

- Being part of a family is wonderful aspect of service here because you get to experience the culture from within and participate in whatever is going on in your host family members’ lives. This includes ups, like births, marriages, and visits from far-away family members, but also downs, like illnesses and deaths. Please pray for my family – my mom’s brother passed away this week…que en paz descanse.

- This seems like such an inconsequential story, but even little things matter so much here, that I thought I’d share it anyway. On the way home from the grocery store, I saw a man half-kneeling, massaging his dog’s ears. The dog looked so happy and that made me happy, too, since dogs are usually considered guard animals here and it’s nice to see one treated with so much affection.

- During Mass on Holy Thursday, the priest included in his Homily a quote from teachers that is truly the story of education here. Translated roughly, it was, “If at the end of the school day, you do not have a backache and headache, and feel exhausted and mistreated, that day you did nothing.”

- “Si no sabes amar, no sabes perdonar, tú necesitas amor.”

- I’m not usually one for giving money to people on streets, but I do give them food sometimes. There’s a young man who always sits outside the Olímpica, so occasionally, I buy him food while I’m inside. There are so many people in the street, so I figure this is a good way to make sure someone gets what they really need, like food.

- For el Día de las Velas and Easter Vigil, you’ll need a candle and you’ll need to bring your own, just so you know. Or, you can do what I did and just try to help everyone else keep theirs lit!

Reconnect

March 22 – March 28

     On Sunday, I came with Caitlin to our Camp GLOW meeting in Barranquilla. The meeting went well and I’m very excited for everything we’ll be doing at and preparing for camp!

     I stayed with one of the volunteers in Puerto Colombia on Sunday and Monday night and, on Tuesday, I moved into Hotel Puerto Colombia for Reconnect. Wednesday’s training was on medical and security updates, co-planning, and CII-6 volunteer experiences, which were probably the most interesting and useful. Thursday’s training was about technology and working with counterparts. And Friday, we talked about individual projects and said, “Que Dios les bendiga”, to Viviana and Olga – we’ll miss them here and we wish them the best as they begin this new chapter of their lives. Saturday, the Samarios returned home rested and motivated to get back to work.

- There’s a Middle Eastern restaurant down the street from the Berlinas in Barranquilla called Terraza Libanesa. The food is wonderful and I highly recommend it, especially if you want to stay near Berlinas. (I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the Berlinas van service is the only way volunteers are permitted to travel between cities on the Coast, so most everyone knows where the Berlinas is in each city.)

- Good places to eat in Puerto Colombia include an Italian restaurant about a block from the hotel and an Arabic/Greek restaurant over the bridge and heading out of town (still walking distance from the hotel as long as you go in a group). If you like pizza or fried chicken, there’s a place that sells both at the end of the block and another sit-down pizza place near the Italian restaurant. You kind of have to check to see what’s open and just be flexible.

- During PST, you’ll write a letter to your future self, talking about who you are, what you’re doing, and questions you have. You’ll respond to that letter at Reconnect and to both letters at COS. Think about what you want to write because the letters act as an amazing record of how much you and your life have changed throughout service.

- We got new smartphones at training…yup…we got smartphones at training. They’re really neat and some volunteers who don’t have access to Internet will now. Hopefully, we can just not get them stolen and we’ll be great.

- Trainings are, in many ways, like PST all over again. Some people are excited for a break and others don’t really want to go at first, but it’s always amazing to see everyone again. From walking together on the pier seeing the beauty of the stars and power of the ocean to ending training with our hands-in-the-middle, “1, 2, 3, PCC!” to nights just hanging out talking on the hotel’s roof, it seems like being apart really just brings you closer together.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

March 15 – March 21

     Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Éirinn go Brách! Celebrating on Tuesday was so much fun, even though it was, of course, nothing like in the United States. I wore green and a makeshift shamrock necklace to school, which brought some questions, explanations, and cultural exploration. After school, we had a very small Peace Corps potluck with great friends, way too much food, and just a whole lot of potatoes.

     One of the first grade teachers had the genius idea to label the whole school in English, which I think is great. It’s such a short, easy project, too – I really hope we can make it happen!

I went to a teacher training on Friday and helped with curriculum design on Saturday. I learned about initiatives like Todos a aprender, task-based learning, and the EGRA and EGMA tests that we’ll be using for reading and math.

     That evening, I went to Stations of the Cross, which was led by children and teens in the church’s youth groups. The youngest, a little boy, played Jesus and carried around a cross that was just barely small and light enough for him to hold on his back through the stations. I was excited, too, that I was able to understand the children who read even better than I understood the adults, making walking from station to station even more beautiful.

- Peace Corps Goal 2 is to share American culture with your host culture – in my case, with Colombians. Saint Patrick’s Day was an excellent opportunity to do that, especially since I am of primarily Irish decent. Even just wearing green and a makeshift shamrock necklace made great conversation starters and talking about your own culture is fun and eye opening. I got to explain what tréboles (shamrocks) have to do with St. Patrick’s Day and tell the Trinity story in very slow, grammatically mediocre Spanish, so I was pretty proud of that, too.

- You will likely be invited to a lot of teacher meetings and trainings. Unless someone tells you that you don’t need to be there, try to go. You’ll definitely learn something at the trainings and you never know what sort of important news (like academic calendar changes) you’ll hear at meetings.