Camp GLOW

June 28 – July 4

     Yay, camp! This week was Peace Corps Colombia’s Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) 2015. We had an amazing week and watching our campers’ confidence in themselves increase over just these few days has been an amazing experience. I was a co-counselor for the Blue Diamonds group and was able to lead discussions on community service and professional development. We had other charlas on leadership, self-esteem, gender, general health, and sexual health and rights, too. We went on a nature walk, swam at Pozo Azul, and explored La Victoria, the coffee finca up the road. We had large group games, morning yoga and zumba, discussion time with a panel of successful women professionals, a talent show, and of course, a beautiful campfire. Campers were already leaders when they came, and they left with the skills and confidence to use their talents to start projects in their communities. What a truly beautiful experience…

- GLOW was amazing. And there are GLOW, HERO, and BRO camps, as well as others, at Peace Corps posts all over the world. Wherever you are, apply and go, if you can. It’s an experience you’ll never forget.

- Happy USA Independence Day! Though I honestly spent most of the day sleeping after coming home exhausted from Camp GLOW, I was happy to think (and dream) about all the red, white, and blue, fireworks, patriotic music, and happy, outdoor celebrations going on at home. Happy Birthday, America!

- Typical Colombian parties involve sharing food, dancing, drinking, and sitting in a circle outside in plastic chairs, while listening to loud music and conversing when the music isn’t too loud. The plastic chairs are very important and are practically a symbol of Colombian culture. I thought we used them a lot in the US, but I clearly had no idea how much they could be used. Also, the host usually serves the food to guests, rather than leaving it out for people to take, like we do. You can certainly say, “yes,” when someone offers you alcohol, but if you say, “yes,” once, be prepared to be gently pushed to continue saying, “yes,” quite a few more times! I went to a volunteer’s birthday party on Saturday and was excited to see a few people from Camp GLOW, as well as other volunteers and the birthday girl’s Colombian friends and host family. Parties often go from 2000 to 0500, but I just stayed for a little while, still quite tired from an awesome week at camp.

Love

June 21 – June 27

     This was a very important week in the United States and June 26, 2015, will likely go down in history. Rarely do I comment on US news here, and I won’t really comment this time, either, except to say that, on Friday, the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. National landmarks were lit with rainbow lights and people celebrated across the country. Then, on Saturday, two of my friends back home were married. And, of course, June 21, was Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! Regardless of anyone’s political views, what a beautiful week this has been for love.

- Sometimes, buses or taxis or motorcycles just stop running. That usually means there’s some sort of transportation strike. Luckily, multiple types of transportation don’t usually strike at the same time, so you’ll almost always have a way to get places. Monday, there was a bus strike (or, at least, I assume so, since there were no buses running), so I walked to school – it was a lovely walk and the streets weren’t as busy as usual, so that was nice, too.

- I watched a movie called, The Next Three Days, which was awesome and extremely suspenseful. It was filmed mostly in Pittsburgh, the city closest to where I live in the United States. Without giving away the plotline, toward the end of the movie, the family whose perspective we followed fled to Venezuela, which I thought looked a lot like the Coast of Colombia. I watched the credits and was thrilled to learn that they were actually in Cartagena and Taganga, Colombia. Pittsburgh and the Colombian Caribbean Coast – my home and my new home. What an awesome coincidence.

- Forms, forms, so many forms. I filled out my vacation request form for Christmas and did my VRF this week. Try to have forms, especially vacation forms, filled out as far in advance as possible, especially since you need to have your time approved before you buy plane tickets!

- “Es amor, es amor, es amor, es amor, es amor.” ~ Somos Dos, Bomba Estéreo

¡Feliz Día del Estudiante!

June 14 – June 20

     My goodness, there are a lot of holidays here! On Wednesday, we celebrated Students’ Day. Students wrote cards to each other with encouraging messages and, at the end of the day, a magician came to perform for everyone in primary school. Following the show, we had a dance off among the students and, because we are in Colombia, it was amazing to see how many of them really know how to move!

     Aside from that, it’s neat to see how people celebrate soccer here like we celebrate football in the United States. Several times, I’ve seen people outside someone’s house, sitting around a TV in plastic chairs, all wearing tricolor (yellow, blue, and red – Colombian flag colors), and cheering on Colombia’s national soccer team. I believe the Copa América is going on right now and the game-watching parties and cheering I can hear sometimes from my window remind me of the Super Bowl.

- I’m very excited to say that I just got my MUSA dress and it fits great! A volunteer in one of the pueblos is helping a co-operative of women improve advertising for their sewing business, MUSA. He asked if any of the volunteers in our group wanted a dress made and, excited to support another volunteer’s project, I said, “yes.” I found soft, green fabric and a dress I wanted to have copied and gave the volunteer those things plus a note thanking the women for their work. They finished quickly and now I have a very inexpensive, beautiful handmade dress.

- Happy Birthdays and Happy Father’s Day to my US family! I hope you’re having a wonderful time celebrating June!

- We had another Camp GLOW meeting in Puerto Colombia. Camp is coming up fast and I’m so excited for all the things I’ll be helping with!

Resources

June 7 – June 13

     On Tuesday of this week, the mayor came to Sede 1 to present us with several hundred new tablets for the school. The ceremony was a big deal and lots of families, students, and teachers were present. Government officials and school administrators spoke. Successful athletes from our school shook hands with the mayor and, after the ceremony, we celebrated the Colombian way, with lots of music! Students from our school performed traditional dances (cumbia) and singers from the community had everyone dancing to their urban songs and raps. My school appears to have a lot of wonderful technological resources. I hope we have a chance to incorporate them into our teaching…

- If you’ve never tried pitahaya (dragonfruit), you definitely should. You just cut off the ends of the yellow outside, cut down the middle, and scoop out the translucent fruit with the black seeds. It’s a beautiful and delicious fruit. It’s also great if your digestive system isn’t working so well, which my host family reminds me every time I bring home a pitahaya from the farmer’s market. “No, Mom, I’m fine – I just like dragonfruit.”

- If you have the opportunity, try to help other volunteers with their projects. I helped the volunteer at the school near my house work at his granja on Saturday and had so much fun! I spent most of the time filling bags with sawdust/rice compost, while answering American culture questions students asked me. Yay, Goal 2!

- Peace Corps Colombia has a number of committees volunteers can join, including ones for Gender in Development, Diversity, and Health and Environment. I’m on the Gender in Development committee, which is the one that helps with camps like Camps GLOW and HERO, and all of the committees work on different project and help make service more productive and interesting by bringing together a group of people interested in the same types of projects. So, if you have the time (and trust me, you will), consider joining a committee.

Painting in Monte Cristo

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 1^st through 3^rd 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!

1st Site Visit

May 24 – May 30

     Happy Pentecost! Sunday of this week was a special religious day for those who speak multiple languages, since that’s the day Catholics celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, which allowed them to speak the Word of God in many different languages. The celebration here, like most places, was a quiet one, but knowing I’m now one of those people who can communicate in more than one linguistic culture was exciting and made me feel blessed.

     Thursday was my first site visit, which means that someone from the Peace Corps office came to see how my projects are going and how life is in my site. We started at school and met with my principal, as well as several teachers, so he could re-explain what my job is and what I can do as a Peace Corps volunteer. I definitely appreciated his ability to explain my purpose without committing me to a million more things, while still saying that I could do more than what I’m currently doing for them. We went to Vital, a vegetarian restaurant in town, for lunch, and then stopped by Wiwa Tour to have roughly the same conversation, but more informally. Now, I’m excited for everything and I hope I’ll get more projects going soon.

- Hummus: In a food processor (or bowl, if you’re going to mash it), combine cooked chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper, all to taste. Blend, adding water until your hummus reaches a consistency you like. You can also add roasted red pepper or paprika or anything else you like.

- Costeños Saludables is a Facebook page and a blog run by a Peace Corps volunteer who lives on the Coast of Colombia. She has lots of amazing recipes that use locally available ingredients. Some of those recipes include limonada de coco ice cream, chocolate pancakes, and chewy chocolate coco cookies. The link to her blog is this: https://costenossaludables.wordpress.com .

- Remember how I mentioned personal goals earlier? Well, this week, for the first time ever, I jogged a mile without stopping to walk or take a break. That’s such a little accomplishment compared to my friends who run six miles every day, but it’s a big deal for me. Like with everything in Peace Corps, little successes make the biggest difference.

- While we’re talking about little happy moments, this week was full of them. We have a new teacher in second grade and she seems nice and very capable. A stranger on the street said, “Dios te bendiga”, to me as we passed. One of my teaching counterparts introduced me to a potential counterpart for environmental projects. And the person who came from the office for my site visit said the restaurant we went to for lunch had some of the best vegetarian food he’d eaten.

- Green bean fries: Wash and trim as many green beans as you’re going to use. Set up your breading stations in three bowls. Put ½ cup flour, salt, and pepper in the first bowl. Put 2 eggs in the second bowl. Put 1½ cups bread crumbs, onion or garlic powder, and cayenne or red pepper flakes in the third bowl. Roll each green bean through bowls 1 through 3 and place on a buttered sheet. Bake at 220 degrees C or 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.

- Garlic dipping sauce for green bean fries: Combine ¼ cup light mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese, or Greek yogurt with chopped, roasted garlic, olive oil, mustard, salt, and pepper.

In-Service Technical Training

May 17 – May 23

     I went to school on Monday only to find out there was no school because Monday was a festivo, which was fine with me, since I knew I’d be spending the rest of the week at training, anyway. Training was informative and a nice way to take a break from Colombian culture and being “on” all the time, while introducing our school counterparts to our “American with a dash of Colombian” culture. We talked about Peace Corps’ objectives and how to fix problems at our schools through communities of practice, as well as 21^st century skills (considered important for all students to be successful in work and life in the modern day), and how to teach using centers. We had some time to plan our own projects, too, which was productive – even if the project my counterpart and I planned doesn’t actually happen, at least she’ll have some new ideas for teaching “school” words in English for the future. The last day, we went over project-based learning and classroom management. The counterparts were done then and the volunteers stayed to discuss changes to our travel policy, which recently got a bit stricter and more confusing. And of course, the best part was just visiting and hanging out together – I’m so glad I got to see everyone and they’re all doing well.

- My Colombian church’s patron saint is María Auxiliadora, who is apparently a very common patron of churches around here. We celebrated her feast day on Saturday starting at 0500 with a procession, a Rosary, and Mass.

- Watching our counterparts’ reactions to the appearances and, especially, skin tones and ethnicities of some of our volunteers was fascinating and wonderful, knowing that we were expanding their idea of what an American looks like. Many of the counterparts seemed to come with the idea that Americans were White with different colors of hair and eyes. But our volunteers are of many backgrounds and some are even native Spanish speakers. My counterpart even whispered to me asking if one of our volunteers (who is bilingual and of Mexican heritage) was the principal of her school because she was so well spoken in Spanish. Peace Corps’ Goal 2 is to bring American culture to the people we serve, so it made me feel good to know that, just by existing, we’re expanding our counterparts’ ideas about who we are as a country and culture