Last Post of the Year!!

Oh man I'm so bad at keeping this up! Since last time I wrote I have officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer!! It doesn't feel a whole lot different but the ceremony was beautiful and we got to eat some delicious cake. The ceremony was pretty long and consisted of various speeches from the governor of the department of Atlantico, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, Michael McKinley; the Peace Corps chief of staff, Stacey Rhodes; and a few volunteers from the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers back in 1961. It was great to see all the support for our work here. The staff did a great job of making it a special event for us. The ceremony was also a celebration of the 50 years of Peace Corps service worldwide. To commemorate it, the Peace Corps produced a short film for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival called "Hijos de Kennedy" that takes a look back of how the Peace Corps was started in Colombia -- one of the first countries to receive volunteers. It was a beautifully made documentary that almost brought me to tears. I loved being able to see the history involved in the Peace Corps; it feels great to be a part of something with such historic significance and that I am so passionate about.


Me and my host family at the reception

Yummy cake with some fellow volunteers, Julie and Mike
Aside from that things have been very laid back. We have had a two week "vacation" or as the Peace Corps likes to call it "a split in training" or "community diagnostic"…call it what you want but it's been a vacation and I couldn't appreciate it more. Lots of rest, lots of beach, lots of reading, and a whole lot of NOTHING. Spending the holidays away from my friends and family has been hard but I am so thankful for all the other volunteers who make it a little bit easier. In Colombia they celebrate Christmas on the 24th with a big dinner, loud music, and drinking, as usual, and opening gifts at midnight. We got all dressed up and had a fabulous little celebration and my family gave me a great Colombian bag that I've been talking about, typical from the region of Guajira and a pretty bangle made of palm leaves. B-E-A-UTIFUL. I certainly was not expecting to receive any gifts from them and thought it was so nice of them to include me in their celebration. My mom sent me a package of gifts for my host family and thanks to the enigmatic postal system, it's been trapped in customs for the past 3 weeks. But who doesn't love receiving gifts at all times of the year anyway?! Hope they arrive sometime soon.

On Christmas day my family was kind enough to let me invite all the volunteers to our house for a Christmas potluck dinner. Since the 25th is like any other day here in Colombia it was so nice to have all us gringos together for some good American food and company.

In other news, Junior de Barranquilla, the local soccer team won the national championship. The celebration that followed their win looked more like the celebration of a world cup win or the newly gained independence of a country. It was wild! We had gone to a bar by my house to watch the game and when they won the streets went crazy. Everyone who had a beer began to throw anything that was in the bottle into the air, drenching anyone surrounding them. Also, bags of flour appears out of no where and people started throwing that in the air too. Dancing in the street, jumping on top of buses, climbing street lights, and an endless caravan of honking cars followed. We then went to Calle 84, which is where most of the night life is and watch an even wilder celebration. After running around in the street and jumping for a couple hours, we were tired and ready to go home. I found out the next day that my host siblings stayed out until 4 in the morning. Colombians have boundless energy when it comes to partying, I have found.


JUNIOORRRRR


I'm off tomorrow to Parque Tayrona, a national park on the coast right outside of Santa Marta, to celebrate New Years Eve. I'm so excited to spend a weekend on the beach with some of the girls in our group. I'm going to go ahead and set a resolution to update my blog more often this coming year. Happy New Year everyone!! I hope that the New Year brings you many blessings, health, and happiness! Until next year!!

Santa Marta Rocks

This is delayed but I went to visit my site in Santa Marta last week and absolutely loved it! I was able to visit a few beaches in the area and have already found one that I'm particularly fond of. Taganga is a fishing village outside of Santa Marta that has some wonderful little beaches you can hike to and no shortage of foreigners. Random aside: When I was in Taganga, a local man giving massages on the beach was wearing a Cycles D'Oro (a cycling store in Greensboro) biking jersey -- what a small world! When I asked where he got it, he told me that an English teacher had given it to him. I thought that was so wild. Greensboro reppin' hard in Colombia.


Taganga from the highway

Hike down to the beach


My English teaching counterparts in the library at Liceo Samario
Anyway, my school, Institucion Educativa Distrital Liceo Samario, is in a great location, only about 15 blocks from the water, and seems to be wonderfully ran by an amazing group of teachers and administrators. The school itself it in a fairly nice neighborhood but the students come from surrounding barrios that are not as well off. The director of my school seems to be a great leader who is very organized and motivated. The same goes for my counterpart who is so enthusiastic. I was welcomed to my school with an assembly of all the teachers -- about 100 of them. I did not except such a warm welcome; they presented me with a basket of fruit, had me give a speech on the spot, and then blessed me with a very long prayer. It was great to feel so welcome, especially since a lot of our training is focused on how to get schools on board with what we plan to do in terms of co-teaching. It seems as though I won't have to do much convincing. All the English teachers expressed how excited they were to have my help and the director kept asking me what projects I had in mind to help the school outside of the English department. We're encouraged to spend at least 6 weeks in observation to survey out site's needs so I tried to explain to her that while I had a lot of ideas of projects I would be interested in developing, I would need some time before I could jump in head first. I hope they understand because I think that if it were up to them I'd jump right into work on day one!

Tomorrow we're being sworn in as volunteers! I'm so excited for the ceremony and finally having the liberty to go to the beach without permission. Just kidding, there are so many other aspects of being a volunteer that I look forward to. Mostly, I'm just happy that I'm officially becoming a member of the Peace Corps and am getting closer to starting the work we've been preparing for. I have to wake up early tomorrow to get really for the ceremony so I'm going to cut this post short. I'll certainly post another update by the end of the week detailing our swearing in!

En Barranquilla No Me Quedo

I found out on Thanksgiving Day that I will be spending the next two years here in SANTA MARTA! I feel so lucky, and it certainly gave me a lot to be thankful for on such a wonderful day. In addition to finding out our posts, we celebrated with a traditional Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey, stuffing, "American Pie" as the grocery store put it, and plenty of veggies. Although I was far from home and missing our annual Thanksgiving celebration (Puerto Rican-style) it felt great to be with the whole Peace Corps family to give thanks for all our blessings.


Touring the Metropolitan Stadium in Barranquilla


Costal slang wall at the Caribbean Museum


Tomorrow, I'm traveling to Santa Marta to visit my school and to get to know my counterparts. It'll be my first time outside of Barranquilla and I'm really excited to get to see more of the coast. Classes have already let out for Christmas break, but the teachers are still working, finishing up administrative tasks before they take off for vacation as well. I met my main counterpart, Alfredo, today and he is delightful. His English is perfect, and he seems to have a great outlook on teaching. I've already written a little bit about Santa Marta but in case you missed it, it's beautiful. Santa Marta is known for it's gorgeous beaches surrounded by a mountain range called Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It's the world's highest coastal mountain range. There are a number of national parks surrounding the area that provide excellent opportunities to hike, climb, dive, and bird watch. I can't express how happy I am that I get to call such a paradise home for the next two years. Hopefully I can take some pics of my own soon to add to this bunch.


Santa Marta


The experience of a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia is very different to the experiences of most other volunteers around the world. Due to the fact that we are just starting up and security concerns, Peace Corps currently only operates in three cities along the Caribbean coast: Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta. We work and live in urban areas. This means, water, electricity, washing machines, fridges, and most of the "luxuries" you would find in a house in the United States. This differs greatly from the rural experience that many Peace Corps volunteers have. Barranquilla is a city that has Zara, fancy clubs, trendy restaurants and Carrefour, none of which we can afford. And this is exactly what will make our experience challenging. While we are living in a place where we could replicate lives similar to ours at home, our humble living allowance prevents us from doing so. I've heard various staff refer to it as "urban temptation" and boy is it tempting. But I must stay, I don't mind having running water and wifi one bit.

On a slightly different note, I recently discovered the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy and it is officially on top of my list of places to visit in Colombia. Who's coming with me?


Sierra Nevada del Cocuy

Arroyo Peligroso

This past weekend in Barranquilla was awesome. If it was any indication as to what the next two years here will be like then I'm very happy. I made it to "el centro" on Saturday for the first time, which is where all the markets are, selling everything from meet and fish to radios and batteries. I was in awe of all the fruit and vegetable stands and how cheap they all were. You can get 10 bananas for 1000 pesos, which is roughly 50 cents. You'll probably find me there every weekend buying my fill fruits and veggies for the rest of the time I'm in Barranquilla. Now would probably be a good time to introduce to you the wondrous "arroyos" that occur here. When it rains in Barranquilla there are no storm sewers for the rainwater to drain into. Instead, the rainwater rushes down the streets creating river-like rapids called arroyos, which completely paralyze the city. I'm yet to see a really big one but I've seen pictures of arroyos that wash away cars and busses, and they say if you get caught in one you'll wash straight to the Rio Magdalena to die…in other words, if it's raining and you approach an arroyo, you best stay put and wait the storm out. I guess right before we arrived at el centro it had rained because when we got there there were still some small arroyos. As they taper off, the water is still a few inches deep, safe to cross, but nasty. In order to cross the street without having to step in the icky water, some clever folks have made a business out of placing wooden steps in the street that you can use to cross for a nominal fee. This really amused me, and kept me from fearing I would contract giardia from the dirty water.

We had planned on going to a music festival Saturday afternoon but it was so hot that standing in the sun listening to blasting reggaeton was not on top of my list. On Saturday night we went to a culture landmark in Barranquilla, if you will. "La Troja" is a salsa club in town where people GET. DOWN. People I spoke to about it had talked it up, telling us how it was the best place to learn to dance salsa quickly. I had envisioned a place reminiscent of a scene out of West Side Story; dark, red lights, live music, the works. No. La Troja is nothing more than a large open corner tienda with an awning, tons of people dancing in between the tables and a row of street vendors selling "mondongo" (read: cow intestine) across the street ready to receive late night revelers. It was so much fun and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The place was so crowded that the masses spilled onto the street, so it essentially became a giant street party with lots of Aguila, salsa music and dancing. After begging the street vendors to sell me a plate of potatoes WITHOUT the mondongo with no success, we went to another salsa club call "Mi Barrio" down the street and danced our little hearts out until 4am.

Carlos, the iguana

A picture of an arroyo in Barranquilla I got off google images

A few member of our group at La Troja

Prado Mar

On Sunday we got a super late start but managed to make it to the beach by around 3pm. We went to a beach called Prado Mar, about 30 minutes outside of Barranquilla. I thought it was perfect. Such a wonderful escape from the crazy city and perfect place to catch some rays. The beach is unlike any I've ever been to. It was lined with cabanas made of palm leaves where you can grab beer or hang out in the chairs. It was so nice to wind down after a long week of training (and night of salsa). I definitely want to try and make it out every weekend as long as I'm in Barranquilla. There are 5 or 6 beaches along the coast that are pretty close so I look forward to exploring all the different ones and finding my favorite.

This week we're doing our field practicum, where we spend all day observing and planning lessons with teachers and then teach a few lessons by the end of the week. Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

We're teaching English...for Livelihood

Since last time I wrote training has gotten a lot more interesting. We've started getting out of the classroom and visiting schools. It's been great to break up the monotony of sitting in one classroom all day at the Centro Cultural Colombo Americano, where the most exciting thing we experience all day are iguana sitings. Actually, I really like seeing the iguanas. I don't think I'll ever get bored of that.

Last week was Bilingualism Week here in Barranquilla and we visited a couple schools for a cultural exchange. Maybe I should start by giving you some background as to why Peace Corps is here in Colombia. The former President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, passed a law called "Plan Nacional de Biliguismo", which sets the goal of converting all public schools in Colombia to be fully bilingual in instruction by 2019. Considering that the vast majority of English teachers struggle with English themselves, this is an ambitious goal. Nevertheless, the fact that Colombia recognizes the need to teach its youth the global language is a step in the right direction. By the request of the Colombian government, Peace Corps has returned after a 20 year absence to help with this initiative. All the volunteers in Colombia, including myself, are "TEL" (Teaching English for Livelihood) volunteers and will train teachers in public schools in lesson planning, TEFL techniques, and helping them with their language skills as well. The Department of Education put on its 3rd (??) Bilingualism Week to promote bilingualism and 'reward' schools that were taking steps towards bilingual education. A few schools were selected to receive volunteers and take part in a cultural exchange. We prepared a short presentation, answered questions, and they showed us typical Colombian dances, food, and told us all about their famous carnival. For those of you who don't know, Barranquilla's carnival is considered the best carnival in the world after Rio's, of course. It was an amazing experience and I was so happy to finally be able to visit a school and witness the steps being taken to improving foreign language instruction in Colombia.


"Girls dancing cumbia at Javier Sanchez"

"Halls at Pies Descalzos"

"Shakira mural. Note: all the lip stick marks on her neck."
This week all the volunteers were paired up with a response volunteer so we could shadow them for a day and get a taste of what out lives will be like for the next two years. Volunteers are placed in Cartagena, Santa Marta and here in Barranquilla. Most everyone wants to be placed in Santa Marta with its pristine beaches or Cartagena, known for it's romantic colonial Spanish town. Barranquilla is an industrial port, not very attractive, and far from the beach. We played a fun little game similar to deal or no deal to reveal where we'd be sent this week (except for there was no deal to be made…). I was lucky enough to be chosen to… stay here in BARRANQUILLA! At first I was really disappointed, but so far it's been great. I was assigned to Pies Descalzos, which is a public school built by Shakira and it is incredible. It's a beautiful school located in La Playa, which is a town outside of Barranquilla that is very poor. It's amazing to see such a state of the art facility with so many resources built for children who would have otherwise been given very little opportunity. I'm glad I was able to stay in Barranquilla because I'm getting over a cold and was able to acquaint myself more with the city. I feel like I have a better lay of the land and was able to explore the crazy bus system. I also found out from one of the response volunteers here in BAQ that there are indoor pools here in Barranquilla -- something my host family insisted did not exist -- so that pretty much made my week.

Pretty excited for the weekend because we are going to a music festival (from what I understand) and then heading to a salsa club. Pray I don't make a fool of myself like I did last time. At least I'll have other gringos on hand to share the humiliation with this time around.

Miss you!

Carla

Beware of the Iguana Puppies

So I'm about 2 weeks in here in Colombia…a cool 114 left to go! Training is in full force and it's pretty intense. We start the day with 4 hours of Spanish and then continue after lunch with another 4 hours of project specific training, sprinkled with a few tips on how not to get killed or die of dysentery. Perhaps the hardest time of the day is right after lunch when I fight with all my might to stay awake -- usually with limited success -- until I manage to catch a second wind. Our lunches are catered and I still get excited about not having to eat rice for a meal without having someone ask me why I won't eat it. The diet here is unbalanced to put it lightly. It's not uncommon to be served a meal with rice, pasta, plantains, and crackers all on one plate. I almost died of diabetic shock the first time I witnessed this. However, our host families have been kind enough to cook us a sufficient amount of veggies and scale back on the grain.

Speaking of host families, mine is awesome! I have a host mother and father, two twin 19 year old sisters, a 23 year old brother, and a 25 year old sister. Also living in the house are 7 university students renting rooms because our house is really close to a few of the universities in Barranquilla. A woman who helps around the house and her 7 year old daughter, also named Karla, round out the bunch. There isn't a dull moment. There's always someone to talk to between family members, friends, and neighbors that are visiting. My room is great. I have a big double bed, a fan AND air conditioning (not many other volunteers can say the same), a closet, a full length mirror and two red walls. OW OW! On Saturday, Linda and Lupita, celebrated their 19th birthday at a club called Soho, modeled after 'clubs in new york' complete with servers dressed as 'cab drivers' with yellow blazers. I was able to fully humiliate myself on the dance floor trying to keep up with their salsa moves. Boy can Colombians dance! I've got a ways to go but I'm determined to be able to keep up with these dancing machines by the end of my two years here. I'll have to dedicate a whole post to the dancing here because it truly is a spectacle. Stay tuned.

I'm slowly working up the courage to bring out my camera. I failed to bring it to a part of town called Las Flores, where all the shacks sell fresh fish and hack at them with machetes to sell and was kicking myself for not doing so the entire time. In Las Flores they also sell shark oil. When I asked what it was for, my host mother said it was for 'la gripe'. Let's just say I won't be using shark oil to quell any flu symptoms any time soon. But I really need to man up with my camera because I'm missing some key photo ops on our morning bus rides and of places my family takes me, like the fish market. If someone tries to steal it, I'll just beg them to please leave me my memory card. That'll totally work, right?

I'll leave you with a 'Jazz Chant' that a couple volunteers wrote today during one of our training sessions that I feel adequately sums up our past few weeks here. Don't remember who exactly it was but the credit goes to them. One of our trainee managers has a fabulous Colombian accent that I could listen to for hours. The other day, when trying to warn us of iguanas pooping on our heads from our trees he mistakenly told us to 'beware of the puppies that iguanas drop on your head'. Teehee. We had a good laugh with that one. Anyway, here you go:

"Danny, Oscar, Allegra, Bill
Olga, Eder are all so chill.
Frank tells us how not to die
Our LCF's teach us how to say "Hay!"
We throw out toilet paper in the trash
We pinch our pesos cause we gots no cash.
When we eat lunch we fight off bees
And dodge iguana puppies falling from the trees.
Eat more rice, rice is nice!
Rice is nice so eat more rice!"

I packed too much.

HOLA desde Colombia!!

For those of you who may not know, after 14 months of waiting, I'm FINALLY living in Barranquilla, Colombia, training to be a Peace Corps volunteer. I'm so excited to be here and look forward to keeping you all up to date on my experience here in Colombia.

Up to this point there really isn't much to report. We've been in training sessions from 8am until 5pm every day and we're slowly getting into the rhythm of life in Colombia. All the other trainees are great; we're an entertaining group and I'm so impressed with everyone's background. I know I'll learn a lot from every one of them. Tomorrow we move in with our host families where we'll be living for the next three months during our training. I can't wait to meet them and am really hoping they have children I can play with…or a dog or something.

As most of you could imagine, I had an difficult time sticking to the baggage allowance -- only 2, 40 pound bags!! I ended up bringing 3 bags, two of which weighed 50 pounds each. I really thought that there would be at least one other person who loves shoes as much as I do, but instead I'm the idiot in Colombia lugging around three massive bags, while most of the other volunteers are cruising with their two feather-light packs. WOOPS. At the hotel in Miami, a woman in the elevator took one look at my luggage and asked with disapproving astonishment if I was moving. I told her that I was and that I liked my clothes only to find out half an hour later that she was the Peace Corps employee that would be running our orientation. Yikes. I can't wait to settle into my home stay where I can hide my bags and enjoy all the wonderful things I packed them full with.

So that's all for now! I'll try and whip out the camera these next few days so I can bring this blog to life. Cross your fingers for me in hopes that I have somewhat easy access to the internet at my home stay. Until next time, love you and miss you all!

Carla

ps. Ignore the layout. It's a work in progress.