Today Was a Good Day (In Words)

Five weeks ago in one of my material development sessions with High School English teachers, where topics range from chatting about Friends to chatting about CSI Miami--oh and material development--, I was presented with the idea helping out to plan and judge the 2nd annual English Song Festival.  My initial thought was, “WOW! we are actually going to start planning for an event an entire month in advance!”  I immediately said YES and believe it or not we started planning that day--I am still waiting to wake up from this dream. 

After three weeks of planning we had the names of nine high school participants, two elementary school groups, balloons, american flags, american flag lollypops, a painted backdrop, and three trophies.  So we were more than ready for the event.  However, it wouldn’t be a Peace Corps project if things went exactly as planned.....so the High School teachers brought to my attention that September 7th, the scheduled day of the event, the Colombian national soccer team had a game and thus not all the students would be in school and they were worried that perhaps some of the participants may not show and that the audience attendance would suffer as well.  By the way it is totally acceptable to miss/leave school early to catch the game with no questions asked.  I LOVE this country!  

With this new knowledge we decided to push the date back to the following friday, the 14th.  But to be quite honest now that I have been here for a year I know better than to assume that one thing let alone all things are going to go as planned, so this little change didn’t phase me much.  Additionally, it gave me the opportunity to work on my newly gained appreciation for looking on the bright side--key for all PC volunteers.  So my bright side equated to me getting to watch Colombia beat Uruguay 4-0, hone in on my judging skills--writing numbers on paper, and most importantly practice more with my two elementary school group participants.  By the day of the competition I had no doubt in my mind that my 3rd graders were going to sing the Days of the Week song flawlessly and that my 4th graders were going to present their skit sin errores.

Two days before the English song fest, I was approached to participate in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of a sector of La Boquilla--Now thats more like it, last minute planning.  I never thought that a town as small as La Boquilla could be broken down in sectors.  However, I now know that the 40th anniversary of the sector, 14 de Septiembre, turned 40 on....... September 14th.  The celebration was going to involve food and drink (obviously), a drum circle, and the painting of a mural for peace.  Soon enough September 14th seemed to be shaping up to be one of my best days in the PC yet!

Both events exceeded all my expectations and I could not be prouder of all the participants in the English Song Fest!  Especially my two elementary school groups who preformed like ROCK STARS.  After the competition, three fellow volunteers and I walked over to the 40th anniversary party and promptly left our mark by adding a few designs to the already beautiful mural and called it a night.  

Just another day in La Boquilla.