Year Two!

Today marked the first day of my second year working at the schools in La Boquilla.  Although the actual one year mark was January 15th, I only just started realizing how fast the time has actually going.  I caught myself day dreaming in a class today (I was not teaching at the time) about first meeting the other PC volunteers in Miami.  However, those memories were cut short as two students started fighting with each other about getting to throw the mango pit out the window.  The fact remains that when last year everything seemed new and unpredictable this year I feel more prepared for what is in store.  For example, the past two weeks there have been teachers meetings and miraculously.......I still don’t have a schedule.  But HEY like I said, I have lived through this last year and was expecting nothing less.

In these four hour meetings, a number of school faculty would take the spotlight by standing up and then giving a fiery speech about the where to put the welcome sign (My thoughts during the discussion: “ Probably a good idea to put it infront of the entrance so all the students see it....END OF DISCUSSION”) or if the children should be able to leave the school during their 25 minute break.... you know, finer things in life.  Sometimes these speeches would be short (30 minutes) and others would run upward of two hours.  But again, after a year here I knew exactly what was going to happen when an enthusiastic faculty member stood up.  At the conclusion of these meeting we would get to my favorite part of the day and split up into groups according to subject matter.  However, like I have mentioned before, elementary English is a bit different in the fact that there are no English teachers.  So I just pulled two of my counterparts aside and we planned the elementary school English curriculum for the year.  Now that was efficiency at its finest!        

The first day of school was great!  Partly because a nice breeze has been sweeping through La Boquilla and the temperature is quite mild, sitting in the mid 80s.  This helped prevent the sweat from dripping into my eyes and onto the dozens of students that swarmed to give me hugs and fist pounds like they hadn’t seen me in months. And partly because there was a great energy surrounding the school!  I can only hope that it will transfer into the English classroom this year.  Pictures of some of my classes will be up soon; As I plan to take pictures on the first and last days of the school year.   

The USA is Weird!

After spending the New Year in the States with family and friends I couldn’t help notice how accustomed I have become to the way of life in La Boquilla.  I was finding myself wanting to continue many of the habits I have picked up down here, but would then realize that I was in the States and that I no longer needed to execute the given task in the La Boquilla manner I have become so used to.  Here is a list of the top 10 daily differences that I faced in the States.

1. Throwing toilet paper in the garbage--I kept catching myself wanting to throw toilet paper in the garbage because in La Boquilla you don’t flush the paper.
2. Leaving the lights on in my room as I left--In my room if I leave the lights on, LESS roaches will sneak into the room.  Don’t get me wrong there are still thumb size flying cockroaches, but just LESS of them.  However, I forgot that that is not a problem in my parents house. 
3. Putting in ear plugs at night--Outside my room there is a rooster that begins calling at 4:00am, crying babies, and my family doing the laundry.  Thanks Mom and Dad for not waking me up with your hysterical crying fits. 
4. Waiting for my dishes to taken by my mom-- My host Mom literally takes all of my dirty dishes from the table and cleans them herself.  My REAL mom....Not so much.
5. Walking outside barefoot or in sandals-- In La Boquilla the preferred footwear is either barefoot or sandals, but you can’t really do that in 30 degree weather  
6. Where dressing up means wearing jeans and a polo--  For the first time since swearing in I was forced to wear a tie.  I guess the NYE party was not in agreement with the Boquillero laws of formality. 
7. Jogging along the beach--  With the cold temperatures I was so unmotivated that I did not even dare to exercise while I was home.
8. Babysitting--  I wasn’t having to break up disagreements between kids. 
9. Eating with just a spoon--  I was so surprised to see that there were other utensils for eating meat beacuse in La Boquilla every meal is eaten with only a fork.
10. Waking up in my own sweat-- By far the most pleasant change was not having to worry about sweating through multiple shirts.

By no means am I saying that life in the States is better than life down here in Colombia.   Because now that I am back, it was great to walk outside without shoes, jog on the beach, and see my host family again.  I am merely pointing out how different the two lives are and that I guess that over the past year I have become pretty used to life on the Colombian coast.