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.  

A Kickball Kind of Day

The campers started asking to play kickball yesterday so today we gave the people what they wanted and played the favorite Boquilla pastime.  I would say that in La Boquilla 90% of the time girls are playing sports, they are playing kickball.  The other 10% get split between soccer, softball, and volleyball.  Now I am not sure why this is, but kickball is most definitely considered a girls sport in La Boquilla or at least after one year I have never seen a group of boys playing the great American P.E. classic.  Needless to say the girls had a fantastic time out in the scorching sun.

Tomorrow will mark the end of the two week Little Lebowski Peri-Urban achievers camp.  These past two weeks have flown by and I couldn't be more excited to end the camp with the decathlon and the handing out of the certificates we have planned for tomorrow.          

Dance of the Day: The Cupid Shuffle

One of the girls from the younger group getting ready to bat

Skits and Games

Yesterday the girls were placed into groups of four and given a location, i.e. the beach, a restaurant, school, or a park.  They were told the following day they were going to present their environmental protection--the current topic we are discussing-- skits to the camp.  Well today was that day and the majority of the groups got really into the project and had performances that were really impressive and some even made me laugh.  We then started the workshop on 'What Makes a Good Leader' and will continue with this topic tomorrow.

The girls couldn't wait to hit the beach and start playing after the taller!  This was because we started playing actual softball games and yesterday's game was tied at 2-2.  Unfortunately, I had to be the bearer of bad news and tell them that we would have to switch teams because there were girls that were there yesterday that weren't there today and there were some that came today, but missed yesterday.  Not to mention I didn't write down who was on what team--my bad girls.  In addition to having two fellow Peace Corps friends that are helping out at the camp, I talked to a few high schoolers and offered them leadership opportunities as 'camp counselors.'  So the games are really their time to shine.  They are the coaches of the two teams and have to create the lineup and shuffle their players in the field.  I am proud to say that with limited training, one Sunday I spoke to them and gave them a brief rundown of what their responsibilities would be, they are doing a good job coaching up these girls. 

Quote of the Day: One of the campers got a splinter during the softball portion of the day and one of our camp counselor said, "Don't worry I have a knife" and started going to work with the knife on the grils finger.

Dance of the Day: Gangnam style

One of the camp counselors teaching one of his players how to hit properly 

Recycling is Cool!

The workshop today was on environmental awareness and the benefits of recycling.  The day started off with a bang as we taught the 30 some odd girls the Soulja Boy dance.  There really isn't a better transition into trash than dancing to Soulja Boy.  My favorite part of the workshop was when we were discussing recycling.  Side note:  There is no recycling in La Boquilla and so everyone just throws everything together and it is all brought to the dump.  So with this in mind we spoke about recycling in terms of how products can be reused opposed to being thrown away.  As we spoke about what you can do with plastic bags one girl claimed, "make a dress."  Soon enough this answer was getting thrown out there for all sorts of different products.  Girls claimed to have dresses made from plastic bags, bags of water (that is how water is consumed on the coast), and two liter soda bottles.  Although I have never seen a recycled dress, I can only assume that it will be all the rage with the elementary school girls of La Boquilla next season.  I will keep everyone posted.

Dance of the Day: the Soulja Boy

Quote of the Day:  During the discussion on recycling, we were asking the girls how they could reuse certain products.  When the subject got changed to batteries, my friend said that you can take your used batteries into the city and dispose of them at a grocery store.  One of the girls though he was asking a question and just said, "No!"  We had to then tell her that this was not a question, but indeed a fact and all of the other girls had a good laugh.

Also I think this may have been the best day yet!

During a skit where I was given a red card for littering while playing soccer.9

Feast or Famine

Last Friday the camp was cancelled due to a number of reasons, but the main one being lack of attendance--famine.  However, my friend had the brilliant idea of changing the times of the camp--start earlier and no afternoon games-- and passing out some flyers over the weekend with my community counterpart.  Now roll around to earlier today and as we both showed up at 8:00 we were greeted by.....NOBODY!  As another one of my friends, guest counselor for the day, showed up at 8:10 we started to get a little nervous as NONE of the girls nor my community counterpart had showen up yet.  So I left my friends and went on a woMANhunt of La Boquilla at around 8:15.  I found my counterpart with six campers and we walked back to the school and waited.  We waited an entire hour and by 9:00 there were at least 40 campers that had arrived--Feast!!!!

We were not expecting a turnout like this as last week we averaged around 12-15, a much more manageable number.  We soon split the girls into groups according to age and assigned each group a sticker.  The girls in the youngest group got pizza stickers, the middle group got animal stickers, and the oldest group got smily face stickers.  Then we went outside and PLAY(ED) BALL!

Dance of the day:  Movin' Like Bernie (If you don't know it search it on YouTube)

One legged relay race (picture taken by my counterpart)

Telling the girls the importance of 'squashing the bug' (picture taken by my counterpart again.  Isn't she the best?!)

Day 5

Canceled :(..........  Look out for day 6 on Monday