Real Cartagena vs Real Bucaramanga

It took me long enough, but finally after nearly two years I went to my first Real Cartagena soccer game.  A lot has happened with the team since I first got to site in January 2013.  The biggest change being that they no longer play in the top division, but were relegated to Colombia’s B division.  Needless to say they are now struggling to bring in fans.  This is a shame because the stadium is actually one of the nicer venues in Colombia and it’s 16,000 seats were filled not to long ago when Cartagena hosted a few of the games for the U20 world cup in 2010.  But really who can complain when you can get amazing seats for $5 and not have to wait in a single line?  Not this guy...

When I finally got to the stadium, 1 hour from site, I was immediately approached by ticket scalpers-- I wonder what gave away my gringoness?.  Now there is no way to tell if the tickets they were selling were real or not, but some of the scalpers made pretty convincing cases.  One lifted up his shirt to show me his Real Cartagena tattoo on his left peck as to say, "Would a guy with a local soccer club's tattoo on his chest really sell a gringo a fake ticket?" and another pointed to a tattoo of the team shield on his right calf.  But after spending some time in Colombia I thought it would be wise to walk the extra three minutes to the ticket window.  

I guess maybe I have been here a little to long because as I finally got to my seat the two teams had already been playing for 20 minutes.  Luckily I didn’t miss a goal and everyone left happy after the 2-0 Real Cartagena win.  If I had to estimate I would guess there may have been 1,000 fans inside the stadium, 200 watching from the outside, 75 cops, and 4 police on horses.  So even though the stadium is in a sketchy part of town the amount of police made the venue feel a bit safer.  However, the 100 diehard fans were by far more impressive than the sound security.  These select few were out of their seats jumping, singing various Real Cartagena chants, and whistling at the opposition and ref for the entire 90 minutes.  Now it is one thing to paint your face and yell for the home team when the seats are packed and everyone is doing it, but it was just crazy to see 1/160 of full capacity yelling as if the place was sold out and Real Cartagena were playing with a shot at the championship on the line.  With only a few more months left in Colombia I am glad I got to check a visit to the local fútbol club off the bucket list.            

And the crowd goes wild! 

Nothing But Respect

La Boquilla does not have any grocery stores or any type of chain stores for that matter, but what we lack in name brand establishments we make up for with the crazy amount of tiendas around town.  There are tiendas about every 100 feet which makes getting things around La Boquilla pretty easy.  Need a banana? Go to the tienda.  Need a baseball cap? Go to the tienda.  Need rat poisoning? Go to the tienda? Need a bag of soda? Go to the tienda.  

Living in a predominantly Afrocolombian community it was apparent from the moment I got here that the vast majority of the stores were owned by cachacos, people from the interior.  However, it wasn’t until recently, that I started to wonder why.  I started asking people all around town why this phenomena existed and was told every single time that, “Cachacos are good with money.”  Upon asking further questions I realized that there are only three families that own virtually all of the stores around town.  So that leaves teenagers working many of the stores by themselves. 

I have nothing but respect for these hard working cachacos.  They work everyday from 7:00am until around 10:00pm.  In my 19 months in La Boquilla I do not remember seeing the tiendas ever being closed.  Not on holidays, not on Sundays, not even on Christmas--for Christ’s sake, literally.  Not only are they open everyday for around 15 hours, but I tend to get stressed when standing around the store for more than 10 minutes.  First off there is no such concept of a line, the customers all know they get served on a come and see who can scream louder biases, so they adjust their volumes accordingly.  Unfortunately for these hard working cachacos the hassle doesn’t end there.  People get very impatient when having to wait, but with no concept of a line and if yelling isn’t your thing what else can you expect.  So it is very common to hear harsh comments thrown in the direction of these young cachacos, even if they are in a playful manner.  Also customers get really upset when they think a product should cost less than the asking price.  So this often leads to a debate where the cachacos are forced to pull out their notebook and add to the running total of store credit.  I am just glad they lowered the price on Powerade to under a dollar and for that I want to thank the two 17 year old boys that work at my favorite tienda. 

My favorite tienda

MURALS site #1

After three weeks of battling what seemed like a pretty constant afternoon drizzle, we finally did it!  We painted eight murals at one of the schools I work at.  By we I mean: the high school art teacher, 5-10 high school boys (depending on the day), and some really appreciated  GRINGA help (Thanks Amigos de las Americas).  Let me start by letting you know that I am in no way an artist.  In fact my handwriting has been described as chicken scratch from since I can remember and I was actually not able to complete a high school art project because I was deemed inept by the teacher and had to instead draw dixie cups as the rest of the class painted still life--LOOK AT ME NOW PATRICIA.  However, I was not going to let that minor detail stand in the way of co-leading a successful art project.  And that is a huge reason I love being a Peace Corps volunteer.  No one ever questioned by ability, asked to see my resume, or attempted to long distance call one of my references before we started the project.  I just had an idea, found people who wanted to collaborate, and a school coordinadora that was looking to beautify her school.

I really had never done anything like this before so I had no idea how to start the project or set an accurate timeline.  But in the end like most things PC related projects, it somehow got done.  I look forward to sharing the pictures from future mural projects with you all in the future!  As I only ruined one pair of khakis I see this first mural project as a great success.

Photo Camp

There have been times in my Peace Corps service where I have questioned just about every last skill I thought I once possessed--i.e. my teaching, spanish, and organizational abilities just to name a few.  Camera camp this past week was NOT one of those times.  Thanks to a PC friend who introduced my buddy and me to the San Diego based Outside the Lens foundation.  The foundation donated 20 digital cameras and a list of lesson plans to my friend.  After the three of us selected two projects: Pieces of me and HOPE we, who all have a pretty limited background in photography mind you, were ready to teach 15 Boquillero high school students how to take the perfect shot.  

Day one started like any normal day.  A few students showed up at 1:00pm, the actual starting time, but the majority nonchalantly strolled through the door around 1:30 and the last group of girls rolled in at 2:15.  Once all 15 students gathered in the cramped room, they all managed to dejar la pena at the door and actively participate and enthusiastically used their new technical language, burs ayh you (birds eye view) was heard around the beach for the next three days.  

The first project we worked on, Pieces of me, had the students selecting their favorite body part and taking photos of it.  Along with pictures, the students also wrote poems about the importance of that body part.  Day two had the students thinking creatively, often a problem in the classroom, and designing photos to depict their definition of esperanza.  My favorite part of the week had to be looking at all of the different definitions of hope the students came up with.  More photos and final projects to come soon.

Hope Project: Wishing for a cleaner La Boquilla

Pieces of me project: 7th grader selects her legs as the focal point for her project

   

Long Overdue

As the final week of a three week school break approaches I only feel it is time to write a new post on this recently neglected blog.  This past month has flown by as the past four weeks have been the busiest to date.  I FINALLY finished writing a grant, worked at a sports camp in Barranquilla, escaped the summer heat in Bogota, celebrated the 4th with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and staff, and made final preparations for the photography camp that starts in my community tomorrow.  So where to start???

I will start by explaining the grant.  The high school art teacher and I are working on an environmentally charged grant.  The idea is to make the beautiful La Boquilla even more ascetically pleasing, while at the same time motivating Boquilleros to begin taking better care of the environment.  The grant is going to help create a bring native flowering trees back to the area.  We got a plot of land donated and there we will be raising the two species of trees.  When mature, these trees will be relocated around town. To go along with the reforestation of La Boquilla environmentally/culturally based murals are currently being painted around town and education al workshops will commence in the near future. 

Students working on one of the environmentally themed murals

Needing a break from the grant writing, I spent three days in Barranquilla helping other volunteers with a sports camp for middle schoolers; The camp was a huge success.  I helped out wherever I was needed and lead a few sessions myself.  I even got to take to the diamond and worked with surprisingly talented youngsters hone in on their baseball skills.     

Happy campers

After the camp a few PCVs and I headed to the countries capital and enjoyed a nice few days in a much milder climate.  Contrary to the beliefs of many costeños, Bogota was GREAT.  The people were really friendly, the city was beautiful, and most importantly the weather was in the 60s!  So for the first time in a LONG time I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirts and was walking without breaking a sweat! 

View of the big city atop Monserrate

Getting back from vacation, the festivities continued as a bunch of PCVs and staff members meet in Barranquilla to celebrate the 4th of July.  We did this is style with a softball game and a BBQ complete with hotdogs, hamburgers, watermelon, and an assortment of desserts.  By the end of the BBQ and countless hotdogs and watermelon slices, I could barley stand up to go grab a celebratory beer.

Next up two PCVs and I are going to be putting together a three day photography camp at my site. We will then move to another site for three more days of camp.  I promise to post more frequently in the coming month.  Enjoy the AC for those of us who don’t have it! 

Encuentro Intercolegial De Danza C.B.C

Two weeks ago a group of forth graders, my counterpart, and I boarded a charted bus sent to pick us up in La Boquilla.  After a fifteen minute ride to the Colegio Britanico de Cartagena, a British Bilingual school, my 10 very lucky forth graders had no desire to leave the airconditioning.  Eventually my counterpart persuaded them and we all walked to the C.B.C's large open air auditorium, where the first interscholastic dance competition was to about to begin.

The video is of my students stomping the yard to a famous Cumbia, traditional Colombian music, song.

The Beauty of Technology

At the beginning of the 2013 school year, one of my counterparts approached me and brought up the fact that there are not enough opportunities for the students to speak english inside the classrooms.  After this chat we decided that we would go about solving this problem by starting an English conversation club for 7th and 8th grade students.  So technically the club is open to hundreds of students, but since it takes place after school, only the very motivated students show up.  

One of the first activities we undertook was starting a pen-pal relationship with the middle school Spanish classes at the Lowell School in D.C.-- thanks mom!  Now after four months of trying to set up a Skype conversation, last week we finally succeeded.  Sadly this this initial Skype session took a lot longer to set up than I could have ever anticipated.  This prolonged back and forth between the Spanish teacher in D.C. and myself is 100% due to my daily schedule, or lack there of.  The truth is that after more than a year in site I still never really know when school is going to be canceled because of holidays, teachers having a cita medica, the water going out, or if there is a funeral in town.  Although never knowing may appear to be a bit stressful, the silver lining is you never get bored of the daily routine!  

After telling my students that the Skype convo was going to start at 7:45am, they started arriving at 8:20 for the 8:30 meeting, smart right?.  That gave us a little time to have a few laughs and  practice our pronunciation once more.  One we got the call my students students were all smilies.  First the 8th graders spoke (in English) about La Boquilla then the 7th graders asked their questions.  This was followed by the Lowell students asking their own questions (in Spanish).  One of their questions was about dance and my students didn’t only want to talk about salsa and champeta, but they wanted to demonstrate.  So I threw on some Joe Arroyo and all my students started dancing salsa liked seasoned pros, but I guess that is what I should have expected when walking and dancing coincide in regards to developmental milestones in La Boquilla.  On the other hand, when my students asked to see some American dancing, the Lowell students were painfully shy and all refused.  We ended the session with an awkward goodbye when a handful of Boquillera middle school girls confessed their love  for a tall blonde 7th grader named Robert.  At least they were saying “I love you Robert” and “Where is Robert” in English.  I have not seen a face that red since I forgot to put sunscreen on at the Beach last year.  Next Skype session my students will teach the D.C. middle schoolers how to salsa (in English).