Photo Camp Update and More

The most recent photo camp was a one day workshop where the students answered the question, Where do I come from?  The students came up with some fantastic ideas including photos with their moms, families, friends, and even their dogs.  I am so glad that one of my Peace Corps friends introduced me to the Outside the Lens foundation because these talleres have definitely become one of my favorite secondary projects.  

Inside the classroom, working as an English teacher, there is only so much that you can learn about a students life, but working with my students at the camps I have gained so much insight into their lives.  I have now been to each of their houses, met their parents, and been offered some sort of fruit juice (no doubt because I show up drenched in sweat from the walk). This has helped foster a bond I now have with my camera camp students and their families that I don’t have with the rest of my English students.  I do however feel like I have become much more understanding with the vast majority of my students inside the classroom since the inception of the camp.  I now have a better idea of what the que pena could mean when their assigned homework is not on top of their desk at the beginning of class.  They probably didn’t have anywhere to work, may not have had dinner, or had to take care of their X number of siblings.  Although I swear some continue to break the classroom rules like their lives depended on it. 

I also like to think that due to the camera camp I was invited to a quinciñeras and have been gifted a puppy.  Yup thats right, during one of the projects that called for photos of their houses, I thought I was just sweatily enjoying a mango juice, but before I could even finish the refreshment, I was taken to a wheelbarrow full of puppies and then offered one.  Now how could one possible say no to a day old puppy in a wheelbarrow?    So I now have a puppy for the first time in my life.  Thanks Camera camp!  

I am a little intimidated by the new responsibilities that I will now have seeing I have never owned a puppy, but Quilla pronounced Kia like the car and named after the town I live in La Boquilla, and I off to a promising start.  We already had our first vet visit and are scheduled for a second at the end of the month.  As I put her in the cardboard box that once held my PC issued water filter and we boarded the local bus I realized that plenty of trial and error learning is headed my way, but then again that is nothing new. 

A more recent picture to come

English Song Competition #2

Wow it has been too long!

This past week was the third annual English Song Fest and for the first time there were elementary schoolers participating, YAY!  My role this year was a bit different than it was last year, as a judge.  I was responsible for finding the judges (three fellow volunteers), teaching my elementary schoolers their songs and helping the middle/high schoolers with the pronunciation of their lyrics.  With these responsibilities I learned three basic pricipals:

1. My 3rd graders love reggae.
2. Colombian middle school girls love Justin Bieber 
3. Akon’s I want to Make love right now na na is totally acceptable to sing at a school function

As each elementary school grade only has one hour of english a week I new I needed to tweak the curriculum a bit in order to start introducing the songs in advance.  So it wasn’t long until I started belted out Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds for one of my 3rd grade classes and No Woman No Cry for a 4th grade class, The Beatle’s Let it be for another 4th grade course, and Rihanna’s Diamonds for my 5th graders.  

I was honestly surprised by how quickly everyone picked up the lyrics.  By the third week we were working our way through entire songs.  Now we do plenty of singing in English class, but this is the first time we attempted songs that weren’t necessarily intended for elementary schoolers.  I have to say watching 30 3rd graders sing and dance to Bob Marley has to be one of the cutest things I have seen in Colombia thus far.  I am sad that this was the last English Song Festival that I will see, but I am confident that the competition will be around for years to come!  
  

The judges

My Elementary schoolers getting ready to sing

    

The video is of the winner (8th grader) who obviously sang Justin Bieber.

Mural Site #2

Boquilla transportation where the ocean meets the lagoon 

TEAMWORK! 

Getting started on mural site #2

The high school student with the black winter hat designed the entire mural

The final product

Third Time’s a Charm

After a third house in two years I have a good feeling that over the weekend was the last move I will be making in La Boquilla.  To recap, I spent 6 months living with the Catholic priest of La Boquilla.  I was then forced to leave that house because the archbishop of Cartagena sent four more priests to live and train under my ex-roommate.  I then spent 14 months with a family that had either 7 or 11 people living in the house depending on the time of year. However, after the aunt went a little crazy on me a few times I decided it was best that I pack up my things and leave that situation.  That puts me in my current home.  I am now sharing a two bedroom and one bathroom house with a high school matemática y física teacher.  I have a good feeling that the third time really will be a charm. 

Although I am now working on house number three that is not to say that the others have been horrible by any means.  The padre’s palace was incredible, and my last host mom was one of the nicest people I will ever meet in the world, what a shame her sister had to go off on me like DMX....TWICE! But I will be visiting her plenty in the future....as long as the aunt is not present.

Talk about a coincidence, the same day my brother and fiancé moved into their first house I moved into what I hope is my last during my Peace Corps service.  This was a very traditional Boquilla move.  I spoke with my counterpart and in no time we had five strong high school alumnos (3 girls and 2 boys) and a donkey cart ready to go.  I honestly could not have done it without them.  To celebrate the world record time we made, 30 minutes for all of my stuff to be packed at my old place and moved into my room at the new place, we celebrated with 7 Powerades and and a liter of soda.  Mind you I did this all spending less than $10.  So I guess the move wasn't all that stressful after all.  I only hope my brother's move was as smooth as mine.  

Packing up Boquilla style

Fording the river

The best moving crew in La Boquilla

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.