Swim Camp

I woke up early Monday to cut huge sheets of styrofoam into little rectangles.  I was attempting to make kick boards for the campers, but with my lack of fine motor skills and a dull machete they came out looking more like pentagons.  However, I now had bigger problems as I was late to meet the campers in front of the elementary school.  So I left the house in a brisk power walk, sweat running down my neck, with all of those annoying little styrofoam scraps and balls still on the ground to clean later.

I ended up arriving at the school only 5 or so minutes late, but much to my surprise there were already seven students waiting.  So for the first time in my Peace Corps service and maybe the history of Peace Corps Colombia, students turned up to an event before the volunteer!!!  Once at the beach we split up into groups:  tiburónes (sharks), estrellas del mar (sea stars), cabballitos del mar (sea horses), and delfínes (dolphins) and hit the waves with our pentagonal floating devices.

Rule # one: Never put your head under the water.  Yah, that lasted about 5 minutes.  The majority of the campers were fearless and were flailing about, most definitely terms to get disqualified in any given stroke, before we spoke about floating on ones back.  It was obvious the kids loved it and I was astonished by the high retention rate.

“Great sucess”

-Borat     

Kick, Kick, Kick

Again, "Don't put your head under water"

MVP of the week! 

Una Hora Sin Basura

After going through the VERY long and sometimes tedious process of writing my first grant, I have finally received the money--YAY!  Months ago when I first started discussing project ideas with my counterpart (local High School art teacher, Environmentalist, Neighbor, and amateur donkey whisperer) we both agreed that getting the community involved in the ‘good fight‘ was vital to the project's success.  Thus hatched the idea, one hour without garbage (Una hora sin basura)

I barley slept on Friday night because I was so nervous no one would show up.  Now this is a legitimate fear of mine because there is so much pena in this community that when asked a question about attendance, “no” doesn’t exist.  That means “yes” is a maybe and a “possibly” means sorry compa‘ but I have other things to do or novelas to watch.  Luckily, all of those phone calls to remind the group members of the event paid off because nearly  50 participants (and a few fellow Peace Corps Cartagena Volunteers) showed up ready to do some serious garbage pickup.  

Dressed in our brand new, now sweated through, matching shirts we hit two major plazas and cleaned those suckers up real nice.  Simultaneously the megaphone man, not sure he has another name, drove around the town asking everyone not to litter from the hour of 10:00-11:00am; Much like he had the previous two days.  As the noon sun crept overhead, we decided to finish the activity up by walking around town and asking store owners if we could hang up environmentally themed posters outside for the public to see.  

Getting help from all ages

This kid thought it was BYOB (Bring your own bird).

The signs going up.

The Clean up Crew.

  

Winter is Only a State of Mind

My alarm sounded at 8:30 this morning and I woke up feeling guilty, like I needed to be somewhere.  It took me a minute to remember that school was out and all of the students are now on vacation until early February.  For me this means I need to change my mindset and start using a “winter” break state of mind.  For us Peace Corps english teachers this can mean a few different things.  One thing is for sure though, almost everyone will somehow be involved in a camp.  Over past breaks volunteers have held tons of camps involving numerous sports, team building exercises, and gender issues.  

Form the week of December 9th through the 13th I am going to be teaching one of my 3rd grade classes how to swim, with the help of a few good PC friends.  The idea all started in class, about a month ago, when my counterpart and I were teaching I like and I don’t like with sports.  One student said, “I lie eh-swiming.”  Than another admitted that she didn’t know how to eh-swim so I took a quick poll and to my surprise more than 90% of the class, including Gerledis who just said he lied eh-swiming, didn’t know how to eh-swim.  So after handing out a permission slip, we are ready for 5 days of eh-swiming lessons.  I am currently in the process of making kickboards out of styrofoam. 

For the rest of break I will be hard at work on the grant supported Mi Boquilla Florece project.  The goal is to finish the tree nursery before school starts up again.  Also we now have a symbol and a big event this Sunday so I will be back with more updates soon!

The design a 10th grade student made for the Mi Boquilla Florece environmental group

Rainy with a Chance of Cabildo

In Colombia, Carnaval de Barranquilla remains king of kings in regards to week long celebrations--there are a surprising amount of week long festivals in this country.  However, every November, a bit further south, Cartagena hosts the National Beauty Pageant.  This year the schools in La Boquilla, where I work, raised enough money to throw their own parade/Cabildo in anticipation for the excitement that comes with the fiestas novembrinas.  

All four elementary schools participated in the event as did two high school groups and a number of community groups.  There were uniforms, face paint, firecrackers (busca pies), and unfortunately lots of rain.    The downpour only delayed the festivities briefly and luckily for me, one of my students moms decided to take it upon herself to use the weather delay as a good time to braid my hair, giving me a more appropriate look.  

Once the rain stopped and all groups were organized, we all began to walk/dance down the only paved road in La Boquilla.  I was asked by one of my counterparts to participate with Madre Bernarda elementary school.  Although I did not have a costume that resembled a tiger or face paint, I made up for it by providing tons of foam to spray and cornstarch to throw at students/bystanders, no one is innocent at cabildo.  It was a fantastic day to be in La Boquilla and see the community come together and celebrate.  

Keepin' it 100 

War Paint on some of my 4th graders at Madre Bernarda! 

4th graders at San Juan

Lost drummer boy

Crowd shot

EVEN the babies aren't spared

The Home Stretch

October 14th marked my two year anniversary in Colombia and I couldn’t help but thinking about everything coming to an end and what my life is going to look like when I get back to the States, but then I smelled something....It was puppy poop.  So after getting a plastic supermarket bag and disposing of Quilla’s do do my mind began to wander once again.  Recently, there have been days where I feel like I just got to site yesterday and others where I feel like it was 5 years ago that I lived with the catholic priest.  These contradicting ideas do not put my mind at ease when i wake up questioning whether i have 24 months left or if I need to start packing because I only have a week left; I guess that is just part of realizing that my two years of service are almost over.  Although my 29 months are coming to an end, I am very content knowing that La Boquilla will continue to work with the Peace Corps.

The other week I met the next Volunteer who is going to be calling La Boquilla home until 2015.  She was wide eyed and had tons of questions, much like I imagine myself two years ago.  She starts in a few weeks and I am looking forward to introducing her to all of the great people I have met and showing her some of the cool things my counterparts and I have accomplished over the past two years.  The so called passing of the torch is no doubt going to be hard, but I trust my Boquillero counterparts to welcome the new PC volunteer with open arms much like they did for me two years ago.

Quilla is 2 months! 

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.