Living on $4 a day had Never Been so Easy

Week 1 of Training:  A Day in the Life 

I will attempt to take you through a day in the life, which will be pretty hard as I usually am not fully awake until around 9 and my day start with a 6:30am wake up.  So I am pretty sure I sit down for a HEARDY breakfast first (I told my family I don't eat a lot the first day and am still unable to finish the majority of my meals...I wonder what my plate would look like if I had told them otherwise?).  This meal usually consists of some sort of plantains, some form of carbs and fresh juice.  The juice is by far my favorite part because I have never heard of many of the fruits so it is somewhat of a mystery.  I then head outside and attempt to hail an overcrowded bus (more on public transportation to come later).  I take this 45 minute to 1 hour bus ride and arrive at the school (Colombo Americano) at around 7:50, already sweating an unhealthy amount.  Classes start at 8 and for the first half of the day we are split into small groups according to our level of Spanish.  At 12 we are given a 1 hour break to eat our CATERED lunch in an open aired cafeteria.  This meal consists of a given meat (chicken, pork, beef, or fish), rice, an attempt at salad and a form of potatoes or yucca.  All 23 of us then reconvene and work on technical training until 5.  These afternoons can consist of anything from security training to learning how to teach english to nonnative speakers.  I then return home around 6 absolutely exhausted and obviously still sweating.  I am so exhausted at this point I can't really do much but eat and hang out with the family.  Dinner is usually some sort of meat (chicken, pork, beef, or fish), rice, an attempt at salad and a form of potatoes or yucca and more fresh juice (look familiar minus the fresh juice?).  I truly don't mind that I have the same thing for lunch and dinner often as those of you that know me know I ate the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday at witt.  I end up going to sleep around 10-11 every night.    

The Bus System: Are there any maps?  Of course...NOT!

So to sum up the public transportation I would use the following 4 words: cheap, crowded, sweaty, chaotic.  So a one hour trip by bus only costs about 50-60 US cents.  However those 50-60 cents do not by any means guarantee you a seat on the bus as most days I find myself somewhere between the first stair on the bus (hanging out the window with the wind blowing in my face), and the top of the stairs on the entrance.  After about 15 minutes I can usually make it through the turn gate (like at baseball games) and pay the driver, but this is not exactly any better because I am now standing in a mass of people sweating even more and there is no wind blowing in my face.  Eventually I get a seat after many stops in the span of about four blocks.  You may ask yourself why the bus stops so much in such a short period of time.....Well it is because in Barranquilla there are no bus stops and you just have to press a button and the bus will stop.  So pretty much driving here is pure anarchy as buses taxis and motorcycles are constantly cutting across lanes of traffic and there is an ever present sound of horns, but I would have it no other way!

I really want to put up pictures, but every time I am going to go somewhere my host mom tells me not to bring my camera because it COULD get stolen....Well I may have to take a risk one of these days to get some pictures of the bus 'situation', the training school, baseball field down the street, sand soccer fields (which are in every barrio), and my HOST FAMILY!  I hope to have them up soon.