Arrested Development Moment and Site Visit Pictures

If you are a fan of the show Arrested Development you will enjoy this post, but if not some of the references may be a bit over your head.  So as I wrote in my last post I was going to visit the site where I will be placed for the next two years, La Boquilla, 20 minutes outside of Cartagena.  Although it is a short bus ride to the city center I assure you that La Boquilla is a different world (See pictures below).  For example, they have one main road and the rest are dirt (now mud because it is rainy season) and some strategically (some not so strategically) placed stones so when it rains you will not get stuck in the mud.  However, unlike the locals I did not have the proper attire for walking during a heavy downpour, knee high boots..... So I nearly destroyed a pair of my shoes in the deep mud.

Ok so I mentioned an Arrested Development moment I experienced well if you are a fan of the show it was a true Michel Bluth moment.  During one episode he was trying to figure out who Gobs girlfriend liked, "who is this hermano guy?"  So as I arrived in La Boquilla and my host family, Single mom who teaches a class about how to raise and catch fish, started talking about some 'hermana (sister)' of hers and asking if I had met her.  I told her no and she said she was a fantastic woman and that I would have to meet her.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but the next morning when I arrived at the school I was literally asked by five different teachers if I had met their 'hermana (sister).'  I soon started to think why does everyone want me to met their sisters and why is this one of the first questions I am getting asked?  I was later told to follow my counter part to a different part of the school and did so accordingly.  We soon arrived outside of the school headmasters room and was then introduced to HERMANA Elizabeth!!!! Wow it turns out that is wasn't any of their sisters, but rather a NUN (See Picture below) that runs the school.  I felt really stupid to say the least.  Upon meeting the HERMANA she told me my beard was cute and offered my gummy candies, wow does she know the way to my heart!

 School Information:  The school is quite special because it actually consists of five different locations creating a mega school of 3,000 students!  I will primarily be working in three of them with primary schoolers (grades 3-5).  This is a change for me because I have never taught primary before and to make things a bit more difficult there is no English program so I will not only be co-teaching with the teachers, but teaching them English as well and hopefully creating a sustainable English department in the process.

The site visit was very exciting and some highlights include: Realizing that I will be living/teaching two blocks from the beach, having amazing meals for $2.50, going to bed to the sound of the waves or an amazing drum circle each night (La Boquilla is famous for its music and even has a drum festival), seeing that both soccer and baseball were regularly played on the beach, going into Cartagena and getting to see the walled city, meeting all of the nice people I am going to be working with, and swimming in the ocean EVERYDAY!  

The Beach

Me and the HERMANA

A really good road in La Boquilla

In the distance are some hotels in a bordering city

The view from the amazing seafood restaurant

One of the schools I will be teaching at

Water in Cartagena 

Clock Tower in Cartagena 

The walled city of Cartagena

My host cousin, Maria de Los Angeles

So when I got back from La Boquilla I met my little cousin!  Also my next post will be as an official Peace Corps volunteer as I have my swear in next Wednesday.  Also tonight is a huge celebration for the immaculate conception of Jesus so this will be a first for me.  I hear there is a lot of drinking and candles are light and put in pretty boxes in front of each house at 2:00am.....I will let you all know how it goes!  

Much love from Colombia!