Clearly, I owe you an update. My latest news is that I found out my permanent placement. I will be teaching at an all-girls school in Santa Marta. Santa Marta is about an hour and a half northeast of Barranquilla. There will be five other volunteers working and living in and around Santa Marta as well. We got to visit our sites this past week. My school is absolutely gorgeous. Even though it is a public school, it is run by nuns. They live in a wing of the school. There are five English teachers. At this point, I think I will be working with the “Normal” teachers first, and then with the others as time permits. Because it is a school for teachers and it is religious, there is less time for English classes in comparison to some other schools – only two hours per week.
In my free time this week, we got to visit the beach and swim in the ocean. I don’t believe that will ever become something I will become accustomed to – I live a short bus ride away from a warm, sandy beach! I also live a short ride away from mountains, but it isn’t recommended that we hike in them.
The staff at the Peace Corps office hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. It was great (and I’m not just saying that because we hadn’t had American food for six weeks)! It was complete with an abundance of food and football afterwards. Of course, I was able to wear a tank top, which generally isn’t possible in November in Wisconsin. Current volunteers were also invited, so it was nice to be able to talk with them about their sites, challenges, and tips for living in Colombia.
For my breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, my host mom made me a Thanksgiving fruit salad. With mango, pineapple, papaya, peaches, nuts, jello, and raisins, it was not anything that would be found in WI, but the presentation was great (served in a carved-out pineapple!) and the sentiments were very appreciated.
My host dad is originally from Chile. For the holidays, my host mom and I made “Pan de Navidad”, or Christmas bread, for him. Apparently, it is a tradition more typical of Chile and Argentina, not Colombia. It was an adventure. The recipe was in grams, but the only measuring cup we had was in ounces. Also, it only measured 6 and 12 ounces. As we started making it, my host mom said that the bread would be too small. Extra ingredients were then added. I was surprised at how well it turned out, even if it was more of a cake than bread. Taste tests by my friends agreed that it was certainly edible, even delicious! My host mom said it was too sweet, but my host dad said it was perfect.
Every so often, I am reminded that this is very Catholic country. A couple weeks ago, I went with my host mom to eat at my host dad’s restaurant. We were getting ready to leave after an astounding meal, when my mom told me to wait. As I am waiting to the side, my host parents approach this man who had finished his meal with others. As they were all standing there, a waiter came up with a pitcher of water, and more water in a 3 liter bottle. The priest then blessed the water in the pitcher and the Coke bottle. The waiter then took it away with instructions to sprinkle the holy water around the restaurant. My host mom and I then left, me a little bemused and my host mom quite happy.
Overall things are going well, even if I do have random cravings of food and think that the rainy season is entirely too rainy. I’m getting more accustomed to the Colombian idea of “on time”, which is entirely different from the Japanese and German versions. Ooh, I’m up to intermediate level for Spanish, which is progress! Since we're in December, we're certainly in the Christmas season. Tonight, my host mom and I are going to walk around and look at decorations on houses...should be interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment