This past Monday, we learned which school we will be visiting in a small group as a part of Bilingualism Week on Thursday. So we had a few hours as a group to plan a presentation and something to keep the kids' attention. The school that I was assigned to was an all-girls school called Tecnico de Comercio. This was my first time ever going to an all-girls school, so you can say I was somewhat overwhelmed. These girls had uniforms that looked like something out of sailor moon. They had the sailor top and a skirt that was probably mid-thigh height. It was an outfit that would not fly for children in the U.S. Upon arrival, we were told of our schedule for the few hours there. It was mostly Q & A sessions, so we weren't expected to do our presentation. It was fine with me, because our presentation consisted mostly of introduction, Q & A, and teaching the children a quick 2-line chant "All we are saying/ Is give peace a chance." That was one of the other volunteer's ideas because she's a big beatles fan. So, first all six of us sat in the main hall area and watched a dance they had choreographed that was basically showing the coming together of traditional Colombian dance and American dance. Then the six of us were put into a room with about 25-30 of the girls to answer their questions. Since it was Bilingualism week, the girls asked their questions in their best attempts at English. Many of the questions were easy, like "What is your favorite animal?" or "how do you like it in Barranquilla?" But then, I don't know if it was on purpose, we got a couple stumpers or loaded questions. One was "What is one negative part of our culture we should improve?" Damn kid, you don't mess around, do you? After this first sesh, we were split into pairs to go to individual classrooms to answer even more questions from students. In the classes my partner and I went to, the students were all pretty shy. I speculate that it is because they are not used to seeing such a handsome, exotic white guy in person. I don't blame them. But we really had to work to pry questions from them. After a couple classroom visits, we convened again to talk to some English teachers at the school. This was a bit of an odd session, because out of the ten or so teachers there, only three of them said anything. And when they did, it wasn't really questions for us. It was more like they were just talking. After this, we went outside to wait for our bus to come pick us up. And this is where it gets interesting...
A teacher came out and said that we should wait inside for the bus, it would be safer. So we were inside waiting while many of the girls were hanging out in the central area. There was loud salsa music being played and some girls were practicing what seemed like choreographed dances. With this music playing, i couldn't help myself but to dance a little bit in place. Many of the girls noticed this and they started to scream and cheer. Then a teacher came up to me and asked me to dance salsa with her in the center of the floor. So we started dancing together and instantly, there was huge bursts of cheers from all over and girls started to not only make a circle around us, but also lined the upper balcony that looked down on the floor. Here is a short video that my group mate took of this craziness (you might want to turn down your speakers, its a bit loud)
Spicy salsa
After that, all of us got in the center and started dancing to various genres of music: salsa, meringue, reggae-ton, even swing music. All the while we were surrounded by hundreds of screaming girls. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced. While we were dancing in the middle, occasionally some of the school girls would get up and dance with us. There was this one that started dancing with me and she was trying way to hard to grind up on me. I kept backing up and she kept forcing the issue. I somehow managed to escape her. I kinda felt bad for some of the girls that danced with me, because I became really sweaty really fast. After about 40 minutes of dancing, one of the peace corps staff told us that the bus would be here soon, so we said our goodbyes, but not before several girls asked me to be in a picture with them. So yeah, I was pretty popular there.
Pointing out our hometowns
The girls of Tecnico de Comercio. Go Fightin' Comercios!
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