Hey Ladies...

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!

Pictures, you say?

Have the Colombians discovered sustainable tree energy?

Me and some of me host family

There is copyright infringement all over the place. I love it.

Nice hat, eh?

Colombo? Isn't that a TV show? / Riding the crazy bus

Every day, we have training at an American University on the northern outskirts of Barranquilla called Colombo. The first half of the day is for Spanish language training. The classes are really small, mine only has three people including myself, so there is pretty individualized attention. The weird thing about the class is that it is sometimes a bit hard to follow because my Spanish isn't very strong, but then the teacher changes gears and goes into lesson befitting a beginning Spanish class ("Como te llamas? Me llamo Tyler," etc). I feel it is because they have certain curriculum that all classes have to go through and since there are some classes that have people that don't speak any Spanish, they have to start somewhere. Not I'm upset that we are going slow sometimes. It really boosts my self-esteem when I'm knocking basic verbs and phrases out of the park. Then there's lunch, which is catered for us every day by god knows who. Lunch consists of a piece of chicken or fish, rice, soup, and two sides which could be fried plantains, salad, a bag of lentils, or this tasty fried mashed potato ball. It also comes with a cup of juice. A pretty complete meal. That's how they do here in Colombia. Most meals here have most of those things. After lunch, we have mostly classes based on teaching us how to teach English as a foreign language. They also mix in a few information sessions of stuff we should know about being in Colombia. The interesting thing about the Colombo campus is that it's basically a tropical jungle for most of it. There's some exotic wildlife that inhabit the campus. Yesterday, we say a five foot long wild iguana strolling across a grass field. That was the first time I ever saw a wild iguana. There's also some tropical-ish birds. I say "ish," because I'm not a birder and I don't want to make any bold claims and anger all the birders that frequent my blog. The bad thing about the "tropicality" is the bugs. The place has so many flying bugs that always know when our lunch time is and are instantly up in our business. Also, there's the occasional group of bees that swarm anyone with coffee. I guess it has to do with the heat coming from the coffee, but then again, I'm no entomologist.

I have to hand it to the locals here. Figuring out and getting around on the bus system here requires some serious skill. First of all, there is no map of the bus routes. You just have to be one with the bus. Like a bus whisperer. There are like four or five different bus companies that go around and each one is decorated different on the inside. Many have short, tasseled curtains and random things hanging from the ceiling around the driver. Plus there are no "bus stops." You just wave down the bus to get on and push a button in the back to get off. Getting to Colombo isn't too bad, since it's in the middle of nowhere. But trying to find your corner on the way back is very stressful. First of all, the bus fill up pretty decently on the way there and by the time it reaches my corner, it's packed. Luckily we always get seats because Colombo is one of the first stops. However, in the area where my corner is, the traffic clears up, so the driver always floors it. So here we are. I'm about six or seven blocks away form my corner and closing in quickly. The bus must get to about 40-50 mph in a small 2 lane street, so I'm a bit worried about the clanky old bus disintegrating at any moment. So I have to get up and squeeze my way through a wall of people to the back door to push the stop button, which looks a lot like a doorbell. All the while I'm trying to time it so that I arrive at my corner, because I can't see out the window while I'm squeezing my way through the mass of bodies. But so far I'm two for two. Let's hope I keep up the streak.

Moving in with the host families

Sunday was the day that we learned about our host families and eventually moved in. In the morning, we each got a brief profile of each family that included each member's name, age, and relation, some local information about crime and local bus stops, preferences by the family about expected volunteer behavior, and whether they had pets. They also had a big map of Barranquilla that showed where each person was going to be living. During my interview the day before about housing, I told the staff that I loved kids and pets, so naturally they put me in a house without either. At first I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get along with them because the paper said they were a mother and father that were in their fifties and sixties and a wife in her twenties. I didn't really understand the family dynamic. But when the family got there I didn't really recognize them from the paper.I recognize the older man as the dad but there was also a man in his late twenties/early thirties. Turns out he is married to the younger woman and he must not have put himself on the form. His name was Alberto and he could speak English, but the Peace Corps wants the families to speak Spanish all the time so that the volunteers learn it better. However, I was glad he spoke English because that way if I don't know a certain word in Spanish, he can help me out. The three of us took a tiny taxi with a waiter named Johnathan from the hotel that many of us have gotten to know because he speaks good English and he's very nice. Apparently he is a good friend of Alberto.

We get to the house and, like every other house in the city, it has bars on its doors and windows. Inside, it's a bit nicer than some of the houses in the area. I'm shown my room and I was pleasantly surprised. Although it's on the small side, which I would have expected, it has a closet, mirror, and a TV with cable. But the best part is that the family has wi-fi that's actually pretty fast. The first thing that we did once I put all my thing in my room was look at some of Alberto and his wife Milly's wedding photos. These were great to look at because they both look so serious in many of them. They told me it was because they were very nervous and I don't blame them.

Soon after, Alberto took me on a walk around the barrio. The name of the barrio that we live in is called Los Andes. He showed me all the little shops, the supermarket, etc. He told me of the old mayor of Barranquilla, I think it was, that stole a lot of money that was supposed to go for improving the city, and that is one reason the park and the roads are in such poor shape. We visited a friend of his when it started to rain.

One phenomena that happens in Barranquilla when it rains is that there are many streets that do not drain well, so there are quick flowing rivers of water that form. They are called arroyos, which means stream in Spanish, but they are basically rivers. They are very dangerous and many people get swept up in them every year. We were shown pictures of piles of cars swept away by huge arroyos. So as we were walking back from Alberto's friend's house, we encountered a few arroyos. We were told never to cross one, but we ran into one that blocked our path and we couldn't go around. It was a really small one, but they didn't want to cross it on foot and get their shoes wet. Normally, one waits for a bus to come by and asks to cross, but there wasn't one coming. So Alberto came up with the genius idea of throwing bricks from a nearby pile of rubble into the arroyo. It wasn't working out so well, so Teresa, Milly's sister, decided to just wade in and fix them so we can walk across. Right as she walked in, a bus came by and we crossed to safety while she was all wet.

For dinner, the family cooked me a pretty traditional dish of beef (on the bone. I have no idea what part of the cow it was), rice, fried plantains, and this strange drink that consisted of a soda very similar to Big Red but they added chunks of watermelon. It was tasty, but very hard to drink because I had to keep sifting the contents of my mouth to pick out the black seeds. The strange thing was, though, as I was eating this huge dish of food, everyone else was eating just bread. I was a bit uncomfortable and I was wondering if I was basically forcing them to eat bread in order to afford to feed me this. The said that many families like themselves eat a big lunch and usually just bread or something small for dinner. They say it's healthier that way. Perhaps.

The Hotel Caribe Files

I decided to start a new post because the last one was getting pretty long. So the group of Peace Corps volunteers are staying at the Hotel Caribe from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon for a variety of presentations about Peace Corps policies, what to expect, Spanish diagnostic sessions, and more. The hotel was not anything to sneeze at. They fed us three square meals a day. Breakfast was some form of eggs with bread; just ok. But lunch and dinner consisted of some meat, chicken or beef or one night ham wrapped in chicken, smothered in gravy or sweet fruity sauce, really tasty rice, mashed potatoes, and some kind of vegetable side. Plus they gave you a glass of quality fruit juice that could be guava, passion fruit, or some other flavor that belongs in a pack of tropical starburst. I approved. There were a few vegetarians in the group and since everyone got the same thing, they usually offered their meat to someone else. I got a few of these extra portions, but Chance "The Garbage Disposal" usually sought out these people immediately at each meal to strike some sort of deal for their meat. One dinner, I swear, he must have had four portions of meat. I must say I was impressed.

One thing I'll always remember is how almost all of the Peace Corps staff are very distinct characters that make for hilarious impressions. Adam does the best impressions of them, but everyone has their own take on each staff member.
There's Oscar, who is native to South America. He has a soothing and hypnotizing Latin American accent and always has an extra button on his shirt undone just for good measure. He could definitely be in a local old spice commercial. Once he met with me to talk about my host family and what things, if anything, I would need them to know. We were sitting on a balcony because it is always hot here and the balcony had a nice breeze. As he was talking to me, the wind was blowing his hair ever so gently and his gratuitously unbuttoned shirt was billowing in the wind. It was like I was in a dream. For a second, I think he was on a white horse, but I'm not entirely sure.
There's Bill, who is the Bert to Oscar's Ernie. He has two voice tones. Monotone and Super monotone. I'm pretty sure Oscar must dislike Bill because often during Oscar's presentations, Bill would but in with, "what Oscar is trying to say is..." when usually we all understand. Once Oscar was talking about the local tiendas and Bill interjects, "By the way, tienda means store." Thank you Bill, for the Spanish 0 refresher course.
The yin to Bill's yang is Danny. He is this spunky older man from Fort Worth that is always upbeat and seems to refuse to pick up any kind of local accent. Its really funny hearing him speak Spanish. I don't really know much about Danny except that he loves pancakes and has an awesome straw hat.
And finally there's Frank, the security coordinator. No matter how dangerous Colombia is, I'll always feel safe if Frank has my back. He looks like an ex-marine that's done some stuff that normal people only see in movies. He gave us crime stats for the area, which were much higher than I expected, especially murders. He says that contract killings are the 2nd highest form of crime overall. And he says these things so matter-of-factly, so i feel like I shouldn't worry, but then I see the figures and I do worry a bit, but I know Frank will "take care" of anyone that gives us trouble.

On Saturday, Mike, Nolan, Samantha and I recorded a podcast with Chance. We talked about some of the things we are going through in the training. Chance has been making and will be making podcasts, so thats something you should check out at http://peacecorpspodcast.com/

Bienvenidos a Colombia

This is the first blog post I have been able to do because the last few days have been pretty hectic and I finally have some time to sit down and do this. I should start at the beginning. The trip to Miami for staging was quite the ordeal. I flew out of SFO in San Francisco at around 11pm this past Tuesday and I was scheduled to arrive in Miami at about 11am the next morning, factoring in the time change. My staging sign in was at 12:30, so I was getting there just in time. I barely got any sleep on the plane, and when I arrived in Miami, I realized I didn't know where the hotel the staging was going to held. I figured I could just use the wi-fi at the airport to find it, since I had the address in my e-mail. I found out that I had to pay to use wi-fi there, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay, but I had to figure out how to do that first. I ran all over the airport and asked four different people how to do this and no one knew anything. I finally found someone who could help and I eventually got to the hotel at about 12:15, just enough time to scarf down most of a melted Twix bar I had in my pocket before going to the sign in. And of course I didn't have my paperwork done beforehand because I figured I would have some time once I got to the hotel, so I quickly filled them out and thus began my Peace Corps Career.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of other volunteers before coming to staging, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone I talked to was friendly and outgoing, which is great for me because I am normally somewhat withdrawn by nature, no matter how hard I try to be outgoing, and being with such friendly people helps me break out of my shell. Staging mostly consisted of icebreakers and some Peace Corps policy review. That night, at the end of staging, they gave us some money to reimburse our traveling expenses, which I definitely did not expect. So all of us decided to find a place to go out to dinner. There is 23 of us, so it was not easy to accommodate everyone. We went to a seafood grill and, for some reason, I ordered a burger. I figured that since we all will be living by the coast, we will be eating a lot of seafood, so I ordered an American specialty. The burger was pretty mediocre, but since it was the only thing I ate besides a twix bar in 24 hours, it tasted pretty damn good. When we got back, most people went to bed, since we had to be ready to go at 4:30am the next morning. However, I hang out with the guys in the hotel bar until about midnight as we were living up our last night in the US.

Needless to say, getting up in the morning was not easy, but at least going through the Miami airport went smoothly. We flew from there to Panama and from there to Barranquilla. We flew on Copa Airlines out of Panama and I have to say, they know how to fly. It was a short flight, I think around an hour, but they served many different kinds of alcohol and gave out mystery meat sandwiches. I didn't get alcohol because I was running on very little sleep and I felt like anything I drank would get me real drunk, or at least semi-belligerent.

We were greeted by some Peace Corps staff members at the airport. There was Jason, who has a pretty thick Minnesotan accent, George, Frank, who I believe must be ex-CIA and is someone you can tell has seen some shit, and Danny, who I would come to know as one of the most adorable old men ever. I'll talk about these guys later. The drive from the airport to the hotel took about a half hour and we drove through possibly the sketchiest area in Barranquilla, a neighborhood called Soledad. There were crazy drivers, people running around all over the street, and donkeys pulling carts. This was quite the ghetto. I was just glad when I found out we'd be staying in a much better part of town. We eventually got to our hotel, Hotel Caribe. After a quick presentation from Peace Corps staff, we carried our giant luggage up to our rooms. I roomed with Mike and Nolan in a pretty big room with a great view of the immediate area.