El retiro con las ninas de noveno grado

Yes, I am trying to show off with my title in Spanish, although I am sure no one is impressed.

This past Thursday-Saturday, I joined one of the three groups of 9th graders on retreat. Before the year began, Ana Elisa told me she was hoping I would know enough Spanish to join her in retreat with a group of students. Although I wouldn't say I know enough Spanish, last week she invited me to join her on a retreat. I, of course, was more than excited to go. (Everyone knows how much I LOVE overnight field trips.)

What's funny about being invited on this retreat is that the group of 9th graders just happened to include the girls who have taken it upon themselves to teach me some "conversational" Spanish. Once I realized that, I knew it would be fine that I didn't yet have enough Spanish.

We got on a chartered bus Thursday and headed to the retreat house in Cartagena. In prior posts, I referred the retreat house as Crespo. I realized this time that the neighborhood in which the retreat house sits is Crespo. The name of the retreat house is Sanville.










I really cannot put into words what a great experience I had on the retreat. Since it was my first retreat with La Ensenanza (and my first 3-day retreat), I asked Ana Elisa if I could be a participant. Ana Elisa planned 3-days worth of activities that included everything from scripture study to writing a (short) personal history. It was wonderful to have a great deal of time to meditate and contemplate on my relationship with the Lord. After each activity, Ana Elisa asked the girls to share their thoughts, feelings, impressions, etc. She also made sure to ask me for my input. Since my input was in English, the girls explained to her in Spanish what I said. It was awesome! I loved, too, that ALL of the girls participated in every activity fully. The first pictures are of Sainville and the girls working individually on a spiritual exercise, and of Ana Elisa in action.














When we weren't in the middle of a spiritual exercise, we were having fun. (Not that the spiritual exercises weren't fun. They were just a different kind of fun.) The first afternoon, while the girls were working, I swam in the ocean with Sr. Marie. The water was nice and relatively warm, but we stayed in it for an hour and a half and my hands were purple when I got out. Since the retreat didn't include allowing the girls to enter the ocean, I left stealthily to swim and returned fully dressed. The only problem was that my hair was wet when I returned. I tried to pretend like the girls were crazy to accuse me of having wet hair, but wet hair is obvious. The next day, we all took a break on the sand and had a great deal of fun taking pictures (as I am sure is obvious). For some reason, the girls decided to notice the color of my legs. I am not sure why, as they blended in so well with theirs. It didn't take long for them to start calling my legs "milk." The picture with the shrimp seller (my new boyfriend) and me is proof that milk and dark chocolate go well together :). Along with Ana Elisa and me, one of the 9th grade homeroom teachers came on the retreat. Her name is Mayra and she is awesome. The last picture in the beach shots is of Mayra and me.




All of the girls were wonderful to me. They laughed with me, joked with me, shared with me, confided in me, and took care of me. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to share the experience with. I need to move tangentially for a moment to talking about how different it was to be on an overnight field trip with only girls. Although the boys slept away from the girls on LP field trips, they were always there providing comic relief, occasional naughtiness, and unbridled excitement for every activity. I am sure had this been an LP fieldtrip, I would have found myself in the ocean with my clothes on :). Back to the retreat...With all girls, there was a great deal of laughing and playing, but there was also crying and talking about deep feelings. It actually reminded me of my youth when I used to go to girls' camp - and boy did I love girls' camp (Shout out to all my girls' camp homies).

In all seriousness, I think I actually grew during the retreat. I have never spent three days in a row focusing on my spiritual life. Having done so last week, I realize how important it is for me to take time away from the hustle and bustle of life to just be.

Bienvenido a Miami

Yes, it's true. I had an unexpected vacation in Miami with my sister Amy (sister kindness). I had an "issue" with my Visa, so I had to go to Miami to straighten things out. When Amy found out, she bought a ticket to Miami. Although I had to miss a couple of days of school (which is so not like me) to take care of the issue, we had a wonderful time.



Kelly and Vivian (Kelly's best friend and an all-around awesome person) were kind enough to take care of me in the evening before my plane left for Miami. Kelly and I went to Soledad, a suburb of Barranquilla where Kelly lives, and Vivian joined us at Kelly's house. We looked through a photo album of Kelly, and then headed to get something to eat. We rode in the most awesome vehicle (next to a Tuk-Tuk, of course). It was an open carriage attached to a motorcyle - basically a Colombian rickshaw. We went to the center of Soledad where we took the pictures. The first one is of me next to a Simon Bolivar statue straddling a canon. Kelly is pretending to light the canon (not to poke me in the bottom). The next picture is in front of San Antonio de Padua church. After taking the pictures, we decided to get something to eat. We sat on a bench in front of two women who were cooking at a picnic table with a plastic overhead covering. On the table in front of us was a selection of fried foods on a metal cookie sheet - empanadas, arepas de huevos, something de frijoles, and another thing with a name I don't recall. We took and ate what we wanted without the women paying attention to us. They just continued cooking more food to put on the cookie sheet. We also had a beverage, which was juice from the berries of one of the types of palm trees. Together, we ate 10 delicious items and had 3 yummy beverages. The total cost of the meal...$3.25. I thought I'd be generous:) and pay since Kelly and Vivian were accompanying me to the airport.


Once we got to the airport, Kelly and Vivian didn't just drop me off. I kept telling them I would be fine, but they were nice enough to hang out with me for hours. My flight was at 2:00 a.m. and they stayed with me until after 12:30. The picture of Kelly and Vivian is from the airport. I wanted to take a picture of the control tower, but when I saw the sign that said no photos are allowed, I decided I needed a picture of that.

Once I got to Miami, I picked up the rental car and headed straight to the Colombian consulate. It was nice to be behind the wheel of a car again. I had forgotten how much I like to be in control of the vehicle. The woman at the consulate was extremely nice. She told me she is from Barranquilla and she knows what a great school La Ensenanza is. That may have helped me in taking care of my Visa "issue" without issue.













Amy arrived in the afternoon with a suitcase full of things for me to take back to Colombia. It was kind of like Christmas. (Of course, when it came time to pack at the end of our "vacation," I realized I would have to take her larger suitcase back with me.) It was amazing and awesome to spend a long weekend with Amy. We talked, laughed, ate, laughed, drove around Miami, ate, hung out at South Beach, laughed, watched people, laughed, watched movies, ate, and laughed. She really is an incredible sister, which is why her new nickname of sister kindness (nothing is capitalized on purpose) fits perfectly. Anyone who wants to know why that is her new nickname needs to ask her or email me.


All of the laughing we did felt great, but that's not so true of all the eating we did. There were a few foods I had been missing in Colombia, so I unwisely decided I would attempt to eat all of them while I was in Miami. After each of the first several meals I ate, I had a horrible stomachache. It was as if my body was telling me it doesn't like fatty, preserved, unhealthy American foods any more. I, of course, would not accept that, so I kept eating. The eating pictures may not be clear enough to tell, but I am enjoying bacon, pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and toast at IHOP. Although I don't have pictures as evidence, during the weekend I also ate a hot dog, two burritos, a hamburger with fries, a smoothie, two KFC snackers, a footlong Subway sandwich, a can of wasabi almonds and a can of habanero almonds, a large box of Good and Plenty, a large box of Sugar Babies, several powdered donuts, a bag of peanut butter M&Ms, a can of cheese Pringles, two Ding Dongs, and I am sure many other things I have forgotten. I wonder why I kept getting stomachaches.

After Amy and I had our fill of Miami, it was time to pick up my "fixed" Visa. I am now happy to be the proud owner of an issue-free, one-year Colombian Visa to teach English at La Ensenanza School. Woohoo! Now all I have to do is go to the DAS (Colombian FBI) to get my ID card.

The Monkey in a Zoo

A couple weeks ago, Gustavo told me I am like the monkey in a zoo - everyone wants to see me and pet me. It is true that I have been treated kind of like a rock star, which I must admit is awesome. What Gustavo didn't add, but I thought then and see as true now, is that everyone gets bored with the monkey pretty quickly. Think about kids who go to the zoo. They always want to get to the monkeys, but the monkeys only keep their attention for about five minutes. That is me. I was exciting to the secondary students for the first couple of weeks, but now they are over me. I am just another teacher who makes them do things they don't want to. I am, however, still the monkey with the primary students because they only met me for the first time last week. In one of the classes (I think 2nd grade), one of the girls put a sticker on my shirt. Next thing I knew, I had several stickers on my shirt from cute little girls. I put the stickers on a piece of paper and took a picture of it because I couldn't quite figure out how to take a picture of my shirt while I was wearing it. In another class (I think another 2nd grade), a few of the girls gave me clay creations they had made. So cute! The picture isn't great, but all of the creations are miniature and quite good.

I think it's time I confess something...I love it here! As Melissa will attest, I wasn't sure about things after the first week. I felt overwhelmed, and I was definitely a fish out of water. I don't know what changed, but every morning I wake up excited for the day. I am not saying I didn't love every day at LP, because I did. I will always love LP, and the students and families will also have the top spot in my heart. I'm just surprised at how much I am loving this experience. I am actually beginning to think I was supposed to be Colombian - except for the language, of course. Don't ask me why, yet. I don't have the words to explain it, but at some point I will. When I figure it out, I'll share.

On Saturday I got my hair done. It had been four months since Jill covered my gray with highlights (Now everyone knows that I have gray hair. I know everyone thought my color was totally natural :)). I decided it was important to hide my gray, but I was afraid because I knew I could not explain in Spanish what I wanted done. Fortunately, I had Kelly offer to go with me to the salon on Friday afternoon to explain what I wanted done on Saturday. While she was explaining to the hairdresser (William), I heard her say, "mas natural." Since I had just told her I wanted to cover my gray so it looked natural, I wasn't worried. Guess what? My hair is now mas natural. It is ash blonde with a touch of gray - basically my natural color. Kelly translated what I told her and William did exactly what he was told to do. I am not blaming them; I am the one who did not explain clearly what I wanted done. Melissa told me not to worry about it because it's better to be less blond than more gray. I agree, but I am still getting used to the color. Today one of the 7th graders told me she likes my hair color, so I guess it's not as bad as I think.


Today is Gustavo's birthday. In his honor, I have include a picture of him with his birthday cake. Gustavo is hilarious! When I saw him this morning, this first thing he said to me was, "Where is my present?" Considering English is his second language, I am impressed with how well he is able to make jokes and funny comments. It's nice when humor translates.

Nolie asked me to give an update on how my Spanish is progressing. I would like to say, "Muy bueno," but that would not be completely true. I am learning a ton of Spanish, but I am struggling with putting it together to make coherent sentences. Everyone keeps telling me Spanish is difficult to learn (I am sure to make me not feel so bad about my inability to communicate), but I feel like I should be doing better than I am. I want so badly to be able to talk to the people around me. Yesterday, a group of 9th grade students took it upon themselves to help me learn some casual conversation language in Spanish. I made them have casual conversations in English class this week, so I think they figured turn-around is fair play. One of the phrases is, "Aja, y tu que?" and the other is, "Que hubo." Supposedly, both of them mean something like, "What's up." I told the girls it seems odd to be learning slang when I can't even speak Spanish correctly, but they seemed to think it important for me to learn.

Sorry for so few pictures. I'll do better with the next post.

Funny...but wrong!

Although school is in session and I spend most of mine time there, I have had the opportunity to meet some extremely nice people who have taken me under their wing and shown me many parts of Barranquilla. Two of these people are Kelly and Virna. They are awesome! Last Friday they took me to downtown Barranquilla - not the best neighborhood in the city. With both of them holding on to me, though, I felt extremely safe. We first ate lunch at a yummy vegetarian restaurant where the menu of the day is 6,500 pesos (about $3.25). The meal includes soup, beverage, and the main course. We then went to a goverment building because Virna had to get some paperwork taken care of for her new teaching job :(. When we were leaving, we noticed the Colombian Youth Philharmonic preparing to play so I took their picture. Our next destination was Paseo Bolivar, the first street in Barranquilla and where the city began. The statue is of Simon Bolivar, the father of freedom in Colombia. He is more than a hero here. We stopped at an ice cream shop to have Frozo Malt, which is a desert with chocolate ice cream and a jello/jam-type red topping. It was delicious. It is famous in Barranquilla because it is served at only one heladeria chain, and it is what Gabriel Garcia Marquez ate while he was writing One Hundred Years of Solitude . The last picture is of Virna on a sidewalk in Barranquilla.







The next day I spent about three hours at the Catedraton with the nuns. The Catedraton is a yearly -thon to raise money for the cathedral in Barranquilla. The 10th graders at school collected money for the first three weeks of school in cans and from selling bracelets, and they also had a day where they sold sweets and baked good to raise money. At the Catedraton, the girls presented the cathedral with a donation of 3,000,000 pesos (approximately $1,500) from the school. We ate lunch there and watched some entertainment. It was actually quite fun.









After the Catedraton, I went with Virna and her husband Jose to the Museo del Caribe, but we only went to the exhibit on La Copla. If I understand correctly, coplas are a specific type of Spanish folksong that was very popular in the mid-latter 20th century. The exhibit is from Spain and it has posters, record covers, and scripts from different copla productions. It was fascinating to learn about an artform I was previously unaware of.








We then went back to Virna and Jose's apartment and played games. Their apartment is darling. I love all the mosaic tile-work. After games, Virna made dinner. She is a much better cook than I could ever hope to be. When I got back to the convent, Sr. Ana Elisa was watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I don't know why I had to include that, but I found it so funny. I guess the Kardashians appeal to broad cross-section of people.




I would like to clear up something about which I wrote earlier. When writing about the students here, I explained that I don't like when students are talking while I am teaching. Austin reminded me that my classes are all about everyone talking, so he disagreed with my comment. I agree with Austin, so I will explain it differently. I LOVE student participation and discussion. When the students are involved and engaged and we are all talking together, I love it. What I don't like is when I am teaching or we are having a class discussion and some students are having their own conversation that is completely unrelated to what we are talking about in class. To me, those are entirely different scenarios. Thank you Austin for pointing out my need to clarify.



This next paragraph is neither for the faint-hearted nor for the under-13 crowd. If you are either, stop reading now. This is a story of English gone wrong. Yesterday in 11th grade (12th grade in the US), the girls were telling me about themselves, including likes and dislikes, family, and pets. One sweet girl had just finished talking about her family and was moving on to talk about her pets when she said (and I quote), "I have a bitch." I immediately knew two things: first, the girl had consulted an English-English dictionary at some point to see what bitch means; and second, I needed to treat the situation as a learning experience. The latter was a little difficult as I was struggling to both breathe and not fall on the floor laughing because what she said was totally unexpected (and hilarious). I calmly (maybe I didn't actually do it calmly, but I want to pretend I did) explained that although the term does indeed mean female dog and in the dictionary it would define it that way, in English we do not use it in reference to our pets. I told her it would be best to say she has a female dog or a girl dog. I tried to explain that the term she used is usually used for people, and it is seldom used in a positive manner. She clearly did not fully understand why I was making such a big deal out of it, but she agreed to call her pet a female dog. So the lesson of the days is to be sure you understand the usage of a foreign word before you use it.