And then...

The past month or so have been busy ones here at El Colegio La Ensenanza. And all who know me know that busy = good in my book.

I'm not quite sure what to begin writing about, and I am positive this particular entry will sound very disconnected. But since I'm really writing it for myself, I guess I shouldn't care :).

Actually, I'd like to begin by talking about my progress in Spanish. Back in July when Ana Elisa said I would be speaking Spanish by December, I was super excited. I figured it would just happen because I live her. Well, it hasn't. I figure that between meals with the nuns, church, students who insist on speaking Spanish to me, and students who have taken it upon themselves to help me learn Spanish, I am getting about 18 hours of Spanish a week. That is quite an intensive Spanish course. Unfortunately, I have not spent enough time doing my own personal studying of Spanish to have it translate into a growing fluency. I have learned a great deal, and I actually understand the majority of what people say to me (unless it's the girls talking really fast, which they are extremely good at). I can also respond and question in present tense and use some verbs in preterite tense. My vocabulary is growing, but all too often I find myself saying, "No se la palabra en espagnol." I do like, however, that I am learning the Spanish that is used by the people. I have also learned my share of malas palabras, since some (many) of the girls think those are the most important words for me to know. The worst thing about my Spanish, though, is my pronunciation and accent. Like I have mentioned before, the girls laugh at me when I speak. They tell me I am doing a good job with my Spanish, but that it sounds funny. Some of them are nice enough to tell me it sounds cute, but I know they are just being nice. Many of them will repeat what I have said with my STRONG American accent and then laugh. I must confess that I actually think it's cute when they do that. I hope that when I get home in a few weeks I will be able to use my Spanish enough to show that I have indeed learned something. I am most excited to talk to Lali's kitchen crew at LP. For too many years we communicated through body language and smiles. I can't wait to tell them how much I appreciate how they took care of me for so many years. If it hadn't been for Lali and her crew, I would have starved to death.







One of my relatively recent activities, that I wish had begun in July, has been visiting the school in El Bosque, which is called Lestonnac. As I have said before, I originally came here with the intent to spend every Friday at the school in El Bosque. Due to circumstances beyond my control, that did not happen. Fortunately, Angie Usuga and Julieth Davila invited me to join them on their journey one Wednesday. A little back history: Every Wednesday, Angie and Julieth got to El Bosque to work with a group of girls in teaching them performance art. In my post about Medellin, I wrote about the two of them and what they do. As soon as BAMUN ended I accompanied them to Lestonnace on a Wednesday. I loved it! I met a girl named Sarith who was my tour guide and translator. Her English and my Spanish were almost equal, but it was nice to have her with me. At one point I met Jonathan, the Spanish teacher for the primary school. He told me he only meets with the girls in the elementary grades one hour a week. I happened to be there during 4th grade English, so I got to join their class. The girls were so cute and they were so excited to ask me questions and talk to me. Although their Spanish is very limited, they asked me if I like bananas, yellow, tennis, etc. I also went to prekindergarten and greeted the students in English. They were able to respond and everything. I seriously wanted to put them all in my pocket and take them home. I was able to go back two more times before regular classes ended. I told Angie and Julieth going to El Bosque was my new favorite thing. Another day I was there, I visited a group of 3rd graders and I spoke to them in Spanish. Either they actually understood what I said or they were too polite to tell me they had no idea what I was talking about. I hope to continue my visits in January once school resumes. The best thing, however, about my visits to El Bosque is the time I get to spend with Angie and Julieth riding to and from the school on the bus. The journey takes almost and hour and I have so enjoyed getting to know the two of them. They are both such good examples of the spirit of St. Jeanne and the Company of Mary. They both live lives of service. In a coming blog I will expound on how fantastic the two of them are, but for now suffice it to say they are a rare breed. By the way, most of the pictures are from Lestonnac, but the first two are of Angie and me and then Julieth and me on the roof of the convent. One day as we were leaving for the convent, one of the girls decided me needed to climb onto the roof because she had done it once before with Ana Elisa. I, of course, was game.










I also found time to have some fun, too. One day I accompanied the 9th graders to the zoo. It was first trip to the Barranquilla zoo. The zoo was better than I expected, but it reminded me more of the Santa Ana Zoo than the San Diego Zoo. There was a good variety of animals and the design and layout of the zoo was nice. It was, of course, also fun to visit the zoo with some of the girls. I was so busy taking pictures of the animals that I neglected to take pictures of most of the girls I was with. I did take one of Lina Lara with red lips and red teeth because it looked so funny. Also, when we were about to leave, I realized I had no pictures proving that I went to the zoo so I grabbed Luisa and made his pose with me. As is evident, she didn't really want to be in the pictures.














If I were actually a good historian I would have pictures of everything I've done. Since I'm not...you get the idea. I do have a sampling of a few things from both inside and outside the school that don't really fall into their own special category. In 6th-8th grade one week we played statue to practice giving commands. I know it's something everyone has played at some point, but probably not to practice speaking a foreign language. Some of the girls were quite good at it. We also played Preposition Twister, which most of the girls enjoyed.





Because there are close to 1,000 girls at the school and I teach over 900 over them every week, I have been very fortunate to be invited to go out with many of them. I have eaten a great deal of chuzo desgranado (which, by the way, is my favorite food here) and perros calientes, eaten frozo malt, seen a many movies, gone bowling, played Monopoly, played cards, etc. I am happy to say I haven't experienced a moment of boredom. The pictures above are merely a sampling of some of those activities.

Just call me Margarita

Before anyone spends too much time trying to decipher the title of this post, let me explain. A few weeks ago La Ensenanza participated in BAMUN, which stands for Barranquilla Model United Nations. It was their first time participating, and I was lucky enough to get to be the advisor. What a truly wonderful experience it was. The woman in charge of the event was named Margarita, and one day I had to call her to get some clarification on the event while the girls were within earshot. Although I was unaware of it (until all the girls started laughing), my pronunciation of Margarita was muy feo. I don't know what made it more ugly than most of the things I pronounce, but something about the "r"s and the "ita" at the end created something the girls have not been able to let go of. Since that moment, I have been Margarita to the girls of BAMUN. I have secretly been practicing saying Margarita so I can surprise the girls by saying it correctly, but so far I have had no success.

We began preparing for BAMUN about two months before the conference. There were 13 girls from La Ensenanza who participated, with 8 of them participating on English-only committees. Each of the girls was a delegate on a committee representing a country. The countries were Australia, Bolivia, and Finland. The committees were Legal, Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC), Economic and Social Council Committee (ECOSOC), Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee (SOCHUM), and Organization of the American States (OAS). Each of the delegates was given two topics to research and write about from the position of their country. In the paper, they also had to propose possible solutions to the problems presented. The girls spent hours and hours researching and learning about the topics and then understanding the position of the country in regard to the topics. Once they felt they had a good understanding of everything, they wrote their position papers. (And this was all before the actual conference.) I got to work closely with all of the girls who were English-speaking delegates and I have to say how impressed I was with them. Before this event, I knew their English was good, but I didn't realize how good. The papers they wrote were extremely well-written. I also worked with the Spanish-speaking delegates, but I really don't know how well their papers were written, although I assume the papers were well-written because the girls are so smart. The best part about working with all of the girls was getting to know them, and my favorite part of the entire experience was talking to the girls about things other than BAMUN.








The conference was a 4-day event, from October 29-November 1. Schools from all over the country (and even one from Mexico) participated. There were approximately 400 students who participated. One the first day, the participants registered and later took part in a very impressive opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony there was a reception. The first group of pictures is from the opening ceremony. I didn't realize I would be going to nice events here, so I did not bring anything fancy. The dress I am wearing is the only one I have in Colombia.

On days two and three, all of the delegates met in committee to attempt to create resolutions to the two issues in each committee. Every delegate had to begin by giving an opening speech about their country's position on the topics. Then the presidents of each committee opened a Speakers' List in which delegates could talk about their proposed solutions. The committees then engaged in informal debates to discuss the possible solutions proposed or propose other solutions. Once the informal debating finished, the committees separated and worked on writing up (in a working paper) their proposed solutions and lobbied to garner support for their solutions. Each group then shared their working paper and allowed other delegates to comment and state concerns, etc. Once all the working papers were presented and discussed, the delegates voted on the working paper their committee would accept to become a resolution.


While the delegates were in committee, I was an observer along with three other girls: Julieth Davila, Paola Beltran, and Yanan Khbeis. We enjoyed spending time in each committee listening to the students discuss and debate the issues. At the point in each committee when the delegates were writing working papers for resolutions and lobbying, observing became very boring. We, therefore, decided to create our own committees. It was hilarious and super fun! One day we created the Commite de Tenis in which Yanan and I explained the game of tennis to Julieth and Paola. The picture of the four of us at the table by the pool is our Hanging Out Committee. One day, we played STOP, which is kind of like Scattergories. As much as I learned by listening in the committees, I really enjoyed getting to know the observers outside the committees.



On a couple of the days after committee work, I headed across the street with the girls to Buenavista Mall. It was nice to spend some time outside the event socializing. One of the days, Paola's dad happened to be at Buenavista with her baby brother, Wilson. He is so cute that I had to have my picture taken with him (and her).


On Saturday night of the conference, there was a party for the participants and observers. Since Saturday was Halloween, the party had a Halloween theme. Unfortunately, it started raining really hard at about 8:00 (when the party was supposed to begin), so many of the girls were unable to attend the party. I jumped in a taxi between downpours and made it safely. The party was super fun because most of the girls like to dance. I danced with them them almost the entire time I was there. I, of course, don't know any dances, but the girls were nice enough to help me try to learn. I know I looked super funny when I tried to dance like them, but I figure it didn't matter as long as I was having fun - and boy was I having fun.

On day four, the committee met in a general assembly with the intent to present their accepted resolutions. I was so proud that most of the girls were in groups in their committees whose working papers and solutions were accepted. That morning, though, instead of the presentations, the general assembly was faced with a crisis, and the delegates spent the entire morning discussing and debating how to handle the crisis. I was very impressive to listen to the many, many students who were able to intelligently discuss an issue they had not previously researched. Our own Claudia Guerrero stood in front of the general assembly and presented a very interesting and intelligent argument.










After the general assembly, all of the participants and delegates came together for the closing ceremony. Unbeknownst to all of us, the ceremony began with an awards portion. Each committee presented awards for the best position paper, the best opening speech, and the two best delegates. I expected the girls to win nothing because this was their first year participating, but they went home with two awards. Camila Otero won for the best position paper for the SOCHUM committee and Laura Armenta won for the best position paper for the ECOSOC committee. Considering both of their papers were in English, I was more than a little proud of them. I think they won because they both had extremely intelligent and well-thought-out proposed solutions in their papers. I think their committee presidents were so impressed with that portion of their papers they had to give them the award. Unfortunately for the girls, the award was more of a symbolic gestures than a nice tangible award. They both received a towel with the BAMUN X logo. The third to last picture is of Camila holding her "prize." By the way, I got my own towel, too, for being the advisor.


Because I sometimes lose focus, I did not take enough pictures of BAMUN. The biggest reason, though, was because one day I accidentally turned on my camera while it was in its cover and the batteries ran out. I, therefore, have only one picture of the group. Fortunately, it has everyone in the group. Going from left to right, the group picture has Henny Navarro, Claudia Guerrero, Tatiana Cantillo, Ana Maria Gonzalez, Julieth Davila, Maria Jose Rhenals, Paola Beltran, Carolina Escobar, Camila Otero, Laura Torregrosa, Maria Alejandra Mora, Mayra Mendoza, Maria Alejandra Gutierrez, Laura Armenta, Olga Torres, and Yanan Khbeis.

After the closing ceremony, we decided we needed to decompress so we went to a place across the street at Buenavista called Crepes and Waffles where we all ate dessert. It was fun to celebrate the success of the event and spend a little more time with the girls. When I suggested to the girls that we decompress, they were a little confused by the word. Yanan said they couldn't afford it, which then confused me. I asked why not and she said they didn't bring enough money. She then explained to the other girls that I was saying "de compras," which means shopping. In the midst of my laughing, I explained that decompress and de compras mean two different things. The girls and I laughed at that for a long time. Now, every time I see Yanan I think of de compras.



A few days after BAMUN ended, the girls thanked me by taking me an extremely nice Peruvian sushi restaurant. We ate yummy sushi, followed by a delicious meal of beef, fish, rice, and vegetables. If that wasn't enough, we also had dessert. It was one of my tastiest meals here, but the best part about it was the girls I was with. I only have the one picture from that night of Laura Armenta and me, but it's obvious how nice the restaurant is. I also got a very beautiful bracelet from Maria Alejandra Gutierrez; I wear it every day.

If this weren't already the longest entry I have posted, I would go on and on about what makes every BAMUN girl special to me. Suffice it to say that I fell in love with each and every girl, and each one now holds a special place in my heart. Because of them, my BAMUN experience was one of the greatest I have had since I arrived in Colombia.