Hola! It has been over two weeks here in Colombia and we have already experienced many new and exciting things. We are soaking up as much as we can through our daily training sessions at Santa Cruz in Cota. Santa Cruz is home to all 36 volunteers though out our orientation. We have no Internet and no phones so we are spending all of our time enjoying the outdoors and each other’s company. Our sessions have included crash courses in culture, lesson planning, and Spanish. We have met and have become close with Volunteers Colombia, which is the organization that WorldTeach closely works with. They set up our placements and are very involved in orientation and throughout our next year. The two people that we have worked very closely with are Pedro and Veronica.
Our typical day starts with the roosters crowing in the yard at 4 am we groggily trudge over to the dorm style bathrooms for ice cold showers. The endless supply of coffee is the only thing that keeps us going in the morning. Breakfast is always interesting and can be anything from meat and potato soup to scrambled eggs with corn. After breakfast we head off for a jammed packed day; which usually ends with a trip to the neighborhood tienda for some cervezas.
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| Roommate picture before going into the press conference! |
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| Press conference at the Ministry of Education |
We headed to Bogota to visit with the minister of education on our second week of orientation. On the morning of our departure into the city we found out that we would be involved in a press conference. We trucked down to Bogota in our bus unaware of what we were getting into. We all walked into a small room filled with tons of cameras and packed with journalists. Although the press conference was entirely in Spanish I surprisingly understood most of what was being said (I guess immersion is starting to work!) Many volunteers were interviewed and it was a much bigger deal then we could have imagined. After our fun visit with the minister of education we headed to a small piece of American soil, the United States Embassy. We were briefed on safety in Colombia, which was more of a common sense lesson and shockingly did not inflect fear into our souls. However, it was followed up with health in Colombia, which was immensely scarier. Luckily we don’t have too much to worry about since most of the medical issues stem from bug bites that aren’t usually in large cities (good luck Baru volunteers).
The next day we visited an upper class private school in the outskirts of Bogota. The contrast between where we will be placed and the school that we visited was incredible. It was, by all means, the nicest school I have ever seen in Colombia as well as in the states. Many teachers from the school came in to teach us about being teachers. All of the instructors came from very different and prestigious backgrounds and had so much to share with us. A news crew burst through the door of our classroom. They did a little story on us and interrupted our long day at school. Several of the volunteers were interviewed and we ended up being on the front page of the newspaper. Very exciting!
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| Pedro's family lake house |
We had a traditional Colombian Sunday last weekend. We all went to the park and spent all morning hiking up the mountains of Bogota. We enjoyed the scenic views of the largo. Then we ate up some yummy empanadas with honey drizzled over top, tasting something like French toast with corn tortillas. We then picnicked over the amazing views of Pedro’s family lake house. After a warm and lovely afternoon we drove back in our volunteer bus only stopping at the madness of the dairy dessert store. I have never so many people crammed in one small area with their only goal to buy some strawberries and whipped cream! You could hardly move as we swam through the endless sea of people. I was about to call it quits in complete frustration as people shoved and blindly reached into refrigerated shelves to pull out their treats. Then I recalled why I was here in the first place and decided to instead of fighting Colombia to join in. I shoved and plowed through the crowds reached into the glowing lights of grocery shelving and managed to mangle up a pastry puff and strawberries and cream. It was well worth the fight and I have to say the best whip cream I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.
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| The Men |
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| The Californians |
Bogota is a huge city full of great thing to do it is about an hour drive, in traffic, from Santa Cruz. It is kind of like a dirtier New York City. We spent two days there over the past week. The first day we spent the morning setting up our Colombian bank accounts then had the whole day to do whatever we wanted to, so we ate! Dale and I along with Joy and Zack, other volunteers, headed to a touristy part of town, which is referred to as “little America”. After two weeks of plantains and rice at Santa Cruz I gobbled up a giant American burger. It was AMAZING! Afterwards we strolled around the streets of Bogota until we found ourselves lost. We were about to pull out our map and regroup as Pedro magically appeared out of the crowd, in a city of 8 million people it truly was magic. He showed us our way back and then disappeared back into the crowded streets of Bogota.
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| Botero Museum |
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| The Gold Museum |
The second time we visited the city we enjoyed the museum district. We started with a guided tour of the gold museum. It was a beautifully designed museum, which really let the gorgeous gold pieces shine. We learned of the history of gold in Colombia and how important it was to their religion. Then we headed over to the Botero Art Museum. The museum was wonderful and not only had great works of art from the famous Colombian artist but also many pieces from Picasso, Renoir, Monet and many others. After enjoying a lovely day at the museums it started to down pour. Having to get back to the bus we all had to swim through the rivers of pollution that flowed down all of the streets and ran trying to dodge the sea of umbrellas. We piled into the bus soaked and smelling of the dirty streets of Bogota but the museums were worth it.
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| Bogota |
We have also gotten to have some free time over orientation. We have spent some of that time crammed into a tiny bus that took us into Cota. Cota is a little town with all the necessities: Internet, phones, pizza, and cervachas. The people there are patient with our strung together Spanish and Dale and I mostly rely on our charade skills to communicate. Everyone is very nice and seem to genially enjoy having the grinos in their town. When we are not venturing into town we enjoy lots of ping-pong. The people at Santa Cruz brought out a table for us and we can’t get enough of it! We have set up tournament nights and play during all of our breaks. Needless to say Dale and I don’t ever win but still have a blast trying.
We headed to Bogota to visit with the minister of education on our second week of orientation. On the morning of our departure into the city we found out that we would be involved in a press conference. We trucked down to Bogota in our bus unaware of what we were getting into. We all walked into a small room filled with tons of cameras and packed with journalists. Although the press conference was entirely in Spanish I surprisingly understood most of what was being said (I guess immersion is starting to work!) Many volunteers were interviewed and it was a much bigger deal then we could have imagined. After our fun visit with the minister of education we headed to a small piece of American soil, the United States Embassy. We were briefed on safety in Colombia, which was more of a common sense lesson and shockingly did not inflect fear into our souls. However, it was followed up with health in Colombia, which was immensely scarier. Luckily we don’t have too much to worry about since most of the medical issues stem from bug bites that aren’t usually in large cities (good luck Baru volunteers).
The second time we visited the city we enjoyed the museum district. We started with a guided tour of the gold museum. It was a beautifully designed museum, which really let the gorgeous gold pieces shine. We learned of the history of gold in Colombia and how important it was to their religion. Then we headed over to the Botero Art Museum. The museum was wonderful and not only had great works of art from the famous Colombian artist but also many pieces from Picasso, Renoir, Monet and many others. After enjoying a lovely day at the museums it started to down pour. Having to get back to the bus we all had to swim through the rivers of pollution that flowed down all of the streets and ran trying to dodge the sea of umbrellas. We piled into the bus soaked and smelling of the dirty streets of Bogota but the museums were worth it.
