hi everyone. everything in manizales is going great. unfortunatly i dont have internet so i cant stay in touch and update as much as i would like to. a few days ago i went out to a bar with my friend from worldteach angela and my boss from the ministry of education andres. we met his colombian friends and they had tragos, shots of aguardiente, this is the typical drink here in colombia, it tastes like anis, mostly the guys and not girls drink it though, becuase its really strong. the plaza is a nice bar located on the main avenue here called santender. the two may avenues are santender and paralela. angela lives closer to santender, while i live near paralelo, but everything is a walking distance in manizales, since its a small city, or you can easily grab a buseta,small but, or taxi from anywhere. after friday night at the plaza bar, on saturday i took a buseta to the center called la plaza bolivar. there you can see a really nice cathedral, the town hall, and there is also a mirador, a place where you can go up and see all of the city of manizales. The bus ride to the center of town takes about half an hour, compared to 7 minutes in a taxi, becuase people can request stops wherever they please. it was a nice tour of manizales with the pleasent music on the bus. people here are very friendly. on the way back i talked to the bus driver and he invited me to sit up in the front sit of the bus. we had a very deep conversation in spanish about the difference between christianity and judaism, he told me about his faith, his family in manizales, and things to see and do here. the landscape keeps amazing me everytime i look around, i feel as though im in a city, but then i look out the window and i see green mountains all around me. outside most of the mall there are ecuadorian musicians in thier typical garb and playing indiginous ecuadorian instruments. there are also many artists on the streets selling indiginous artwork, bracelets, and typical colombia bags saying, quiero a colombia, i love colombia. also there are other vendors on the streets that sell gum, candy, and snacks on thier carts. there are also juice vendors, whom sell kiwi, guava, mango, blackberry, and any time of natural juice you can think of. the streets are a really busy place with everyone walking, music, vendors, colorful statues by a manizales artist and much more.
i feel that i fit in pretty well with colombia, one becuase im short, becuase i know spanish pretty well, and becuase i have a darker hair color.
on another note the other night i got a little bit lost, and its a bit scary at night, becuase the streets are not well lit, and no one is around at night. luckily i met one of my neighbors who was walking her dogs and she accompanied me home. on one had during the day i feel like a colombian, having a grasp of the language, and not standing out as far as looks wise, but on the other hand i feel akward, not knowing the city very well, and being in a foreign country. so far everything is good, y mucho mas para venir
besos
Monday, January 25, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Manizales, Colombia
hi everyone,
wow so much has happened since i got here. this past wednesday i finished the orientation with worldteach in bogota and came here to manizales where i will be living for the next year. on wednesday i met the home stay. its really nice, i have a large room and my own bathroom. the lady i live with, her name is frida. she has three daughters, adriana, christina, and patricia. the middle daughter christina lives with her. also fridas two grandchildren are antonia and sergio. antonia is ten years old, shes a really sweet girl who likes to do gymnastics and play, and i get to practice my spanish with her a lot. the boy is sergio, he is 15 and he likes to go to the gym and play soccer, of course like in all of latin america. the family is all girls, except for the boy sergio, so its really nice, we talk a lot, and my spanish is definatly improving. i have gotten familiar with manizales, its a really nice, quiet town, and all the people are very friendly, theyll do anything to help. im very excited to live here this coming year. every morning i run to the estadio, stadium which is ten minutes from my house, then there is a track where from 6am to 10am people come to run and do exercise. here is manizales its your typical small city,everyone know each other, the pace of life is very slow and comfortable, there are many public services such as the track, everyone is super nice, and if you ever get lost just ask anyone on the street. i also have a supermarket close to my house called la ley, and i live close to the central avenida which is avenida santender. manizales is a city focused on culture and education. there are many cultural activities that take place such as music festivals, art galleries, and cultural events. also manizales is a university town. there are 9 universities in the city and 3 very close by. its a city very focused on bilinguism, there is a special project that started up two years ago, which is an effort of fundacion luker, a chocolate company, centro colombo americano, the link between the us embassy and colombia, and the ministery of education of manizales to make all high school graduates from manizales biligual by the year 2017. there are 62 schools in the community of manizales which take part in the biligual program. out of those schools 12 are currently bilingual, which means they have half thier classes in spanish, and half thier classes in english. the other 12 schools are called escuela activa urbana. active urban schools. this is an educational theory which is focused on student learning through interacting within the students, and have student| lead activities, with teacher guidence. the teacher proposes activities, and the students whom sit around round tables, cooporate as a group, the stronger students help the weaker students to achieve the same goal of bilinguism. it sounds like a very nice idea, and i will know more of the framework once i am teaching at teh school. the other worldteach volunteer that is also living here in manizales is angela. we are both working with different projects in manizales, and will be teaching english in the elementary schools. she is specifically working with the luker foundation and the colomboamerican center in three public schools which are part of the urban active schools system, this means the schools have an emphasis in english, but are not yet biligual. the three schools angela will be working with are INEA, a school focused on producing nurses, pocheli, a latin american school, and one other public school. i will be working at the san jorge school. all of the schools in which we work in a poor public schools that wouldnt normally have the opprotunity or the financial resources to have a native english teacher in their schools. angela will be focusing on the middle school and high schools grades, meanwhile i will be working teaching english to students in grades k-4. up to now it seems to me that manizales takes being bilingual very seriously, and that we have many different organizations supporting angela and i in order to have a positive and meaningful teaching experience this year.
apart from the focus on education, and culture, and having super nice people manizales has a very rich environment. i step out my door and every morning i am stunned by the scenes i see. as i go to the track in the morning i see an industrial city, built into the mountains. the mountain are amazing, rich, green, furtile, snowcapped mountains, fresh air, butterflies, its absolutly heaven. manizales is very focused on biodiversity and protecting the environment. the main coffee company here, the the zona cafetera is one that gives back to the environmental concious projects and is very green. also at each of the universities there is a focus on el medio ambiente, the environment and the biodiversity in manizales.
yesterday angela and i went to two places with the ministery of education, who will be my boss, whom is andres. he showed us the resinto del pensamiento, the farm for thinking. its a beautiful place with green landscapes, a butterfly sanctuary, an orchid farm, and also a cable car. one of the most innovative things manizales has to offer is the cable car. a common form of transportation is the cable car, people actually sit in a booth, and get to work on a cable, in the air, overseeing the whole city! There are many diffent points to take this car throughout the town, mostly from the shopping centers. also in the shopping centers there are plazas which sit at the highest point of the shopping mall and oversee the whole city. there is an open view where its possible to see all the surrounding mountains and scenery. when you walk around at night, the views are amazing, the lush green mountains on the backdrop of a dreamy sunset. everyhting is beautiful the mountain with the sunrise and sunset, the lovely people, the slow and calm pace of live, their way of living, its very happy and positive. i am confident that i will love it here, and if people want to come visit i am sure they will fall in love with the city. i find myself having to take out my camara every second of the day, and saying to myself that this city should be the posterboard for a postcard company, its that beautiful. i will try to post pics asap, im afraid i have way too many pictures.
all in all i am very excited to be starting to teach at the school next week, i feel that i will really make a difference, i have a once in a lifetime opprotunity to come into such a welcoming and warm community, to make friends with the paisas, people of manizales, learn thier traditions and cultures, and also to impact the lives of the poor children and the least funded elementary schools, and the surrounding community.
later on in the year, one of the worldteach missions is to create a special project to enrich the community in which they live in. i am very excited about this, i will have the opprotunity to bring in much neede resources, into low income communities of manizales, which would otherwise not be able to recieve these gifts, where they be of education, knowledge, cultural awareness, the english language, and pure fun. right now during the orientation im being handed a lot of information, and i will try to come out of this 3 weeks orientation with all the information absorbed, and translates it into making a difference for this community, that truly deserves it. i hope to hear from everyone family, and friends, and i will write another update soon. lots of love, amor y besos
Neta
wow so much has happened since i got here. this past wednesday i finished the orientation with worldteach in bogota and came here to manizales where i will be living for the next year. on wednesday i met the home stay. its really nice, i have a large room and my own bathroom. the lady i live with, her name is frida. she has three daughters, adriana, christina, and patricia. the middle daughter christina lives with her. also fridas two grandchildren are antonia and sergio. antonia is ten years old, shes a really sweet girl who likes to do gymnastics and play, and i get to practice my spanish with her a lot. the boy is sergio, he is 15 and he likes to go to the gym and play soccer, of course like in all of latin america. the family is all girls, except for the boy sergio, so its really nice, we talk a lot, and my spanish is definatly improving. i have gotten familiar with manizales, its a really nice, quiet town, and all the people are very friendly, theyll do anything to help. im very excited to live here this coming year. every morning i run to the estadio, stadium which is ten minutes from my house, then there is a track where from 6am to 10am people come to run and do exercise. here is manizales its your typical small city,everyone know each other, the pace of life is very slow and comfortable, there are many public services such as the track, everyone is super nice, and if you ever get lost just ask anyone on the street. i also have a supermarket close to my house called la ley, and i live close to the central avenida which is avenida santender. manizales is a city focused on culture and education. there are many cultural activities that take place such as music festivals, art galleries, and cultural events. also manizales is a university town. there are 9 universities in the city and 3 very close by. its a city very focused on bilinguism, there is a special project that started up two years ago, which is an effort of fundacion luker, a chocolate company, centro colombo americano, the link between the us embassy and colombia, and the ministery of education of manizales to make all high school graduates from manizales biligual by the year 2017. there are 62 schools in the community of manizales which take part in the biligual program. out of those schools 12 are currently bilingual, which means they have half thier classes in spanish, and half thier classes in english. the other 12 schools are called escuela activa urbana. active urban schools. this is an educational theory which is focused on student learning through interacting within the students, and have student| lead activities, with teacher guidence. the teacher proposes activities, and the students whom sit around round tables, cooporate as a group, the stronger students help the weaker students to achieve the same goal of bilinguism. it sounds like a very nice idea, and i will know more of the framework once i am teaching at teh school. the other worldteach volunteer that is also living here in manizales is angela. we are both working with different projects in manizales, and will be teaching english in the elementary schools. she is specifically working with the luker foundation and the colomboamerican center in three public schools which are part of the urban active schools system, this means the schools have an emphasis in english, but are not yet biligual. the three schools angela will be working with are INEA, a school focused on producing nurses, pocheli, a latin american school, and one other public school. i will be working at the san jorge school. all of the schools in which we work in a poor public schools that wouldnt normally have the opprotunity or the financial resources to have a native english teacher in their schools. angela will be focusing on the middle school and high schools grades, meanwhile i will be working teaching english to students in grades k-4. up to now it seems to me that manizales takes being bilingual very seriously, and that we have many different organizations supporting angela and i in order to have a positive and meaningful teaching experience this year.
apart from the focus on education, and culture, and having super nice people manizales has a very rich environment. i step out my door and every morning i am stunned by the scenes i see. as i go to the track in the morning i see an industrial city, built into the mountains. the mountain are amazing, rich, green, furtile, snowcapped mountains, fresh air, butterflies, its absolutly heaven. manizales is very focused on biodiversity and protecting the environment. the main coffee company here, the the zona cafetera is one that gives back to the environmental concious projects and is very green. also at each of the universities there is a focus on el medio ambiente, the environment and the biodiversity in manizales.
yesterday angela and i went to two places with the ministery of education, who will be my boss, whom is andres. he showed us the resinto del pensamiento, the farm for thinking. its a beautiful place with green landscapes, a butterfly sanctuary, an orchid farm, and also a cable car. one of the most innovative things manizales has to offer is the cable car. a common form of transportation is the cable car, people actually sit in a booth, and get to work on a cable, in the air, overseeing the whole city! There are many diffent points to take this car throughout the town, mostly from the shopping centers. also in the shopping centers there are plazas which sit at the highest point of the shopping mall and oversee the whole city. there is an open view where its possible to see all the surrounding mountains and scenery. when you walk around at night, the views are amazing, the lush green mountains on the backdrop of a dreamy sunset. everyhting is beautiful the mountain with the sunrise and sunset, the lovely people, the slow and calm pace of live, their way of living, its very happy and positive. i am confident that i will love it here, and if people want to come visit i am sure they will fall in love with the city. i find myself having to take out my camara every second of the day, and saying to myself that this city should be the posterboard for a postcard company, its that beautiful. i will try to post pics asap, im afraid i have way too many pictures.
all in all i am very excited to be starting to teach at the school next week, i feel that i will really make a difference, i have a once in a lifetime opprotunity to come into such a welcoming and warm community, to make friends with the paisas, people of manizales, learn thier traditions and cultures, and also to impact the lives of the poor children and the least funded elementary schools, and the surrounding community.
later on in the year, one of the worldteach missions is to create a special project to enrich the community in which they live in. i am very excited about this, i will have the opprotunity to bring in much neede resources, into low income communities of manizales, which would otherwise not be able to recieve these gifts, where they be of education, knowledge, cultural awareness, the english language, and pure fun. right now during the orientation im being handed a lot of information, and i will try to come out of this 3 weeks orientation with all the information absorbed, and translates it into making a difference for this community, that truly deserves it. i hope to hear from everyone family, and friends, and i will write another update soon. lots of love, amor y besos
Neta
Monday, January 11, 2010
Ciclovia
Today was another great day in Bogota, Colombia. Today is 'un dia festivo' a holiday due to 'los reyes magos' the three kings. All Sundays and festive days the central rode in Bogota Ciclovia is closed up for bicyclers and walkers. The whole street is filled with people jogging, running, riding thier bycicles, walking thier dogs, and enjoying family time. On the side of the streets there are people selling fruit juices and playing festive music with thier 'sombreros' and guitars. Since we ( worlteach volunteers) got the whole morning off until 11am we went out for a walk to say 'buen dia' to all of our Colombian neighbors. In addition to all the Colombian people riding thier bikes, and the entreteinment on the side of the street i also witnessed a lot of graffiti art with a political messege. All over the streets there a messeges grafitied to ther wall with saying about subjects such as education, the economy and Colombian culture. The following pictures are what I saw on the street today, a mix of byciclists, juice carts, and political graffiti, enjoy,
con mucho amor,
Neta
Sunday, January 10, 2010
field trip day in Bogota
Today was an awesome day. After many days of having lectures on how to teach TEFL and learning Spanish, worldteach took us on a day fieldtrip. We ate breakfast at the hotel downstairs. Every morning from 8am-9am they have a nice buffet of fruit, bread, cheeses, fresh squizzed juices, coffee and more. Also they offer special Colombian foods like arepas with cheese or egg( a mass of corn) tamales, and omelets. The fruit in general is wonderful. My new favorite fruit are the pitaya and granadilla. A granadilla is like an orange tenis ball with a hard shell, but inside there is sweet juice and seeds to suck. The pitaya is a yellow bumpy fruit on the outside that is white and has tiny black seeds on the inside, and is super sweet. In general the fruits and vegetables here are great. Other favorites are friend plaintains, empanadas ( masses of dough with either cheese or meat) and a sausage stuffed with rice. I really don't understand it
colombia offers really amazing food, yet all Colombians are really fit!
We got on the bus to go to Laguna de Guatavita at 9am. The path there had a lot of greenery. This land was once owned by the indiginous Colombians who believed that the mountains was the male and the water or spiritual was the female. The male mountains conqured the water to form a laguna by penetrating the water. It's a mix of really wonderful spiritual believes, and i can't help but to think that it has a bit of machismo. Also our tourguide told us a story of how to be a casique (chief) the nephew of the chief has to spend nine years of isolation in a cave, when he gets to the next stage he has to spend 4 years in a different cave, but with the four most beautiful women of the village coming to tease him every night. The chief in training has to force himself not to give into the relations with the females for 4 years every night in order to prove himself as the casique. It's a funny story that reflects a lot on the culture that is still strong now in day in most of latin america, which is machismo.
The lake sits between beautiful greenery. It is believed to be created by a crated that fell to earth harboring the gold god, which up to then has lived on the bottom of the lake. Throughout the years this had been the reasons for the Spaniards trying to extract gold from this area in Colombia and calling it 'el dorado'.
Laguna de Guatavita is located about 50km outside of Bogota. It was a spiritual lake for the Muisca people (indiginous Colombian). It was about an hour walk to the top of the mountain, with twists and turns, many lush green mountains, farms out in the distance, and many curved trails that were hidden by tree branches. It felt like being in an enchanted rainforest. There were also many stone stairs to get up to the lake, which reminded me of many of the hikes in Mexico. Once at the top, the laguna was incredible. In one picture you can see the greenery sorounding the lake, the lake itself, the skyline, the farms out in the distance, the trees and green mountains in the surrounding areas, and the clear blue sky dotted with clouds.
The next place we visited was called the city of Guatavita. All the houses have white walls and red rooftops made out of clay. The town is really nice and has a friendly atmosphere. It's mostly restruants, music, and indiginous artists selling thier arts and crafts. If you keep walking down there is also a nice waterview. Some of the indiginous Colombian arts and crafts include: dreamcatchers, handmade earing and neckleces, handsewn bags, ceramics, clay pots, straw-woven baskets, brightly knitted ponchos, and more.
More then the arts and crafts what really surprised me about Bogota was its people. When I went to buy my brightly colored bag, i started speaking to the man selling them, and he told me that he had been living in Bogota for a while and that he moved to this laid back town to sell his artwork. He told me about Manizales my placement site, and assured me that if I was to come back he would show me all the good places to eat and give me a tour of the town. A 'buenos dias' 'buenos tardes' or 'buenas noches', good morning, afternoon, or night, can turn into a conversation with a Colombian. As an American coming into a new culture I was very hessitent about what I should do and how I should act with Colombians. At first i didn't great anyone and that was a shame. My field director Courtney ( the one in charge of the volunteers while we are here) told me that if i simply greet Colombians they are superfriendly. Now I greet everyone with a hello and good day, thier attitude totally changes, they open up and give you the biggest smile. When i went to the restroom, i said good day to a girl and her face lit up, she gave me a genuine smile side to side, with a mouth full of braces. Colombians, are most likely the warmest people i have ever met! For example the other night when i went out to dance salsa at a discotech with the worldteach group, even if a 30 or 40 year old guy asked me to dance that would be acceptable. Here the culture is to be happy and dance, if a guy sees a women not dancing he will ask her to dance not becuase he's interested but for the pure joy of dancing. Guys in Colombia are amazing dancers, even the old men! They are also very willing to teach, so I have a good feeling i'll be a much better dancer when i come back to the States!
The last part of our tour was the well known 'catedral de sal Zipaqueria', the salt cathedral. In this case pictures are worth much more then words, but unfortunatly i was not able to put great pictures, becuase it was very dark inside, so i will try to describe it. As we walked in out tourguide explained to us that salt is a natural resource of the mountains and that in just 3 years Colombian workers created a cave made entirely out of salt within the mountain. The cave includes many displays of crosses, some made out of plaster, and others out of salt. It also includes scenes of the resurrection of jesus, and beatiful reproductions of statues such as angels, and works of michaelangelo and davinci. For me the most amazing part was the ceiling in the center of the salt cave. As you looked up you could see the milkyway made out of salt, and the while illuminated by a blue lights to display the details. The whole construction is 1.5km, or tunells which run underground, and which include, many statues, croses, and prayer rooms, all made entirely out of salt.
At the end of the day we came back to the pension viaggio and our field director bought us pizza. We were all so hungry from a day of walking that as a group of 20 people we finished 8 pizzas. There were hawaiian, peperoni, mushroom, tomato, cheese, and also pizza without cheese! Up to now the orientation in Bogota has gone above and beyond my expectations, the lectures are very relevant, the trips are fun, and of course the food is amazing! Hasta pronto. Next time I write will be from either Bogota or Manizales. Que tenga un buen dia
Miss everyone,
Besos,
Neta
Friday, January 8, 2010
Colombia!!!
First of all i came to colombia with a program called worldteach, so all things that i write on my blog will be my opinions and not the ones of worldteach. i came to bogota two days ago. right now we are staying in a hostal in bogota and we have orientation for two weeks before myself and the other 24 volunteers, so 25 volunteers all together go to out placements sights. my placement sight will be manizales in the mountains of the cofee growing region. although it sounds far away manizales is actually quite a developed city with a skyline, 6 universities, and all the advancements of today's society. i will be be co teaching english as a foreign language in an elementary school and i will be living with my roomate angela in a flat. in total i will be in colombia for 11 months plus the incial, middle of semester and final orientation, so almost a year.
During the first day when i arrived here i needed to get my visa processed in order to get a cedula which is my identity card here in colombia. i also had to get a blood type test and go the the colombian embassy that same day. when i went to the embassy to get my cedula i met an israeli couple whom has a hostal where they host israelis whom travel in south america after the army. the israeli couple was very friendly and invited me to the hostal to hang out with israelis in colombia, eat israeli food and learn about colombia from the other travelers. it's always something that surprises me in a good way, that whenever i meet other israelis or people that speak hebrew, it instantly feels like home, like family, and they always treat me like they have known me forever, which is nice when i am travelling in different countries.
Throughout the day the group of volunteers in colombia has lectures about learning spanish, how to teach english as a foreign language, learning how to use visual aids and games in the classroom, how to handle behavior problems, how to travel safely, etc. up to now the program has been really good about preparing interesting lectures that will be usefull in the future once i get to my placement site. i am so excited to be teaching english as a foreign language to children in elementary school in colombia! i got tons of books, cd's, and movies in english. i also got some stickers supplies for the classroom and lesson plans i have used in the past. this job description is perfect for me it combines my passions of spanish, teaching, and also working with younger children. i also feel that this job is different then any job i have ever taken upon myself in the past.
The other day one of the volunteers colombia/ world teach directors Luis gave the group of volunteers a really inspiring speech. The jist of the speech was that this is a volunteer program becuase it aims to bring native english teachers not to the richest people in colombia who can affort it and have probably had many such opprotunities in thier lives, but to the poor people in colombia who could probably not affort to have a native english teacher without the aid of the nonprofit organization. Also the main goal of the program is to bring EFL into the school systems of the impoverished areas in order to give the people of the next generation an upper-hand and competitiveness in world trade, in thier communities, and in thier life in general. For example one area of tourism here in colombia is cartagena. in cartagena there are many touristy areas, becuase it is known as the center of salsa in colombia, and probably the world. Due to the high number of tourist flowing in each year many hotels have been built recently. Most of the higher class in colombia learns english very well whereas the middle class and definatly the lower class don't learn english as well, or barely any at all. Now, take into consideration who is more likely to get a job in a hotel where english tourists visit, the upper class student who has excellent english, or the lower class student, who most likely dropped out of high school. In my mind worldteach tries to bring new opprotunities such as having a native english teacher to impoverished communities, families, and students, that would have otherwise not been as competetive in english in the scheme of things. All in all i am very happy that i am a part of such program which is devoted to helping the less fortunate and truly making a difference in the peoples' lives for years to come in the future.
Now for the adventure! This morning the group leader Pedro took about 18 people from the volunteer group including me on a hike at 5am! This was not some easy, breezy hike. About half the group ran up to the top of the mountain. we scaled up rocks, jumbed over branches, crossed rivers, saw the beautiful greenery, heard the birds, and saw the sunrise. i felt as if i was in the rainforest. Now normally a 5 mile hike would be no problem for me, but the elevation was absolutly ridiculous. Every time i stopped to take a break i heard my heart jumping out of my chest and i felt as if my legs were falling under me like jelly. All in all it was a great refreshing hike. although it was extremely difficult at the end i felt great! when we got to the top of the mountain i was so out of breath and it was just amazing to see the whole view of all the high building in bogota with the background of green mountains. it's always amazing to be riding in the bus be in the big city, and look out the window and see huge green mountains. Bogota is really a mix of the jungle and the big city.
This year worldteach has placement sites in manizales, cartagena, baranquilla, baru, kimbaya, and montenegro.
Today in spanish class we learned about the different things to see and do in colombia and what makes the country special. there are so many different regions, natural resources, and scenery. There is the andinian, carribian, amazonal, and much more. all together there are 32 provinces in colombia. it's a country of such variety, you can go to the beach, go to the tropical rainforest, go to the beautiful coffee growing region, go to the lost city of santa ana, learn about the centers of salsa cartagena and cali, or visit the capital of Bogota.
I'm very excited about this year in Colombia and i hope to be putting pictures up soon. Besos to all my family and friends, miss you lots, and i will see you soon, or you're welcome to come visit me here in Manizales, Colombia once i have an adress.
Lots of Love,
Neta
During the first day when i arrived here i needed to get my visa processed in order to get a cedula which is my identity card here in colombia. i also had to get a blood type test and go the the colombian embassy that same day. when i went to the embassy to get my cedula i met an israeli couple whom has a hostal where they host israelis whom travel in south america after the army. the israeli couple was very friendly and invited me to the hostal to hang out with israelis in colombia, eat israeli food and learn about colombia from the other travelers. it's always something that surprises me in a good way, that whenever i meet other israelis or people that speak hebrew, it instantly feels like home, like family, and they always treat me like they have known me forever, which is nice when i am travelling in different countries.
Throughout the day the group of volunteers in colombia has lectures about learning spanish, how to teach english as a foreign language, learning how to use visual aids and games in the classroom, how to handle behavior problems, how to travel safely, etc. up to now the program has been really good about preparing interesting lectures that will be usefull in the future once i get to my placement site. i am so excited to be teaching english as a foreign language to children in elementary school in colombia! i got tons of books, cd's, and movies in english. i also got some stickers supplies for the classroom and lesson plans i have used in the past. this job description is perfect for me it combines my passions of spanish, teaching, and also working with younger children. i also feel that this job is different then any job i have ever taken upon myself in the past.
The other day one of the volunteers colombia/ world teach directors Luis gave the group of volunteers a really inspiring speech. The jist of the speech was that this is a volunteer program becuase it aims to bring native english teachers not to the richest people in colombia who can affort it and have probably had many such opprotunities in thier lives, but to the poor people in colombia who could probably not affort to have a native english teacher without the aid of the nonprofit organization. Also the main goal of the program is to bring EFL into the school systems of the impoverished areas in order to give the people of the next generation an upper-hand and competitiveness in world trade, in thier communities, and in thier life in general. For example one area of tourism here in colombia is cartagena. in cartagena there are many touristy areas, becuase it is known as the center of salsa in colombia, and probably the world. Due to the high number of tourist flowing in each year many hotels have been built recently. Most of the higher class in colombia learns english very well whereas the middle class and definatly the lower class don't learn english as well, or barely any at all. Now, take into consideration who is more likely to get a job in a hotel where english tourists visit, the upper class student who has excellent english, or the lower class student, who most likely dropped out of high school. In my mind worldteach tries to bring new opprotunities such as having a native english teacher to impoverished communities, families, and students, that would have otherwise not been as competetive in english in the scheme of things. All in all i am very happy that i am a part of such program which is devoted to helping the less fortunate and truly making a difference in the peoples' lives for years to come in the future.
Now for the adventure! This morning the group leader Pedro took about 18 people from the volunteer group including me on a hike at 5am! This was not some easy, breezy hike. About half the group ran up to the top of the mountain. we scaled up rocks, jumbed over branches, crossed rivers, saw the beautiful greenery, heard the birds, and saw the sunrise. i felt as if i was in the rainforest. Now normally a 5 mile hike would be no problem for me, but the elevation was absolutly ridiculous. Every time i stopped to take a break i heard my heart jumping out of my chest and i felt as if my legs were falling under me like jelly. All in all it was a great refreshing hike. although it was extremely difficult at the end i felt great! when we got to the top of the mountain i was so out of breath and it was just amazing to see the whole view of all the high building in bogota with the background of green mountains. it's always amazing to be riding in the bus be in the big city, and look out the window and see huge green mountains. Bogota is really a mix of the jungle and the big city.
This year worldteach has placement sites in manizales, cartagena, baranquilla, baru, kimbaya, and montenegro.
Today in spanish class we learned about the different things to see and do in colombia and what makes the country special. there are so many different regions, natural resources, and scenery. There is the andinian, carribian, amazonal, and much more. all together there are 32 provinces in colombia. it's a country of such variety, you can go to the beach, go to the tropical rainforest, go to the beautiful coffee growing region, go to the lost city of santa ana, learn about the centers of salsa cartagena and cali, or visit the capital of Bogota.
I'm very excited about this year in Colombia and i hope to be putting pictures up soon. Besos to all my family and friends, miss you lots, and i will see you soon, or you're welcome to come visit me here in Manizales, Colombia once i have an adress.
Lots of Love,
Neta
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