This photo was taken at one in the morning, after the lights in the volunteer house went out and the locals we live with decided to have a dance party with a strobe light flashlight and their voices beat boxing. Lights out + crazy boys + almost the weekend + Latin America = beyond entertainment.
And that was Thursday night, meaning the party is just getting started and the music will soon start playing along the street at full volume and will not stop for the next 72 hours.
It is cool today. Just around 80 degrees with a breeze and clouds. So perfect after the last two days that had a starting temp of 87 degrees and full sun.
The last three days have been a blur of transportation and teaching. After my second day, I realized that I absolutely love teaching English to these people. They are beyond beautiful people: polite, respectful, and willing to learn.
My goal coming here was to find out if I could survive teaching English internationally long term. The first week here has far exceeded my expectations. I could stay here forever, and am dreading leaving in a week and....considering extending my trip. But that's a different story. :)
Quick explanation of Emerging Voices, the organization I am working with: it was started by Monica, a beautiful, incredible Colombian woman. She began five years ago in Bogota and expanded to Cartagena. Every day the 12 volunteers that are here right now split up between four or five different projects. Not all projects run every day, so we get to mix it up a bit.
Wednesday and Friday I and a few others hopped in a taxi for the short 5 minute ride through the city to a community teaching project. We split into three groups, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I helped Beto, a fluent local who works with Emerging Voices. Together we taught four beautiful students - a 16 and 18 yo boys, and two adult women.
Beto had prepared the lessons, so we took turn writing, explaining, and helping the students with their pronunciation. The three older students are absolutely amazing and learn quickly, remember their lessons, and have very accurate pronunciation. The 16 year old is shy, and...distracted. He really is good when he tries, but because he is slightly behind the others he doesn't like to try. When working with him one on one he does well, and is such a sweetheart. Beto told me that he had been at Marea, the organization we volunteer at that works with addictions. Such beautiful souls.
Thursday my volunteer team set out on a 40 minute taxi ride before being dropped off at the end of a long, dusty driveway.
We first stopped at a nice building - the library of the school - then continued walking among an extremely poverty stricken place. I found out most of the people there had to leave their real homes in the country due to the guerrilla.
The houses were simple and colorful. A few were a bit run down, and trash littered the dirt. Kids were everywhere, a few wearing nice school uniforms and the others wearing ripped, dirty clothes and no shoes. When we arrived at the main school, tiny kids outside were asking for 100 pesos - 10 cents - for water.
This was Nelson Mandela. A building with bars and wire on the windows, broken cement floors, but beautiful paintings on the walls and adequate desks and plenty of books.
I instantly fell madly in love, and I have never seen so many precious kids of the same age at the same time before. They were all so excited to see us, waving, smiling, and saying "hola".
The first class, all pretty basic Spanish, was split into three groups. I coached four teens that were SO much fun. My goodness. I would adopt them all and take them home forever.
Eager to learn and speak, it makes my job pretty easy. We worked mostly on pronunciation and reading, and after some time of review, they stood to read to the class. I was pretty proud of how they did in such a short time of reviewing. Nicolas and Tania, far left, were especially endearing. Such sweet smiles. :)
After that class we moved to a beginner class of 38 students.
Miguel and I just watched and listened for the most part, but also stood to pronounce words and show how our accents are different.
It made me a little sad, because even the English teacher didn't have the best pronunciation, so he wasn't teaching as correctly as they should have been learning. Unfortunately, due to such a low number of teachers and volunteers, that is all they have to work with.
After a break for lunch...I was thrown to the wolves. Again, due to low number of volunteers...I was given a group of 13 teens to teach by myself...unexpected with no plans. Thankfully I had a translator, because after the first hour, due a little bit to stress i think, I literally forgot all my Spanish. But, I managed the hour and a half class of rambunctious not-really-advanced students and I think they may have even learned some things about past tense!
We finally left around 4. It was HOT. We took my first bus in Colombia, and so many lovely and not so lovely memories of buses came flooding back. I have to say I love buses and how cheap they are, but definitely not the sticky, sweaty, dust that comes with them.
So. My week in a nutshell. Apart from that, on down time we have lots of fun in the volunteer house and I feel as if I have known these crazy volunteers forever. :)
Until next time. Stay warm. :)
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