Yes, a blog post actually mentioning "work"

March 8^th, International Women’s Day, commonly raises gender inequality awareness. In my community this was not the case, at all. Women’s Day consisted of food, food and more food, a mariachi band, and male teachers reading poems in addition to telling sexist jokes and super-imposing female teachers’ faces onto bikini models. International Men’s Day is November 19^th; however, in Colombia it is celebrated on the 19^th of March (Husband Day, supposedly?). Not to mention the day off of school, female teachers similarly prepared copious amounts of food and held an after-school teachers dance party with Shakira, aka when a representative from “Colombia tiene Talento” (a knock off of the “America’s got Talent” TV program) came in a gold bikini and blond wig (pictured below with the cook at the school). As if that wasn’t sexy enough, male teachers went loco for her beer belly and lap dances.

Despite how this blog may portray it, I promise that your tax dollars are going towards more than beer and mangos and that I am in fact working (although it was a slow start). My primary job is not as an English teacher but instead working alongside Colombian English teachers introducing methodologies and strengthening competency. Having my own class would be far less sustainable than working with Colombians who will teach here 5, 10, or 20 years from now. I work with four English teachers this semester and a different four next semester. Co-planning and co-teaching have been both successful and frustrating. All teachers, English and from other departments, are fantastic, happy individuals and so welcoming. Teachers have never written and saved lesson plans, but after developing a system with each individually, all four teachers I work with now have a few. The ultimate goal being not only understanding the importance of planning lessons before walking into the classroom but also to organize and save plans for future years.

Teachers need little help with English grammar, which is awesome because my capabilities in that area are borderline nonexistent. Most lessons involve exclusively grammar exercises, one problem being students’ limited vocabulary. Although they may know the structure of a modal verb sentence, they have no idea what modal verbs “could, might, can” mean, not to mention the meaning of “I, you, he, she, it, we, they” (some students have taken 5 years of English and still do not know the meaning of ‘we’). One of my main aims has been figuring out successful ways to introduce vocabulary into the lessons. I am fortunate that all teachers are very open to and receptive of my approaches and activities while simultaneously have their own, good ideas on how to teach grammar. Having my time split between four teachers is challenging and I wish that I could assist more of each one’s classes; implementing changes takes even longer than it otherwise would.

My first effort in getting the whole school more bilingual has been making English signs to for various areas. Secretary, Teacher’s Room, Physics Lab, and Men’s Bathroom, among others are currently labeled in Spanish. With the help of an art teacher, I bought 25 blocks of wood, paint, and nails. Students, teachers and my host grandmas helped me paint the wood and drill the signs into the school walls so that beneath each Spanish sign is an English one! Below is a picture with 2 English teachers and "Teachers' Room" sings in Spanish, sign language (there are a ton of deaf kids at my school-who don't take English-, and in English).



I made it out to Tierra Bomba, an island off the coast of Cartagena where another Peace Corps volunteer, Mike, is placed. Despite the plethora of water and therefore potential beachable spots, trash and pigs for the most part had taken over…