That’s right, folks... 365 days of pure Colombian living. Read it and weep.
Volunteers reunite! The first 2-year Peace Corps group in Colombia since 1981, I am so fortunate to be a part of such a diverse, supportive, intelligent,
and fun mix of people! Volunteers from near and far joined us Cartageneros on our home-turf to celebrate the occasion!
ONE YEAR!
Mike's family friends hooked us up with their too-good-to-be-true apartment in the middle of Cartagena, complete with rooftop pool and all. Love me my "posh corps" moments!
To start out the week, some of us visited near-by Palenque, the first, free, ex-slave colony in the New World, founded some 400 years ago. Today, Palenque still maintains its own language (a creole mix of various African languages, Portuguese, Spanish...), its own religious beliefs (mixture of Christianity and African religions), traditional herbal medicines, its own social organization (no need for police, for example), and music/instruments brought over from Africa. The feat of creating and defending a tiny colony against the Spanish army and slave owners is inspiring. Seeing the preservation and pride of their African heritage is equally incredible.
Pelenquero language
I may still be abroad, but my previous year in Turkey couldn't contrast my new-found Costeno ways more. I no longer teach at school with a plethora of resources and to students from the wealthiest families. Instead, my classrooms now often lack desks not to mention textbooks and free photocopies, and my students come from some cases of extreme poverty. What was once Allah is now the Virgin Mary. Pleated khakis and conservative turtlenecks
have been replaced by see-through spandex and cleavage. I live with three grandmothers. Whereas I traveled to
16 countries the year before, I have not left Colombia once. Another stark difference: travel costs are not well sustained on my new-found volunteer salary. I got everything I wanted to out of Turkey: met amazing people,
gained professional experience and traveled immensely. But now, finally back in Latin America, I’m
getting those cloud 9/”life high” feelings, smiling to
myself randomly on a crowded bus because I realize how awesome my life is
I love this place.
My job is to create as much positive change as I can. Pretty awesome. I interact with genuine people, dance with my neighbors, speak Spanish, and completely make my own schedule. Feeling frustrated is a daily occurrence: waiting for 3 hours to do a 30 lesson plan, sleeping without a fan in 100 degrees temperatures because the power is out yet again, trying to teach students who don't come to school with a pencil or notebook, or having a five day work week never, ever, ever happen. But, at the end of the day, I feel energized and motivated by a job that challenges me and where I am my own boss rather than going through the motions, waiting for the next weekend or vacation.
Yes, excitement abounds at the thought of being home over Christmas break (CAN’T FREAKING WAIT!!) and seeing people I love and miss immensely. As much as I try to remind myself that I have the rest of my life to “settle down”, to have a family, to be responsible for other people, and to not eat rice for the seventh time this week, being away from loved ones is undoubtedly the hardest part and my lows here have always been centered on feeling isolated (remind me again, why the hell did I move away from everything familiar and comfortable?).
I'll be home for Christmas!
(And snow... haven't experienced temperatures below 80 degrees in over a year)
To end on, I have been able to
read so much since I arrived in Colombia. Life is good. Here are some that I can remember...
“The Power of One” by
Bryce Courtenay
“The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall
Smith
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera
“Little Bee” by Chris Cleave
“The World According to Garp” by John Irving
“Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal” by J.K. Rowling
“Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw” by
Mark Bowden
“Banker to the Poor” by Muhammed Yunus
“The Reader” by Berhard Schlink
“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
“Velocity” by Dean Koontz
“Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do” by Michael J. Sandel
“The Hunter Games” by Suzanne Collins
“Open Veins of Latin America” by Educardo Galeano
“Relato de
un Naufrago” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins
“The Kitchen God’s Wife” by Amy Tan
“El General en su Laberinto” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd
“The Psychopath Test” by Jon Ronson
“The Hangman’s Daughter” by Oliver Potzsch
“La Casa de
Dostoievsky” by Jorge Edwards
“Blindness” by Jose Saramago
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Colombia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Colombia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva,44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez