Rockstars

It’s bilingualism month in Barranquilla. What does that mean? It means that here in Barranquilla, the government, teachers, and students are celebrating their process of becoming a bilingual city. What does that mean to the Peace Corps volunteers, who have come here to teach English? It means we became total rockstars for a day. (And yes, Epic people, my use of rockstar is tongue-in-cheek :))

But actually, we sort of did (become rockstars, I mean). As a result of their high English scores and/or evaluations in general, ten “smaller” schools were awarded the right to have real live Americans, aka us Peace Corps volunteers, visit their schools for half a day this week. The catch, however, was that they then had to complete an application to get us, which only four did. Overall, this meant that on Thursday, groups of 5-7 of us were shipped out to four schools throughout the city to ostensibly visit and do English activities. In reality, this meant we showed up and were given basically a royal welcome.

My school, El Campito, was a primary and secondary school of approximately 1000 students. We walked in the doors of the complex and were immediately welcomed by smiling, singing children with signs and flags. Older students gave brief English introductions for some of the administration, and then we toured each classroom, where all children young and old sang us a resounding edition of a song made up predominantly of the phrase, “Good afternoon to you.”

In the schools, I was shocked to see that not only did many of the classrooms have numerous, strategically placed wall mounted fans, but air conditioning, too! They had a computer lab with internet, and in one room had a SmartBoard, which is an electronic sort of white board that costs thousands of dollars. School funding for anything beyond the basics is apparently predominantly driven by the individual principals of the schools, so this one must be fairly incredible. We heard later that next year a volunteer will be placed in this school…and let me tell you, that would not be an incredibly rough life!

After our tour, it was time to get down to business. We were told to do about an hour of activities with the students, so after being ceremoniously served agua de coco (see previous post for a descriptions), we introduced ourselves and where we were from and taught them songs. I may or may not have attempted to teach them the “Hook ‘em horns” sign but I’m not sure that it stuck…

Our part over, we retired to our places of honor at a banquet table, and the show commenced. I’m not sure where they got this talent, but everything we saw was literally X-factor or whatever TV-show-you-like caliber. A little girl sang us a BackStreet boys song in a sultry voice. A little boy sang the most adorable rendition of  Train’s “Soul Sister” I’ve ever heard…and then came the dancing. 

You may or may not know this, but Colombians are incredible dancers. We’re talking, everyone I’ve seen, even those who claim they “don’t dance,” has moves that pretty much anyone would kill for. 

During our visit, we saw this is a skill that comes, well, perhaps indecently early. 

The first dancer who performed for us was this tiny little girl, maybe eight. She was wearing a black and purple lycra outfit and with her gorgeous long hair and her face painted like a doll’s, she was one of the most beautiful little girls I’ve ever seen. After walking out to the middle of the floor and giving us an angelic smile, she proceeded to plant her legs and bend down so that her rear, covered in a little ruffled bunch of crepe, was pointed provocatively up at our table. The male volunteer in our group was more than a little astounded. This, however, was soon to be the least of his discomforts; when the music started, the girl proceeded to dance using professional-seeming music-video-esque moves to incredibly sexy American songs. We’re talking everything from Brittney Spears to a remix of “I’m Too Sexy” to Rihanna to who knows what else. For a good 15 minutes at least, she ground and shimmied and shook and tossed her hair in front of not only us, but a roomful of high school students, male and female, who all watched avidly. And she did this all with the most beatific smile on her face. I have nooo idea what those choreography sessions are like, but I’m not sure they would be more disturbing if it were a male or a woman teaching her those moves!

The finale was a large dance group of middle-high school girls (and just a few guys). The girls were dressed in sparkly bras and red lycra and did an incredible dance that, in addition to everything else, included a more than generous amount of booty shaking and pre-pubescent breast shimmying approximately two inches away from our vantage point. And, to top the day off, we were pulled into this swirling crowd of dancers to show off how truly terrible gringas are at dancing.

That night we walked an hour and a half home through city streets while heat lightening played to the south and children shot marbles by the sidewalks. We are, of course, not rockstars. And these children who welcomed us so enthusiastically will most likely not beam when we present them with homework. But to see how our presence is valued by the country, by the schools, by the teachers and students as well…well, maybe in the next few years we’ll have a chance to earn the welcome we received this week.