So since I've been lax in the sharing recently, here's a recap of a few of the past highlights...sans pictures, sadly, because my camera decided to die an inglorious death in Santa Marta a few weeks ago. We're working on this.
Meanwhile:
Lest you make a silly mistake, know that Cinco de Mayo means absolutely nothing in most Latin American countries. This would be a silly assumption to make, I know, so it's definitely nothing I would do... It's also not the day of Mexico's independence. It's simply a day in Mexico's history, where they defeated the French in the Battle of Pueblo against unlikely odds, etc etc. Wikipedia has a predictably somewhat informative article on it if you want to know more :)
Anyway, I digress. Disregarding any attempt at being PC (politically correct, maybe also Peace-Corps-y), it's also an American's excuse to drink margaritas and eat Mexican food, no? Therefore, it made total sense that we volunteers would gather in Santa Marta, where the Santa Marta volunteers have conveniently befriended an American hostel owner, who was hosting a Cinco de Mayo party! (Hostel friends! International things! Blond people! What?!)
It made for an amazing weekend, and the Santa Marta folks showed us around some of their Santa Marta world. Santa Marta is about 2 hours north on the coast--close to the awesome Parque Tayrona, and with beautiful beaches. It's mostly a beach resort town--like a more relaxed and less touristy Cartagena. Officially my new favorite coastal city, in terms of recreation. Since it was also a Spanish port (like Cartagena, unlike Barranquilla), it has colonial influence and charm. It has a beautiful little restored downtown area with cute healthy restaurants, an extremely accessible beach (we're talking, a 2 second walk from the downtown), and another more secluded beach area/fishing village just a brief busride away, sheltered among the Sierra Nevadas. Oh right, the Sierra Nevadas--it's nestled in the mountains, so everywhere you look is a beautiful horizon. Although the mountains aren't really safe to go into, they definitely increase the overall charm. Do I sound a little jealous? I might be.
Having spent that weekend relaxing, it was a little hard to go back to work. But I had only four days to make it through before another break in routine--a trip to Campo de la Cruz.
Campo de la Cruz is a community about two bus rides and a little over two hours away from Barranquilla. Right now, we have response volunteers doing work there, as in last year's rains the entire city was flooded. We're talking, 12 feet of water that stayed for three months. Here's where I really wish I had a camera, because it's one thing to hear this, and another to see the water line on all the houses that have not yet been repainted. The incredible thing about the community is all the work it's done in rebuilding--and the waters didn't recede until February. But with money from the government, they've been repainting, and rebuilding.
Our volunteers have set up community groups, as well as have worked with Mercy Corps, another NGO in the area, to create a children's group that's modeled after workshops done with children after 9/11, to help process the changes the flood brought to their lives. There's a chance I'll do some work in this community either teaching English, helping out with already established community groups, or both.
Either way, it was incredible on a few levels--on a basic level, it was the first time I've breathed fresh, non-city air in seven months. It was almost like being in Wisconsin again, driving out of the city to the surrounding farmlands, the road following a meandering river and the trees and grass so green. It was also great to be in a small community, contained and much more homogenous in terms of wealth and living situations than Barranquilla could ever be. Definitely more of what one would consider a "traditional" Peace Corps placement...but that's beside the point. The US Embassy hasn't declared this safe little town secure enough for a volunteer to live, so we're not allowed to be placed there. (Our response volunteers make the 2-3 hour commute daily)
On a different level, I couldn't help but be make comparisons to this community, as opposed to some of our post-Katrina communties in the US. I did a little work in Biloxi during college, and the community rebuilding was not even close to the level it was in this Colombian town. Like night and day, really. Not trying to process that or draw conclusions, but it was still impressive to see the way this community had come back together and resettled.
This Saturday was notable only in that in our English class for teachers, we taught them the "Go Bananas!" dynamica (Bananas, Attention! Bananas, Unite! Bananas, Split! Go, Bananas, go go, Bananas...*everyone jumps up and down yelling Go, Bananas!!*) Maybe my favorite thing to make grownups do.
Sunday: Birthday! Mother's Day!
Mother's day, like all holidays here, especially those that are focused on women, is incredibly important here. As in, worthy of turning on the Salsa music (read, blasting it from our two in-house 6-foot speakers) starting at 8am, inviting approximately 30 people to the house for food and gathering to sit in chairs and hang out for the day, guests including 3 screaming babies, a possey of children from ages 4-30, parents, grandparents, a partridge, and a pear tree.
Since it was my birthday, I countered the mother's day cadre with a group of gringo friends, including awesome Abby who came early from Cartagena, and the Barranquilla folks as well. We spent an inordinate amount of time sweating, growing deafer by the hour, and smiling cause we had to at the screaming babies, while playing bananagrams and eating the no-bake cookies I made the day before. Which coincidentally the Colombians think taste like Snickers... Basically, overall and all, the day was delicious, fun, and super Colombian!
Other people's pictures from when we were at Taganga, fishing village and lil beach town!
This week we are spending all week in an HIV/AIDS prevention conference with Colombian counterparts, which means everyone is in town. Which means, a birthday party for the 4 of us with May birthdays at my house, getting through all-day meetings with the office folk, and lots of ridiculousness in general!
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