Elections, and a little bit more

Being in a crazy-developed Peace Corps site means getting to follow as much news as I want, hypothetically, given that internet is never too far away.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't still exist in a bubble....it's not like the people around me are following US news on a daily basis, usually, and it's harder than imagined to keep a well-rounded view of the world (or not) just by checking out snippets on CNN.

Turns out, in the nobody-around-me-is-talking-about-it vein, the election was something of an exception. It was all over the newspapers and local news--not just the day of, but for weeks leading up to it.

As for day-of, we followed the election on TV and internet, so I knew the minute Obama was declared president from about 4 different news sources...pretty crazy experience.

I wrote about it here:
http://www.travelgogirl.com/2012/11/15/heard-round-the-world/


******


After all the actual election hoopla, its interesting to play the game, "Where was I when..." and remember that 4 years ago, for the 2008 elections, before a crazy thing like heading to Colombia with the Peace Corps was even a thought in my head, I was living on a vegan animal ranch in Arizona, with people who legitimately believed Obama was Muslim.

(For a fun flashback to that life, I kept a bit of a blog http://livestockautumn.blogspot.com/. Here's a fun excerpt, from when I went to a rodeo that fall:

          To create a diversion, the announcer started making idle chitchat. 

         “Who’s a Hillary Clinton fan in here?” he asked. There was silence. Not that the crowd was interacting much in general, so we from the ranch just looked at each other and snickered. Then it got serious.
          “Who likes Osama’s cousin, Obama?” 
          Now the crowd started to boo.

           Umm, what? Did that actually just happen?
          And then: “Who likes McCain?” 
          *Crowd goes wild cheering* 
          “Yeah! Because who loves freedom?” 
           *More cheers*
           We stood our ground with a few half-hearted boos…but then we sort skipped to raising our eyebrows…because, umm, yikes. Way too many large strong rednecked people that it is really NOT a good idea to piss off…
           So I learned--Liberalism off of Circle L Ranch is apparently not something you should promote?

Speaking of flashbacks, what a Thanksgiving THAT was...floods, goats, and Tofurkey...crazytimes)

Well, I got lost a little bit remembering how beautiful it was in Arizona. And other pretty places I've been lucky enough to visit and/or to live.

While I still haven't come around to being happy about city living, Thanksgiving 2012 is coming up, and I have an insane amount of things in my life to be thankful for. Like mobility, and being able to pursue adventure rather than survival.

So, in a purely self-indulgent sequence, some fun and/or pretty pictures:

Arizona has the prettiest sunsets in the world. This is from the porch of the ranch house, where I lived and worked.

Moon through the tree in the Eastern night sky.

No goat should be able to get this big. Also, Carhartts are wonderful things. 

I really love Arizona. At least, the wild parts of it.

Wisconsin country roads. Heading out for a camping trip. In my last job, I used to tell people I was going camping to "adjust" to the idea of joining the Peace Corps.
Little did I know those were going to be my last forays into nature for a while...

Austin is a beautiful city, even if it is a hot one. Still, for living, I'll take middle of nowhere countryside any day. 

Trees. They are beautiful things. 

Turns out the New England shore has a gorgeous coast, too. 

A Ugandan tree. 

Safari at sunset.

Hanover, NH, I miss your falls.

I don't even remember where this was. But I'm glad I took the picture.

I had the amazing fortune of living in this house for 3 years--Dartmouth's  Foley Cooperative.
That second-story bay window? That was mine. 

Closing my really long rambling: You know what's really awesome? I've had the ability to go to lots of places in my life. Mobility. General knowledge from midwest American public schools. The luxury of being able to pursue adventure, and not just survival. I'd like to think I've learned from what I've gotten to do. At the very least, I've gotten some good story-writing material... :)

Maybe this coming year, I'll actually learn to love this city. At least, meanwhile, I've come to love some of the people here, and maybe that's all that matters.

Barranquilla Bilingualism Week 2012

Today, Barranquilla's Bilingualism Week comes to a close.

It's my second one, here, although as a trainee my participation in the first one was limited to visiting schools (my native presence a "reward" for English well-done).This time around, as a full-fledged "teacher," I had a bit more of an active role.

The week itself is an interesting concept, designed around promoting bilingualism in the city, bringing teachers together to share best-practices and talking about current successes. On the one hand, it's pretty amazing that the city is organized enough to do this--this year marks the 4th annual. It's also a huge step forward in promoting the network of English teachers that the district so desperately needs.

The problem that I see is that it's mostly about "inspiration," and lacks tangible outcomes. Although teachers shared their successes, there weren't many takeaways for other teachers to use these for their own classrooms. Although the theme was technically tourism and global outreach, as inspired by the US-Colombia Trade Agreement that should bring a great deal of English-speaking business to this city in the next years, including the plan for a huge port to be built to support the trade influx, most presentations did not reflect this.

And, of course, the week was held during a school week. Which meant, while teachers gathered to receive inspiration, the students were left without English class all around the district, in one of the few productive weeks left in the school year (Though classes technically end late November, between end-of-year celebrations, two Monday festivos/days off, finals, reviews, clowns, and elephants, we're just about done with any productive class)

I hope that teachers were able to forge connections with other schools, to make some meaningful relationships, and to receive some of the tools they so desperately need--like, how to make curriculums without textbooks. How to teach English when too many teachers don't actually speak English. How to move forward in schools without resources of even the most basic sort, while meanwhile the district is taking away English teachers from schools and increasing the already high numbers of students per class. I hope that one of these years, things start to add up.

On a super high note, Peace Corps at the least has been establishing one of those free "tools" for teachers as best as possible, including the Saturday classes that Jessica and I, and some of the other volunteers, teach. But hey, I won't bore you with more typed explanation, when you can check out the super-cool video Jessica and I (well, really mostly Jessica) put together to advertise our classes for next year, and talk about our progress!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2HzSIyN42Y&feature=g-upl