I've been a bad poster, I know. So. Briefly:
- I've had a few friends come to visit, which was great. One even showed me how to do some awesome things in the classroom, aka using a storytelling method of teaching English called TPRS that involves all the students and gets them into the whole listening/speaking/writing/reading...you know, language learning process. We ended that class at school with all my 8th graders chanting "TE QUEREMOS NATALIE!" It was adorable.
- We held a volunteer-organized all-volunteer meeting and VAC election, which left us with productive all-volunteer goals for the year as well a super well-organized VAC. VAC stands for Volunteer Action Committee. It's similar to a student council and acts as a liason between volunteers and staff. One exists in every country, but as a new Peace Corps program, it's been lots of work to get this up and going. Jessica is our new PCV Colombia president and the meeting was the culmination of lots of work on our end, so that was an awesome thing!
- Semana Santa happens now. There's no work this week, which means lots of prep time for the upcoming outreach program Jessica and I have in the works. Come July, we'll be offering a methodology certification program to English teachers of Barranquilla. We've got the Secretary of Education on board, and it should be awesome and a sustainable, effective option that takes advantage of our super urban placement.
- This weekend, I'll be flying to Bogota to meet with my parents, who are coming to Colombia!!!!!! It's finally happening. Super excited that after this, my entire immediate family will have at least some idea of my life and the setting that I tend to talk about, well, constantly. Woot woot!
- And, finally, the latest in GoGirl: an overdue post on Minca aka my favorite place on the Colombian Coast. http://www.travelgogirl.com/2013/03/21/minca-magic Since Minca is incredible, and since I consider it my informal mission in life to inform everyone about what they should also consider to be the best things ever, you should probably check it out :) (I may have succumbed to the temptation to gush, just a bit. Just FYI..)
