Life, Liberty, and Happiness

Hello there, friends. It’s been a bit of a time. The long story short: life has been good.

The slightly longer story, list style:

In the past few weeks (in addition to work, which is chugging along) I have

·         Visited Santa Marta

·         Become an honorary “Scout de Colombia”

·         Moved

·         Joined a gym

The elaborated story –

Santa Marta:

Almost a month ago, I was invited to go to Santa Marta by the family who were my neighbors and another volunteer’s family during training (invitation of the “come and join!” rather than the “come and we pay!” kind). I eagerly accepted. Weeks went by and I heard nothing, so I assumed the normal, we-invited-you-because-we-like-you-but-didn’t-plan-to-follow-up sort of invitation. Then, two days before the weekend, I get a call. “Emily, what days are you joining us this weekend?”

Oh. They meant it!

I canceled my (not-too-existent) alternative plans and headed down to Santa Marta. We visited the beautiful Playa de los Muertos (Beach of the Dead) aka Playa Cristal. It’s a part of Parque Tayrona that can be reached by boat, which we did along with our lovely tour group. We swam, relaxed in our chairs, and ate the pescado sudadoso or “sweated fish” the family had packed as a picnic lunch (alongside rice, yucca, and patacones.) And drank a huge thermos-ful of SunTea, the local “Nestea” (pronounced soontee).

Some pictures:

 

 



Scouts de Colombia:

A few girls in my one of my eighth grade classes were ecstatic to learn that I was a girl scout, growing up. They invited me to come to their scout meetings, here. (How do you say Scout in Spanish? For phonetic reasons (“s’s” before consonants are given an “eh” push-off), “Eh-scout”!)

Scouts here are mixed boys and girls. There appear to be more similarities to the Boyscouts of America than the Girlscouts…which I am aware of due to years of enforced attendance to my brother’s boy scout ceremonies.  Their official patch is basically the same as the boy scouts, and they also attend international scout jamborees. They also have a lot of rituals, including lots of saluting and shouting at the beginning, and do many wonderful leadership activities. The categories of Scout are by ages: Lobato, Caminante, Scout, and Rover, from ages tiny to 25. They also go camping! In tents! I’ve been invited to attend a camping event in a few weekends. I’ll keep you posted :)

Last weekend was Dia del Niño, which involves celebrating the existence of children through energetic displays of child-love such as: activities in all the local malls, free candy given out at school, debuts of lion cubs at the local zoo, and neighborhood events where there are free treats (for the parent and/or child, whomever gets there first), an “animator” who encourages the children to jump and yell, lots of loud music, burlap sack races, cheerleading performances, etc.

My Scout Troop helped out at the neighborhood event at the park where we hold meetings. As an honorary “dirigente”, or, Scout Leader, I helped oversee the members as they secured exits, gave directions, and held an exhibition of scouting gear for the local children. I’ll just say – these kids are really wonderful kids.

Afterwards, we trekked to a favorite fast food place for a late dinner called “Tronco ‘e Sabor” – which translates roughly to, “A Super-lot of Flavor” and got the biggest plates of salchipapa-esque food I’ve ever seen. Every meat imaginable chopped up with French fries, bollo, lettuce, sauces, French-fry-onion pieces, topped with cheese and three ribs. Yeah. It was a good day and night.

My move:

So. For the last year y pico, I’ve lived with a family of 10, 2-3 chihauhuas, a parrot, 3 turtles, a partridge, and a pear tree. With always something going on at every hour of the night and day—picos blaring, family running in and out of the house, babies everywhere, food getting fried willy-nilly, and generous, kind, super-attentive host moms, the experience was enlightening, challenging, tumultuous, and one-of-a-kind.

Recently, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer had to return home for health reasons. The house he left belonged to a family I lived near during training – the very same family who I joined in Santa Marta. I was ready for a different sort of living experience, and when the host mom invited me to take the former volunteer’s place in her household, I accepted happily. The family is childless, the mom is a teacher and the dad is a chef. I have unlimited access to the kitchen – and I’m making my own food(!) There are times when I am alone in the house.

We go to bed by 9:00 (host mom and I both have to be at work super early) My room has a window.

…basically, it’s wonderful in every respect.

 

Gym:

This year, I promised myself I’d avoid and/or actively take action against things that are challenging, that I actually can change. Including things in the “luxury” category. For example: one thing that’s been really tough is a lack of aerobic exercise. Although I bought an elliptical, after about 8 months it was broken more often than not. My new house is a block and a half from a local gym of the “professional” sort (Barranquilla’s gyms range from garages outfitted with weights where you can pay 1 or 2 mil by the hour, to super fancy gyms that are over 300 mil a month). This gym isn’t a cheap one, but it’s affordable and, although heaven knows I never expected a gym to factor into my Peace Corps service, I’m loving it.

…So basically what I’m saying is that, this month has brought a lot of good change. For the first time in a long time, I am happy in many aspects of my life…at the same time! Challenges come and they go, but having exciting experiences and peace in my home life is making all the difference. Here’s to a wonderful May!