Post Secret

My students were learning about wishes and regrets, so I had them make their own post secret postcards. If you don't know about the post secret blog, check it out now! It's a project to promote anonymous secret-telling with the mission of suicide prevention and to prevent the isolation so many young people feel. Here's some of my students' dreams, wishes, and secrets...

"I wish the capitalism would end"^ this student is good friends with
the student below.

"I wish I could travel to the USA again" complete with capitalism's finest
McDonald's and Disney World. 

The English isn't perfect, but I think the sentiment comes across quite clearly. I have some beautiful kids and I'm constantly reminded that I am here because of them. 

Peace & Love (No, I'm not talking about hippies)

September, as I mentioned in my previous post, is celebrated in Colombia as Friendship and Love month. Think of this as a less-commercialized, all-inclusive Valentine's Day. (And for once in Colombia, here it is minus the saint?) And this past week was Semana de la paz or peace week. Peace and love mean different things to different people, but these holidays were special because we don't really have anything equal in the USA.


Love and Friendship Month

Today is the official love and friendship day, but it is really a month-long celebration. The most significant tradition is the game of amigos secretos-- secret friends! This is basically secret santa, where everyone has a name of a friend and leaves sweets and small gifts around for specific people. Only secret friends is better for a few reasons. Number 1, it's not around Christmas, so it's not overshadowed by other gifts for the holidays. Number 2, its for friendship, so there's no pressure like we might think of a secret admirer. Number 3, most of the gifts (usually given once a week) are candy, so it doesn't break the bank to have multiple secret friends.

I'm doing secret friends with my 10th grade girls. It's much more fun to give cards and sweets of love to everyone and anyone, rather than the obligatory Valentine's-I-need-a-date-or-I-will-never-find-love feelings. This holiday really just celebrates love. Amor. In all its forms. I also appreciate that "I love you" can be expressed in multiple ways in Spanish. Te quiero is the more inclusive love, for friends, family, anyone you care about. Te amo is "mas profundo"-- deeper and more profound. As someone that likes to express my love openly, its nice to have more options to express.


Peace Week

At the start of this week, each teacher and student was given a lime green ribbon to wear on our shirts for the week. This week's prayers were themed with peace, and students gave short presentations on what peace means to them. Of course, the desire for peace in Colombia is obvious. Colombia has been in a civil war with FARC for decades. Much of the country is considered to be unsafe, and Colombia has the second most displaced people in the world after Sudan. Fortunately, President Santos has just announced new peace talks with FARC leaders to be held in the next few months. Peace talks have been attempted before, but from what I have read, these talks seem promising. Colombians want peace and take the week very seriously as a time of reflection and hope.

Which makes me think a lot, as an American in Colombia, about my own country's relationship with the concept of peace. We certainly don't have a week to celebrate it. In fact, Colombian peace week falls right during September 11, perhaps the one day where Americans are reminded of our own lack of peace. And now we have the Embassy attacks and yet another portrayal of the extreme cultural misunderstandings we have with Islamic cultures of the world.

Why do we always seem to default to violence? Why is there such a lack of peace education? Students in schools now need to be taught about 9/11; they barely have the memories if they were born at all. I propose we teach our kids about the violent acts in the context of working towards peace. America may not have a civil war to reconcile, but we have a culture of violence that is at war with our own country's peace.

Peace and love is not just for hippies, not just for Vermonters, or the Swiss, or for Colombians. Peace is a human desire, and love is the ultimate human emotion. I didn't expect to gain so much from celebrating these holidays here in Colombia, but they have been a valuable part of my experience here. I want to bring peace and love celebrations back to the US. Who's with me?

Birthdays a lo Colombiano!

I've always loved my birthday. I think September is the best time of the year, and the US conveniently gives everyone a long weekend right around my birthday every year. There's no September Labor Day holiday in Colombia, but the month is celebrated as "Love and Friendship" month. More on that in another post, but I'm glad my birthday month still shares some special recognition. Last Wednesday was the big day, and this is how I celebrated a lo Colombiano... the Colombian way.

Part 1: Celebrations at school

I was lucky enough to have two of my favorite people, Ben Dahl and Megan Nicholson, visit for my birthday week. On Wednesday, they came to school with me. There wasn't much teaching to share with them because both classes I had that day threw us a big party. There was cake, my favorite snack popcorn, cards, candy, and lots of hugs. My students were wonderful and showed me lots of love. I have enough chocolate now to last the rest of the year. They know the way to my heart. Ben and Megan got to talk with a lot of my students and I think they were impressed with my students' English levels. It was a great gift to see how far some of my students have come. 

Carlos Acevedo drew my profile. He's super talented!

Awesome boys of 1006!

9th grade girls from my workshop class

Part 2: Colombian mall with American comforts.

Something very exciting just came to Bogota. I'm not much of a shopper (or consumerist in general) but even I was celebrating the grand opening of the first FOREVER 21 in South America. And this new American young adult goldmine happened to open literally next door to my school! This brand new mall, Titan Plaza, is chock-full of new comforts and treats like GAP, Victoria's Secret, and our favorite (Colombian) cupcake place. We shopped around a bit after school on Wednesday and went to Crepes & Waffles (American-ish, but a Colombian chain with Colombian charm) for dinner and dessert.

Part 3: Chiva! aka Colombian party bus.

This plan had been in the works since about week three of this year. One of my favorite fellow gringas, Natalie, has her birthday 8 days after mine. Naturally we needed to plan something big for a joint birthday party. This was the perfect excuse to check off another must-do on our Colombian bucket list.

Chivas used to be used as regular transportation throughout the country, and as modern buses came to be, the colorful, open-air buses gained a new purpose--parties! About 30 of our closest friends (OK, it was more like everyone we know in the whole Cundiamarca region) danced the night away while rolling through the streets of Bogota. It was definitely a unique Colombian experience. The best part of obviously the great company I shared it with-- Colombians and Americans (and a few Canadians for good measure). Overall, all birthday celebrations were a success!

Megan is here!

Some of the gang outside the Chiva!

The birthday girls! Natalie and me... and Brighid birthday-mooching.

Wetting the Canoe?

Sometimes I have no idea what is going on.

English Day has become another one of these things I am lost in, and it takes me at least four times to understand what is going on. Lots of schools in Colombia have English Days to celebrate English education, and ours is coming up in a few weeks. For the day, the English department is putting on a school play with the theme of alternative energy. English Day is combined with Technology and Expression subject areas this year.

A few English teachers wrote a play, in Spanish, and translated it to English this past week. They asked me some questions about the best way to translate certain expressions. Judy, the sixth grade teacher asked me, "What is an expression to say someone is getting gay?"... huh? I responded, "Judy, you can't get gay. It's kinda something you are or are not. You don't GET it. And what does this have to do with a school play!?"

After further explanation, leading to only more confusion, she showed me the expression they were trying to translate, "Mojar la canoa" Literally "to wet the canoe."

I was getting pretty offended that this weird idiom was even used in a SCHOOL PLAY where a boy was touching another boy's back to see if he was okay. When I suggested its inappropriateness, I got the familiar, "Maybe in the United States it is offensive, but not in Colombia." Yes in Colombia. To people of different sexual orientations in Colombia, it is still a hurtful joke. And it's not okay for teenagers to say in a SCHOOL PLAY. Humph.

Fellow gringa Tasha and I left the play rehearsal feeling pretty disturbed and decided to google the expression. The all-knowing internet translated the meaning and compared it to the expression "playing for another team." Well, that's certainly more light-hearted than "getting gay." I told the other teachers this expression and now this is the joke my two tenth graders get to crack to a crowd of students that will probably have no idea what's going on anyway.


And so, another Colombian lesson is learned. Sometimes things just really don't make sense. And things are excused as culture when sometimes they are just not. Do I pick every battle every time I hear more-than-slightly racist/sexist/homophobic statements made? No. Not every time. I hear these things often. It would be impossible. And more frustrating is my opinions are undercut by "cultural differences." I'm preaching the words of my ultra-sensitive, all-inclusive, always politically correct American culture. Oh how I wish the US was as good at being sensitive as we appear to be!

Some days more than others, things like language and culture get all gobbled up into a big sticky mess of miscommunication. It's not the sexy part of living abroad. It's the reality of learning from each other and living in new places. But my hope is that each small misunderstanding results in everyone gaining... or getting, if you will... a little more open mind.

A Gringa's Reflection on the Olympics

Did anyone else watch the Olympic closing ceremony last night? Colombia showed it live, 3pm our time, so we didn't have to wait 'til 7pm (thanks non-NBC). Now, let me say right off the bat that I know the Olympics are controversial for a variety of reasons. But here I am, outside my home country, during one of the most patriotic world events we have. It's different, watching on Colombian TV with Colombian commentators, etc. You see the US team portrayed differently, and, all eyes are actually not on us (except Michael Phelps, ALL eyes were on Phelps), but there seemed to be a bit more worldly perspective from here.

First thought- Colombia did amazing!

All eight Colombian medal winners!

This was a record breaking year for Colombia! The athletes won EIGHT medals in total, surpassing their previous record of a mere THREE by more than double. They ranked 38th out of all countries and beating all other Latin American countries but Brasil and Cuba!

The sports are fairly unusual- weightlifting, Taekwondo, and wrestling makes Colombians seem more aggressive than I have seen here. The first medal, a silver in Cycling, makes total sense because the bike culture here is very strong. But my favorite athlete is obviously the gold medalist- Mariana Pajor. She won the gold for cycling- BMX. Yes, BMX. Step aside, Latina beauty queens, we have a new role model for girls to look up to! The only gold for the country, and three out of the eight medals, are brought home by the ladies!

Mariana Pajor- Gold medalist and my new favorite Colombian.

Second thought- Let's hear it for the girls! 

While watching the women's soccer final (yay US) I thought, "This is weird- Canada, Japan, and the US medaling... Where are the Latino and African countries? They are quite good at men's soccer." There's a lot of debate as to the best approach to develop women's rights and equality within a country politically and culturally. I may be a complete failure in the world of athleticism, but legislation like Title IX does make a difference, and things like females winning the only gold in Colombia are important milestones.Colombia has its strong share of gender inequality and machismo culture. But Mariana and the Colombian medalist for women's wrestling are true role models for Colombian girls.

And of course on the home turf- For the first time in history, the U.S. women outnumbered the men for athletes and out-medaled them! And of course, this year was the first to have every country send a female athlete as a part of their team.

Sports are ingrained in our culture, and "breaking glass ceilings" there is a great step in the right direction.

Final thought- I'm okay with the US being #1

Yay for having the most medals! I doubt my friends would call me one of their most patriotic friends, but I am still super excited for the individual athlete's stories and successes. I really wish we would lose the baret hat trend. And even the Colombian announcers talked about the uniforms being made in China during the Opening Ceremony. We have work to do with our reputation in the world, but being the best at sports is one reputation I can live with.

There are so many great individual stories that make the Olympians who they are, and that is the best part of the games. It was nice to hear the stories of the non-US rock stars just as much as the US ones. I'm glad I got to watch the games and am proud of my country and the world.

And then the Spice Girls performed, and all was good in the world again :)

Festivals!

I was asked recently what the best part of Colombia is, and for some reason the first thing that popped into my head was- Celebrations! Like I have previously posted, Colombians love to celebrate in the forms of school assemblies, days off (appropriately called “festivos”) and of course, festivals. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy the international theater and book festivals, and they just keep coming! Just this weekend, I attended three different celebrations. Appropriate for the weekend before Bogota's 474 birthday on August 7th. Here's some of the highlights of festing!


Festival del Verano
The summer festival is a two-week-long festival held in Simon Bolivar Park (bigger than Central Park!) annually. It's hard to pull off summer in a city without seasons and where the only weather change is apparently "windier this time of year." The festing consists of food, concerts, a fake beach, "swooping" (sky diving show?), sports competitions (just like the real olympics!) and kite flying. Stay tuned for the giant kite, or cometa, festival in Villa de Leyva at the end of the month.

Enjoying Mazorca (corn on the cob), I probably wouldn't
have a sweater and jeans at any summer festival in the US

Additional fest-esk Circus show!
The other weekend some friends of mine scored free tickets to "Ladies' Night" at the Colombian Circus Convention. It's not quite a festival, but it was just as fun and outlandish. The tagline to the show was "where the only animal is man" which they take quite literally. The circus played a 10 minute video about circus animal cruelty before the show. I am of course already 100% behind this cause, and the video was horribly graphic. I was glad to see the performers raising awareness and getting political of course. Then we watched this wonderfully hilarious show of jugglers and acrobats and more. Totally worth paying nothing for!

Alimentarte
The next festival is a play on words meaning food and art. Two things I am quite fond of. And this festival's proceeds support the "green heart" foundation for widows and children of killed police officers. There were food tents from nearly all the famous Bogotano restaurants. There were way too many options, so I went for an Indian samosa and a pata"cone" (plantain) with mexican ceviche inside. It was delicious, of course. And we all topped our bellies off with some classically delicious Popsy ice cream.

Ecoyoga
Bogota's botanic gardens hosts regular "ecoyoga" events which, you guessed it, is basically a Colombian hippy-fest. There are stands with all the local vegetarian restaurants (there are tons, acutally!) Fresh products like homemade peanut butter (heaven!), hemp bags and shoes, and meditation/yoga necessities. This month's theme was "Returning to our indigenous roots" complete with dance shows and drum circles. There were also teenagers asking people to adopt trees and to sign up for group tree-planting excursions. Obviously, I have found my people. The gringas and I decided to opt out of collective yoga, and laid in the grass nearby for some sunshine. It was a lovely afternoon, and now I have a list of new veggie-friendly places to explore!


And that, in a nutshell, was this weekend. There's a heck of a lot going on in this big city, and I love taking advantage of all the benefits these celebrations bring: we explored new places, conquered new bus routes, tried new foods, and added to our list of reasons why Bogota is a great place to live.

The Wax Palm, national tree of Colombia.

Kate takes the school bus!

Great news! I now take the school bus to school! While going through my daily taxi- city bus combo, some of my students drove by me each day in a Minuto school bus that drives right by my apartment building. So I pulled some strings at school, and now the bus picks me up at my front door at 5:50 every day. The bus system in Colombia is pretty different than the US system, so I feel it is worthy of a share. Here’s some thoughts:

1. “La ruta,” as it is referred to, is not the big yellow school bus we have in the US. All buses are different depending on the school, and are clearly representative of the school’s wealth status. The average school bus is actually a white, 15 passenger van with “escolar” written on the back. The wealthy Bogotanos ride coach buses, sprinter vans, and even one British school has a Spice Girls-esk British flag-decked out bus.

My bus!

2. Here, it’s fairly normal for teachers to be picked up by the school bus along with the kids. It’s common for kids to travel over an hour to their school each way, and often times schools are right outside Bogota but provide services to all Bogotanos.  I’m the only teacher at Minuto that takes the bus, so I’m special in that way, but it’s not unheard of.

3. The buses all line up in a loop around the courtyard. Like I said, we have about 40 identical white vans with little numbers in the dashboard. I can never find “la ruta 20” through the sea of teenagers, so my tactic is to stand in the middle of the courtyard until one of the students from the bus flags me down.

Just try finding your bus through this.

4. Since La ruta 20 now has the only profe, and she’s the American profe, The status of la ruta 20 has significantly risen. My second afternoon ride home consisted of a solid five minute chant of “best bus ever!” I sit next to three eighth graders that are not my students, so they want to have mini-English lessons on the ride home every afternoon. I am usually too tired, and instead practice my spanish  and have them teach me teenage slang.

My bus buddies.

5. There’s no bus stops like back home. Each kid is picked up at their doorstep. So each morning I hang out with some nugget third graders and their moms while I wait for my bus to come outside my apartment lobby. It may be this way for safety reasons, or maybe it’s because there aren’t many real city bus stops in Bogota either and it’s normal to get on and off wherever it’s convenient for you.

6. Each bus, which is really a van, has a “Moni” or the monitor. They basically open the door for everyone and count to make sure everyone is on board. Our Moni is Melba, and she’s quite the spitfire. She rocks bright red lipstick, tight black shirts, and heels of course. She’s super friendly, and I’m happy to have someone over the age of 15 to talk to sometimes.

It's certainly different than the US bus routes. And I'm not sure if I really prefer one to the other. But its great to not have to worry about my commute. And its great to get some insight into another aspect of life here.