En Barranquilla se baila así

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Barranquilla has one of the biggest carnavals in South America. After returning from Christmas break there was a week or so of regular class before everything revolved around Carnaval. The school put on its own mini-carnaval with all classes participating from 2nd grade to seniors. As you might imagine it was a huge deal. First each class had to choose a king and queen to represent the class, lead the class dance or comparsa, and perform for several viernes de la reina. However, it falls to the mother of the class queen to organize costumes, pictures, posters, class practices and hire a choreographer. It's a big responsibility! Lucky for me, the queen of 5A is a great student with very supportive and involved parents.

Carnavals showed off the students and school at its best. Amazing presentations, dances and costumes. I felt very privaleged to be a part of the experience... or at least watch it. Since my camera was stolen, here are some pictures taken by Jill:

Banner celebrating the 3 cultures of the Caribbean: Native American, Spanish and African.

Everyone was in costumes, and many classes had signs to support their class King and Queen.

Fifth grade comparsa. They were fantastic!

Fourth Graders dancing Cumbia.

Second graders dancing a garabato dance. I don't remember the whole story, but the black, red, yellow and green costumes go with it, and death makes an appearance.

Carnaval

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Finally, the biggest event in Barranquilla! A chance to see beautiful costumes, amazing dances and take lots of pictures!

Sad news. My camera was stolen while I was at Carnavals. I am still sad about it. Not so much the actual camera, but the fact that I lost all of the pictures that I took at the school carnaval, and I didn't even get to take any at the real carnaval. The pictures I would have been the most excited to take and the most excited to share, were not to be. The pictures here were taken by Jill, a Canadian teacher visiting Barranquilla for a few weeks. While I am definately glad to have these pictures (thanks Jill!), it just isn't the same as having your own. Especially the ones that I took of my students. I had some great pics of students getting ready and hanging out in their costumes in the classroom. I even had them all sit in their desks in their costumes because they were so cute like that!

I had been warned before Carnaval to be very careful with my stuff, and not to put anything in a pocket because it would get stolen. Also, there was this spray foam stuff and I was warned that some people would spray it in people's faces and then steal their stuff. So, I thought I was being as careful as I could be when I chose a small purse that zipped up and didn't bring my wallet. However, I got foamed. I didn't even realize they were targetting me because they sprayed a whole crowd of people. Everyone was pushing and I didn't notice anything (and I was trying to wipe the foam off my eyes) until things calmed down slightly and I realized my purse was unzipped. No more camera. :(

Carnaval was pretty spectacular with all the different costumes and dances. My co-worker and friend Tania took us around and explained the costumes and everything. Tania and her friend Roberto even told my sob story about the camera and got us into better seats. Unfortunately, when I look back at Carnaval, I am left with the sinking feeling that it was not a safe place to be.

Tania and Roberto, our guides to Carnaval.

I love these costumes. They are coyongos, a type of bird that was a symbol of this years carnaval.

The Marimonda is one of the main carnaval costumes of Barranquilla. Sometimes even the vehicles dress up!

Guiselle, the P.E. teacher performing Cumbia... while balancing an aguila on her head!

An afternoon stroll

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Today I remembered to bring my camara with me on my walk. The neighborhood I live in is called Miramar and you can actually see the Caribbean on clear days. It's a very new neighborhood with lots of construction of big, tall apartment buildings. And these buildings are literally on the edge of the city.

Miramar

The view the other direction... soon to be filled with more apartment buildings.

I think they burned the areas around the sidewalks on purpose... the other times I walked down here the plants were overtaking the sidewalk. It is the tropics afterall. It's really funny to walk around here because there are streets and sidewalks, but just trees and plants inbetween. It's kinda nice.

This tree was cool- it had very big leaves and flowers.

Cuidado! Don't fall in!

Check out this funky plant.

The outer edge of Barranquilla... and a road still being constructed.

Ah.. pretty sunset. It's interesting to see when the plants here flower and go to seed... with the whole no seasons thing, it always seems unexpected.

No, it's not tangled wire on that pole- it's a plant. It is the tropics!

Back to School

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Here I am back in Barranquilla! I had a wonderful time seeing lots of friends and family at home over Christmas. It was so nice to see everyone and to be with so many of the people that I care about.

When I flew into Barranquilla, I couldn’t help thinking about what it was like when I first got here in August. I didn’t know anything! Not even my address! In the cab ride home, it felt nice to realize that everything looked somewhat familiar, not quite so foreign looking. And of course, I know where I live now! I can help direct the cab driver to my apartment (in Spanish of course). To me it doesn’t really seem like I’ve learned much more Spanish since I’ve been here. But then on the other hand, I know that I am more comfortable speaking Spanish than I was 5 months ago. The biggest improvement is that I can understand people much better. Here on the coast, people talk very fast. They drop the ends of words sometimes, and they are genuinely difficult to understand. It definitely took me awhile to get used to how people talk here.

I am really hoping for a big improvement at school for the second half of the year. I feel like I had such a terrible beginning to the school year, and had a very hard time recovering from that and building relationships with my students. With the combination of the lack of supplies, the constantly changing schedule, and the fact that I didn’t really know what was going on… it was difficult. Add in the fact that I really do have a difficult group of students who had run off an American teacher last year- I felt like I was set up to fail. Since the American teacher last year left at Christmas, I was hoping that when I came back after Christmas that that would send the message that I really am their teacher for the year and they might as well work with me. Anyways, things do actually seem better. I feel like overall I have positive relationships with my students. And I think they might actually view me as a teacher now, and not someone who doesn't belong at their school. At least I felt more like my regular teaching-self this week than I have all year.

Other things that happened this week…. our class had a dance-off to choose the king and queen of carnaval…. There is a new comida rapida restaurant right by my apartment- and it has Mexican food! I’m really excited to have a place to eat and hang out at so close by…. And there are lots of pretty, purple, flowering trees.

These trees are all over!

It reminds me of springtime and cherry blossoms.

Another flowering tree.

Bright flowers

♪ ....Everywhere you go♪

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More Christmas in Colombia pictures!

How the Grinch Stole Novenas

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The last week of school we started out each day by going to a novena. I guess this is a catholic thing, or at least it is here in Colombia. They are short services with prayer, songs, and scripture to prepare for the coming of the Christ child. There is one each of the nine days leading up to Christmas. (Nine days… novena… ah-ha) The school has a mass, or misa, about once a month or so. It never ceases to amaze me how well behaved the students are at mass. It is such a drastic difference to how they normally are.

Each day of the novenas a different group of students performed songs and acted out a part of the Christmas story. Since the school is bilingual, we sang Christmas songs both in English and Spanish. I loved getting to learn some new Christmas songs. Feliz Navidad was sung several times during the week, and why not? It is in English and Spanish!

But one day, instead of having a novena, the Grinch came. The senior class has chosen Dr. Seuss as their theme for the year. So, they all have these white pants/suspender outfits that they periodically wear. At the very beginning of the year they performed a Cat and the Hat vs. the Grinch dance-off. I was both amazed and confused by that whole thing. Anyways, one morning, the seniors put on a reader’s theater of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. True to form it had an elaborate backdrop, set and costumes. You could say the Grinch stole the whole novena.

Exploring the Mangroves

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Christmas Vacation is here! And it is time for me to catch up on some blogging. So, here is the third and final installment of pictures from the weekend trip to the San Barnardo Islands. We spent the night in the nearby town of Covenas, and spent the next day hanging out on the beach. After wondering up the beach a ways, we saw a place that offered canoe rides up an inlet to see mangroves and garzas. I had read about mangrove forests, but had definately never seen them. They are trees that grow along tropical coastlines and help prevent erosion.

Right outside our hotel in Coveñas.

La playa

Elizabeth paddling us into the unknown. (Actually we had a guide who did most of the paddling)

Mangrove roots extending down towards the water. Because they grew in saltwater, the roots are adapted to breathe air.

Reflection of the roots.

Entering the tunnels of mangroves! We saw lots of crabs and shellfish in the roots. I couldn't get a good picture of them though.

Garzas

Eating a mango con sal on the beach.