For my new students and students around the world, welcome to Global Conversations! Please introduce yourselves--tell us your name, where you go to school (both the name of school including location), your interests, and what languages you speak and write...
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Cartagena is such an impossible blend of qualities. Going out any door, one is literally blasted with the heat. In the center of many buildings including my hotel, there is an open courtyard, beautiful, and spilling over with beautiful flora. I'm always drawn to move closer, and then, I find it exudes heat like a furnace. The view from the shore is spectacular, but severe poverty is in evidence in all too many neighborhoods. The preserved history, culture, music, dance and cuisine are breathtaking, but it is crowded, the streets an impossible pile up of cars, buses, and motorcyclists like ants--one stops at an intersection to assess the situation, and in what seems a moment, finds hoards of motorcyclists have recklessly scraped around one's car. Song can be heard everywhere, but hardship is inescapable. Public schools come in all varieties, but a reoccurring experience is that the classrooms are severely overcrowded, have little technology, and are swelteringly hot. Since the trucker strike, students at Bertha Gedeon, among other schools, are unable to have school lunch foods delivered. I share these details to point out the contrast between circumstances and the people here, and in particular, the teachers and students. Teachers are faced with what seems to be impossible odds and I've seen innumerable instances of not only dedicated perseverance, but hope. In my class in the United States, if my classroom is too hot, students moan or go to sleep. Here, Rosalia has them jumping to their feet to do community service or play English language games. Ana and Luis have them learning new vocabulary through contests and they're laughing, enjoying themselves, and not even realizing they are learning. Nancy and Rene have them singing to review newly learned English. Gabriel has them painting the current situation in Colombia using symbolic imagery. Alaida has them depicting their ideas of a better Colombia. At Bertha Gedeon, where we observed for a more extended time, the entire school is involved in the Cathedral for Peace, a nationwide effort for students to envision and problem solve issues including peace, human rights, and global citizenry. There are numerous opportunities for them to express their culture and they do, through dance, costume, music, and food. They are generous with us, with each other, and have now turned their focus to their community. There is something ironic about all this. More than ironic--impossible. In my own country, perhaps we are not given all that we need, but we have a lot more than they do here. Cartagena gives me food for thought. I'd like to incorporate the generosity involved in giving outsiders elaborate welcomes with dance and food. I'd like to incorporate cultural demonstrations that are as much gifts as they are expressions of pride in one's culture. I'd like to use song to help students grapple with a second language. I'd like to model the perseverance I saw in the drivers, in the vendors, in the teachers, and in the students. I'd like to teach my students to always see the good in any situation, and always remember to be liberal with kind things to say. I'd like to place peace, human rights, and global citizenship at the center of what we do in my classroom. In short, I'd like to shift emphasis from what we cannot control, to what can be done.
There is something about both Bogota and Cartagena that makes my heart swell with love. In all the people I have met in the schools I have been in, and with our host family, there is a clear emphasis on generosity. And I'm talking about more than gifts, although there is plenty of that as well. They have fed us (maybe a little too well, ha, ha!), they have presented us with sombreros, friendship bracelets, candies, confections, and chila bags. I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "We have a surprise for you..." and it will be a performance of singers, musicians, dancers, or a combination of all of these. It may be that we are led down a hotel hall, a door opens, and there before us are a myriad of delicious and artful snacks including cerviche, meat kabobs, jugo, cafe con leche, arepa, and other fried delicacies. But this is just one level of the kindness that I have encountered in Colombia. The level I'm talking about here is the attention and hospitality that we have received here in both cities. People we have just met make it their uncompromising goal to see that we have a good time. The students and staff of every school have cooked for us, danced for us, played instruments for us, spoke English for us, translated for us, cleared their schedules for us, and patiently answered all our questions. Hotel staff have stopped what they were doing to help us. I have been hugged and kissed multiple times by virtual strangers. Our host family, the whole family, would not go back to their weekend until we were safely settled in our new hotel. They took us out to dinner at an exclusive club. They took us to the grocery store and waited patiently as we gathered supplies. Rosalia's son, Michael, trekked up to the third floor to find me a bottle opener. Her husband, Pedro, drove us all around the city with a smile. I sometimes feel in the United States that it sometimes gets a little competitive in conversations with accomplished people--not so here. It is easy to hang out with these people. Later, Rosalia's family patiently helped us in grocery, and when we got back to the hotel, they indicated no hurry to get back to their lives, but stayed awhile, engaging us in interesting conversation about language, history, education, and Pokemon-Go. I love these people! Americans are always falling over themselves not to be intrusive, and that has its place, but I must admit it was refreshing to be around people who lingered as it made me feel so important as a person, and cared for as a guest.
Bright and early we arrived at Colegio Confederacion Brisas del Diamante, a public school in an impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of Bogota. They are doing good work there with teachers sharing new language teaching strategies and students were engaged, performing, and leading. We saw little ones learning new vocabulary through decoding, pictures, and games. An English teacher compelled all of us to share the most interesting new word we had learned while in Colombia. In another class, we found science students using recyclables to build giant paper mache creatures. Our student guides were patient and hospitable. Many students bravely demonstrated their newly acquired bilingual skills.
In the afternoon, we visited IE Distrital Usaquen, a public school offering a focus in environmental sciences and engineering. 5th Grade students were preparing to read a complex text about Sebastian Bach by exploring and discussing academic and content vocabulary on the subject of music and symphony. The teacher ran a tight ship and, by all appearances, remained unruffled by the noise coming in from a nearby courtyard.
Again, we were treated to a surprise at the end of the day. Students performed multiple dances, invited us to participate, and gifted us with various traditional treats from Colombia that they made including panela, a sweet brown tea, arepa con queso, a corn cake filled with cheese, guava jelly, cucas, brown sugar cookies, achiras baba, a small crisp salty snack, Granadilla, a delicious orange fruit filled with juicy edible seeds, and cocadas, an Afro-Colombian coconut candy. As if the afternoon's events hadn't completely blown us away already, the celebration was followed by a panel discussion with 10th, 11th, and 12th Grade students answering our questions about, among other things, their environmental projects, gender, success, and their futures. Students asked us questions about our notions of Colombia before we arrived in their country.
Both these communities left me hopeful about the future of education in Colombia. While serious economic issues are still to be witnessed, it is clear that these teachers and administrators care very deeply about their students and their success, and further, these students evidence that Colombia is turning out thinking, skilled, conscientious, and compassionate young people.
This mountain is located in the city of Bogota and is both breathtaking and an important religious symbol for the locals as it has become a pilgrimage destination for many. On top is built a church and shrine devoted to "El Señor Caído", translating to "The Fallen Lord". One gets to the top either by walking or traveling by funicular--a tram car that transports groups through a steep tunnel on train tracks. We had great fun stopping on a mural and sculpture-filled street on the way. The great variety of styles of murals in Bogota fills me with ideas for our own school community mural. There was a colorful corridor of interesting souvenirs and yummy aromas. I love all the endless choices of foods one is offered here--It is a wonder that everyone is not obese. I sampled cheese with fruit and chicharrones, and my colleagues drank Colombian coca tea and oblea, 2 round wafers filled with arequipe (caramel). As usual in Colombia, their was no end to the good food. We went to Cerro de Monserrate Bogota and I found the Palmitos vegetales al gusto, heart of palm and gooseberries prepared with a white sauce and parmesan, to be a taste explosion--I won't forget the experience any time soon! I chose Bandeja arriera, which is a steak, beans, rice, plantains, and guacamole, because I only needed a tiny snack to tide me over! Ha! As if the day was not full enough, our TGC in-country consultant, Yanilis Romero, gave a presentation on the educational system of Colombia--that girl has boundless energy--and we were surprised when a group of students from CUN, a nearby university, burst in the room and gave a lively musical performance. These young people were so funny, beautiful, generous, and talented, I burst into tears. What could be more hopeful in a country than their young people sharing an experience like this?
So our TGC Colombia Cohort arrived in Bogota, Colombia late on the evening of July 18th and what a wild ride it has been. The plane ride was at many times turbulent but I was soothed by the pilot's voice... He sounded like Xavier Bardem and expressed particular concern for the bebes and ninos... I've never heard that sort of tenderness while on a domestic flight!
We received a warm welcome at the airport from the teachers of Bogota. They gifted us sombreros and friendship bracelets. While the people are hospitable, I am, once again, having technology issues. Its more than my phone this time...I took a shower and applied makeup in the dark this morning. It seems in Bogota you must swipe your room key to turn on the lights! Should have figured that one out when I had to do the same to use elevator or stairs. The last 24 hours have reminded me on multiple occasions to stay philosophical--when in another country, remember to step back, don't take anything for granted, and embrace the possibility that there are many ways to fry a fish... As you know, I will be traveling to meet you soon. I'm so excited! Please tell me about yourself--your name, age, family members, and things you most love to learn about. I look forward to reading these!
Is teen pregnancy a problem around the world? How do different cultures deal with this issue? What programs have been initiated to control the problem? What ideas have you come up with?
Maria, my coworker from Colombia, surprised me today and brought us Arepa de Huevo. She says it's a dish from Cartagena, Colombia. It's an egg filled corn cake and it was delicious! What a great way to start the day. Thanks, Maria!
Now that we've started reading Iraqi Girl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq, tell us your thoughts about the book. Is there anything you've read that surprises you? Explain.
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Open ForumThis blog exists in order to encourage discussions between my high school English Language Arts students at New Futures School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and other students around the world. Archives
August 2016
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