Hot shower!

I would just like to inform everyone that a couple of days ago, I stayed the night with my friend Jennifer (from class), and I had my first hot shower since I've been in Colombia. It might have been the most incredible experience of my life. Although I have to say, I am slowly becoming accustomed to the cold showers - some days I even find them refreshing. Never thought I'd hear myself say that!

First day teaching

On Wednesday, I taught my first English class. My TEFL instructor offered me a short-term job teaching a series of review classes to a group of Colombian professors who teach at a bilingual school here in Cali called Colegio Berchmans. After the school changed the class schedule on us three times, we finally had our first meeting yesterday.

I woke up to a bird staring at me. We don't have any window screens in the house; everything is open to the outside, and secured with metal bars or grates. So, the occasional bird finds its way into the house. This one had gotten into my room sometime during the night I suppose, and was perched on the rod supporting the window curtains, staring at me as I slept. I don't know if waking up to pigeon poop on your bed is typically a sign of good luck, but I think it was for me because the day went really well.

I got up, did some signature Amie Davis abs and buns exercises, showered, and ate breakfast. I walked to La 14, which is a big supermarket/general store to buy some food and make photocopies for my class. I spent the afternoon relaxing, going over my lesson plan, and studying. I'm apparently not very good using the self-timer on my camera, but here is the best picture I could manage of myself, on my way out the door to teach.

I took the MIO to Colegio Berchmans in the afternoon and taught the class from 3 - 6pm. After teaching so many semesters of Intro Bio at UCF, it was nice to have adults as students for a change. The teachers (aka, my students) were all really friendly and participated well in the class. We spent the first half of the class working on speaking and pronunciation activities, and the second half on reading, writing, and grammar activities. I was worried about filling three hours of class time with constant activities, but the time worked out perfectly. It's a big change from teaching bio labs, where the students largely work at their own pace and my job is to facilitate as they go. Now I am responsible for planning out every minute of class time. Our next class is Saturday from 8:30am - 12:30pm, so now I have to figure out how to fill a four hour class. Thank God my TEFL instructor has been really helpful.

Buga 06/12

My second weekend here, I visited my friend Juan Pablo in Buga, a smaller town that is about an hour away from Cali. Buga is famous for the basilica pictured above, la Basilica del Señor de los Milagros. Thousands of people from all over Colombia and many other Latin American and European countries come to the basilica every year to pray, attend the special mass they have on the 14th of every month, and to see El Negrito, the Christ represented in this church.

On Saturday, we took a walk around town in the evening and went into the basilica and saw part of a mass. Buga is really pretty at night, and the area around the basilica is really calm and quaint. It was nice to be in the atmosphere of a smaller town. We went out to eat chuletas, which are typical food of the area, and consist of large pieces of meat pounded out thin, breaded, and fried. It is typically served on a palm leaf with french fries and a kind of salad.

On Sunday, we visited the basilica museum and I learned the story of El Negrito. The river used to pass through where the church now stands. In the 1500s (or 1400's ? I can't remember), there were few people in this area who believed in Christ, but there was an indigenous woman who believed who had been saving her money to buy a crucifix. She saw a man who was being imprisoned because he had stolen food to feed his children. The woman chose to use her savings to free the man so he could return to his family, rather than purchase the crucifix she had been saving for. The next day, as she was washing her clothes in the river, a small crucifix floated past. (The Christ on this crucifix is black, hence El Negrito) She caught it and put it in a small box in her home. That night, she heard sounds coming from the box, and saw that the crucifix had begun to grow. It grew to the size it is now and was placed in the church. At one point, it was ordered to be burned, which it was. But then some years later, the crucifix began to sweat water and repaired itself. Throughout the years, different people have tried to take the crucifix to various places, includingRome, but it has never left Buga. There is a replica that they use for regular ceremonies, but the real crucifix only leaves the church once every seven years for a procession.

You can wait in line to see El Negrito up close, in a room raised above the altar. The day I was there, there were First Communions going on all day, and the monthly mass on the 14th was the next day, so it was too crowded for us to go, but I have been promised a return visit to see El Negrito.

Painting of El Negrito in the museum

Part of collection of posters throughout the years in the museum

Juan Pablo in the museum. This room is filled with plaques from people all over the world, praying and giving thanks.

Courtyard of museum

Representation of indigenous woman washing clothes in the river and finding the crucifix; this is next to the basilica

It was more important to the indigenous woman to liberate a man than to possess an image.

Basilica del Senor de los Milagros muesum

Inside the basilica

Representation of Christ inside the Basilica

The altar in the Basilica

After seeing the museum and walking through the Basilica again, we walked to the river and saw the old lighthouse (faro). We ate calentado for breakfast/lunch, which is a delicious combination of meat, rice, beans, arepa, and a fried egg, served of course on a palm leaf. We left after eating and took a bus to Darien, a small town on Lago Calima, so that I could meet up with Mauricio and get a ride back on Cali the next day.

El faro

Park surrounding the lighthouse

Street in Buga

Courtyard in front of the Basilica

Statue of Mary in the courtyard in front of the Basilica

Basilica del Senor de los Milagros

First week in Cali

I'm here!

After missing it since December, I'm finally back in Cali! I arrived on Saturday, June 5th and my friends picked me up at the airport. There is a lot to adjust to, but I'm so happy to be back here and so far I am loving it.

Home

I'm living with my friend Mauricio's parents, Elizabeth and Ramiro, who are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Elizabeth and Ramiro have a nice, big house that they designed themselves (they are both architects). I have my own room and bathroom, which is nice. The house is really open; we don't have window screens or air conditioning, which I love! The only thing that has been difficult to get used to is that we don't have hot water here at the house, which means cold showers (yikes!). We live in a nice neighborhood, but many places in Colombia do not have hot water. Even though it is typically very warm here during the day (upper 80's), it is cooler in the evenings and mornings (mid to upper 60's), so a cold shower is still hard to get used to! Also living in the house is Pipe, the world's cutest dog - even though I'm a cat person, I love Pipe because he's really low key, well behaved, and intelligent.

Elizabeth and Ramiro's house occupies one side of the building, and the other side is a series of apartments where Mauricio, his brother and his brother's wife, and cousin live.

What do I do every day?

I'm currently taking a TEFL certification course (TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in the afternoons/evenings at a school called ISSO. In the morning, I usually get up pretty early and either run errands with Elizabeth, or work a bit from home. I leave for class in the afternoon, around 2:45. Class doesn't start until 4:30 but we live in the south and I have to make it to the north for class. I take one of the public transportation systems here called the MIO. It operates basically like a metro, but it's a bus system. On certain days, the MIO likes to cooperate with me and show up in a timely fashion, and switching buses goes smoothly. On these days, it only takes about 40 - 45 minutes to get to school. However, since this is Colombia, many days the MIO does not like to be efficient or organized, so I end up waiting for 30 or 40 minutes to change buses, and when the correct bus finally pulls up, it's so full of people that their faces are plastered against the windows and people fall out of the bus when the doors open. On these days it might take me more than an hour and a half to get to school. There are other buses but they all have different routes and they don't announce the stops, so without the MIO I'm lost. Also, lucky for me, I can catch the MIO one block from my house, and it drops me off one block from school.

Apparently the transportation employees here frequently go on strike (called 'paro'). When they do this, they gather at the university just down the street from my house and bang on things and throw bombs to get attention, so you hear explosions all day and you have no idea which buses are going to be operating, including the MIO. Again lucky for me, I have a friend from class named Jennifer who lives nearby, and she is from Cali, so when that happens I go with her on different buses.

The TEFL class goes from 4:30 - 7:00pm. I'm enjoying the class so far, and I really like the instructor. Sometimes I get a little bored with some of the readings because all of the educational ideas and methods seem kind of nebulous and made-up compared to what I'm accustomed to reading in scientific literature. Still, it's a nice change of pace, and we are talking about some interesting things having to do with psychology and how we learn information. We haven't got much into grammar review yet, but I'm sure that's going to kick my butt.

My instructor drops me off close to home in the evenings, and Mauricio picks me up. Since he lives right next door, Mauricio and I usually eat together and hang out in his apartment. He lives on the top floor, and he has a hammock out on the balcony. Sometimes I go lay in the hammock and look out at the street and think, 'This is awesome, I'm living in Colombia!'

Jobs

I have a job!!! Starting in August, I will be working as an English/Literature teacher at a bilingual school here in Cali called Colegio Bennett. I went into the school last week to drop off a copy of my passport and begin the visa application process. I met almost everyone I had been in contact with, and they honestly could not have been any nicer. I'm so glad I will be working under helpful and friendly people. Colegio Bennett is also in the south part of Cali, just a few minutes from where I am living now. The school will be providing a furnished apartment in the area, to share with another teacher, so that will be nice because I should still be close to Mauricio and his family. There is also a possibility that I can bring my cat, Pancho, with me. The school has said it's ok, but I am waiting to get my future roommate's contact information to clear it with her. (Keep your fingers and toes crossed that she is not allergic to cats!!!)

I also (hopefully) have a short-term, second job that my TEFL instructor offered me the first week of class. I am supposed to be teaching a series of review classes for a group of Colombian professors at another bilingual school called Colegio Berchmans. There has been a bit of confusion on their end about starting the course. Harold and I showed up on Tuesday for the first day of class and ended up having an organization meeting instead, and then they cancelled the class for today (welcome to Colombia!). The supposed first day of class is now on Tuesday, but we will just have to see what happens.