mystery solved!

For those of you who missed the TIC post I'll fill you in. Two weeks ago I got sick--really sick and I didn't know why. Well, today I was hanging out at the pool when another gringo wandered by. This particular gringo had a party at his house the night I took ill. We got to talking about tap water somehow and he was saying that he has never gotten sick from drinking the water in Barranquilla (sidenote: he lived in Africa for years, so I imagine his stomach is pretty strong). I began filling in the pieces and remembering that I drank water out of a bottle in his fridge the night of the party. Here's how the mystery was solved:
"Was that water in your fridge the night of your party from the tap?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Because I drank it and later I was really sick."
"It's never made me sick."
"Yeah, but you used to live in Africa."
"Oh, yeah, you're right."
Okay, lesson learned, though had I known I never would have been stupid enough to drink tap water. Next time I'll ask.

Nighttime in the hood

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. There wasn't much to say over the weekend, it rained for days! We had water seeping in through the walls, the city was full of arroyos and we stayed in our hammocks for most of the weekend.

I ventured out to the juice stand last night and took some pictures on the way.

This is our hallway.


elevator


palm tree in front of the building


This is the church that's just across the street. On Saturdays we can watch weddings from our hammocks.


The juice stand, it's amazing! A very popular hangout too. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I was trying to be discreet with the camera, as to avoid getting robbed.


I've been meaning to post a picture of the Bimbo bread


I thought you might want to see inside our fridge. Aguila is brewed in Barranquilla and is Colombia's answer to Budweiser. The juice is mandarin (yum) from the juice stand, and we've both been devouring yogurt.

Animals

Last night as I was walking home from the juice stand a wild dog came out of the dark and charged at me. My juice flew everywhere and I screamed so loud. Then the dog just stood there while people turned to make sure I was okay. Some people on a motorcycle even slowed down to check, but I think they did it more out of amusement than anything. Silly gringa, scared by a dog. There are so many wild dogs here, but most seem harmless.

Then, I went into the apartment and while sipping what was left of the juice I saw this running across the kitchen.

Yuck!

Rainy day

It's pouring right now! Brad and I are passing the storm by watching people try to make it up the arroyo in front of our apartment.



Last night our neighbor stopped by to welcome us and give us this ice cream treat.

It looked very nice before I dug into it.

I realize that the title of my last post wasn't well explained. Well, believe it or not The Bachelor is on in Colombia. So are Two and a Half Men, Project Runway (!) Martha Stewart (!!!!!!) Alf and many others. We have better tv here than we did in Iowa City.

At least I can still watch The Bachelor

We finally got internet in the apartment today so I stayed in tonight thinking I would catch up on some Betty, but ABC doesn't allow people outside of the US to watch the show online. Fascists. Oh well, it was a good day anyway... the computers were down at school, which would normally be bad, but we got to go home at 10, so we headed straight for the beach, which was nice. The closest beach is in Puerto Colombia, it has little huts and the water felt nice on such a hot day.

OH! I forgot the best part of the day. I can't believe it! We had an assembly this morning and Brad got up and sang and danced in front of the whole secondary school!!! I would have killed for a camera. He did such a good job, I was really proud of him. When classes resumed after the assembly I faced a classroom full of kids with their arms crossed over their chests, berating me for not getting on stage with Brad. Imagine this in with a heavy latino accent:
"Ms. Straw. Why did you not dance with your prometido? He was up there and you just left him!"
But Brad did fine on his own.

We have a three day weekend, so we're going to relax and explore. I'll post pictures soon.

First Day of School

The first day of school went really well. The kids are wonderful, VERY energetic, fun and happy. We did introduction activities and when I told them that I was engaged the whole class clapped for me! I couldn't believe it. They all say good morning when they walk in the room and thank you when I pass out papers. They are extremely loud, but I think that goes for the majority of the people on the coast. Brad's 6th graders are wild! Yesterday during locker checkout they almost killed one another trying to get to the front of the line. Despite a bit of homesickness and dealing with scheming cab drivers things are going great.

School

Here are some pictures of my classroom, see that huge air conditioning unit? That's the one that nearly fell on my head. The students come tomorrow so I better quit blogging and get to work.

Cartagena

Friday night, just as Brad and I were settling into our hammocks, we received a phone call from Amber asking if we wanted to go to Cartagena. Sure. So we were off. Cartagena is BEAUTIFUL. Please, please come visit me so you can see this place in person.

Friday night we went out to dinner where we were seating amongst a wedding party and had delicious food. Afterwards we hit up a couple of salsa bars, but as I'm still plagued with stomach problems it was a short night for me, meaning I went back to the hotel around 1 am whereas Brad showed up at 4. The next day we had breakfast and scoped the town before heading to the greatest beach in the world. While we were there we got pedicures, massages and a personal performance from the three men pictured below. People walk around selling everything including beer and fresh crab. The woman in the picture above was selling really yummy candies from the basket on top of her head. When we took the picture she was saying, "Whiiskeey."

After sunset we went to a restaurant where the menu was a tray of fresh fish. We picked one with reddish looking skin and in a few minutes it was all cooked up and on our plate along with plantains, coconut rice and salad.

TIC

TIC stands for This is Colombia and is usually said with a shrug. For example: the phones at school don't work because someone dug the phone lines out of the ground and stole them. When the director of the school told us this she finished by saying, "This is Colombia." Enough said.

Example 2: I have a HUGE air conditioning unit in my classroom, probably like 15 feet long, and while I was working in my room the whole thing came crashing to the ground. After standing there in shock for a while I ran to get a maintenance guy who in reply to my statement, "I can't believe this happened," said, "this is Colombia." Again, enough said.

Now I'm dealing with a far worse TIC problem. I went to a birthday party last night and started having tummy trouble around 10. I came home, took a shower and went to bed thinking I would wake up feeling better in the morning. Apparently I had forgotten where I was. I woke up at about 3 am and threw up at least 10 times without even taking a breath. This mixed with stabbing pains in my abdomen and diarrhea made for a miserable morning. I guess I ate or drank the wrong thing, but I have no idea what it was. Ah well, TIC and it's all part of the experience. I'm feeling better now and I'm sure I'll be up to snuff in no time.

Next post...the maid! We're interviewing one at three. I'll also post some pictures of my classroom.

Arroyo!

On our way home from school on Monday we stopped at the grocery store where it started to rain. When we went outside to get a taxi the driver said he couldn't take us anywhere because of the arroyos. Apparently the city was built without a drainage system and during heavy rains the streets turn into rivers called arroyos. Eventually the taxi driver senses my curiosity about arroyos and decides he's going to risk it










When we were driving across the biggest arroyo my feet actually got wet inside the taxi. I told the driver about it and in English he shouts, "I'm crazy!" and then in Spanish says, "That's the only English I know."

Barranquilla

We got to Barranquilla on Sunday night where we were met by people from the school and taken to our apartments. I love our apartment! It's huge (compared to what we have been living in) and beautiful with lots of built in bookshelves, white tile floors, 3 bedrooms, not counting the maid's room (ha!) and three bathrooms, not counting the maid's bathroom, which is just a toilet and a shower head behind a shower curtain. I guess a lot of people here have live-in maids, but we won't. There's a living room, a dining room, a tv room and great big windows that look out onto the city and the river.






















We bought some hammocks to hang beneath the windows where there are built in hammock hooks, which will be good because that sturdy looking furniture isn't all that comfortable.

We are right across the street from El Prado Hotel where the school pays for us to use the pool. We haven't had a chance to go there yet, but I'm hoping we will soon.

The fruit on the table, a pineapple, 2 mangos and a coconut (which we drank before we took the picture) only cost $2.50 from the fruit stand across the street.

Miami

Okay, I've got a lot of blogging to catch up on, so I'll start from the beginning.
On August 2nd we arrived in Miami where we met the director of the school, Laura, the Human Resources lady, Ana Lucia, the sweetest person in the world and the other teachers. Amber is from San Fransisco, she'll be teaching 6th grade English and Science, Jenny is from Wisconsin, but her parents just moved to Montana and Sue and Eric are a married couple from Minnesota who will teach 2nd grade and high school English.

While in Miami we were treated very well. We went out for a couple of dinners in South Beach and were given a lot of information about Colombian culture before we set out for good. Colombia has a very interesting culture,
1) There are distinct differences in classes, and we were told not to be overly nice to our maids. I don't know if I can do it.
2) It is widely believed that if a person plugs a watermelon with vodka they will go blind from eating it
3) People point with their lips
4) "Don't give the papaya" 1. Don't give the papaya and 2. If you see papaya, take it. This means that if you leave your purse or any other object of value where it can be stolen a Colombian person is basically obligated to steal it.
5) For your wedding, "something old, something new, something STOLEN, something blue"

Miami is an amazing city and we had some free time to enjoy the beaches.

I have not been kidnapped

Hi everyone!
I have been without internet for almost a week, but I am safe and happy in Colombia. I will post stories and pictures soon.