I love volunteering in the school. The children are soooo loving and kind. I feel so welcome everyday!! All the children have warmed up to me and I am not such a spectacle. Although everyone in the school knows my name, I only know a few outside of my class. The children I know the names of are the ones I see on my walk home and practice my Spanish with. The teacher of the preescholar class I work most with, Alba, has asked me for some teaching suggestions a couple of time. So I now am consulting in Spanish. She is quite amazing and has put a lot of the ideas into practice already. She seems happier and more relaxed which I am glad about! It seems like it is a win - win situation. Some of the teachers have asked me to go to other schools but I said I did not want to. I feel it is more important to build the relationships with one set of kids because the relationship is what is making them feel more comfortable talking in English. Plus I do not think I want to be an exhibit each week. I am also learning more spanish because Alba knows to speak more slowly. The other adults are getting more familiar with me and are willing to have conversations with me too.
A lifetime without love is of no account. Love is the water of life. Drink it down with heart and soul. Rumi
The people here fully embrace this idea. They not only embrace love for themselves but they make sure everyone around them is gulping it down as well. The kids are really thoughtful with one another, taking care of each other and sharing their things, even more openly than I see in the states. Granted I have also seen some punches and kicks etc but overall there is such a warm loving atmosphere in this culture - an overall feeling of everyone taking care of each other EXCEPT for when they are driving. Then it is every moto(cycle) for itself. Beware if you are anything but a motorized vehicle. It is really healing to be here! I hope I can drink it down and send it back to all my loved ones who are reading this. For you all have made my life very rich!!! My life in Eugene for the past 14 years has been a river - deep and wide - and it has always been supported by my sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles at the headwaters. I have heard that life just keeps getting better and I wholeheartedly believe and can tell you that this is true!!!!
Here are some pictures of the school: the front of it, the preescholar classroom, the view from the back, the outdoor area where we all eat and play, the recycling bins
They have some recycling here in Colombia. I have seen it in the school, in the town and in Medellin. I did not see any in Cartagena though. The village where we live, there is a fellow who recycles for the community and is able to sell the materials for a profit. I do not think recycling is a common practice but everything has to start somewhere. M & D do not know of a landfill down here either. A common way of getting rid of garbage is unfortunately by burning. There are times when you can smell the burning of plastics from the neighbors or you can see people burning in the hills. One of the neighbors, gets rid of his plastics/garbage by mixing it with dirt/rocks and then burying it in the road. At least this is how I interpret what I have seen. In the picture, the ordinarios (garbage) bin (from the school) does not have a cover but this is atypical - you master recyclers out there do not have to worry. The other one is from Medellin and I love that they have public compost.
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