Colombia Round Two- A Gringa's Year in Colombia: September 2013

Hola amigos! So the strikes have finally calmed down , and everything is back to normal. Well not quite, the government agreed to buy the milk from the farmers to give to charity, so life is better for a lot of people, so the end result is positive. And I don’t think the students had ever been that excited to go back to school. At school I have quite a few classes with seventh and eighth graders, it is interesting to be back in middle school, but this way I will learn the language well! Also I will have the opportunity to help in the some of the English classes of the elementary school here, in the past year I worked with an elementary student who spoke Spanish and was learning English. I really enjoyed that, so I am looking forward to working with the kids here.

My School

My School Bus

Two weekends ago, I rode a horse for the first time! It was a little nerve racking at first, but I assure my family I will be a cowgirl by the end of my exchange. This past Tuesday my family headed to Bogota and I got to go to another fair, which was very fun.

All the qualifying games for the FIFA world cup are taking place now, and if a game takes place during school hours, my whole school gets off of classes to go down to the auditorium and watch the game! So far we have lost one game, but are still in the running for the world cup. It is safe to say I have a new favorite sport to watch! GO COLOMBIA!

This Friday I went to an opening of a playground at a school in my town that Rotary sponsored. I got to meet my Governor of my district of Rotary and I also got up to give a short impromptu speech in front of a few hundred people.

The kids and their new park!

The 21st was my first conference with all the inbounds from my district, there are about 25 of us in our district and thirty in the other district of Colombia. It was a lot of fun, but a little different because the majority of it was conducted in English. Since I only speak English on rare occasions here, it was pretty different, and at times difficult, it was a relief to switch back to Spanish.