a trip to the hospital

So yesterday was quite the interesting day. It started off like any other day here. I had breakfast, and then the kids came. I helped a little girl with her homework, which consisted of watching her colour in the outline of the letter i, and trying to explain something in spanish to her, which she didn´t understand, so I gave up and just let her colour things. Then Liliana, one of the teachers here asked Juliette and I to teach the kids a song in english. So I thought the best song to teach them would be head and shoulders, knees and toes because it´s easy to translate and parts of the body are easy things for kids to learn at their age. So I wrote out the song on a large sheet of paper so everyone could see, and Juliette read it for them first a few times. Then I sang it for the kids, and they joined in after a couple of times. It was so funny watching them try to pronounce all the words correctly. Instead of knees they said mees, and instead of eyes they said aies. And they can´t pronounce the ¨th¨ sound, so mouth was a funny one to hear too. And they can´t pronounce my name either. They say Kalie, or Kachee, or Kajee, it´s so funny! So they really loved that song, and they kept asking me how to sing it. Even today when I was upstairs I would randomly hear cute little voices trying to sing it, so sweet. So after we taught the kids that song, we went to the park again. After about 15 minutes or so, I heard a bunch of kids yelling Profe! Profe! and saw them running towards me. So I looked and saw Juliette lying on the pavement at the other side of the park, so I ran over, and she had rolled her ankle really badly while playing soccer. So Liliana and I helped her up and helped her limp back to the centre. It was really swollen, so someone called a taxi and Lina, the other teacher, and I went with her to the hospital. She didn´t want to go without me, and it´s a good thing I went because I had to be the translator...or at least attempt to translate what was said. The people at the hospital couldn´t figure out her insurance, so she ended up paying, and was supposed to call the insurance company with the bill later, but it wasn´t that much so she didn´t bother. But thankfully she was admitted pretty quickly, and they gave a wheelchair for her to sit in. The doctor came and I tried to translate for her, and then they wheeled her off to another room, but Lina and I didn´t go in with her. But after about 30 seconds the nurse called us over because they were about to give her a large shot of something in her butt and she wanted to know what it was. Apparently it was for the pain and to reduce the swelling, and she didn´t want it, and it did seem very strange that they wanted to give her a shot of something for a rolled ankle...but she´s quite a loud person and only one doctor spoke some english, so lots of people were laughing at her. It was quite the experience. Then I went with her to get an x-ray taken, and after looking at it the doctor told her she needed to get a tensor bandage and wear it for 15 days. She´ll be ok, thankfully it wasn´t broken or anything, but it still kind of sucks because she´s supposed to leave here in less than 2 weeks to go to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands to hike around, and then on to Peru to volunteer in an orphanage. So hopefully it heals quickly!! And yesterday was our afternoon off, we get one per week, and all 3 of us volunteers took the same afternoon off. We were supposed to go into town and maybe see a movie and walk around, but because of Juliette´s injury we ended up just hanging around at the house, watching tv and going on the internet. Today was a pretty good day. I taught the older kids some french in the morning which was fun but also very confusing...trying to think in 3 languages at the same time is quite a task! But most of the words I was searching for came back to me so that was good. Lunch was a little hectic serving without Juliette, but alright. And I taught the younger kids some english words in the afternoon. Always a good time. We were supposed to go dancing with the family we´re staying with tonight, but I don´t know if that´s going to happen anymore. Right now there are a doctor and a dentist here and a bunch of kids getting checked out by them downstairs...and the president is here again too..apparently he likes Berenice, the program coordinator, hehe. So, that´s all for now, buenas noches amigos :)

the land of cows, salsa dancing, and not much running water

Hello all,

I must apologize for my lack of blog writing as of late. I know most of you don´t care, but my auntie Helga was already bugging me to write some more ;) So...what has happened since I last wrote..well a lot. I had my first day volunteering with the kids last Thursday, which I discovered takes a lot of energy, especially seeing as we work 10 hour days! The older kids come to the centre in the morning and arrive at 7:30. We help them finish their homework and take them to the park and do different activities with them. Then the kids leave while we get ready for the lunch program. At least 75 kids come for lunch everyday, and there´s not enough room in the house for all of them to eat at the same time, so they come in shifts. It´s a pretty crazy busy time, but it´s not much different from my serving jobs back home, so it´s alright. At 1:30 we get to sit down for half an hour and eat the same lunch as the kids ate. At 2pm the younger kids come, and we do pretty much the same activities with them. On my first day both classes made a banner welcoming me to the centre, and all the kids asked me questions like what´s your favourite colour, what´s your favourite fruit, do you have a boyfriend, what are your parents names, etc. etc. The funny thing was that both of the classes asked, out of all these questions, which one is your favourite question? I thought that was hilarious, but at the time I didn´t know what to say, but now I realize that that was probably my favourite question. Everyday here is a little different which is nice, but they are just a bit too long. Today was the day when a dance teacher comes in and teaches the kids how to salsa and meringue (did I spell that right or is that just the sugary dessert?), so we got to join in which was a lot of fun. These kids can really dance, but a lot of their dancing is pretty scandalous, especially for kids, but I guess that´s the culture here! I was kind of shocked watching one of the little girls dancing today because I wouldn´t even dance like that! Not that I can dance anyway, heh. But Jimena, the dance teacher is offering to teach us, and I think I´ll probably take some lessons from her which I´d really love to do. I also started taking Spanish lessons yesterday with Anders, one of the other volunteers. We´ve had 2 classes so far, an hour each, and they´re going pretty well. Kind of basic stuff that we already know, but it will get more intense so I´m looking forward to that. Our teacher´s name is Fanny, hehe. I´m such a child. So anyway, yesterday was a good day. First of all, when we were at the park with the kids, I was looking the wrong way apparently, and as I turned my head I got smacked in the face with a basketball. And I was wearing sunglasses so they got squished into my head which was lovely...I think I have a bruise on my nose now. Oh, and today someone threw a CD in the park and it hit my shoulder and cut it a little bit. People don´t really care about throwing garbage in the garbage cans over here, so for some reason the kids like to find CDs on the ground and just throw them into the air, so I was the lucky recipient of one of those throws. But anyway, more happened in the park yesterday. While the kids were playing futbol, otherwise known as soccer, I noticed a herd of cows entering the park and heading in our direction. Some of them were bulls and had pretty big horns, and they just started walking directly towards us. As they got closer one of the little girls screamed and mass chaos erupted. I looked around and there were children everywhere, running away up into the hills, and cows and bulls scattered throughout everyone, it was actually one of the funniest things I´ve ever seen. But they were super tame, and I actually touched one of them. They climbed up into the hills, and awhile later I saw a chubby young boy with a stick herding them together to bring them back home. So strange, it´s just a different world down here. Some of the things are just so funny, like I haven´t showered in 3 days because everytime I try there´s no water. And it´s so hot down here, that a shower is definitely needed at least once a day! So hopefully if I get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning the water will be working. One of my favourite things about being here is being surrounded by Colombian culture. Everytime the kids enter the centre to come for class or for lunch, and everytime they leave they come over and give the teachers a kiss on the cheek and say hola profe, or ciao profe, and it´s the sweetest thing in the world! The kids are so cute, even though sometimes they are so frustrating because they don´t listen and get a little crazy, and I don´t have the vocabulary yet to discipline them properly in Spanish. But these greetings make up for most of the bad things they do...usually :) One thing about being here that I don´t enjoy too much is that I´m one of the only white girls that I´ve seen anywhere, and everywhere I go people just turn their heads and stare like I´m from another planet or something. It´s so annoying, but at least they don´t whistle and cat call as much as in Guatemala. There´s a new volunteer here now. Her name is Juliette and she´s 37 and from Florida. And she´s hilarious. It´s so nice to have another girl here that I can speak English with, and I get to translate for her a lot because she doesn´t know very much Spanish. But she´ll only be here for 2 weeks so I hope another girl comes soon. But things are going really well here for the most part. A friend of the volunteer coordinator for this program contacted Anders and I this past weekend, and he´s a white guy from Australia/Austria and speaks English obviously. So he took us out into the city so we could get away from the centre for awhile which was really nice. He´s lived here in Ibague for 2 years now and is fluent in Spanish, so he has been showing us around a bit. Saturday night we went for drinks with him and a couple of his Colombian friends, and on Sunday he took us to La Martinica which is pretty much a hiking trail up a mountain. It took a couple hours, but when we got to the top we could look out over the whole city and it was beautiful. Then we went back to the mall and went to see Valentine´s Day and then out for supper with a few people. Ya, so this wasn´t the most exciting blog but I had a lot to write, and hopefully some of you will find parts of it interesting. At least I know my family is reading, heh. Hopefully the next one won´t be as long...so ciao for now!

my first days in Colombia

Ok, so even though it has only been a day or so since I last wrote, it sure seems like a lot longer, or at least a lot has happened! My flight from Toronto to Bogota was fairly uneventful, just watched a couple movies, and ate some gross airplane food. However, when I arrived in Bogota is when things started to get a little more interesting. Going through customs and getting my luggage and everything was fine, but trying to find my contact person was not so easy. You see, at the airport in Bogota there´s no terminal for people to wait in, you pretty much go through customs and immediately walk outside. So, if someone is waiting for you, they have to stand outside the building and look through the glass windows or sliding doors. So as I walked through customs I look to see at least 100 people pushed up against the glass and at least 30 or so signs with people´s names on them. So I walked up and down searching for my name on one of the signs, but I couldn´t see it anywhere. So I walked outside and walked through the hoards of people still to find nothing. And it didn´t help that everywhere I looked there were people asking me if I wanted a taxi or to go to a hotel. Nevermind the language barrier, my Spanish definitely needs a lot of improvement. So finally one of the hotel salesmen asked if I needed a hotel, and I told him that I was waiting for someone but couldn´t find them. So he offered me his cell phone and thankfully I had a number to call, but the person on the line only spoke spanish and it was too loud to hear anything. So after a few tries, finally this man spoke with her for me, and told me they were coming to get me in an hour or an hour and a half. So then of course he asked me for some money because he lives off of commission so I gave him a bit, but I was just so thankful that I wasn´t going to be left waiting all night at the airport. So probably less than an hour later, I was picked up by two young guys instead of the girl who was supposed to be there. Apparently she was studying and they thought my flight came in at 10, not 8:30. Waiting at the airport was pretty amusing though. An elderly indigenous woman was pushing a basket of snacks around and shaking something to draw attention to herself, which is fairly normal from my experience in Latin American countries. But the odd thing was that she was wearing very large underwater goggles, and I have no idea why! For those of you who know Peter at the Ellice Cafe, this could be his soulmate whom he´ll tragically never meet! So anyway, after that incident everything was fine. The two guys spoke English very well, and they dropped me off at a nice hostel and even payed for me. My roommates for the night were 3 guys, but 2 of them worked there, and the other was a nice gay guy from L.A. So pretty harmless, and it was a good night. I really needed sleep. So this morning Hernan (one of the guys who picked me up at the airport) gave me a half day tour of Bogota. We went on a cable car ride up the side of a mountain to visit a beautiful old church and look out over the whole city...Bogota is huge!! Then he took me to see the government buildings and the president´s castle, and then we stuffed ourselves into one of the most crowded buses I´ve ever been in...not too sure if it beats out Guatemala yet. But I did notice that almost everyone around me was wearing pants, shoes, and sweaters. I even saw one winter jacket. But it was 25 degrees celcius, and I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts...I really felt like an outsider then! I also forgot to put on sunscreen and now have a beautiful very red burn in the form of a farmer´s tan or burn I guess. Not so good of a start but oh well. Then I took a bus from Bogota to Ibague, and it was one of the most beautiful drives through the mountains I´ve ever been on. And as we got farther away from Bogota, the air coming through the windows got hotter and hotter. I arrived safely at the children´s centre in Ibague, and it is soo hot here. But the family that I´m staying with is wonderful. The mother´s name is Berenice, and she has two children, William, and Carolina. There´s one other volunteer here right now and he´s a Danish guy named Anos. So now I´m just settling in. I went to the bathroom and found out there´s no running water, apparently it hasn´t been working all day, so let´s hope that we have some tomorrow! I´m just going to have to hold all my bm´s til tomorrow...gross too much information. And apparently they have no hot water, so freezing cold showers here I come! Ok, I guess that´s it for now, time to try to sleep in the sweltering heat to the sounds of people whistling and dogs calling to each other. Thanks to all of you following my adventures and goodnight :)

and so it begins...

Ok, so I'm feeling pretty good right now. I just checked and it seems I have 1 follower so far. Thanks Donald! So I guess this post is for you..? Well, let's hope a few more people read it, but anyway here goes. I don't have much to say, seeing as I haven't even arrived in Colombia yet, but seeing as I was really smart and chose the longest flight duration I could, I'm bored out of my mind and need something to do. Currently I'm sitting in the Toronto airport waiting for my flight to Bogota which leaves at 2pm. Why did I choose a flight that is 26 hours in total and takes me from Winnipeg to Montreal, Montreal to Toronto, and finally Toronto to Bogota you ask? I know the destinations are completely illogical, but it was a seat sale, and when I saw Montreal was one of the places I could stop I chose it immediately thinking I'd be able to see my cousin Jenn and her husband Etienne while I was there overnight. Sadly that didn't work out, so I spent all night sitting on top of my bags on the floor by a random power outlet that was not near to any chairs or anything comfortable at all. My technological devices are a little challenged you could say. My phone is constantly dying and needs to be plugged in almost all the time, and my laptop battery is completely dead, so it doesn't work at all unless it's plugged in. I got to know one of the janitors who made me move because I was in the way of his floor cleaner at one point, but then I moved back. He also thought I was Italian...not sure why. Do I look Italian? He seemed to think so. So anyway, at this point I've been up for way too long, and have gross traveller's gut from eating only crap along the way. I can't wait to get to my hostel tonight to shower, brush my teeth, and sleep! Oh, I also really enjoyed my time on the moving sidewalks here in Toronto...they move pretty quickly and it was highly amusing to me apparently. Hmm, well after that run-on paragraph (I'm not very good at separating my thoughts) I think I'm done for now. So maybe I'll have something more interesting to say when I arrive at my real destination. Bye for now!