Visiting Downtown

The last day at Colombus school... I was sad to see the kids go! We all felt we had a successful week. This is my class. Front row (l to r) Antonia, Rafael, Maria Antonia, Pedro Pablo, Daniel, Isabella, Maria, Laura Ag. Back row (l to r) Mrs. M, Santiago, Juan David, Simon, Juan Paul, Manuela, Marianna, Miss Veronica, Laura Ar., Susana, Simon.

I worked with a host teacher all week named Veronica. She was VERY helpful and got me all the things I needed, plus helped with the kids. She is like a teachers's assistant here.

This is Marianna and Juan David. In the background you can see the bus they take each day. The bus hold about 10 kids and there was a line of them each day to go home. Some kids get picked up by their parents, a taxi, or a driver.

The kids were funny today as I think they thought I was staying for the year. They are used to American teachers coming and going. Many teachers come down here from the states to teach for a 2 year contract. It is a SWEET deal as they pay for housing! You can hire yourself a maid for around $5-10 a day depending on what you want her to do. If you stay an extra year, they will pay for you to get a Master's degree also.


This is Marta and Maria. They are the maids that cleaned the classrooms on my floor (4 rooms). We gave them some Bath and Body Works lotions and soaps and also Hershey's chocolate which they loved! They cleaned our rooms before and after and sometimes in-between recess while we were here. The floors are all tile, so lots of mopping. They were very kind.

We had an end of the week assembly where we honored Janis and all the other people who worked to bring us all together. In Colombia, professional development for teachers is not done. All the teachers I talked with appreciated us coming and helping them. At the assembly we also presented our gifts of supplies to the Las Palmas (public) school. They were so very appreciative and I have to say that it was hard not to cry. I was designated the spokesperson and I simply told them that we represented the White River School District, there were 10 teachers from 5 different schools. We had supplies we collected from community, parents and students in each of our schools for them.

The kids did a traditional dance for us. The boys wore hats and scarves. The girls wore skirts and had baskets with fruit they carried on their head. The skirts were made from black plastic garbage bags with flowers taped on them. We gave all the kids candy afterward and they loved it!




We all walked up to the top of the school (the High School is at the top) to see the view! My photos were a little hazy but here is one of all the White River girls. (L to R) Trina, Mikki, Kelly, Dalese, Lisa, Me, Dora and in the front, Ashley, Holly and Christy.

We headed off after the assembly on a tour of the city. Gloria (the elementary principal) and Susan (the director of all the Colombus schools) took our large group and headed downtown. We took the metro bus to Plaza Botero to see the famous sculptures there.

This one is called "Mano" (hand). Dalese and I stuck together in the Sculpture Park. We all walked as a group and the tourist police made sure to follow us. I think all of us blonde girls may have been more of a display than the sculptures.


After we left there, we went on the cable cars to the top of the city.


As you get higher and higher, the poverty becomes more apparent. We saw pigs on the roof of a house! We left dowtown and took the bus back to a restaurant. We had great food again! They eat well here, dinner usually between 8-10 pm. And we quickly learned that no one is in a hurry to bring the bill ...so dinner was 2 hours at least each night. We got back to the hostel around 10 pm, packed our bags up and went to bed. Tomorrow, we head home...

A Day of Beauty

Today Janis came to my room and taught Number Corner for me. She is such a great person and an excellent teacher. Here, I am considered a "consultant"... sounds so fancy! I might have to add that to my email tagline. The kids continue to work better together. Here, they are not really taught to work in groups or discuss ideas as a group. They have a hard time listening to me and I have been frustrated by that. We seem to be finishing most of the math plans each day, so I figure I must be doing something right.

Today we had a "Day of Beauty" at a local spa. It was very inexpensive for all the usual things. A pedicure was about $8 and a manicure was $6. I had a facial ($35), a bikini wax ($12.50) and also had them put on eyelash extensions that are supposed to last 2-3 weeks ($15).. so all that for a lot less that in the US. I should have had my hair done too, a cut and color was about $30 and they are famous for their "blow outs", where they blow dry your hair.

We ate dinner last night at a bar in town and walked through a small park where they had more local street vendors. They are very aware we are Americans.. let me tell you, blonde here is pretty out of the "norm". So they try hard to get you to pay them a lot for their crafts.

I am adding some photos of the school... Here is a photo of the main hallway. The small light you see at the top of the photo is the 6th grade end of the school and the bottom floor is K4 (which means they have Kindergarten for 4 year olds). The high school and middle school are in different buildings. I have walked up and down these steps many times this week and with the altitude, you can really get winded. I am sure I would get used to it eventually!

Here is the place we are staying.

These are my roommates: Debbie and Dora.
And the room where we are staying.

Colombus School

So.. this is day #3 at school. Yesterday and today were better than Monday. I am getting to know the kids and learning more Spanish as time goes on.

This is Daniel and Rafael playing a geometry game. I have been pretty successful teaching them my Geometry lessons each day.

This is Mariana...she went home after the first day and made a triangular prism for me. I taught them the names of the 3-D shapes on Monday...so darn cute!

This is me and Laura Ar., I have two Lauras and their last names both started with A... go figure! She is a cutie and tries very hard to help me understand what she is saying in Spanish. She wanted me to play the game "Last Shape in Wins" with her. Today I bribed them with a sucker.. they love American candy!


WEDNESDAY

Today is also the day we had the dance and artisan fair in the gym. So.. were able to drink alcohol in the school gym.. what??

This is a picture of Aaron, a teacher from Chicago, and I drinking Pilsner in the school gym! This would NEVER fly at Foothills!


Here I am dancing (don't fall down honey.. ) I tried to Salsa.. but failed sadly. I think this local guy was thrilled to dance with me anyway!




My White River friends and I all enjoyed this local restaurant.

Last night we went to a few local shops and did some shopping for souvenirs. It was hard to order and the menu was in Spanish and wow.. the only things I could figure out were eggs and chicken.. haha. I ordered a steak and it was GREAT. The steak came with fries but they left much to be desired. I also bought some Colombian candy for the kids. I have many funny stories to tell...


One thing that I know all of you would love to know about is the bathrom. So, here in Colombia they have sewer issues (Hey honey.. maybe we can move here?). Because of this, you must NOT flush any toilet paper. In every bathroom there is a garbage can in the stall where you put the toilet tissue. So, how long do you think it would take you to change that habit??


Another funny thing here is when you go to a restaurant, you can't put your purse on the floor. It is considered bad luck. So, there is a hook under the table you have to use. If you forget, they come and do it for you.


Tomorrow.. a day of beauty at the spa.

First Day of School

Today was the first day we had students to teach. My first lesson was, I really should have brushed up on my Spanish before I came! The students I am teaching are 2nd graders who haven't started school yet this year (so 1st graders who have not been in school since the first week of June). I have 16 students.. Wow! They are sweet and funny, and a little mischievious. We worked on coloring our face, doing Number Corner (calendar) and I taught them about geometry. I know my dad is laughing about that, I think I got a C- in that class in High School. We only had to name the 3-D shapes and talk about faces, edges and corners. At the end of the day, I think some of them got it! I was so busy I forgot to take pictures of the class with the kids there.. tomorrow (manana). Here are a few photos of the room I am working in at the Colombus School (it is a private school and the parents pay for the kids to go there).


We went out to eat at the mall. We ate at a restaurant called "Crepes and Waffles". It was Excellent. I had crepes with ham, cheese, and asparagus sauce. For dessert I had ice-cream with a hot chocolate syrup on the top. The chocolate here is really yummy. So, for your pleasure, I took a photo before I ate it.



The bill total for 5 of us to eat an entree, dessert and drinks was $20,000.00 (don't choke though, it is pesos). So, Aaron (he is a teacher from Washington who went to Central in Ellensburg and now teaches in Bogota) told us to divide by 2,000. Anyway, I think dinner cost me $10.00 not too bad! The restaurant employs only single moms. The owner is famous for this and is very strict on who he hires. It is a Colombian chain of restaurants. After dinner, we walked around the mall. Tomorrow we will stay after school for a dance and dinner. I hear the salsa dancing is awesome.

P.S. For all of you worried about my security... we feel very safe here. It is not at all like you hear in the media. :)

Bienvenidos from Colombia

Well.. here we are! Welcome to Colombia. It has been an exciting but tiring first day (or has it been two days... I am so tired I can't quite figure out what day it is or how long we have been here). So.. we headed out on Friday from Bonney Lake around 4:00pm. We drove down to Portland and met at Janis's house. Janis is a consultant from "The Math Learning Center" and she is the one who organized the trip along with Thom who works for the ESD with bilingual education.

There are ten teachers from White River plus we met up with two teachers from Waluke (close to Royal City where I grew up!), and also a teacher from Camas. We headed out with Janis and her husband, we rode in their big truck and pulled a huge trailer full of luggage. When we arrived at the airport, the porter said he had never quite seen anything like it! It took quite awhile for all of us to check in to the airline and get our bags x-rayed. Everything went smoothly and we got on the plane and left on time at 12:35 am (Sat. I guess it was). We tried to sleep on the plane to Houston. This was my first time to Texas! Didn't get to see much except the airport. They had a Starbucks though, thank God! Then we left about 15min. late and headed for Panama City. I slept some on the plane that leg but we were pretty exhausted when we got there. We had a 6 hour wait. We had time to eat and take a walk. I had a hard time getting any good photos, but I was a bit shocked by all the "dead" airplanes that were sitting around.

Can you tell we have been up all night?? Lisa, Dalese and Kelly took a little nap. Off we went again, changing airlines to COPA and off to Medellin (pronounced -Meda Jean who knew??) We arrived there and had our immigration forms filled out. I only had to try it three times before I got it right, ugh. Off the plane we met a security officer with a dog and a gun, a bit shocking but he was friendly. Downstairs we went through immigration, only took about 10 min. and then we were off to find our bags and stand in line AGAIN for customs. That took about 30 minutes, I was first through..

and it was EASY! This is me after 24 hours of travel... yikes!! I needed a shower and a bed.

We were met by other teachers from the school and a big sign..

like we were celebrities. We hopped on the bus with our luggage and headed off to our hostel. Janis made the bus driver stop at a outlook on the way for a beautiful view of the city.

I didn't realize how big it is. Around 4 million people live in Medellin, about the same number as ALL of Washington state. The elevation is 4,905 feet. The school we worked at each day was about 3,000 feet higher up the hill. Wow.

We made it to the "San Lorenza de Ana Hostel" late and went to bed. Well, we tried to sleep and it was a little difficult. I think I slept maybe 5 hours. We woke up at 6 am. to have breakfast and get on the bus at 7 am and get to the school by 8 am. The bus trip up the hill takes about 40 minutes. Today was Sunday so it was easier as everyone had a weekend. Lots of bike riders on the rode which was funny as the hill was SOOOO steep, no way would I ride up that hill. Colombians are very healthy people. I have seen very few overweight people and hardly any smoking. Of course they have maids to do the laundry, housework, etc. so I guess they have time to exercise. We arrived at the school (Colombus School, it is private) and went to the gym for a brief session with the other teacher participating in the institute.

Here we are in the gym getting ready for the first day (Dalese, Kelly, Holly, Me, Maribel and Irene). We were very celebrated and they are so appreciative that we are here to help them with teaching math. We had time to set up in our classrooms. I have a teacher helper who speaks Spanish to help me. Her name is Veronica. We will be doing Number Corner and also some Geometry. Lunch was very good. The food is different, but not in a bad way. I had fruit for breakfast with hot chocolate (real chocolate!) and also scrambled eggs. For lunch we had chicken, rice, and fries that were more like shredded potato chips. We also have lots of pastries after meals and for snacks. They are big on snacks here. Thank goodness. At 3:00 we headed over to the public school (Las Palmas).

Wow! What a different sort of experience. The school rooms are fairly small, all concrete walls and ceiling. The desks are chairs with a small desktop attached, adult size. There is a small whiteboard in the front of each room. The school houses all grades K-adult. So, one room might have 1st grade in the morning until lunch, then those kids go home and the 6th graders use the room until afternoon. After those kids leave, the adults have evening classes. They do not have supplies... We headed out to dinner.

A picture of all of us from White River (front l to r): Christy, Holly, and Ashley with Janis (the math rep who brought us here) (back l to r): Dalese, Lisa, Kelly, Trina, Mikki, Me and Dora

We shared dinner with Gloria, the principal of the elementary classes at the Colombus School. She lives in a nice apartment building and we had dinner on a large terrace in her building that the residents can use for parties. We had wine and live singing (latin music). We ate lasagna (not really very Italian tasting though) and strawberry salad that was very good. For dessert, make your own sundaes and their ice cream is like gelato, yummy! We all had a good time. Here we are back at the hostel and it is time for bed.. I am very tired so will sleep now. Up again at 6 am!

Heading to Colombia

So.. I am busy packing and washing some last minute items..good thing my new washer has the "express wash" cycle. Trina is coming to pick me up at 4:00pm. We are heading down to Portland as that is the airport we are all flying out of. Our actual departure time is 12:35 AM (so tomorrow!) Here is my itinerary for getting down to Medellin.

Depart Portland Airport 12:35 AM (Continental)
Arrive Houston 6:33 AM
Depart Houston 9:00 AM
Arrive Panama City 1:03 PM
then we change carriers and fly on COPA airlines
Depart Panama City 6:54 PM
Arrive in Medellin 8:10 PM

so.. I basically spend an entire day just getting there. Looks like I will be plenty ready for bed when we arrive. We are staying at the Hostal San Lorenzo de Ana. We will be working with kids at both the Colombus School and at a public school called Las Palmas. If you Google the Colombus School in Medellin, they have a website and you can click on the Math Institute to see exactly what we are doing. I think the photos are from last year though.

Well, wish me luck. I hope to keep posting as I go but we will see how that works. I downloaded "Skype" to keep in touch with my family. It allows you to call a computer free of charge. The kids will be able to talk to me and see me too with a webcam. So fancy!

Thanks to everyone who donated school supplies, those watching my kids, and all the people who are praying for a safe journey.

Rufus Woods 2008

July 10- We arrived at Bridgeport State Park around 6:00 pm. and boy was it WINDY~ I took this picture when we first arrived but you should have seen it the next day! Wow, a lot of leaves and branches on the ground. Cyndie and I (with kid help) raked and helped the park girl get them cleaned up the next day. The adults took a little "time out" and watched "The Bourne Identity" in the Ladner trailer on the 32 inch big screen. We really rough it! Katie made Pico Degillo for dinner, a yummy pork dish. We waited until the next day to put out the awnings, we all know what happens to them in a wind storm. This is the first year we have all started our vacation with camp spots next to each other from the beginning. Usually one or more of us spend time in the parking lot waiting for a spot or we have to park wherever we can waiting to all move together when other people leave. Bridgeport State Park is pretty small, only 30 spots total.

July 11 - We all took the new boats and headed up to Malibu Beach. The Miracles have a new North River and the Ladners have a new Lund... wowie! The kids enjoyed letting Chris pull them around on the tube. The older boys were especially thrilled to ride the waves and try to dump themselves off the tube. As soon as they did though, they realized how cold the water on the Columbia River really is! The younger kids enjoyed playing on the beach, making sand castles and scooping up tiny fish in buckets. The adults tried to relax... chasing some shade and getting wet.

July 12 - Our first day of fishing! We all got up at 5:30 AM, (young and old) to head up to the "pens" to catch a BIG ONE. It was nice this time that everyone had their own boat and we were able to take all the kids at once. We all caught our limits that day. Hunter and Conner came away with some BIG fish! Conner caught a 10 pound trout. Holy Cow! I think this one will go on the wall if Dad has anything to say about it. Cyndie's turn for dinner today, ribs!

July 13 - Another lazy beach day. This time we headed over to "raft" beach as the boys named it. They found an old boat dock that was floating in the water and spent quite a few hours playing on it. Katie came back from Belfair with Molly taking the total up to 3 girls and 6 boys. Tonight we decided to have steak night.

July 14- Headed up for the day to "Nudie" beach. This beach was named by the old Ranger when he and his wife boated by and saw people- less than clothed. Somehow the kids heard the story and the name stuck with them. Katie and Chris helped almost all of the kids try out water skiing. They all gave it a good try but Maya was the only one to make it up! She was the queen on the skis. We had a hot dog roast on the beach too. Katie made dinner, Garret's favorite, pulled pork sandwiches with lots of BBQ sauce.

July 15 - Another early fishing day. We all headed up again to the "pens" and let Molly try fishing for big trout on for size. We were hoping she would catch a Whopper, but she had to settle for 5 pounds. Tyler managed to hit his mouth on Ben's head and chip a tooth. Our first medical event and thank goodness the last. A big difference from when he fell and broke his arm a few years back. Gail made dinner again, BBQ chicken.

July 16- We try to vary the days we go fishing and beaching. The trip up to the pens is 25 miles via boat and with gas at $4+ a gallon, we didn't want to make the trip too many times. So, today we headed back to "Nudie" beach for more water skiing and tubing. When we arrived, Chris could not locate the bar that went between the waterskis for the kids, so they had to settle for tubing and beach play. Still not sure what happened to the bar. It was quite a discussion, I think in the excitement of the first day, we managed to let it float away?? still a mystery. Marc made french dips for dinner.

July 17 - Today the Dads took some time to themselves and went fishing alone. The kids loaded up with Katie and Cyndie to take a Dam Tour at Chief Joseph Dam. We do that every couple of years, the kids enjoy it. The kids did manage to let Ginger out of the trailer. Her first "escape" of the vacation. She always wants to run and find the marmots. When the Dads returned from fishing... we got to hear all about the one that got away. Marc is sure that Jimmy missed a 25 pounder. So, we dubbed it the "Nibbler" and Jimmy tried in vain to catch him the rest of the trip... maybe next year! Miracles made dinner, pizza!

July 18 - Closer to the end of the trip... the kids needed one more trip up to the "pens" so up again we went. A few bigger fish this time, but no real whoppers to write home about. The kids enjoyed holding up their catch for a group photo. We also managed to still get in a beach time, headed straight over to "raft" beach so the boys could play again. We hope they all had a tetanus shot recently as there was an awful lot of nails in those boards. And a final note in the bike riding chapter. Katie learned to ride a two wheeler! Of the 8 kids.. 6 of them learned at Rufus Woods. But, Katie is the youngest, so this is it... she took about 2 days to get the hang of it and well, now she is a pro.
Ladner's hosted another yummy dinner of Halibut.

July 19 - Happy Birthday Jay! He turns 11 today (the sexy legs of Bingo). I am not sure if he thinks spending his birthday at Rufus Woods every year is a treat or not. But we try our best to make it a good one. This year we headed into town for lunch at the Mexican Restaurant in Brewster (Los Companeros). Most of the kids ordered a cheeseburger... go figure! The food is always good and the margaritas are better. We still managed to make it up to "Nudie" Beach again too. One more beach day before we head home tomorrow.

July 20 - Got up early and packed up all the stuff we had strewn everywhere for the past 10 days. Had to hitch up the boats and "dump the pooper" as the kids would say. We all met up in Brewster at McDonald's for a last day breakfast and were off. Another successful trip was had by all. The kids are already counting the days until next year.