Santa Ana Problems

I'm sure that many of you have heard the phrases and seen the memes for 'First World Problems' quickmeme.com/meme/35v6bh/, 'White Girl Problems', 'Guido Problems' etc. We here in Santa Ana have a running joke about what we call 'Santa Ana Problems'. While talking to Mum and Dad the other day, they were complaining that the battery was about to run out on their iPad and that it was such a hassle that they would have to move to the iMac computer, a whole 20 metres away from where they were sitting. 'Battery runs out on iPad, have to move to computer.' This, my friends, is what we call a first world problem. In this entry, I'd like to share a few 'Santa Ana Problems' with you. 

You know you're in Santa Ana when:

•The water goes out for the better part of 5 days and when it finally goes back on you start to hand wash your laundry. After washing with dirty well water for the past five days and feeling extra hot and sweaty after hand washing clothes in a bucket for an hour, you go to take a shower only to realise that the water has gone out again.

•You see a 300kg pig being piled onto a motorbike and laugh... Until you realise that the same pig is crossing the river with you and six other people in a dug out canoe. 

•There's no food left in the house so you go to the tienda to buy a bag of rice and put it the water only to realise that it's filled with ants. Annoying, but you eat it, ants and all because there's nothing else. Extra protein, right? 

•Using the Internet means sitting outside on a balcony doing a yoga move to get connection in either excruciating heat, pouring rain or mosquito-ridden conditions. If and when it does work it's slower than a pregnant snail. 

•You wear pants, long sleeves, spray yourself with bug spray and cover yourself with a sarong but still get bitten by mosquitoes all over your body. What kind of mosquitoes bite your hands, cheeks and eyelids?

•It's 7.30am and you are covered in water, oh wait, no, that's sweat. 

•You just can't be bothered cooking and there's no food in the house. Just go to the supermarket or order take away you say? You'd have to travel an hour and a half for that. 

•You experience that sleepy, island living in Santa Ana. I know you all think we live on a Caribbean beach and wake to the sound of waves breaking on the white sand. Actually you awaken from your slumber to the sweet braying of donkeys and soothing sounds of loud base pounding from concert-sized pick-ups (speakers) which every home seems to have.

•Cooking is like an extreme sport. You share a kitchen with up to 16 people, ants, frogs, mosquitos, mice, geckos and mystery insects and cook with the latest cookware including three frying pans, one which has a handle. 

•You know the 'Santa Ana Anthems' off by heart. The towns folk love music, and I mean LOVE it. Who knew it was possible to hear the same ten songs repeatedly everyday for a whole year. 

•You think you know how to speak Spanish... until you speak to a Costeño, even more so a Santanero. When you say you don't understand they kindly repeat it for you, louder and faster.

With only three weeks left, it's easy to look at these quirks and appreciate them. It makes me realise that we really have had such an amazing and different experience here that I will look back on so fondly. 

It's so easy to take everyday things and conveniences for granted. I hope that after this experience I'll be more aware of the seemingly little things in life- I don't know that I'll ever look at a washing machine in the same way again. I hope I'll always appreciate a hot shower and the convenience of being able to go to a supermarket or order pizza. What I wouldn't give for a First World Problem right now!

Small Moments with Small People

Yesterday I woke with a bad cold to the sound of heavy rain. As the rain pelted down and my throat ached, I contemplated staying in bed to try and rid myself of the cold. Instead, I got up, put on my rain boots and went to school with a sniffly nose and a husky voice.

Just after 7am I walked across campus under my umbrella through mud and puddles. Normally at this time it's humid and the school is buzzing with students starting their day. Yesterday it was it was positively chilly (for Santa Ana, anyway) and there was not a soul in sight. I ran into one of the kitchen staff and asked if class was cancelled (this is Colombia after all, it wouldn't be unusual for schedules to change.) She looked at me strangely and said straightforwardly that no students had arrived yet because it was raining. Of course, it's raining, why didn't I think of that? Apparently when there is heavy rain, the students arrive late, if at all and today was no exception. I taught my first class to one student, and we were later joined by three others. I wondered if I really should have just stayed in bed after all.

It was in my next class that I had a moment which made my day. While my five students were working quietly, my co-teacher signalled for me to listen to the Jardin (3-5 year old) class next door. I looked over and saw a small group of students playing. 'Yo soy la teacher!' 'I am the teacher!' one said, and another protested that they too, wanted to be the teacher. Once they had decided on a teacher she used the greeting that I start with in every class, 'Good morning, good morning, good morning to you. Our day, is beginning, there's so much, to do, so, good morning, good morning, good morning to you.' I proceeded to listen to them act out my English class, sing songs that we have learnt, request video clips that I have shown them and say things that I say. It warmed my heart that these tiny little people, when left to their own devices, were pretending to be in English class and were using the vocabulary and songs that I have taught them.

It's often a frustrating experience teaching here and can be difficult to see past the challenges that come up each day. It's easy to question ourselves and what we do. 'Am I making a difference?' 'Are my students learning?' 'Am I appreciated and is what I am doing worthwhile?' Sometimes it's difficult to step outside of our own thoughts and see past the questions and doubts that we have. Although only a tiny thing, what I heard yesterday made me incredibly happy. It helped me to reflect and see past all of those questions and doubts and feel really proud to influence and have an impact on these kids. I'm so glad I got out of bed.

Some of my little Jardin students.

Three Month Update: The Challenges and the Positives

Here I am, a quarter way through this WorldTeach journey and what an experience it has been so far. Each night at dinner, my little family of volunteers and I play 'The Pit and the Peak' where we one low and one high of each day, or one challenge and one positive. The first period of teaching has finished and the Easter break has given me a chance to reflect on my time here so far. I have had some really challenging lows as well as some amazing highs and I thought now would be the perfect time to share these with you. I will start with the lows so we can end on the highs.

The Challenges:

• Getting sick in the first weeks of arriving in Santa Ana: Not only did the timing of this make it really challenging to adjust to life here but it also meant that I missed more than a week of teaching my students.
• Bureaucracy: in so many aspects of society. From the immigration office to the bank, and most frustratingly, at school. It drives me crazy when there are seemingly pointless bureaucratic processes that take up valuable time that could be spent on worthwhile things.
• The challenges of teaching with limited resources and the workload: I knew that this experience would be challenging but I could have never imagined how hard it would be to stand up in front of a class of kids with the bare minimum and try to teach a great lesson. It is truly daunting and challenging and takes hours of planning, preparation, thought and effort. Preparing for ten class groups across six grade levels takes up a tremendous amount of time and effort, and this, along with the meetings, extra-curricular activities and administrative paperwork required by the school and WorldTeach makes for hard work!
• Having a bad day at school: There are just some days which are bad, really bad, where everything seems to go wrong. The kids can really push you to your limits and on occasion on these bad days, I have questioned what I am doing here. Lucky these days are the minority and I am learning how to deal with them a lot better than I did at the start.
• When there is no power or water: Living in a place with little infrastructure has it's lows. There's nothing more refreshing than getting home from a long day of classes, having a cold(ish) shower and sitting in front of the fan to cool down. There's nothing more disappointing than realizing that you can't do this.
• Missing friends and family: I've spent long periods away from home before and haven't missed friends and family like I have here. This experience has been really challenging and it's been hard not being around my usual support network. I'm lucky to have such a supportive group here.
• Self doubt and perfectionism: These are things that I always struggle with in many aspects of my life. Here, in this experience, these two qualities are amplified. I often wonder if I am what I am doing here is enough and I am sometimes frustrated that I am not making the progress that I had hoped with my students. Being a perfectionist in this type of situation never helps as I am constantly trying to get everything right all the time when it's not always possible.

The Positives:

• Experiencing a new culture: What a blessing to be able to spend a prolonged period of time emerged in a culture, to experience the quirks, the great (and not so great) parts, the language, the food and everything else that comes with it. This is a priceless experience as anyone who has done this before will know.
• Being a part of a small community: I love being a teacher here, being a part of this team of educators, living in this community and getting to know some of it's people. Now that I am adjusting to life here and my responsibilities, I look forward to playing a bigger part in the community as the year moves on.

 

• My students: Although some of them drive me crazy, I adore my students, especially the little ones. I never knew I could love these little people so much. They constantly surprise me, make me smile and roar with laughter at some of the things they do and say. I feel so lucky to be a part of their lives.

 

• My fellow volunteers: I couldn't have asked to be placed with a better group of people. These people who I am surrounded by 24 hours a day are my family, my friends and my support here and without them I don't think that I could do this. We see the best and the worst of each other and it's lucky that we get along, because the only time we are alone is when we are in the bathroom (if we are lucky!)

 

• Colombia, the country: What a beautiful, diverse place. I am a stones throw away from one of the most spectacular beaches I have ever seen, a short trip away from the beauty, history and culture of Cartagena and so many other places that are a part of this wonderful country.
• The fried food: This one needs to go in both columns. As much as I love the deditos, papa rellena, empanada and pastel de carne my body certainly doesn't. I will soon be sporting 'the poonch', present on many costeño women, a large protruding stomach, sometimes mistaken for a pregnant belly thanks to our fried friends which I eat on an almost daily basis.

My final point is the most significant high:

• Being proud of myself and what I am doing here: Being here has pushed me to the limits and has tested me. In my most challenging moments I have seriously considered the possibility of giving in but I am so proud that I have pushed through and stuck with it, thanks also to the words of my friends and family. I really feel that I am here doing something great. In a moment of doubt in my abilities, mum told me something very true. She told me that whatever I do here, however small, will be more than what the students would have if I wasn't here. By me just being here, they will learn something, and however small that may be for some students, it's more than what they would learn if I wasn't here. I have realized that I can't change a community, or a culture, or a country. That's why I look at the small positive things and realize that they are the reason that I am here. When a student learns something new, when I see their smiling faces and hear them call my name when I pass because they are excited that I am here, when they hug me in class because they know that I care for them, when they overcome a challenge, when they change a behavior- these are the reasons that I am here. In the words of Mother Teresa, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” I hope that the stone I cast creates ripples for even just some of my students and that it makes them look outside of what they know to see that there are many possibilities for them if they try.

Video of Teaching in Santa Ana

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of reporters came to do a clip on us volunteers discussing our experiences of foreigners teaching in Santa Ana. Dad insisted I put the link up so you can see what it's like here, so here it is. I was super nervous in the interview so my Spanish is awful but at least it shows some footage from our classrooms here and a little bit of what our experience is like.

Two Month Update: You Know You're in Santa Ana When...

I can't believe that I have been in Colombia for two months. It truly has been an adventure and a challenging experience with many highs and lows. There is so much that I need to update on this blog about my time here in Santa Ana. The truth is teaching is keeping me very busy.

My day starts at 5.30AM when my alarm goes off and I get up to start the day. The only good thing about getting up so early is the beautiful sunrise that I get to see everyday. 

My classes start at 7.45AM everyday but I usually have to be at school for a 7AM meeting. I usually teach classes until 12.15 or 1PM when I have lunch at the school restaurant and then head back to my room to have a siesta and plan classes for the next day. There are often meetings in the afternoon too, by which time it is time for dinner and more preparations for classes for the following day. As there are limited resources at the school and I teach young children, I have to make a lot of resources for class. The school does have a photocopier, but paying for each copy adds up and I usually draw or write what I need by hand, or have the kids copy from the board, but that takes FOREVER. Anyway my point is that time seems to escape me and since I haven't had much time to write my blog I thought I'd write a post on all things Santa Ana. So here goes.

You Know You're In Santa Ana When:

• You hear champeta music blaring from picos day and night. Seriously sometimes ALL day and ALL night.
• The only thing you can hear over the champeta is donkeys braying. Seriously, they sound miserable.
• You walk through the town and all you hear is students (and adults) yell, 'Tiiiiiiicccchhhheeeeerrrr.'
• You quite often have chickens, dogs, bugs, spiders, snakes, 'insert animal here' in your classroom. Another distraction for the students!
• You have frogs, mosquitoes, geckos and scorpions in your room.
• You often don't have running water or power, usually at the most inappropriate times.
• Everything you eat is sugar-filled, fried and/or a carbohydrate.
• You go to the local store at night and fall in the mud pit that is the main road of Santa Ana
• It's so hot that the only time you are fully clothed is at school. At home it's 'undies only'.
• To get to Cartagena you take a moto-taxi, a canoe and a hot, sweaty bus and look like the wreck of the Hesperus by the time you arrive.
• Air conditioning is a rare and strange thing. 
• Hissing is a form of communication.
• No-one pronounces 's'. Ever.
• It's rude not to greet the locals. It makes you look weird when you go to the city and start talking to strangers.
• You use whatever you can to teach a class and make do with limited resources.
• Every class your students ask you, 'Prestame un lapiz!' ('Lend me a pencil').
• Your students release snakes in class, pee on the floor, want to fight you, hit other kids with machetes and give you attitude. They push you to the limits at times.
• Your students hug you, kiss you, give you notes and lollies, draw you pictures, ask you funny questions and adore you.
• The highlight of your day is seeing the beautiful pre escolar kids in the restaurant eating lunch or when one of your students learns something new. They bring joy to you and you look forward to seeing them each day.
• You are part of a community that doesn't have much but is so incredibly special.

It was a tough transition coming here and adjusting to a life so different from anything I have ever experienced. There are challenges and frustrations every day but Santa Ana is a truly special place and my fellow volunteers are incredible. With them, I am embracing this experience and taking every day as it comes. Right now I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

One Month Update.

More than a month has past since I left Melbourne early on New Years Day but it feels more like a year. I have traversed continents, across time zones (back 16 hours) and traveled from sea level, to an altitude of 2625 meters and back down to sea level.

After arriving in Colombia on January 4^th, I spent my first two and a half weeks in Cota, a small town just outside of Bogota where I participated in the WorldTeach Orientation program. Here I got to know my fellow volunteers and learnt about Colombian culture, economics, history, politics and the education system as well as intense TEFL training to prepare me for my role here as an English teacher. During that time we all got to know each other well, and very quickly- something that is almost unavoidable when spending all day every day with 36 other people and sharing a room with five others. The group is diverse with various educational, work and life experiences, amongst us- three married couples, more than a handful of people over 30 and two Aussies (including me!) Of these 36, half would be staying in Bogotá and the interior, and the other half would be spread across the coast, with eight of us heading to tiny Santa Ana, a town of around 5000 on Isla Barú, about an hour and a half from the beautiful colonial city of Cartagena on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast.

On January 22^nd, the eight of us left cold and rainy Bogotá and flew to the lovely warmth of Cartagena. From Cartagena we enjoyed the luxury of an air-conditioned car ride to Pasacaballos where we took the ferry across to Barú and proceeded to drive on the unpaved streets taking in the barren landscape on the island that would be our home for 2012. After an hour and a half of travel we arrived to the intense heat and dusty, unpaved streets of Santa Ana where we were welcomed by the beating, hot sun, loud champeta music and inquisitive stares from the locals. We certainly made an entrance as our two vehicles tried to navigate the flooded swamp that is the main road of Santa Ana, a challenge to cross with anything other than a motorbike. We managed to find our way around the lake and onto the grounds of Fundación Instituto Ecológico Barbacoas, our new home and my workplace for the next ten months.

The campus consists of open-air classrooms with trees surrounding them, providing shade for relief from the sun. Most of the staff here commutes from Cartagena or Barranquilla and stay here on campus from Monday to Friday, traveling home to their families on the weekend. They live in the Casitas, located at the back of the campus. Beyond the campus lies the Villa where we, the volunteers, share the two storey building with the doctors who work at the Medical Clinic during the week. We have a common living space and kitchen, and each of the volunteers shares a room upstairs, with a bathroom. Our rooms are simple with tiled floors and consist of bunk beds, two fans, a closet and a deceiving air conditioning unit which doesn’t work. We are told from last year’s volunteers that each room has it’s pros and cons, I’m sure we are bound to find out what they are as the year goes on!

We are now in our third week of teaching and it has been challenging so far. That, however, is another post entirely.

(A Little More Than) Halfway to Colombia

Days 1-2: New Years Eve... Twice, the Adaptor Saga and Crying Babies

Here I am, halfway to Colombia! After three flights and and 22 hours, I arrived in LA with a couple of days to pick up last minute supplies, gorge on American food and American-sized portions and to try and get my body to realise what day and time it actually is after crossing seven time zones.

The Journey So Far.

My New Years Eve in Melbourne was a quiet one this year. Rather than bringing in the 2012 dancing and being merry with friends, I was at home trying to pack my life into a suitcase in a mere few hours (there's nothing quite like a last minute packing session.) Just before midnight, I had a packing freak-out of epic proportions. I could hardly shut my bag and definitely couldn't carry it more than 3m, It was time to cull some items and logistically work out how I was going to be able to talk my way onto a plane with 40kg of luggage without having to sell a kidney. After repacking I realised that at least half of my luggage was made up of boring yet essential items such as contact lenses, first aid items, towels, sheets, mosquito nets, rain jackets and so on, and that the cull wasn't going to be hugely successful. Dad, A.K.A. the most efficient packer on the planet, told me that I was going away for a year and that I had packed well. So with that, after taking out a few items and packing into two bags, I headed to bed at 2AM for a refreshing two hours sleep before the long journey ahead.

As Mum and Dad drove me to the airport, we passed revellers enjoying the last hours of the night on St Kilda Beach and I wondered if my friends were still out partying somewhere, or perhaps devouring a kebab/pizza/McDonalds. Since I had been working so hard and my preparations had been so last minute, I hadn't really had the chance to think about much else than sleeping, organising copious details for the year ahead and worrying if my visa would arrive. In these early hours of 2012, it was finally sinking in that I wouldn't be eating real Vegemite (the travel tube just isn't the same), playing with my dog or seeing my friends or family for a long time.

Check in at the airport was quick and painless. I struck up a conversation with the lady behind the desk and exclaimed how lucky she was to cop the early New Years Day shift and she was quick to tell me that she had come straight from a party in the city. When she sent me on my way, I was relieved that my bags had been successfully checked and, for the time being, I hadn't been charged excess baggage. My friendly conversation skills? No, I think Emirates just has a generous baggage policy, but I guess it still pays to be nice.

While I waited for my flight I hunted for an adaptor, something that had proven difficult to find in the days prior to my departure. In one of the 15 stores I had visited, the shop assistant advised me that I needed a special 'earthed' adaptor and would find one at the airport. After checking in I went to the luggage shop, then the duty free shop, then another store selling travel goods. No luck. It turns out that you can't get an adaptor to plug a three-pronged Australian device into a two pronged Colombian electrical outlet any more. Why? I don't know. At this point, fatigue and frustration caught up with me as well as the emotion of the adventure I was about to embark on so when it was time to say goodbye to Mum and Dad, I couldn't stop myself from shedding a a few tears.

The flight to New Zealand was short and relatively painless. I managed to pick up an adaptor in the duty free on the plane which claimed to convert two or three pinned devices. Unfortunately it did the same as the other two adaptors I had bought at the airport. Great. You can imagine my relief when I found what I thought was what I was looking for in the pharmacy at the airport. There was an adaptor that claimed to work with the three/two pronged issue. I also asked if it converted voltage. The last thing I wanted was to blow up my electronic goods. Boris, my friendly sales assistant assured me that, yes, it did and if not he would refund my money. Sitting down to a nutritious Burger King cheeseburger, I re-read the instructions. I think you can guess what comes next. That's right, it didn't convert voltage. After many attempts of convincing from Boris, I finally demanded a refund, which, was given to me in New Zealand dollars. It was 'store policy' that they do cash refunds. Thanks, Boris, just what I wanted- $40 New Zealand dollars cash just 15 minutes before boarding. I wasn't going to convert the currency as I would lose half of it in conversion and although I needed plenty of things sold at the pharmacy, I certainly wasn't giving it back to Boris out of principle. I hurried down to the surf shop and picked up a pair of Havianas. Problem solved!


My next two flights were with Air Tahiti Nui, first to Papeete, Tahiti, then finally to LAX. On my flight to Tahiti, I crossed the International Date Line taking me back to December 31st, 2011 so when I boarded my flight to LAX at 11.55, I welcomed in 2012 with my fellow air-travellers, for the second time. The flights weren't the longest I have ever taken, however I managed to be seated a few rows back from the bulkhead seats. For those of you don't know, this is where the airlines seat parents with small children. The first flight had two babies who took it in turns crying for the entire flight. Yes, the entire flight. You can imagine my excitement when I sat down on the next flight and heard the screams of a baby coming from the same section. This was not like a regular baby cry- the kid had lungs and wasn't afraid to use them. Luckily after the first hour, the little angel stopped crying and I managed to get a few hours sleep.

Once I arrived in LA, I checked in to my hotel and watched some trashy TV in an attempt to stay awake and try and avoid jetlag. I managed to stay awake and go to bed at LA bedtime rather than Melbourne bedtime. After a decent nights sleep, I spent the day with my dear American friend Sam who I studied with in Mexico and then travelled with in 2009. It was great to see her after more than two years. She took me to the mall to collect a few last minute items like Crayola pencils and markers, khaki pants and flashcards, just more stuff to fit into my bags! I'm nervous about check in tomorrow at ultra-budget Spirit Airlines where you pretty much have to pay for the air you breath on the plane. Let's just hope there are no crying babies on my next two flights. Next stop, Colombia (via Fort Lauderdale).

 Sam and I at the Culver City Mall.