Medellin~
As I said earlier, 'wow' what a town! Medellin is located in a valley (I forgot to tell why we had to land at the airport on the mountain as opposed to the one in the valley. In order to land successfully in the valley, pilots have to pull an Indiana Jones type of maneuver tilting the plane first to one side and then the other in order to avoid the 'hills' in the way!!!!! Knowing that made the long drive from our mountainous airport not such a bad thing!
For those of you who, like me, don't know too much about Colombia, Medellin has a rather notorious history. Even my new Lonely Planet guide book says that the city's drug capitol past keeps it listed as a, and I quote, "sketchy" city to visit. Needless to say, I was a little nervous most of the time! Especially the night that we ended up taking a cab off the side of the street because we couldn't reach one by phone!!!!!!! Luckily I was with other people, one of whom was a Colombian who took great care of us Gringos!
Janice helped to put together the week-long Math Institute that is why we all went to Medellin in the first place. She is such a driving force in the teaching of mathematics here in Colombia. It is obvious how everyone who worked with herr respected her! We spent our days at the Colombus School ~ another International School~ observing teachers, listening to speakers (the co-authors of the Bridges program!!!!!!!!!), and debriefing about all we learned. One day I went over to the 'sister' school of The Colombus School, a public school, just to experience it. Much like the public sister school of my own CNG, this school was overcrowded with few supplies. The director and teachers, though, were amazing and so enjoyed their participation at the math institute hosted by The Colombus School. The directors words to us on the last day of the institute brought tears not only to my eyes, but to the eyes of most in the room. Here are two shots of the classrooms at the public school, and the third one is a dance that some of those children performed for us back at the Colombus School as a thank you for coming to their school too:
The evenings we were on our own to explore the city and enjoy the wonderful food. I spent most of my time with my new teaching partner, Dahlia, and Colombian teachers from out school as well as four amazing women from Guatemala!! What a good time we had! We spent most of our evenings around the Park Llerdes where great restaurants abounded along with street vendors. Here we are on one of our evenings out. From left to right it's Claudia, Bianca, Ruben, Dahlia, Sylvia, Me, Gustavo's shirt :-), and Anatoly.
I think I most enjoyed getting to know some of the CNG teachers the most. Ruben I knew from my spring break visit. He is also a math teacher, but for elementary. He is Colombian and a great tour guide. Ruben made sure I was safe at all times and took us to one of the most beautiful malls I have ever seen! This is the view of Medellin from the bridge in one part of the mall:
Freddie and Vicky are both 5th grade teachers and they are a kick in the pants!!! They both kept me in stitches the whole time. Freddie was particularly awesome on the dance floor!!
I also got to know three wonderfully kind women: a K4, a 1st, and a 2nd grade teacher. What I appreciated about them the most was there kindness. There were times when thoughts of home hit me and I felt a little alone at dinners with just Colombian teachers, who of course spoke in Spanish. Vanessa, Vanessa, and Juliana always made sure that they spoke English in front of me and thereby made me feel included. During my low point that week, they were my saviours. We also hooked up with four of the coolest women, who were down from Guatemala. Claudia (fun fun fun), Sylvia, Bianca, and Anna joined us for a couple of dinners. I tried to get them to come on down to Bogota with us, but they said their husbands would miss them...... Dang it.
Oh, I also want to let you know that Colombian people are the nicest people EVER! On two separate occasions, I was talking to people about my Christmas plans ~ taking my girls to the coast in Cartagena and three seperate women gave me their names and numbers so that I could call them when I get there. One lived in Barranquilla (a fun Carnival town!), one was from Cartagena, and one (who also gave me the address of her apartment that she would vacate so that the girls and I could stay there for free!!!!) was from Santa Marta. I have met friendly people in many countries, but seriously.... wow!
Medellin was a little difficult in that Dahlia and I were, for the first time, without Aaron. The three of us have become quite close friends. He was working as a consultant, with Karla, at the public school. Here they are on either side of one of their new friends, a vivacious Colombian teacher!
And as you have probably gathered, it wasn't all work for any of us!!! Janice let me sneak along on a shopping day and then dinner out. Even the hardest working of us needs to relax every now and then!
In fact, the great thing about Medellin was that I got to see my Debbie!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup, she did it! Debbie came down with the group of consultants with Janice and even though I didn't get to spend too much time with her, we had a great time when we were together! I think Debbie had a great time teaching, playing, dancing, going out to eat. All I know for sure is that we laughed a lot!!
One night we had a particularly good time. Must have been the Club Colombia with lime...... LOL Actually, she is throwing candy down my shirt. Don't ask!!!!!!!
And of course, even though it was a couple of days off, we celebrated Aaron's birthday down in Medellin. Now that was funny!
2 comments:
Sounds like you are having a great time...miss you...
If baby Aston weren't on her way, I'd be coming to visit! Glad to see you are having so much fun.
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