The kitten that was at the hostel! I say at the hostel because the housekeeper took her home while I was away last weekend. =(
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This past weekend I went to Playa Costeño with a few of the other volunteers from the Mariposas and another NGO that works in Santa Marta. It was wonderful. One had to walk for around twenty minutes to get to any kind of store and even then it was only the smallest of markets. If you walked twenty minutes either way on the beach the only people you ran into were fishermen. I am really dissappointed in myself for not getting pictures of the beach and the hostel. Here is the link to their website if you want to see more of what it was like: Costeño Surf Camp. Sadly I did not surf as I need to save my money for the Lost City trip I am leaving for today. The above is an artsy photo I did manage to take of my friends while were hanging out by the bonfire. At night there was basically no electricity except for a few twinkle lights in the bathroom. It was so tranquil and beautiful, and there were crabs, frogs, geckos, and animal life everywhere. There were monkeys and caymans, and while I heard them, I sadly did not see any in my time there. I also encountered plenty of insects who thought I was breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bug spray is just really ineffective in this country.
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This is the Dreamer Hostel, where I have been living for the past week and a half and plan on continuing to live at during my stay in Santa Marta. I am sure you can figure out the appeal from this picture. It is wonderful coming back from teaching the kids on a hot day (every day here) and jump in the pool and cool off and then take a siesta in one of the many hammocks surrounding the pool area. I might be getting a little spoiled here. It does however get tiring living in a 10 person dorm room (the cheapest room available) particularly since get up every morning around 6:20 to be at the school by 7:30. We used to take the bus to the school but it is very slow. All the buses here go into the center of town and then to wherever the destination is. This means what should take 10 to fifteen minutes can take 30 minutes to an hour. Lauren and I have started taking the motorbike taxis to work. They cost about a dollar, take ten minutes, are a little scary but quite a lot of fun. The drivers are very good about slowing down when they come up to puddles so as to not splash water on us. The other day we took two to get back the hostel after school and they briefly drove down the wrong side of the street so they could cross earlier. Always in a rush. Don´t worry though, our drivers like living too so I trust them about as much as I trust a taxi driver. Another great thing about taking them instead of the bus is I am learning the route to school better and the price is always the same. Instead of being late I have time for breakfast!
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These are the kids we are working with. Yesterday we had a police officer come in as a guest speaker. The kids loved it. He got them all to participate and worked on teaching them about being safe and being respectful. The kids too often just demand things and do not use phrases like please and thank you. We are working on them though. This is my first experience working with 4 through 7 year olds. Let me say it is difficult and exhausting. Their spanish is almost impossible for me to understand because they mumble like crazy and they have the attention span of a pea. They are great kids though and face a lot of issues in their home and the area they live in. One of our boys´ shoe was falling apart and I said to another volunteer who had been there much longer that I felt bad for him. She looked back at me and said at least he has shoes. Despite this the kids are pretty happy the majority of the time, particularly if they are running circles around us. Maybe that is why teaching little ones is so tiring, I constantly have to chase them down!
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Feliz Dia de la Madre!
Happy Mother´s day Mom! I love you and miss you. We spent the rest of yesterday making Mother´s day cards with the kids. They got really into it. It was so pleasant having a full day of the kids being productive. If any of my readers have worked with this age group and have suggestions of activities, songs or games please pass them along to me. I would love to hear them!! Since I could not make a Mother´s day card and send it to my lovely Mother I took a picture of the kids with their cards. <3
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Tyler, this story next story is for you. There are extremely large frogs here. Probably technically toads, but for this story it is a frog. Lauren and I were walking along the main avenue by our hostel and saw a frog larger than my two fists put together. It jumped into the road and we both let out small screams ¨FROGGY!¨ We thought for sure he would be hit by one of the cares, motorbikes, or buses that flies down that street. One car missed the frog by mear inches, in fact from our angle we thought he was a goner. But he was still alive, dodged a few motorbikes and made it the otherside. A real life Frogger story. Sorry if no one else gets this Playstation reference. Tyler I thought of you and I playing that game the rest of the way home.
As much as I would like to continue telling stories about my adventures here I have to go pack my things and run to the ATM before I get picked up by my tour group for the Lost City. You can only trek to the Lost city with a tour and while it is a little expensive we are supposed to get fed extremely well and have mini-hostels in the jungle to sleep in on the way. The ruins should be beautiful with barely anyone there except the army, our tour group and maybe one other group or researchers. I do not think I can even explain how excited I am. So more soon! I will write next week when I return. (Sorry, I am going to the land of no wifi. It should be blissful)
Pura vida!!!
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