los primeros dias

By: Tara

Here we are! We’ve already spent four nights in our new home. We have been overwhelmed by the support the school has given us, the kindness of our Colombian co-workers, and the instant camaraderie with our fellow “new import” teachers.

For those of you just catching up with us, we are at the beginning of a two-year committment teaching at an international school in Barranquilla, Colombia. Brennan is teaching HS Biology and I'm teaching 7-8th English Language Arts. School starts in a week and a half!

I have been speaking Spanish a lot, and am really excited about how much is coming back to me. I try to find opportunities to keep quiet and let Brennan practice, too. He’s still working with Rosetta Stone and then practicing with fellow teachers and people we meet in restaurants, etc.

The climate here is hot and humid, but we are adjusting better than we expected! Often there is a nice breeze coming in from the Carribean Sea. We’ve been told the weather these past few days is not typical for July here- much cooler- but perhaps that is what is easing our transition! If so, we’ll take it! Our bedroom is air conditioned, and the rest of the apartment is cooled with fans. All of the floors are tile, so that helps.

The night we arrived, Wednesday, we were exhausted from about 24 hours (on and off) of travel. We were picked up at the airport (along with four of the five other new import teachers) and taken to our apartments, where we were greeted by snacks and food in the fridge! That night B and I unpacked our boxes, again creating piles around the house- agh with the piles!!!- but knowing these would be our last moving piles for a couple years.



Thursday and Friday we were picked up by a school chauffer, and spent most of the day in orientation, meetings with our principals, meeting new Colombian co-workers, getting a physical, filling out paperwork for banks and immigration, and having our photo taken for school ID. Each day we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and lunch at the school, and after school they took us shopping so we could get some things for our home, like trash cans, towels, blankets, lamps, etc. It felt like freshman year of college all over again! We spent those evenings walking around our neighborhood and eating dinner at local restaurants, and adjusting to the Colombian peso. A Costo-sized package of toilet paper costs 26,000 pesos! But, converted, that is roughly $15 US dollars, so on the whole, it seems like prices are similar.



Saturday was our first free day, and the import teachers unanimously agreed we wanted to spend it at the beach. We spent the day at a beach about 20 min. outside of Barranquilla. We had a great afternoon of swimming and relaxing, and our lunch was AMAZING- fried white fish with fried plantains and coconut rice. Top it all off with a couple glasses of sangria, and you have yourself a lovely afternoon with new friends.







The new import teachers had decided to meet up at 7:30pm back in Barranquilla to get some pizza at a local restaurant, but at around 7:00, there was a ring at our door, and B and I were greeted by two fellow teachers from the states who have been here four years, as well as their friend. So we chatted for awhile and ended up going out for pizza together, along with a couple more teachers who’ve been here up to 10 years, and the other new imorts. It was a great evening.

Now it is Sunday. Brennan and I plan to do some schoolwork and maybe some grocery shopping- we haven’t had to cook for ourselves yet. Mostly we are looking forward to a quiet day around the house with some time to settle in and get ready for the week ahead.

Ciao!
tvl

i don't know why you say goodbye, i say hello

…thoughts from Tara…

8:25 pm, Sea Tac Airport Gate A9

The sun is setting on this our last day in WA for awhile. The past months have been rich and full, and now we are ready for Colombia!

It is probably impossible to put into words what our two years at Holden meant for me. In fact, I still don’t know. What I do know is how it felt to leave. We left our community, our “family”, our new pattern of daily work and play and prayer, and we left the mountains, which we love so much.

One of the ways I process changes and seasons is by making playlists to capture my feelings and energy. I made a somewhat erratic playlist during our goodbyes and the transition from Holden and the title track was “Hello, Goodbye,” recorded by the Beatles. Other tracks (just to give you an idea…) included:

Change of Time, by Josh Ritter
Hoy Me Voy, by Juanes
Bye, Bye, Bye, by *N’Sync
Thank You, by Alanis Morisette
The Parting Glass, recording by The Wailin’ Jennys
Be Good To Yourself, by Journey
The Way It Is, by Bruce Hornsby


You can see that it was all over the map. Just like my emotions. Our last months at Holden were full of good gifts. Many friends returned for visits who had been an important part of our time at Holden, including Alisha Nelson, our “daughter” who boarded at Holden and graduated from Holden High School in 2011, and her mom and twin brother. My Grandma Ten Kley and Grandma Bajema visited with my dad during our last weekend at Holden. And even as we said goodbye, we knew we’d be saying hello again.

We made our home in Mount Vernon, WA for about four weeks after we left Holden. We lived in an big, old farmhouse out on the Skagit flats, surrounded by fields of corn, raspberries and pasture. It was a great place to spread out our belongings and sort them into “Colombia” or “storage” piles.

Although we were based in Mount Vernon, we spent a lot of time in other NW Washington places as- Brennan took a professional development class in Bellevue, and we spent a few days on Lake Samish in Bellingham with the Van Loo’s. Soon wedding bells were ringing for Brett and Lindie up in Lynden and we were able to spend some quality time with the Bajema’s during wedding week. A couple days later we took a kayaking trip with dear Skagit friends on Ross Lake. We also explored Port Townsend with beloved Holden friends just past weekend. Then we made a final trip up to Lynden to say goodbye to our families there. Monday we packed, and had a lovely send-off dinner with friends in Mount Vernon. Today we finished packing and put the farmhouse back into working order after our piles had been moved into storage or into the 4-Runner that would take us to the airport. Now here we are. I don’t know why you say goodbye. I say hello.

I wouldn’t describe the past month as relaxing. Living in the middle of a transition between Holden Village and Barranquilla, Colombia, has been strange, exciting and overwhelming. But it has been rich, full, and fun. We have been blessed with family and friends who love us and support us, and all of our experiences this summer in the Northwest affirmed us as we head into the unknown. To those of you who have journeyed with us: THANK YOU. We love you and look forward to sharing our new adventures with you, whether in spirit or here in Colombia (we have guest rooms in our apartment!).

Hello, Goodbye.

Peace,
Tara

July

t is July 23, I am sitting in the kitchen of an old 5 bedroom farm house, looking at the window at a small pasture and a large black walnut tree. It is raining. Today is packing day for Tara and I. Tomorrow, we move to Barranquilla, Colombia. How did we get here, and what have I been doing this year will be the subject of this post, a simple title for this post would be; What have I done since I last posted.

January: Got ready for International teaching job fair – Bought suits, thus ignoring the wisdom of Thoreau, “Be wary of any venture that requires you to buy new clothes.” Updated resumes, contacted schools, researched schools, read through interview tips, Drove out to Iowa, stopped by Northwestern to reconnect with friends, professors, mentors, and former students (at Dordt). We could not have done anything better the week before the job fair than to be in the place and with the people of those formative college years that put us on the teaching trajectory

February: International teaching Job Fair at the University of Northern Iowa, Waterloo Iowa.
Day 1: Get to the fair, our favorite school that had openings for both of us, no longer has an opening for either of us. 1.5 hours to sign up for interviews for the next 3 days, get 7 interviews, including one at a school that hadn’t been on our radar, Colegio Karl C. Parish. First interview is with KCP, goes great, next interview- 10 minutes, not so good, we talked for about 1 minute of the entire interview, Next interview – Tarsus Turkey – Great, last interview of the day – OK. Talk more with KCP – very good. Eat dinner. KCP finds us and wants to talk. They offer us contracts, High school Bio for me, Middle School Language arts for Tara. They let us sleep on the decision. We sleep
Day 2: We sign the contract with KCP, we are going to Barranquilla, Colombia!!!! (3 exclamation points didn’t seem enough) Have best prime rib of my life in Waverly Iowa.
Day 3: Start driving back to Washington from Eastern Iowa. Watch Superbowl in Rapid City SD, then keep driving.
Day 4: Get to Spokane in the morning and sleep at a friends house. Thank you John.

Rest of February: Go skiing

March: Work, skiing, and getting ready for Colombia. I didn’t do any brewing as the power was really low – 40KW for the whole village.

Tara and I take first place at Holden’s semi-annual homebrew competition with our co-brewed Glacier Stout.

April: Skied the Wapta traverse in Banff and Yoho National parks in Alberta and BC. 4 days skiing across glaciers, 3 nights in wonderful huts equipped with cooking gear and propane in the Canadian Rockies. There is something to be said for the Canadian model of wilderness where they provide huts to make stays easier, and to minimize impact. Thus allowing more people to get out in the wilderness, develop a love for it, and want to protect it. It was by no means overcrowded as the number of people at the huts is closely controlled and limited. This contrasts with the US model of no permanent structures, thus high use areas tend to be more heavily impacted, and fewer people get deeper into the wilderness. In the end there are positives to both, but I fell in love with the huts and swore off snow camping for the rest of my life.

One week later: Professional ski/snowboard bums come through village and invite me on a trip. I had climbed Bonanza with them the previous winter. 3 days circling the upper Entiats, 2 nights camping in the snow and wind… Not quite a hut. Climbed Mt. Maude, and 7 Fingered Jack, both over 9,000’.

May: Start working on Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish. The Spanish Language was one of the main reasons we looked heavily at the Latin America countries at the job fair, learning it for me, and opportunities to use it and get better for Tara.

Ski to sea at the end of May: Kevin La Fleur memorial team in honor of our friend Kevin who disappeared on Mt. Baker 4 years ago. A fantastic weekend with friends. I did the down hill ski leg, which consists of running up the ski area, then skiing back down – I loved it.

June: Trained replacements at Holden. Said good byes to our friends and community of 2 years. Left Holden, surreal being on the bus and waving good bye.

July: Stayed in Mt. Vernon, but took lots of trips. Lake Samish with the Van Loo family. Climbed and Skied Sahale peak, Performed wedding ceremony for my Brother in law Brett and his wife Lindie. I am now ordained! I gave myself several titles while working on the ceremony: The ordinary ordained officer of official auditory awesomeness (The auditory awesomeness being their vows, not what I said). Or, The Pontificating partial pastor presenting particular prepared pontifical pronouncements. Kayaked and camped on Ross lake. Visited Holden friends in Port Townsend.

Time to get packing. Picks may follow later

bvl