1/12/2013
A rough landing
The plane touches down smoothly
in Cartagena, taxis to a stop.
Everyone is up grabbing bags and asserting their place in the aisle, no
one waiting for anyone else.
Cross the tarmac in the midday
sun and I am still in jeans from cool, beautiful Seattle.
Through customs and out on the
street, we need to find a way home.
Carry luggage until we find a
bus bound for Barranquilla, haggle over the price.
Wait for an hour and a half for
the bus to fill with passengers.
Back in our apartment, unpack,
we need to organize this place, not today.
Connect new DVD player to watch
a show before bed, can’t figure out how to turn off the subtitles.
In bed at 8, let’s beat this
jet-lag.
Get out of bed at 1:30 in the
afternoon, the jet-lag beat us.
Go to school to prepare for the
first day back. What am I going to
do?
Bus ride home, its hot, my body
had not yet adjusted.
Back to the apartment, we don’t
want to be here.
Make pizza to try to take our
mind off the fun we had and the mountain of work ahead of us, try to feel at
home.
To bed at 8, lets beat this
jet-lag.
Wake up at 10, fall back asleep
around 2, alarm at 4:47.
Make coffee, here we go.
Student’s don’t want to be back,
neither do I. Put on a smile, act
happy to be back and excited for 2nd semester.
1st period – I have
finished all I planned and still have 20 minutes of class left.
The day drags on.
Last 3 classes; engage students
in a discussions, it works. Only
10 minutes left when we are done.
Go home as soon as possible, its
hot.
Sleep well.
One more day.
Introduce new rules and
classroom procedures to make class better for the 2nd semester. Students don’t like them, obviously.
Introduce 9th graders
to microscopes. Give them the rest
of the class to play with them, experiment and look at cells and slides. Their response, “Que chevre!”1
and a light in their eyes. Teaching is a pretty good job.
Go to the pool, swim, read,
finish book.
It’s the weekend, I think we can
do this.
-bvl
1 – Que chevre – cool
1/19/2013
Mis Suenos
Christmas break: A 3.5 week
break from our life of work in Colombia and a return to our life in WA. A life with people who know us, children,
snow on the ground, skis on feet, and good beer; God bless Boundary Bay
Brewery. A life with hopes and
dreams simply stated as; small house, big garden. Five acres maybe 10; a little
piece of land to grow our own food. A place to enjoy the beauty of a life simply lived, close to
the sustaining ground. And to this
end we started looking for a place to root this dream. To possibly start it growing while we
live this dream, teaching in Colombia.
The weather has dramatically
changed since we left a month ago.
It is cooler, breezier, comfortable. After the last week we, at least I, are feeling a little bit
more settled back into our life here.
The routines and responsibilities usher us through the day and the
week. It was a week of good
teaching where the reward comes from the students: their enthusiasm, their
learning. It was a week where we
left school at a reasonable hour every day and had energy when we got
home. It was a taste of what next
year will be like. A dream while
we keep our nose to the grindstone.
-bvl
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