En Barranquilla me Quedo

En Barranquilla Me Quedo

Disclaimer: I wrote most of this blog about a week and a half ago, so the timing is a little off if you are looking at today’s date.

I have now been in Barranquilla for two weeks. It is such a short amount of time, but it feels like I have been here for a lifetime. For the first five days I was staying in The Meeting Point Hostel.  The family that was running it was super nice and I met the most interesting people! One night I went out to dinner with someone from Spain, Colombia, Norway, and Germany.  During these five days I also got to do some exploring (aka getting lost) around the city.  I went to La Troja, an outdoor salsa club, the beach, and a few of the malls. 

The Meeting Point Hostel (my room)

La Troja

Unfortunately the beaches aren’t that great around Barranquilla, but there are supposedly some pretty great ones outside of the city.  The Rio Magdalena goes through most of Colombia and meets the ocean near Barranquilla.  The water is polluted so it has put a lot of trash on the beach and turned the sand nearly black.  Don’t get me wrong, the beach is still a great place, but it isn’t the white sand and clear water that I pictured coming here.

After five days of the hostel I was finally moved into my host family.  My host mom is named Carmen, and I also have a host sister named Laura and a host brother named Mario.  Both Mario and Laura are older, so I have been able hang out with them. My house is near a group of the volunteers, so I have been able to spend quite a bit of time with them as well.  The only set back is that my house is a little far from my school, but it is an easy commute on a bus so I do not mind.

My Room

Cruzada Social is the name of my school, it is in the centro of Barranquilla, and so it is a bit of a poorer area. It is an all-girls school, and I am teaching both fourth and fifth grade. I have two co-teachers that I work with in my classes, and they both speak English pretty well, so that is an advantage.  My first day at the school they held an assembly to introduce me to everyone.

I also had my birthday about a week and a half ago as well. I can’t tell you how much pudin (cake) that I got during this time. The teachers at my school had a party for me, all of my classes within two days had a party for me, my host family threw a party for me, and I celebrated with the other WorldTeach volunteers in the area too. It was a constant celebration for about three days and it was awesome! From now on I am going to with for every single one of my birthdays to be a Colombian birthday.

Everything has been great so far, and I am really enjoying my time getting to know this city as well as the rest of Colombia!