Caio Caio Manizales

Dinner with some of my co-workers right before I left. Thanks Martica, Lucero, Olga, Patty, Carlos Ernesto, and Camilo!

One Week Left

With one week left in my fellowship, I'm wondering what will come next. I'm also wondering how many dixie cups of tino (coffee) I have drank since last September (3 to 5 cups a day), and how much space those cups are taking up in the dump. And, how will I beat this coffee habit, and go back to nasty cafe americano? I don't think I'm quite ready to go back to living in the U.S., nor do I think this is the best time to be moving back.

I've had an interview and wrote a crazy projection plan for a job here in Manizales at a university. It'd be fun, I think, and I'd like to stay. It was something I was looking for, it kind of found me. Should find out on Friday if it's going to happen. I hope so, really. I like Manizales, and wouldn't mind staying. I'd kind of missed the craziness (like Once Caldas winning last week and the ensuing "civic" afternoon for celebrating).

Once Caldas Celebration

Yensy's Stuff

Love what I can find through tweets...check out my friend Yeny's jewelry. 

http://e-commercesa.blogspot.com/

La costa atlantica after 3 years

Almost three years ago to date, I left the Atlantic coast of Colombia to join the English Language Fellow program. I had no idea that I'd ever go back after a year of living in Barranquilla and teaching at Universidad del Norte. It was a tough year, partially because Barranquilla is not exactly a paradise by any means, and because I was coming out of a six-year relationship with someone. I probably would have stayed a second year if I hadn't joined the ELF program, but I'm not sure how much I would have liked Colombia had I done that.

I've been in Manizales for 10 months now, and like it a lot. The people and the place have nothing in common with the coast. I began to remember while I was sitting in BOG waiting with all the costeños for the flight to leave. And getting off the plane at BQL, with trash all over the floor. And taking the circunvular and seeing all the dust and run-down buildings and traffic. All the people without homes. The stray dogs.  The unkept streets.  The arroyos. The brown-gray color of the water where the Magdalena meets the ocean (a friend who was still teaching in B'quilla refused to let him students use blue for the Magdalena, only brown or grey). Sure, there are some things that I'd missed, like being able to sit outside, wear sandals, and eat comida arabe.  The way people speak. Music everywhere. But Manizales is much more like home for me.

May 30th, the day I left, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Leaving Manizales, the plane takes off and circles out over Chipre, then heads back towards Bogota.  The view was unforgettable...the nevados in the background, with Manizales down in the valley, and nothing but green as far as I can see.  Too bad most days you can't see anything! 


Here's Grandfield, looking the same, but with another whole floor on his house and eating more than bread, cheese, and fruit. Friends that I miss.

You can see the disappearing beach near Puerto Colombia (global warming??).  It used to be full of palapas.  The pier is also in the distant, but half of it collapsed into the ocean because they didn't take care of it.  Sigh.


In Cartagena I was suprised to find that some of the teachers in my workshops were guys that I'd met three years ago when a group from the University of Cincinnati came down for a course on applied linguistics.  It was great to reconnect with them, and find out that my professor is bringing down another group this month for the same course.  Maybe I'll get to use my silla ganadora from Avianca and go pay them a visit! 

One new development in Barranquilla was that my friend Kathleen's husband, Jaime, had made a couple of vallenato songs/videos which aren't half bad (although I'm the first to admit that vallenato isn't my most favorite music ever). He's calling himself Jimmy now, which I found particularly amusing!



I went back and visited Uninorte, which was looking cute after adding some new buildings and some plants.  I even had a generous job offer from another institution, but not enough to make me want to leave Manizales. 

ELF Highlights: Barranquilla and Cartagena

Highlight 18

Date: June 1-3, 2009

Title: ELF Visits Centro Cultural Colombo Americano in Barranquilla

Participants: 187

From June 1 to June 3, English Language Fellow Erin Lowry imparted a total of five workshops at the Centro Cultural Colombo Americano in Barranquilla. Three of these trainings, a total of six hours, were attended by 110 public school teachers from the city, and focused on how to teach pronunciation and vocabulary, as well as strategies for integrating technology in large classrooms with few resources. The local Secretary of Education paid a visit the first day as a part of Barranquilla Bilingue program, and diplomas were provided for teachers who attended all three workshops.  In addition, two workshops were provided for Colombo teachers. The first, titled “Motivating Underachievers,” dealt with strategies for motivating students to learn English, in particular in the bilingual assistant programs at the binational center.  The second workshop, “Ideas for Authentic Listening,” introduced teachers to new online resources for engaging students in listening activities, as well as new ways to teach using authentic songs and film.  

Public school teachers share their experiences

Highlight 19

Date: June 4 & 5, 2009

Title: ELF Visits Centro Colombo Americano in Cartagena

Participants: 100

Senior English Language Fellow Erin Lowry spent two days in Cartagena giving workshops to teachers from the Centro Colombo Americano and the public sector.  On the first day, Colombo teachers discussed the importance of syllabus and course design in the morning, and methods for teaching listening and speaking in the afternoon.  An open house workshop on teaching vocabulary was scheduled for the second day for teachers from other educational institutions in Cartagena, but was unfortunately cancelled due to rain and flooding in the city. 

Colombo Cartagena teachers discuss the relationship between course objectives and evaluation methods

Highlight 20

Date: June 3 & 5, 2009

Title: ELF Visits Escuela Superior de Administración Pública in Barranquilla and Cartagena

Participants: 61

Regional branches of the nationwide Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP) in Barranquilla and Cartagena were host to Senior English Language Fellow Erin Lowry on June 3rd and 5th, respectively. ESAP had invited teachers from both public and private sectors in each city to attend a workshop on Shaping the Way We Teach English, a teacher training program developed by the University of Oregon under request of the US Department of State’s Office of English Language Programs. Shaping is a tool designed to standardize teaching practices of English as a foreign language in countries. Participants were introduced to the materials, and worked through a portion of an example module dealing with teaching large classes.  The materials, which include a trainer’s manual, DVDs with videos of classrooms from around the world, and a set of readings, were donated to all branches of ESAP that ELF Lowry has visited in the first half of 2009.  

Public school participants in Barranquilla pose after a workshop teacher training materials

Teachers from various institutions in Cartagena discuss how they manage large classrooms of 35 to 60 students

Real academia de lengua guanaca

Learn "spanish" with la abuela.  The paisas got a kick out of all the crazy things my husband says. 

My Birthday Jello

 

No one knows how they get the flower inside of the jello, but it sure did taste good.  And it didn't look like the other kind of gelatine from around here that actually looks like it's made of cow hoves.  Uggh.  

Rolling Meat

 

Don't even want to think about how far they rolled all this meat, and how much crap ended up on the meat because none of it was covered.

Archivo Digital de Fotografía Historica de Caldas

One of my friends is putting a lot of work into this, and I think it's pretty cool. It's a digital archive of photos from the department of Caldas.  He's been traveling around to the different towns and going through their photo collections (and is always inviting me to go when I have to work, would have been a great way to see Caldas!).  Colombia celebrates its bicentennial in 2010, and this is part of it all.

Check it out: http://fotodigitalcaldas.com/

French & Me

I'm way past due to blog about my recent French-learning experiences. When I arrived in Manizales last September, I decided it was about time for me to get serious about learning a third language. I'd started to study before in San Sal, but didn't get very far. The place (we'll leave the name out) is right down the street from my house here, so I thought hey, why not. I'll learn another language, and have the chance to reflect on the language learning process.

In short, it's been horrible so far. I have class twice a week from 6:30 to 9:00. The first teacher wasn't a teacher (in that she really didn't teach), although she had a good command of the language. What I wasn't expecting was such a humongous focus on grammar. Whatever happened to learning a language to communicate? To speaking in class? Quite frankly, the first three months of what I "learned" I could have done at home by myself and online for free.

Why am I taking these classes then? If I don't have deadlines, I don't do anything. I tried to learn Italian at one point on my life, then Telegu, then continue studying German on my own...couldn't do it. Once I get to the point that I can read and listen at a decent level, that what I do. I remember when I was living in Zihuatanejo, I bought all the Harry Potters that there were at that point in Spanish and had a blast. I'm sure I'll get there with French, but for now...

I want to know who teaches these people to teach (or better, not to). The teacher I have right now is decent, but still, nothing spectacular. After class after class of grammar and following the book, I wonder what's up. These "teachers" are basically the same age as me. In many ways, Manizales is like seeing what the US was like 50 some years ago. Family is paramount here, and I respect that. But they also teach like we're living then, too. Grammar is an important part of language, but certainly not the most important. And where has context gone? Why should I have to write 80 words about Colombia's weather forecast for the upcoming month? Since when do meteorologists forecast for a whole month? And when will I ever have to use that?

Also, I don't think I ever want to go to France.  Or Europe really (except for the eastern part or maybe to visit friends in Germany). Montreal, sure maybe, and Africa I really hope so!  So....I want to learn about culture in these places, too.  And what I really want is to be able to converse.  We talk about English as an international language now, meaning that there's more than one right way to say things and think in a language.  What about French? 

I really do like the language, but I'm wondering if I can't find a better way to spend my money.  

ELF Highlights: Cali ELT Conference

I really should be posting these...at least I'll know that someone actually reads them if they're on the blog!

Name: Erin Lowry
State of Residence: Ohio
Country: Colombia
Host Institution: Centro Colombo Americano Manizales

Highlight 16
Date: May 8 & 9, 2009
Title: ELF Tells Tales at 17th Cali ELT Conference
Participants: 55

From children to adults, folktales have a certain ageless appeal. As EFL teachers, it can be a struggle to engage students in reading, and even more so in the writing process. How can teachers personalize what is taught and motivate their students to develop these skills? Retelling well-known stories and local fables is one such way. Some elements of folklore are common to all cultures, while others are distinctive. This workshop will provide participants with activities that combine the students’ knowledge of local tales, drama techniques, and the integration of skills along with the examination of cultural differences.

On May 8th and 9th, Senior English Language Fellow Erin Lowry traveled to the Colombo Americano in Cali to share two workshops at their 17th ELT Conference and Book Fair, titled “Best Practices in ELT.” 55 conference participants attended ELF Lowry’s workshops, where they shared tales, took part in various reading and writing activities using folk stories, and brainstormed ideas for using local stories in their own classes.

Escuela Marina Orth

Check out the video clip on Morning Joe from MSNBC about the school and changes that have been occuring in Medellin.  I did a workshop there a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was fabulous.  Just have to figure out a way to move Manizales closer to Medellin so I can go back and volunteer!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#30516600

Here's my highlight...

Date: April 13, 2009
Title: English Language Fellow Visits Escuela Marina Orth in Medellin
Participants: 18

Teachers from various content areas at Escuela Marina Orth, a public school on the outskirts of Medellin, spent three hours practicing their conversation skills with English Language Fellow Erin Lowry.  Teachers discussed their difficulties with learning a new language, how their students feel about learning the English, and participated in various interactive activities to help them develop strategies for communicating in English language. The school was originally founded by former Peace Corps volunteer Maureen Orth, and teachers in all areas have weekly professional development time where they focus on learning the English and technology.

ELF Highlights: Medellin and Pereira

Name: Erin Lowry
State of Residence: Ohio
Country: Colombia
Host Institution: Centro Colombo Americano Manizales

Highlight 14


Date: April 14, 2009
Title: Colombo Medellin Teachers Learn About New Technologies for Language Teaching
Participants: 78

On April 14, teachers at the Centro Colombo Americano in Medellin received 4 two-hour workshops from Senior English Language Fellow Erin Lowry. In the first set of workshops, titled EFL 2.0: An Overview of Technology for Teaching English, teachers were encouraged to share their beliefs about the use of various types of technologies in the teaching of foreign languages, and were given a general introduction to using tools such as blogs, wikis, webquests, and digital scrapbooking with their classes. In the second set of workshops, Implementing EFL 2.0, Colombo teachers were able to try out some of these tools and brainstorm ideas for implementing them in their teaching.

Highlight 15


Date: April 16 & 17, 2009
Title: Teachers in Pereira Learn About New Technologies for Language Teaching
Participants: 56

Senior English Language Fellow Erin Lowry traveled to Pereira to impart workshops to teachers at the Centro Colombo Americano and English language teachers in the city’s public school system. On April 16, ELF Lowry worked with a group of 40 school teachers on how to find and develop authentic listening activities for their classrooms. In small groups, the teachers created lesson plans and activity outlines to go along with songs and podcasts, and explored how they as language teachers can take advantage of online opportunities for developing their learners' listening skills using authentic audio materials. Ideas for creating interactive listening activities for large classes were also discussed. The next morning, Colombo Pereira teachers shared their ideas for integrating technology in the English language classroom and tried out various different free, online tools for teaching language.

Parque Nacional Los Nevados

Edwin got here (Manizales) last Saturday for two and a half week vacation that includes semana santa.  Although most of the week has consisted of playing with the new Macbook and watching movies, we also made it up to Parque Nacional Los Nevados.

Every morning when I get up, I look out the window to see if I can see the Nevado de Ruiz (which actually happens maybe once every ten days if I'm lucky).  The park runs throughout parts of the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio, and Tolima, and has three major peaks that are snow-covered: Ruiz, Tolima, and Santa Isabel.  On the first day we went up to the glacier-covered part of Ruiz, which is over 15,000 feet high.  I was proud of myself that I didn't get altitude sickness, but Edwin didn't feel so great.  We stayed two nights at El Cisne, which was chilly but fun (except for the the ghost stories that Edwin and Camilo told that didn't let me sleep).  The second day we went to Laguna Verde...nice, but foggy!

I'm sorry that I waited this long to go to the park, and will be sure to go back the next long weekend we have! 

More of my comments on volunteering abroad

I got an email a while back from the University of Cincinnati about alternative spring break trips they have going on this year.  I went on one of these when I was doing my Master's, to Reynosa, Mexcio.  We were helping build dorms and church roofs with a church right across the boarder from McAllen.  It was undoubtedly one of the worst travel experiences I've ever had.  I'd lived in Mexico before I went on this trip, and knew what to expect.  Most of us had little to no experience working at a construction site, and I was the only one who spoke Spanish fluently.  We ate peanut butter and jelly (note: most people I've met in Latin America have a strange aversion to peanut butter).  We brought all the food, or ate at malls.  We didn't really go out in Reynosa.  We went to Monterrey and Saltillo, but didn't spend much time there.  We went to a cave.  It was Mexico, minus Mexican culture, language, food, everything there is to love about the country and its people.  The only thing worse I've seen is Cancun, which might as well be Florida at this point. 

So, this year they're also going to El Salvador, to La Libertad.  They're paying $1,200 and staying a week.  I'm familiar with the projects they working on.  I don't disagree that there's a need, and that it's good for people to get to know El Sal.  But how far could that $1,200 go if it were just donated?  And how much of this do we do just to feel good about ourselves and to get to go to the beach? I hope they don't have matching t-shirts. I hope they learn some Spanish.  I hope some of them go back and stay, not for vacation, but to live, to work, to really get to know the place.  And please, I hope someone tells them that undercurrents and jellyfish are a real thing, and that the beach isn't necessarily safe. 

Here's a portion of the mail.  Like I said, I understand why people go on these trips, but in the long-run...

The UC student organization Serve Beyond Cincinnati is organizing three trips. Serve Beyond Cincinnati (SBC) strives to build an emerging, civic-minded generation by providing national and international service experiences for UC students. All trips depart Cincinnati on March 20 and return on March 28.


La Libertad, El Salvador – Thirteen UC students will represent SBC as they join the Fuller Center for Housing’s 100 House Village Project. The project provides secure homes for families in need. Each of the students has raised $1,200 to cover their cost of the trip.

Reynosa, Mexico – Ten student members of SBC will travel to northern Mexico to assist in construction projects ranging from building homes and school buildings to building bathrooms and cultivating gardens. The cost of the trip per student is $1,100.

Minden, La. – Nine students will assist families in Louisiana as they help build and refurbish homes and assist with other projects. The cost of the trip per student is $300.

The Shocking Shower

This my disclaimer on my shocking shower, just in case it ever does full-on electrocute me.  To begin with I had a finicky gas-heated shower, that sometimses worked and sometimes didn't.  It died, I heated water on the stove for two weeks, and then finally I got this.  The red wire runs up and under the light bulb.  Needless to say, I think the guys who installed it were still drunk from the night before, and they forgot to ground it.  So, every 30 seconds or so it shocked me.  They came back, added a ground, and it was okay for a week or so.  Now it's back to shocking me, worse than before!  They fixed the gas two days ago, but didn't take off the electric part...gotta love Manizales!

Salento Visit

I'd been to Salento and Valle de Cocora before, but this time it was much more enjoyable! It remains one of my favorite places in Colombia.
Palmas de cera, the main attraction at Valle de Cocora


One of many hummingbirds we saw at the Acaime Reserve

I'd been to Salento and Valle de Cocora before, but this time it was much more enjoyable!

Maria Elena's where we stayed. She also makes her own jams, which taste like jams are supposed to. It's nice to be reminded of how hospitable people are in the eje cafetero. We also met an older lady, Lia I think, who sold me a beautiful scarf, and who told us the story of how she had recently been reunited with the love of her life who she hadn't seen for forty some years.

Yum, river trout, even if it's farmed and not really native.

Views of the Nevado

The Nevado at dusk, from the Colombo. Also a sign that I need to get a new camera that can take pictures this time of day.

The Nevado the next morning. It was like this for several days, which I fully enjoyed since I hadn't seen it since I'd arrived in Manizales

Things I'm Thankful For

I ran across this article, Too Many Innocents Abroad, when I was reading the Times this morning.  It reminded me of why I chose to do AmeriCorps instead of Peace Corps. 

In Cameroon, we had many volunteers sent to serve in the agriculture program whose only experience was puttering around in their mom and dad’s backyard during high school. I wrote to our headquarters in Washington to ask if anyone had considered how an American farmer would feel if a fresh-out-of-college Cameroonian with a liberal arts degree who had occasionally visited Grandma’s cassava plot were sent to Iowa to consult on pig-raising techniques learned in a three-month crash course. I’m pretty sure the American farmer would see it as a publicity stunt and a bunch of hooey, but I never heard back from headquarters.

When Peace Corps finally offered me a position as a volunteer in 2003, it was working with agriculture in South America.  Not only did I have no interest in this (or much knowledge), I knew that as a female in Bolivia or whever it was that they wanted to send me, I would have little to no impact.  I'd already lived in Mexico by then, and remember thinking what a waste it would be for me to do that job.

This lack of organizational introspection allows the agency to continue sending, for example, unqualified volunteers to teach English when nearly every developing country could easily find high-caliber English teachers among its own population. Even after Cameroonian teachers and education officials ranked English instruction as their lowest priority (after help with computer literacy, math and science, for example), headquarters in Washington continued to send trainees with little or no classroom experience to teach English in Cameroonian schools. One volunteer told me that the only possible reason he could think of for having been selected was that he was a native English speaker.

This is one of my arguments now.  I gave several trainings for incoming and in-service PCVs in El Salvador, many of which would end up teaching English. Because of the 2021 bilingual plan in the public schools, there was a huge need for teachers to learn more of the language, but there was no country-wide plan that I ever saw.  I did meet volunteers who did excellent jobs of working with this, but they were usually a little bit older, or in a Master's international program.  Here in Manizales, they want to bring native speakers to be in the schools, but their teachers should come first.  It may take several years to bring them all to the level of language and methodology that they need, but I've met some excellent, excellent public school teachers here.  Sometimes I feel like it's degrading to my own career...if all you have to be is a native speaker to teach English, then why did I get my Master's and why do have to be certified in the U.S. to teach (it's not like this everywhere here, I'm more reacting to what I've seen going on in Central America with Peace Corps and English language teaching).  

Recinto del Pensamiento

I finally got around to seeing the Recinto de Pensamiento outside of Manizales, after months of rain and me being lazy.