Woooooooow, I’ve been SERIOUSLY neglecting in my duties when it comes to this website – I really suck! I apologize, and I’ll make amends now with a big mother update.
Okay, let’s see – what’s happened over the past couple of weeks? Well, we’ve started having a weekly workshop with Simon (one of the Colombian teachers) learning about the history/sociology/anthropology of Colombia. It’s been VERY informative, he’s doing a fantastic job of it. Very interesting. And, because of this workshop, instead of professional development meetings (which apparently were a complete waste of time), we got a chance to go visit a public school our school is associated with. Apparently a law was passed a little while back forcing private schools to develop relationships with public schools (which are severely underfunded) to give them some support – whether with resources, teaching strategies, whatever. It’s obviously worked VERY well with this school, because it didn’t look all that different from Nogales. I’m pretty sure it’s not a very good representation of how the program is working though, since there was a school just across a small valley that looked like it was on perpetual recess the entire time we were there – I think it was more of a daycare than a school. It was really good to get a look at another school though, regardless of how (deceptively) rosy it made the public system look. Ben took some pictures and a short video, so I’ll put those up as soon as I get them from him.
We also got a chance to take a look at the Gold Museum downtown that day. Unfortunately, about 80% of it was closed because they’re moving into a new building, so we didn’t get to see much. We’ll just have to go back again, I guess! There were some pretty cool things there though, they were neat to see.
What else, what else…well, I’m sick as a dog right now, I haven’t been to work in the past two days (today included). I’ll make it back for tomorrow, but it’s been a really crappy few days. I wasn’t even able to make it to Crepes and Waffles (mmmm, Crepes and Waffles) for Robert’s birthday yesterday, which was very disappointing – I love that place! Oh, and it would’ve been nice to be there for his birthday, too ;) Hopefully I’ll be all right by the weekend though, we’re going to a kind of resorty place to get some sun and relaxation for a few days. I’m looking forward to getting out of the city for a while, I haven’t seen anything outside of our little area for a while.
Oh, I picked myself up a custom fitted leather jacket last weekend – $80 Canadian. MUY cheap :) And it’s very very nice too, you can ask my sister – she’s got a picture of it. I may have to go back again before Christmas and pick up a heavier one that I can wear in Canadian winter – they’re just too damn nice and cheap to pass up!
That’s it for now, I’ll update you on how the weekend goes. Chau!