Today was the Festival de Dulces. The high school students celebrated by wearing jeans, blasting champeta, and selling goey mango, coconut, papaya and arequipe sweets. When I walked towards the school this afternoon, a bunch of kids yelled my name. “Sarah, a la orden,” one girl said, motioning towards the mango concoction on the table....
Sweating like usual. “I recently read an article about a guy–I don’t know if he’s from the United States or England–but he invented a lotion that you can use instead of showering,” My co-teacher mentioned. We were chatting in English while the students copied a huge chunk of text off the white board. “Interesting…” “I...
[Hanging out with some of my adult students after class.] When I created this blog in 2011, I intended it to be a travel blog, but over the past few years, it’s merged into a travel/art/lifestyle/I-write-whatever-the hell-I want-to-write-and-that’s-why-this-blog-could-never-be-that-popular kind of blog. However, one topic I rarely write about is work. In Korea, I occasionally wrote...
Besides teaching and getting some Peace Corps projects off the ground, this February I simultaneously immersed myself in Murakami’s epic 1Q84, and Laura Esquivel’s, Like Water for Chocolate. I’m now familiar with an abundance of cooking vocabulary in Spanish, and I can’t stop looking for a second moon in the sky. 10. 1Q84, by Haruki...
Since I’ve been roaming beyond US borders without a permanent residency for the past few years, I have several paperbacks, journals, and big, beautiful art books gathering dust on a bookshelf in my parents’ house. I love these books, but I’m a minimalist. Fascinated by the thought of storing unfathomable amounts of text on a single...
Although I haven’t been writing as much lately, I’ve been reading A LOT. I’ve realized that in order to be a better writer, I need to become a more voracious reader. And since I haven’t been teaching, (we’re still on vacation) I’ve had quite a bit of free time. Last year I read 22 books. Although...
The weather may be hot, but that hasn’t stopped Boquilleros from creating Christmas decorations that resemble the environment of their northern neighbors. Styrofoam and paper cup snowmen, CD wreaths, and Christmas trees from plastic bags, recycled bottles and old tires line the streets. At night, the dirt roads are illuminated by arches of lights blinking...
So long to schedules! The nine-hour days of Peace Corps training have ended, and I’ve entered a period of transition and adjustment. A month ago, I moved to my site, La Boquilla, located on the beach, 25 minutes north of the center of Cartagena. La Boquilla is an Afro-Colombian, peri-urban community mainly comprised of fishermen....
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