Ah the blissful sounds of Ave Maria, it has become an elixir to my new existence as a teacher here; hearing the foggy notes from an anciently small speaker courtesy of the church immediately dispels any thoughts of aggressive behaviour towards students. You should try it Mum.
Santuario has well and truly to felt like home during these last four months, and my routine has seamlessly synched with the rest of the town in moving through each day. Never did I suspect that it could feel so rewarding teaching English to a community that is so entrenched in its daily schedule of merely passing the time. The schedule for your average Santuareño is something like this: wake up, coffee, breakfast, chat, coffee, work a little bit, coffee, work more, coffee, lunch, chat, coffee over a chat, work more, coffee, work, dinner, relax with a coffee. I think the average coffee intake is around 6 cups per day, it is amazing. Whenever I walk past one of the cafes there is nearly always someone who hails me for a coffee. There is a beautiful custom hear of the ‘invitation’, if someone invites you for a coffee, then then are saying that they will pay, regardless of what you order. This could mean I order food or an ice-cream and it would not change the politics of the situation because ‘te invito’ (I invite you).
Santuario is nigh on timeless. Every single day during the year the sun rises at 5:54pm, Every single day during the year, the sun will be directly over head at 12:06pm, so you cannot see your shadow. And every day during the year at 6pm the church will play its music that signifies the end of the day and the beginning of sunset, which finishes at a prompt 6:18pm. Being so close to the equator there is next to no change to the days during the year, and there are no seasons, although some locals tell me it is slightly wetter in October and November, which has been case. Santuario also has the fortune of being elevated at around 2000m above sea level, as a result it does not suffer from the same humidity and rancid heat that other towns in the area do. Yearly maxes top out at around 30 degrees, and minimums have not dropped below 17 since I have arrived. There is generally a cool breeze in the evenings that cools the town down and allows for further consumption of jet-black, piping hot coffee.
Maybe it is due to this sense of timelessness that a week seems like nothing here, and it is amazing to acknowledge that I have been here four months. Time flies when the time markers that you are accustomed to stay still. Markers such as changes in the routine, the coming to the end of an AFL season, the gradually phasing of clothing, the changes in meals as food comes in and out of season. There is none of that here. I remembered today that it was the first year of my life that I have not watched an AFL game for an entire season. It did not overly phase me.
Despite the lack of change in Santuario there is rarely a moment where I have been bored. For example, walking to school one morning at 6:45am, I encountered the first traffic jam that Santuario has seen in living memory. Two jeeps and a truck were stationary on the road, just before an intersection. Surely not, I thought. This can’t happen! There isn’t even a stop sign at the main junction. The reason, I discovered as a I walked past, was that an ancient farmer of 5ft in height weighing less than 60kg was taking his extremely well built cow (with an intimidating set of horns) for a stroll down the adjoining street on a piece of rope that looked like it would snap before the old man would, which is assaying something. The cow, had decided to stop its walk in the middle of the intersection and take a world-ending turd that lacked in the consistency to hold itself to the street and ran its way down the steep incline forcing several students to divert course for fear of being engulfed by the wave of green matter. Quite a sight. What an event. Extraordinary.
Another thing that has become a regularity here is the sole drunk in the street who seems to always find me at meal times, accost me and hold out his hand and shout ‘Ya,’ and nothing else. When I attempt to engage him in what would no doubt be an enthralling conversation, he cocks his head and stares at me intently. His gaze is an unintelligible mixture of curiosity, astonishment, hopefulness and disdain, and I always find myself thinking who is looking at who, I am always the one to break eye contact with a mixture of guilt and bemusement in my mind.
My standard week has been about 35 hours long, although, like Argentina, there are plenty of public holidays that give you a puente (bridge) or a long weekend. Mondays through to Fridays I work at the high school from 7am until 1:30 pm, sitting in with the regular English teachers and keeping their hours. In class I am typically a sounding board and the CD player, as I can read passages in my ‘native tongue’. I spread myself around the class as much as possible and it is really interesting seeing the response from the students to this. Some are a little intimidated and maybe get put off speaking English for the fear of embarrassing themselves, but the majority are motivated and want to impress the teacher, Fernando, and myself. Each afternoon, from 3pm until 4:30, I have my own private classes. Mondays, this is the advanced student class who are in their last two years of school. Tuedays, this is the advanced seventh and eighth graders. Wednesdays, I take a class consisting of the primary school teachers who are responsible for teaching English in their classes. I think this is the most challenging and rewarding for a few reasons. Challenging because 80% of the class is in Spanish and because I am teaching experienced teachers how to use the language so as to best be able to help their students, which is slightly different from merely teaching them the language for their own benefit. My group on Thursdays is with three teachers who are at a more advanced level of English. This is great fun as I can pretty much introduce anything such as news articles, philosophical questions etc. into the class and we can just have a discussion about it.
Students results so far have shown that generally marks have improved in English since I have been here, but I can take credit for virtually none of this other than thanking whoever it was that dictated I was born into an English speaking country. The kids are much more motivated than I was at there age in regard to a foreign language and now that it is compulsory for all Colombian students to pass an English exam prior to entering university, they have every reason to be.
In the last weeks we have started an English conversation club in Santuario. This is basically a free opportunity for any one who wants to spend two hours of their evening speaking English with myself, Justin (a gringo from Chicago who volunteers at the other school in Santuario) and the English teachers in Santuario, of which there are 4. The first session was interesting an one person out of the fifteen that came could speak more than a word of English. Although I think for the session this week we will split into two groups. Hopefully that will give more people a chance to speak, and not be intimidated by the fluent speakers in the group. We will see.
This weekend the volunteers from my foundation have a meeting with the minister for education from the state along with our headmasters and English teachers. This will be a good chance to give feedback about the program and share experiences. I have met a couple of the other volunteers and they are really good people, most are in a similar stage in life to me, although some are qualified teachers in their home countries looking for more experience.
Anyone who is looking for some volunteer work in Colombia, that requires no Spanish (but it helps having some), where all accommodation and food is paid for, should check this out: http://www.nukantifoundation.org/blog/2014/2/21/teaching-english-in-colombia-and-learning-about-life this has a little blog about an experience, and links to the main website. Quality volunteer opportunities that are free are quite difficult to find, and this has definitely been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Cliche fully intended.
Until next time,
Hugh
Hugh's Lost 
Great update Hugh. Keep them coming!
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