Month 1 - Fried food, beaches and Dinosaurs

It's hard to believe, but we have been in Colombia for one month. We are definitely feeling more confident as we order food, get directions, buy groceries and do our best to blend in to our new city. The reality is that we don't blend in...but we are having fun with it. We are getting used to the stares and learning to love the shouts of: "Hola gringos" and "Hello" (the equivalent of seeing a Hispanic person on the street and yelling "Hola!" to show off your skills, even though you don't know a lick of Spanish). The Colombians are awesome hosts and they truly care about relationships - they prioritize time with family and friends above all else, something these two Americans are learning to appreciate greatly.

Our Spanglish is slowly turning into more Spanish, but we still use "the nod and smile" on a daily basis and mess up often. Two recent mistakes: Bo telling someone in Spanish that he liked the "filete de Muro" that he had for lunch (muro means "wall"...rather than a type of fish that the Costenos call "Mero"). Also, while speaking about how long we've been married, Carrie got "cansado" and "casado" confused, implying that she was very tired after only 5 months of marriage.

Here are some pics from the last few days:

We helped lead the kids activities in Ciudadela last Sunday. It was hot and all we had was a dusty slab of concrete but we had a ton of fun playing some games and telling the story of David and Goliath.

Last week our good friends Carlos and Leed Echinique had us over for lunch and taught us to make one of the favorite Colombian dishes: Arepas. Here is Carrie showing off some of our freshly made dough. The next steps involved double deep-frying! The filling was an egg and meat...not the healthiest meal but SO good!

Like we've said before, everything is cheaper in bags. We stopped to hydrate on our way home from the gym...These small bags cost 200 pesos (about 10¢).

Tagonga - one of the two "nicer" beaches that bookend both sides of Santa Marta. Tagonga tends to be filled with foreigners, while the other nice beach, Rodedero, is a popular vacation spot for Colombians from "the interior".

After taking a quick bus ride to Tagonga, you can jump on a bus or make the 20-minute hike to Playa Grande - this has been our favorite spot thus far. The water isn't turquoise blue but it is amazingly clear.

Sometimes we struggle to find substitutes for common American pantry staples...Nonetheless, all is right with the world because even Colombians love Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets!

Our Valentines Day gifts: Egg burritos, some American splurges and an amazing chocolate frozen yogurt pie.

It has truly been a great first month here. We feel very blessed to be in Santa Marta and look forward to seeing what God has in store for the next few months!

Settling In

We've felt so blessed in our transition to Santa Marta thus far - we've been welcomed into an amazing community here and we are having a great time in the classroom. Halfway through week 3, we are loving it and seeing the faithfulness of our God every day. "Those who know your name will trust in You, for You Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You." Psalm 9:10

Now that we've gotten a handle on grocery shopping, we are loving the food and learning new Colombian recipes everyday

From what we hear, Montezuma's Revenge isn't limited to Mexico. Fortunately, we haven't had any stomach issues and "Finesse" may be the key. The Colombian yogurt is delicious - it's much more runny than "American" yogurt but we pair it with fruit for one of our daily staples. The Peter Pan was a splurge but we've never craved PP&J this much! Also notice the jelly in bags - it seems everything comes in bags, suddenly turning us into very motivated recyclers.

Holy Guacamole! The avocados are huge and cheap, a great combo!

After church on Sunday we moved the kitchen table and did P90X yoga - no A/C makes for free hot yoga, any day, any time.

The fruit here is awesome. There are so many different kinds and they are everywhere. So far, our favorites are mango viche, an unripe mango with salt and lemon juice. There's also one called a zapote that makes a great smoothie. The one pictured above is a granadilla - it's awful. We decided it tastes like a sock soaked in garbage water and its consistency makes you think you're swallowing a huge loogie - we'll stick with the zapote, thank you very much.

One of our first English lessons incorporated some American monuments that we had the kids describe in English. After talking about the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon and the White House we asked them if they knew any other American monuments. Among their answers: Mount Rushmore (pictured left, obviously) and the Washington Monument. The one on the right unintentionally drew an outburst of laughter, proving that 10th graders all over the world have more vivid imaginations than Carrie... (Copyright: Carrie Carrington, 2012)

 

 

No sign of Superbowl Sunday here...

A taste of La Esperanza Church:

First week of school:

1st Day mayhem

Profesores de Ingles

Our teammate Sam Tse showing off the BBQ pizza we made him

2nd Sunday at our new church

Chicken Soup for the Soul

It finally happened. We missed America. We've been here almost 2 weeks and we are having a great time - things have been moving so fast that it has been tough to even think about missing home. But yesterday's lunch stopped us in our tracks - it made us miss the good 'ol US of A and if we could have jumped on a plane right then and there it wouldn't have been a tough decision.

Adjusting to the food here has been a big part of getting comfortable in Santa Marta. Colombians tend to eat a big lunch with breakfast and dinner being less substantial meals. We've gone out to lunch quite a bit because it is the cheapest meal to eat out and you get a ton of food.  A lot of restaurants here have an "ordinary meal" that is not on the menu but comes with whatever they are cooking the most of that particular day (it almost always consists of chicken/beef soup, some sort of meat, rice/beans, and a plantain/salad). It's cheap (like $2.75!) because it is cooked in bulk and generally, it has treated us very well.

Yesterday we stopped in at a restaurant that we had walked past several times and been wanting to try. We were starving from a morning spent at school and then doing some errands so when they brought the chicken soup, we didn't hold back. After a couple bites of chicken we realized it was kind of funky...

Mondongo = Tripe = Cow stomach

 See those big white things hanging in the picture above? That's "mondongo". And we ate it. And it made us miss America.