Atlantic Coast Trip

As I said before, I am the only exchange student in my town, so for the first three months, I had no contact with any other students. This was definitely beneficial to my Spanish learning, with quite the opposite effect on my English because I had not spoken more than a couple of sentences in English at a time during all of those months.
When the first Rotary trip finally rolled around in late November, I realized that, aside from the obvious feeling of excitement, I was feeling anxious to meet them. This did not improve when, while I was with my friends, a German student called to make travel plans and she spoke better English than me as I sorted through English and Spanish responses and sentences. When I finally met her, and two other exchangers from Germany and Denmark, my anxiety disappeared and I found comfort not only in speaking my native language but also in talking with people who were in similar situations that I could relate to.

It got even better when we got to the airport and encountered all of the exchangers each a fantastic person I would have the chance to talk to a little on this trip. I quickly met a kid from Austria who would soon become one of my best friends. He caught my attention when as we were walking by a window facing the landing strip he glanced over and simply spouted out the exact model of plane that was there. As an aspiring pilot, this perked my interest and sparked a conversation that lasted until our plane had landed on the coast in Santa Marta.

We got a little time to take in the sun and dip our feet in the warm Atlantic Ocean before heading to La Guajira on a 4-hour bus ride. As foolish as it seems now, I thought that we had arrived when we unloaded the buses. Instead, we loaded up 10 to a van and headed out on an equally long trip on dirt roads to the camp. Even though the ride was cramped and bumpy, it was a lot of fun and full of loud music and singing.

The first camp was right on the beach and it was amazing to sleep in hammocks and listen to the waves all night. The next day we went to two viewpoints, swam in the ocean, and interacted with and learned about a local indigenous tribe.

By this time, it felt like I had known the exchangers for months. The third day was another travel day as we went from La Guajira to the Parque Nacional Tayrona. It truly is a beautiful place and I have rarely seen the stars as bright as they were there. The following couple of days was spent swimming and relaxing from one beach to another.

The final leg of the trip brought us to Cartagena where we got to explore the streets of the old part of the city and tour a colonial fortress. We also took a boat to different islands and went snorkeling.

It was very hard saying goodbye to the exchangers after having grown so close to them. The trip was incredible and life-changing.

Halloween

Halloween


Halloween here for the teenagers is like a town-wide game of Gang Wars! We all dressed up in themed/matching costumes for our gang and carried around balled up soccer socks with flour and had fights to protect and gain territory! My group was one of the smallest (9 people), but we were so good that we were able to extend really far. So much so that the other teams formed an alliance to take down our gang so at one point we were on a street near the town center and suddenly all of the gangs showed up in a mob and started chasing us socks swinging and all! I ducked into a cafe/store with three other guys and all of the people lined up outside and demanded to have Pichu (our self declared leader who had escaped to the bank on a different street unseen). The mob started to dwindle as a real fist fight started between two people in the plaza, so we escaped and watched until the police showed up and everybody slowly left. It was wild! 

It also rains a lot in October. And by a lot, I mean A LOT!

Update from Ben Oct. 2018

Here is our latest update from Ben...

Dear Mom, Dad, Hayley, and Emily,

 Life in Colombia has been going really well! I've begun to understand a lot more, and I have been able to communicate better. In school I can understand the majority of my philosophy class and I really enjoy it. In my Spanish class with grade 10A (my usual class is 11B), the teacher has been very helpful and I have started a daily Spanish word bank. I honestly don't do much in my other classes except play chess, draw (image 1), and talk. I've done a little bit of work on Khan Academy so that I'm still learning a more than just Spanish and philosophy. The class schedule s really odd because it fluctuates so much. Sometimes we have seemingly random presentations and other times we don't have school in the afternoon and sometimes we have assembly type things in the courtyard in the morning. One of the Fridays we had a celebration of Colombian independence, where my grade reenacted a battle (image 2), then afterwards we set up stands in the park and each grade sold a food that they made (image 3, image 4, image 5).

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All of last week and part of this week I didn't have school which was really nice. With my friends I've started playing a lot of basketball (I excel at getting rebounds because I'm taller than everyone else), playing ping pong, volleyball, and billiards at Pisciclub (pool/rec center). We also cook a lot which is fun (image 6, image 7).

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I've started riding my bike routinely with my host dad. At 5 in the morning we ride 30 minutes uphill out of town to a little coffee stand, have some tinto (black coffee), then glide back down into town. We also went on a 14 mile bike ride to Capitanejo (a town near Chimamocha river which forms a canyon near Soata) and then another 14 miles back. While we were there we swam at a cool little resort called Hotel Finca Ceylan type place with the rest of the family. I also saw and helped the A-Team van.

I went lap swimming a couple of times (image 8) but then I got burned, so my host mom had me take a break for a while. In the meantime I've been going to the gym with my friend John (image 9). At the end of September, the Rotary club here had its 10 year anniversary so there was a parade and a fiesta (image 10). The next day they had a dedication of a water plant that they built (image 11). Aside from that I've done a little bit of local traveling, and hanging out with friends.

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I miss you guys and love you all so much!

- Ben

Ben has been very busy down in Colombia since he arrived. I told him I would post this email he sent us as an update for you all. Enjoy!



Hola mi familia,



My exchange so far has been absolutely amazing! My family is super nice, my friends are funny and exciting, and the country is beautiful. I don't have pictures of my house yet but here is the view from the front "porch".

I've been going to school since my second day, so by now I have made friends with all of my classmates. Instead of the teachers moving classrooms like I was told, the students as a class move to different classrooms (which makes more sense). Almuerzo (lunch) is the largest meal of the day here, so my school starts at 7:30, has two 1 hour classes ad then a 15 minute break when I play games with my friends in the courtyard, 2 more classes and then a 2 hour lunch break from noon to 2. I go home for lunch and then relax for an hour, and go back to school for 2 more classes.

Nancy is the housemaid so she cooks lunch and it is delicious. All of the food is fresh from the farmers market on Saturdays and we have fresh juice each day.

After school I usually hang out with my friends around town and at our houses sometimes we have jam sessions and its really fun. On the first Friday that I was here I went to a fiesta and I learned a couple types of dances. It was a lot of fun.

Two weekends ago I went on a hike with my host dad and sister and the view was amazing.

Last weekend I went to Tunja (the capital of Boyaca) to get my foreigner ID and for Sergio's [Ben's host brother] college exam (like the SAT's). I really liked that there was s much to do there.

That's about it for now. I love you all and miss you. I hope that life is going great in McMinnville.


With love, Ben


P.S. Have you ever heard of panela? Because I hadn't and it's really common here and it's mixed with hot water to make a drink that you can put cheese in and dip bread. Also there's only one kind of cheese here??

And So It Begins...

On September 1st, my year on exchange, my life in a year, finally started. I left with my family at 7am, checked my bag, met with my Rotary Officer, said my goodbyes, and was on my way.

After countless hours of travel, from Portland to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, and Miami to Bogota, I arrived in Colombia! When I exited baggage claim I was met with a warm welcome with a lot of hugs and "Bienvenidos" from my host family!

I then got my first taste of Colombian coffee and it was the best coffee I've ever had!

Next came a 6 hour drive from Bogota to Soata through the beautiful Colombian countryside.

After a long couple of days of travel it was nice to get some rest in my home.

Introduction

My name is Benjamin Sparrow. I am from McMinnville, Oregon and I was selected by the McMinnville Rotary Club to represent my school, my city, and my country on a year long exchange to Colombia in South America.