Los Campamentos Invierno....al final

Well. I returned to Villa Alemana today after a long but fun week in Cartagena. We definitely had some issues in the beginning. Two of the other American Volunteers who were supposed to come never showed up so we only had the 4 of us to run the camps. I came into the situation not knowing any of the people. Nicole and Camilla were two Chilenas from around the Cartagena area who were running the program and the second day a guy named Brennen showed up to help. The week was fun...but we had very little to work with. The room we were in had one working light, no insulation and bars on the windows. Not what I'd call a "learning environment"

Sin embargo, the kids were great. Everyone who showed up was awesome. Very excited to speak english, intelligent and cool personalities. I had some very rough mornings waking up since most of the nights I spent huddled like a stray animal under paper thin sheets. I had to shower in tepid water (which meant that I showered twice this week since I hate being uncomfortable) and it was raining or cloudy most days. However, the kids were really the saving grace. Every morning, they got ME excited about the day...I don't think I could have done it without them.

Of course, I was the only person in a room full of 30 people who couldn't speak Spanish but they were all really nice to me. Some of the highlights of the week:

1) Morning wake up dance sessions to get people warmed up. Dancing for me essentially meant doing a strange kind of moonwalk, sidestep slide. I think it entertained other people. Also, I can't get that stupid Ke$ha song out of my head.

2) Being interviewed by CNN CHILE...and being asked to say the "And NOW back to the studio!" part for the camera. My bets are that the camera was probably not even turned on when I did my part. I think my friends asked the anchorwoman to have me do something since I was the only person they didn't interview due to lack of spanish and charisma. Either way...it made me feel powerful

3) The lunches that usually consisted of a strange dishwater/chocolate/coffee drink and rice with a hardboiled egg in the middle of it.

4) The Ending ceremony today. There were some heartfelt renditions of Sweet Child O' Mine and Zombie. I was given the award for being "Shakira's Lover" since I wrote a poem about her for class. Brennen, the other volunteer, was given the award for "Most Handsome" I will kill Brennen and take his award for myself. I was robbed.

I'm actually going to miss these kids....I think they'll miss me too for some reason. Maybe they found my awkwardness endearing? Monday I start observation at my school....yikes.