Colombia / Columbia

FYI, Tara has been, I think, the only person to spell Colombia correctly so far (for all of you fur traders, I forgive you because it's named after a NWC district of which I am particularly fond.

Calima Pics

Here I am at the lakeshore of Calima. I'm going for the 'windswept' look.
This is just outside the little hostel where we stayed at sunset. We were high up enough that the clouds were mingling with the tops of the nearby mountains.
Here's Jordan and I in the back of this little jeep the people use for taxi's in Calima. This is how we got right down to the lake.
Regan, Jordan, and some funny looking guy that we met down there. Good thing we won't have to see him again.

My gmail account is being weird and not loading up properly so if you urgently email me and I don't write back that's why. If you really need to get ahold of me send it to 9mwr@qlink.queensu.ca

Caio!

Lago Calima for the weekend:)

Hi all,

I went up to a place called Lago (lake) Calima for the weekend. I'll try to publish some pictures tommorow to show you what it was all about. A marvelous time though. The bus ride there was only 8000 pesos (about $4) and it was a realatively comfortable 2 hour ride up into the mountains to the lake. It's a man made lake and is used as the water source for Cali so the lake itself is only ok but there is this beautiful little town along it. I was there with Jordan and Regan and we wandered the town, rode some horses, went salsa dancing and all kinds of other things. This one bar was playing techno music so, of course, I had to go in and dance and you should have seen the stares that I got... it was awesome. I guess it's not everyday that they see not only a white guy (we didn't see any other white people there) but one who is basically a giant compared to everyone else in the place. We were high enough up in the mountains that there were clouds nearby and it was hoodie weather in the evenings. There is this one view where the bus was going over a bridge on the way into town that was probably the most beautiful sight that I have ever seen. It was a huge mountain gorge with steeply rising hills covered in lush trees on either side.... basically the same thing on the imax movie when they fly through the gorge, or from Jurassic Park II.

Anyway, more about his later with the pics.

Tah Tah:)

Love Matt

Phone Number

Hi all,

A couple of people have asked about my phone number so I'll just post it here. Perhaps I should be wary about posting my number in a public space but I figure, what's the worst someone could do???? Keep calling me I guess.... Not so bad...... (and now if anyone is tempted to start telling my about identity theft or how I'm going to get robbbed and beaten because I put my phone number online just relax.... I don't have enough money yet to worry about loosing it.

To call me (from Canada) dial: 011-57-2-330-0836

Currently Jordan and I don't have an answering machine but we are working on it.

The best (read: cheapest) thing to do to call is get an international phone card (apparently CiCi, or ChiChi.... something like that is best). They are supposed to save a lot of money. I'll be home at Christmas though so don't go breaking the bank to call me.

I usually get home from school around 4:30pm (that's 5:30pm in Ontario) and am up till 9:30 or 10:00pm (that's 10:30 - 11:00pm in Ontario). I know that going to bed at 9:30 sounds a might early but when you're waking up in the 5's every day it just makes sense.

Tah Tah for now,

Love Matt

Just outside my classroom

Here is a shot from just outside the door of my classroom. Today some of the kids were playing with a solar powered motor out here.

I have been having a fantastic time being a teacher here over these past two weeks. I didn't think that it would happen this fast but I absolutely LOVE my job. Small classes (about 17-19 kids), great students who are a lot of fun to teach and flexibility.... it's great. Every day in the classroom seems to be getting better as I get to know the kids more and more. This was a great way to start teaching. Everyone talks about how the first year of teaching is a year of hell where you don't sleep and barely have time to live any semblance of a normal life, but here I only teach one class (Grade 8 science with five sections) so I basically have 1/3rd of the prep to do that I would at home in Ontario. I never figured to have time in my first year of teaching to rigorously evaluate the kind of teaching I'm doing and still have time to relax in the evenings but I can usually leave here at 3:30 and take next to no work home with me. I'm still coming in on Sundays but I figure that's a small price to pay to have everything ready to go for the week. Basically I'm in an unheard of situation for a first year teacher.... guess I made a good descision.

Yesterday we started a new unit and today I'm going to be showing an episode of MYTHBUSTERS where they investigate appliances falling into the tub.... should be fun!

Our water heater is going to be installed today!!!!! YAY!!!!! Now I know what you're thinking... Why do you need hot water in a warm country hey? Well, cold showers here might not be as bad as back home but I'm still getting really tired of them. It's about 19-21 degrees celcius in the mornings and although that's not cold by any stretch a little bit of warm water is going to go a long way. Gas is much cheeper here than electricity so we got three of the elements of our electrifying stove turned to gas burners yesterday and our new water heater is also gas. The old one that we have is electric but only worked once (that one warm shower was really nice though). To try to fix it our landlord ripped the plug off the cord, took off some of the power cord insulating rubber then shoved the bare ends right into the wall socket. For safety he then shoved the now usless plug in after to hold the bare wires in place. Needless to say we weren't really pleased with this (can anybody say "fire hazard") so we just kept to breaker turned off (it didn't work anyway when the breaker was on).

Some more interesting things about Colombia:

-It is illegal for two men to ride together on a motorcycle unless they are police. Ask me about why another when you see me.
-It is not unusual to hear other people on the line occasionally when talking on the phone.
-You can buy milk that just sits on the shelf until you're ready to use it. No refridgeration necessary (prior to opening). Jordan and I were really leery of this at first but it's just fine... sure would solve the problem of having no place to put milk in the fridge.
-You can't buy hot peppers here.

Worn out teachers

Here is Jordan, Tim and myself putting on our best worn out looks after a particularly long day of teaching (actually we only feel this tired about 1/2 the time).

Second week of teaching started

Well, it's official! I survived the first week of teaching with few bumps and bruises and we're on to week number 2. Today the kids will be testing devices that they've made out of plasticine. They'll go in a fish tank and goal is to have them sink as slow as possible. How could fun NOT ensue. I did 'tickets out of class' with my students at the end of the week (it's basically a mechanism for listening to your students that I picked up from Tom Russell at the Fac. of Ed.) and they had some nice, interesting and intriguing things to say.

The weekend was pretty quiet. We went to Unicentro to hang out for a bit on Friday, Saturday some people came over to hang out before going out (I stayed in with my book and a cup of tea though) and sunday was spent planning at the school. It sure is nice to be able to take a break from planning to go swimming in the school swimming pool.

Ok, funniest thing ever! Today as we were waiting for the teacher bus to pick us up we saw Tripod (not his real name) who is the three legged dog that hangs around our neighborhood. He belongs to someone and is pretty well taken care of so don't feel too bad for him. Anyway, Tripod was wandering around in his usual hopping way and he decides that he's going to mark his territory. Well, needless to say dogs aren't designed to stand on two legs and he almost fell over while trying to pee on a garbage bag on the curb.

Well, another week of school is gearing up and I got lots to do so I had better run. I love it here but I do miss home.

CheeryBye

Love Matt

Almost through the first week

Well, it's thursday evening which means that there is only one more day of school left in the week. I've gotta say that I'm way more relaxed and less strung out than I was during my practicum placements at the same time into the game.

The first few days have gone really well so far. The kids are a lot of fun (and I won't say too much about them just incase one of them stumbles across ol' Mr. Roy's blog) and are great to talk to. They are very chatty but that is quite normal for that age and for Colombian children in general. It is a talking culture much more than in Canada. On the first day I did some science magic tricks (making a test tube dissapear and showing them the science rope tube that I made during the summer). Because of Tom Russell's class I really was conscious to make it a lot of fun and very active in the first few days. They seem to be pretty pumped about science so far! Yesterday and today were taken up doing an activity called Orange Lifejacket where you investigate the bouyant properties of oranges (the peel acts like a lifejacket), and tommorow we will start the Great Plasticine Challenge. I'm also going to be helping out with students council which should be no surprise to anyone.

The other day I was shopping at Lacatorce and was busy carrying my groceries out when it hit me.... I'm in Colombia and I'm not even thinking about it! I guess this place is getting more familiar by the day, the mountains are just becoming a dropback to my breakfast. I'm also getting really used to not being able to talk to anyone and instead playing a series of charade games. I had a real dip about a week ago where I was really frustrated at not being able to make myself understood to anyone but I got over it pretty quick. My kids were really curious about me and asked if I knew any Spanish. Two groups actually got me to say something in Spanish which put them in hysterics. Of course I said "?dande esta mes changlas?"

Ok, it's getting late and I've gotta get back to the Engenio (that's where I live). Jordan and I got our plants so the apartment looks like a jungle now.

Oh yeah, there is a math teacher here who is into sci-fi, fantasy books and buddhism so he may have to be my new best friend.

Signing off for now,

-Matt

More mountains

This is a Picture of the hills looking to the right from the previous pic. Remember to click on the image if you want to see it enlarged.

Weekend Pictures

Here's a shot from up in the mountains looking back into Cali.

Countdown Coming

Well, Tuesday morning seems to be creeping up on me faster than I would have liked. I'm sure I'll have everything rolling by then though. In the mean time it's two out of three long weekend days doing prep at school.

I've now got a clock, somewipeboard markers and my pegboards are covered in pretty paper. What more could a person ask for. I also found one of those levitating globes that floats in place because of magnets to adorn my desk.

Jordan and I spent about a half million pesos on house plants this weekend..... A little pricey but we figured it's the only time in our lives when we will be able to buy beautiful plants for so cheep so we went a little crazy. Now, since our dining room set has also arrived the place might actually start looking like it's not an empty warehouse (but what a pretty warehouse).

Yesterday we took a hike up into the mountains with some other import teachers and found two gorgeous swimming holes. Not quite as nice as the one that our neighbors took us to but that's like saying that winning the lottery is a lot nicer if you win 10 million rather than 8 million. Either is pretty darn good. I actually brought my camera this time too so I'll probably post some pics of that tommorow.

On friday night we went over to Tara's house (a Canadian teacher in her second year) and went to a Salsa bar. The power went off for about 1/2 hour but everyone pulled out thier flashlights and cellphone lights and stuck around. When it came back on the salsa dancing continued in force. For those who don't know, in Colombia there is always dancing at EVERY occasion. And even though we Gringos suck at it everyone is very friendly and willing to help us learn. Julie and Lida and Nana and Tara all showed me a few moves and I feel like a got a tiny bit better. I may have a little bit of rythm after all. The funniest part though was when I would finally get some basic moves down and be like "I'm totally awesome at this" then I would look at the guy next to me and think "Ok, why does it look totally different when he does it?" Oh well. Baby steps......

Geoff just sent out some pictures and it looks like he busted his thumb up really bad so everyone send good thoughts his way.

Tah, Tah for now.

Love Matt

Sooooo muuuucccchhhhh sssspppppaaaccceeee

So this is about 1/2 of our main room in the apartment. We have so much space and nothing to put in it..... When our dining room set arrives (the school provides it) we will be in a little better shape.

Remember, if you want to see the pictures in larger format just click on them.

Thunder Mountain

Here is a pic of the small but powerful storm rolling over the mountains and through parts of Cali. All in a normal day from my balcony!

Ok, so it's been a while...

Sorry all.... It's been a while since I've written but everything is still going well. I'm no longer living at the Stein (the hotel we were staying at) and Jordan and I are moved in nicely. There have been some adventures though...

On Saturday night Jodan and I met our neighbor next door, Elaina. She didn't speak any English and we don't speak any Spanish so it was a lot of looking confused and laughing. We also met her son Andreas and her mother. At the end of the conversation the main thing that we'd gotten out of it was that tommorow (menyana) she was going to come knock on our door (make motion of knocking with hand) and we were going to go somewhere. We had no idea where but it was somewhere. So Sunday morning at 10am she knocks on our door and we get into the car with Elaina, her mother and her son and drive out past the Rio Pance (Pance River) which is where all of Cali goes to swim and cool down on Sundays. We drove up into the hills past a security station (private security for the houses up there) and into the Colombian equivalent of cottage country. Andreas took us on this 40 minute hike basically upwards into the mountain range to a private waterfall that was about 200 feet high. So we got to swim in the waterfall and met a bunch of other family members there, two of whom live in the states and spoke english. After that we walked back to the house, had a long leisurely lunch with the family and hung out. They also kept trying to feed us Aguariente which is the Colombian equivalent of sambuca (tastes like black liqorish) and is about 60 proof (that's 30%). I still had memories of the night out at the bar so I mainly stuck to water and beer. Next we walked to a neighbors property, Jorge and Debbie. Jorge is the brother of a girl that I know who works at the school and Debbie is his British bride who has been in Colombia for about 20 years. They had a stone lined natural pool that filled up from the same stream that formed the waterfall we'd visited earlier. Jorge took us down behind his property (no house yet... they are just starting to build) to another stream with a gorgeous waterfall that reminded me of cedar falls a lot. After that we went back to Elaina's place and hung out with the family till about 9pm when they decided to go back to the city. So basically, what we expected to be a short afternoon jaunt turned into a whole day of meeting wonderfully welcoming people, and swimming in tropical waterfalls. All things considered it was quite an adventure... Trying to cope with all the spanish was certainly a little tiring and overwhelming though. It's nice knowing the neighbors too. Yesterday their dogs wandered into our apartment for a little visit:) I wish I'd had my camera to take some waterfall pictures but both Joran and I forgot.... oh well.... use your imagination. Or pic up a travel book with a beautiful waterfall and that's pretty close.

So what else has happened.... Jordan and I discovered that when we turned on a certain element in the stove it electrified out whole stainless steel kitchen counter along with the dishwater. Not a dangerous enough charge to really hurt you but enough to be sure that there was some current running through there. So if anybody needs some free physiotherapy I can give you some good electrotherapy.

Yesterday there was a storm passing through the mountains and I watched it drench parts of Cali as it went by. This is such a beautiful country.... The pictures just don't do it justice. Storms are very common here and there is lightning usually every night although we rarely get rain along with it. Storms seem more frequent but confined to smaller spaces.

I've started school as well. No kids yet but lots of meetings and classroom prep. This school is very bilingual and almost all meetings are conducted in both english and spanish. It always sounds like people are not paying attention and are chatting with their neighbors while someone is speaking but it's just because there is constant translation going on. I've been making sure that I sit near someone who is very bilingual. Martha Munoz who has a classroom next to mine (grade 7 science) is probably the most amazing because she is completely bilingual. It's like she has two first languages.

I'll try to keep you posted on how this week of prep goes, but the main interest I'm sure is who things go once the kids arrive..... we'll see. Only six more days!!!!

Love Matt

The Balcony

Well, we're moving in to the apartment early tommorow so I thought I'd post a pic of the view from our balcony. If the air was clearer and my camera was better you would be able to see a lot more of the splendid mountains in the near distance.

Remember, if you want to see an enlarged size just click the picture.

Lovin' the Reggaetone

Well, Jordan and I were a step slow this morning. Last night we were dancing up a storm and didn't get in until 3am..... but I'll start at the beginning. Where was I... oh yes, I didn't write about yesterday at all.

Early yesterday morning we drove out to the school (I'm still shocked every time I go there that I get to work at this place) and had a meeting with Tom about health insurance. I won't bore you with the details.... just be assured that I'll be well taken care of. They even have this ambulance addition to the plan where you call the ambulance when you're sick and they show up with a doctor to check you out. It's not like an emergency transport vehicle like home, it's more like a tiny mobile hospital if you don't feel like taking a cab to the hospital.

Tim (the seventh grade math teacher) and I had an hour long meeting with Rob, our principal,(who I might add is a graduate of Queen's Con-Ed) where we talked about Middle School philosphy and all that Jazz. Apparently Sandra, the woman who I am replacing, was very well loved around Bolivar so I may be refered to as "not Sandra" for a bit. No worries. I'm sure I'll be dazzling them soon enough.

Next was a shopping trip to a Monstromart type of store (Think superstore but bigger). If there wasn't so much spanish being spoken you would never have known you were in Colombia. Also in many of the ailes there are people from companies that try to convince you to buy their product and do everything but put it in the cart for you (picture Jordan and I nodding politely while a woman quickly rattles off in spanish the value of her particular brand of toilet paper). Basically you could get anything there and we loaded up the cart but in the end it's really not any cheaper than in Canada. If you want to buy cheap things you have to get more traditional Colombian things. If you buy pretty modern westerny stuff it's pretty expensive.

Ok, I gotta go to lunch.... I'll finish this thought later. Remind me to talk about breast implants......

Ok, I'm back... so where was I... oh yeah, breast implants.

So aparently in Colombia breast implants are about 100 times as common as back in Canada. We started making a game of it after a while in the mall (count the number of women who cleary have had 'surgical enhancements'). Aparently it's not unheard of for grade eight girls to have implants already.... let's hope not though.... I'm teaching grade eights and that would just be horribly upsetting. I'd feel compelled to give out (unwelcome I'm sure) lectures about health.

So back to where my story started... going out to dance! A bunch of the second year teachers took us new teachers out to a place called the Cukarabakara. It cost 7,500 pesos to get in (about $3.50) and for that low entry price I got the 'friendliest' frisking by the bouncer that I have ever had. The Stu-Cons at Queen's Football games had nothing on this guy. I couldn't have been hiding ANYTHING. There was a live band and lots of music and people dancing all over the place. For some songs that everyone in the entire building was dancing. I was really bad at it but some Colombian friends and the second year teachers tried to show me how. Jordan was dancing on the table and (as I found out the next day) fell off at one point. There was Salsa and merenge (sp?) and a new craze called Reggaetone which is like latin hip hop. After lots of dancing, a few beers and a little aguariente (like weak sambucca) we headed out and the second year girls treated Jordan and I to some gigantic burgers on the way home. When we stumbled in at about 3am Marty was up to greet us and let us in.... what a guy.

Well as I write this another day has passed. We've had dinner at the Directors house and are prepping to move into the apartment tommorow. It may be a little while till I can post again so you're welcome to rediscover my witty banter up till this point. Jordan and Marty are both asleep now so I had best stop typing and sleep.

CheeryBye,

-Matt

Posting the Gang again

Ok, this pic doesn't have Sonia in it because I spent about fifteen minutes downloading two pics and then accidentally deleted one in about 1/2 second....

Shucks.

Anyway, aren't we a sexy bunch.

Trying again

Ok, this picture thing is not really working so I'm going to give it another try. Wish me luck.

The pic I'm posting is of the school. I took it today so you know it's fresh.

And yes.... I do get to go there to work every day. Start getting jealous.

The Gang

So here is the gang (all the new import teachers). Left to right it's Scott, Sonia (they are married and are very cute), Jordan (my housemate), Regan, Kate, and Marty (who looks frighteningly like Colin Brown when you meet him in person).

Aren't we FUN!

Success in house hunting and BIG GUNS

Well, we did it. Jordan and I officially have a place to live. This morning we set off in the van with Stella, Tom and Jaime to check out places. The first place that we saw was on the 11th floor of this apartment complex with a pool, sauna, and was ENORMOUS. Just to give you an idea, it was probably the same size as the ground floor of my folks house in Kakabeka and cost 1,200,000 pesos a month to rent (about $580 bucks american split two ways). It was magnificent and there will be no other time in life that I can afford a place that nice but it really didn't have any kind of neighborhood around it so we decided to check out a few more.

We ended up just cruising around Ciudad Jardin which is the neighborhood where ever one of the other new imports lives (about 15 mins from school) and looking for 'for rent ' signs. In the end we found a place that had (and match this up with the previously mentioned criteria):

1) Two large balconies
2) Two stories
3) Great neighborhood (actually, if you looks out one way from our balcony you see the place where Martin, Regan, Kate and Tim live and if you look the other way you see the 'Ball Room' where Sonia and Scott live).

We decided to take it. It has everything we want and is in a neighborhood which should help us make some more Colombian friends and really be part of a community. The drawbacks? The cupboards are a little rickets, it's a touch dirty (right now) and the ceilings are a little low and painted pink..... well, nothing that we can't live with. In the end, who needs anything else when you've got a killer balcony.

After that we went to Liz's house (a second year teacher) for lunch and had a sampling of blended fruit juices. I feel like this place was made for me. There is a ton of cheap fruit, people are all very touchy feely, and showing up late for things is not only commonplace, it's expected. Maybe mom and dad adopted me from Colombia. It's not as unreasonable as it sounds either. There is a real mix of skin colours here. Everything from the darkest dark to pale and blue eyed.

In the afternoon we went to the bank to work some things out and at one point some guys came to administer a bank machine outside, except both had flack jackets and one had a drawn pistol. The other one? He stood guard for the other guy with a SHOT GUN (this was about five feet from us). Certainly guns are more common in Colombia but for a good Canadian boy it was a tiny bit scary.

It's weird being here in a lot of ways. In Colombia we (making $22,000 US a year) are pretty rich. I find there is a huge amount of stratification. Certainly there are a bunch of rich people but there are a lot of very poor people. The middle class that I am used to is so much smaller here. It's really common (and pretty much expected) that if you teach here you are going to hire a maid to help out around the house (actually ALL of the houses we saw had maid's quarters). This has been REALLY weird for me. As a guy who's parents taught him to clean his own bathroom and take pride in the value of simple daily tasks I find that I'm really uncomfortable with this whole idea. It's certainly not so bad for me, but I'll feel weird not cleaning my own place and I certainly wouldn't want to raise kids in an atmosphere where the parents and children don't have to do any kind of cooking, cleaning, laundry etc. Since there are pretty much no washing machines though some hired help for laundry gets a lot more tempting (remember, sweating is more common in Colombia than Canada).

Some other impressions of Cali so far:
-There is a group of mountains very close to the west and no matter where you are in the city they provide a breathtaking skyline. One more reason why a balcony is so important.
-Traffic is crazy. I would die in about 5 seconds driving in Cali. When you stop at a light, motor bikes pull up through the traffic till they surround you. Not for anything sinister, it's just that they are small enough to pull up to the front. At traffic lights there are also lots of vendors hawking wares, street performers etc.
-This is a Spanish city..... no doubt. If you don't speak spanish you had better get good at charades because there is almost never someone who speaks english to bail you out. I wouldn't have it any other way though. It's the best way to learn. Thankfully so far Jaime, Tom, and Stella have been helping us through the whole was and helping us learn and trasnlating when we need it. They rock.

Sometimes this place seems familiar but other times so very different.

I'm going to post a bunch of pics so everyone can check out my digs and life here in Cali. I love you all and miss you.

Keep Smilin'

Love Matt

House Hunting Galore

So the past two days have been mainly consumed by house hunting here in Cali. It has been one mad blur of jumping in the van and having Jamie (pronounced Hy-ah-mi) scoot us through the insane Cali traffic from place to place. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be driving here. It is basically a prerequisite that you cut people off left right and centre (especially people on motor bikes...). Jamie has been able to pull that van into the craziest places...

So far everyone else has places but Jordan and I are still looking (we are going to be roomies). We really liked one place in Ciudad Jardin (pretty near the school in a nice neighborhood) but Kate really liked it to so we flipped a coin for it and lost best three of five by a count of 3-1. Sonia and Scott got a place for one million pesos a month (a little under 500 bucks US) that looks like a dance studio and would prolly go for about $4000 bucks a month in toronto. You can get some pretty posh properties for very little cash here. This is probably my best oportunity to live in luxury so I might as well take advantage.

Basically Jordan and I are looking for a place that has the following:
1) Big Balcony
2) Big Balcony
3) High up
4) Big Balcony
5) Two levels if possible
6) Supro Macho Balcony
7) Close neighborhood

So tommorow we will pile into the van again (just Jordan and myself along with Stella who has been our house hunting saviour) and give it another go. We stopped by the school today and as we were leaving Jordan turns to me and says, "Dude, you work there!" It's pretty amazing... I'll post some pics soon of how fabulous this place is. It seems especially nice everywhere too b/c we've been keeping to the nice expensive sides of Cali so far. There is certainly a different side to see but were way too gringo-ish to go there just yet.

Had a fabulous dinner tonight with a bunch of the principals and other school staff. I rode a Cali cab for the first time with my principal Rob and we saw our first Cali prostitute (trust me, it was VERY clear that she was a prostitute). I've also discovered that the beer here is pretty darn good. At the Stein (the money hotel where we are staying) there is a big drinks fridge where you sign out what you take on the honour system so we have been having a few cervezas to cool off in the evening.

Well, Jordan is trying to sleep so I'll sign off for now. Btw, before I forget, the best part about Cali is the view of the mountains in the West. I'll try to get some pics soon b/c it makes for an amazing view.

Wish me luck in the apartment hunting.

Love Matt

Besides keyboards I don´t feel that out of place!

Ok, first things first, Colombian keyboards have a bunch of extra characters on them placed in really annoying places. I spend about five minutes looking for the ":" (and actually to put quotes on that I spend about 45 seconds looking for the quote button).

Well I´m safe and sound in one of the most beautiful hotels I´ve ever seen.... but let me catch you up.

Last you heard I was back in Miami... I went shopping with Steve, Kate, and Michael (the directors son) and picked up some bedding (I had extra room in my luggage), some surge protectors, and of course the all mighty sunscreen. At 1pm we made for the airport, checked in and after a 3.5 hour flight touched down here in Cali. Two women from the school who grew up here in Colombia came to meet us to help us through customs and translate when needed. The passport was stamped and then it was downstairs to pick up our bags, all of which arrived except for poor Jordan who still has bags coming from Toronto. The Cali airport was small and the only thing different from the ThunderBay one was lots of spanish and a few armed guards at the front. The school picked up our bags and the director Joe and Tom Rompf were there to meet us for a 45 minute ride to the hotel. The city is beautiful and in many ways like I remember mexico. Lots of people outside, less lighting than Canadian cities and a little more haphazard. This place is very industrialized though.... There is a domino´s pizza and a texaco down the street. Colombia certainly has a unique beauty all it´s own. I´ll tell more when I see more and have more time. The hotel that we are staying at is the former residence of the arch bishop (and remember, Colombia is very Catholic). It´s got all kinds of engravings on the side of the building and a big part of the inside is open to the air. Also it turns out that Colombian beer is pretty darn good which is a perk for any country. Marty, Jordan, Regan (who I forgot to mention last time) and I went for a quick walk in the evening and checked out the local area a bit. This is a beautiful (and old) neighborhood of Cali that we are staying it.

Well, today we´re off to check out the school and start house hunting so I had better go. I´ll send more news as I can.

Love Matt