EST. 2011

Tomorrow, the 31st of July, will be the six week anniversary of my arrival to Barranquilla. Since getting to Colombia, I've spent the majority of my time with my fellow Peace Corps Response buddies Andrew and Eric. I thought I'd share the links of their blogs with you, so that you can get to see Colombia through the eyes of another Peace Corps Response Volunteer. Andrew's blog is pure brilliance and written in a very charismatic manner that makes you want to keep reading. Eric's blog is  very conscious of his time spent with the Peace Corps in Central America and how that relates to his current Colombian assignment, while really doing a great job of describing his new surroundings in Barranquilla .  I hope that you enjoy their blogs as much as I have!

Yesterday was the  one year anniversary of Joe Arroyo's passing. He was one of the most influential  singers in the history of salsa. Today, while in the library I let these two students listen to some of my music. I played everything from  Ray Charles ,  Earth Wind and Fire ,  Paul Simon ,  Jay - Z , to  Led Zeppelin . I played songs from all around the world. The only criteria was that the song be up-beat. I took this photo of them at the exact moment I put on Joe Arroyo's most popular song entitled  En Barranquilla Me Quedo . Their faces light up and they began to move as though the salsa music had taken control of them. Joe Arroyo  will forever be a musical and cultural icon for Barranquilla. 

As I complete my first month of service as a PC Response Volunteer, I thought I’d take the time to share with you some of my thoughts on Guatemala. What you’re about to read I wrote after my first week in Colombia. I’ve been going back and forth on whether to share this entry but in the end decided to publish it. I originally wrote this as a letter to myself about Guatemala. I was going to open it sometime in the future. I hope that you enjoy it.  *          *           *          *          * Where to begin? My last day in Guatemala was March 11th 2012. I was home for almost three months, although some days it seemed like I had just stepped off the plane. After living and working in Guatemala for twenty-six months, returning home and reacquainting myself with the “good ol’ US of A” was quite a process. Everything was as I left it. My childhood home smelled and felt the ...

This is a video shot from inside my house. It rained for only 2 hours and this was the result. I had to stop filming because the water came over the sidewalk, ran onto the patio, and made it's way towards the house. I spent about 45 mins with a broom trying to keep the water out until the rain subsided.

The FCC methodolgy consists of three parts : The pre-game talk - The players give their own definitions of the four pillars of FCC which are honesty, tolerance, solidarity, and respect. The game  - There are no referees, so the players must resolve any problem that arises on their own. They’re also striving to play in a manner that will correspond with the definitions that were previously agreed upon in the pre-game talk. The post-game talk - It’s here where the players auto evaluate their own team’s, as well as their opponents’, behavior and means to have played in a way that coincided with the pre-game talk’s definitions of FCC’s four pillars. Hearts, or points, are awarded for each team’s ability to have played with honesty, tolerance, solidarity, and respect. In this third stage, a team can win or loose the game based on its overall accumulation of hearts. 

Coaching is not easy. It's also not ridiculously difficult either. It requires patience, knowledge, discipline, and a creative attitude. Apart from working with FCC, I've started helping out the town U-14 boys team. The team is comprised of 18 local boys between the ages of 13 and 14. This particular age group brings a lot of challenges to the table. There are small players who weigh about 90 lbs. and are around 4'6" and then there are bigger players who are about 135 lbs. and 5'6". Apart from the obvious physical differences, there are the less obvious difference in ability and understanding of the game. Some players can use both feet, play one touch soccer, and are coachable. Others have problems with taking simple directions, only can use their dominant foot, and hold onto the ball too long. Apart from all this we're in Latin America, so a practice that should start at 8, starts around 8:30. This obvious neglect of punctuality was to be expected, altho...