Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Leaving Barranquilla

Friday started out with quite the shock. I never realized how incredible a little bit of rain could be. In Barranquilla before the streets were paved the rain would just soak up into the dirt and it would be muddy for a while. However, now that they have paved the roads the water has no where to go. Therefore it runs down one street and into another joining together to flood the streets. They used the word Arroyo to describe what happens. (the spanish word for creek). After visiting classrooms at Escuela Maria Poussin we were directed to leave the school as quickly as possible for danger of flash floods. Even with the warning we didn't leave right away. It turned out that we were just fine- Thankfully.

Susan and I hosted 25 students from grade two for the morning. We showed them a Powerpoint presentation on Canada and another one on the projects we did last year at Canyon Meadows. We shared with them an ABC book about Canada, and played Heads up 7-up. One thing I appreciate about travelling is that games can be the same all over the world. All of the grade twos and the grade tens that were with them loved playing.

We were fortunate after our visit to have lunch with the Secretary of Education in an Arab restaurant. The Arab influence is strong on the coast due to Barranquilla being a trade port. Going to a restaurant in a foreign language is always an adventure. I ordered something that I had no idea what it was. I'm pretty sure it was called Casta de Kafta. I thought I was getting shishkababs with meat and vegetables. It was definately not. It was long meatball type tubes with meat and parsley type spices mixed together. Either way it was absolutely delicious. Sometimes not knowing what you are eatting is an exciting experience in itself.

From lunch we headed back to the hotel to get ready and on to the airport to return to Bogota- all prettied up for our fairwell coctail party with the embassy staff.

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