Job Discussion Forums

[quejt]

does any one know the consequences of overstaying a tourist visa in colombia, or other countries for that matter? I�ve already read some second hand opinions of what might happen if you get caught in a job without a work visa.

[quejt]

Choices, choices, choices...


In the last couple of days Ive been to 3 cities, pickpocketed, and offered a job. The city I like the best so far is the one I�m in, Manizales. Its about 7500 feet in elevation so the climate is nice and cold and Ive heard theres some reasonably safe hiking nearby. The whole city is smack dab in the middle of the andes, not like bogota which is on a 8000 foot high plateaux. No, this city was placed on a multilevel topography, like a blanket draped over a multitude of different size objects. Crazy angles and slants every where. Approaching it on the bus, we climbed up a long coffee planted slope, a couple thousand feet or so and once we reached the top of this hill, the city suddenly began, spilling down the other side. Kinda, like san francisco, but more exreme hillwise.

The bad news is that I wasn�t offered a job in this city, I was offered one in Pereira, which although about 5000 feet in elevation has that east coast heat and humidity thing going on. Sleeping there last night without a fan at the Balcony Hotel did not require blankets. This place is only 6 dollars a night and I only saw one cockroach there, first one in Colombia by the way, so providing a fan for the guests would be too costly, I suppose. Or maybe the cockroach prefers it that way, he does have seniority.

The good news is the job offer is at centro colombo americano, one of the binational centers that I originally hoped to teach in. It should be a good teaching experience there. The director there suggested I work under the table(well she didn�t use those words, she said on a "trial basis") for a month to see if they liked me and I liked them but she said that she would assist with the work visa should it work out. I think this is reasonable. I don�t feel like a jerk if I don�t like it and leave and it reduces the risk for them. Perhaps I�m being naive, but I trust the name of the place enough to believe they intend to make good on their promise. Worst case scenario, I work for a month and they don�t pay me, but I get some experience at a decent school. The take home pay is 1,300,000 COL or US$560 per month plus standard benefits like health, 15 day vacation, and small bonuses. I�ve heard from two other sources that these taxes or deductions add up to about 250 US dollars or 40 percent of salary, which is alot more than is taken out of a US salary. 3 2hour classes per day, M thru F, split shift, plus sat mornings. A studio apartment is about 300, 000 COL so it seems the salary is more than enough to live on. They want me to decide by Wed so that I can start a class a week from now. I�ll observe a few classes before I start, prepare some material and overall feel generally panicky.

All of which made me try to make a last ditch attempt at finding work in Manizales today and tomorrow...or just give up on the Pereira offer. Got to the colombo in Manizales late this afternoon and spoke with Margarita who agreed to meet with me and Clara, another administrator type, tomorrow at 10. But it doesn�t look that hopeful. M said that most people start off with just one class a week, less than part time, gradually adding hours, all the hiring was done last month, theyre not looking for anyone, and shes not familiar with the work visa process and she personally started there just one month ago, and as far as she knows, everyone hired there already could legally work in the country. I wonder if a part time contract would hold water with the people handing out the work visas. I have a funny feeling that these people want to see a full time contract. I personally wouldn�t mind one class per day, that actually fits my lazy, sleepy ways. I could always advertise for private students. The Pereria people would be squeezing alot of work out of me even though I understand the hours to be typical of centro colombos.

I called Lena, the spanish speaking receptionist at centro colombo Bogota, who was being particularly gatekeeperish and didn�t let me talk with the english speaking boss, Louise, and also made me understand that it all had something to do with collegio, demasiado complicado and no experiencia. Ah well, I probably could have elbowed my way in to see Louise if I was there but I�m not. It seems Bogota and Manizales are the only cities with centro colombos at altitudes high enough to create this tingly cold weather I like so much. I may look into other countries and try to match high altitudes with binational centers. I don�t know. Its one of those bird in the hand, two in the bush issues. Or maybe its nothing risked nothing gained. I wish the people who made up those sayings would make up their minds as to what they believed.

Pereria, aside from the weather, is actually quite nice. The downtown area is perched on a long narrow ridge, about 200 feet high, one of many ridges and valleys that ripple their way across the greater Pereira area, about as long across as it is wide, and pretty much surrounded by 3000 or so foot mountains. Very much like the san fernando valley except for the ripples. Its also about the same populationwise, about 500,000 people. Downtown, where I was walking around, consists of about 3, 1 mile long streets running the length of the ridge interspersed by 3 plazas. Much of the streets pavement is a reddish brick and the sidewalks are lined with small Jacaranda? trees. Saturday night was a big party, bars, drinking dancing hanging out on the streets. All of which disappeared sunday day and evening. Not alot of noticable poverty nor excessive wealth. Low key, pleasant, lots of nice food choices. One outsideish restaurant open 24 hours right next to my hotel where I bought Sunday dinner (mystery soup, deep fried potato balls and rice), to eat in my hotel room with my cockroach friend. When I left that hotel in Bogota with the kitchen, I left my healthy eating habits there as well. I hung out with a pleasant fellow from Canada who spends quite a bit of time here, who was informative as well as good company.

And about that pickpocketing I mentioned earlier. Straight out of the Pinochio story. Soon after running away from home, Pinochio is befriended by a lame fox and a blind cat, who he befriends and eats with, paying the bill himself. Then when he is asleep, the two neerdowells make off with the few gold coins he has left. Aside from a few details the same thing happened to me or at least I find myself suspecting it so. The two friendly young guys sitting on the last seat of the bus behind me knew I had the cell phone, handed it to them twice so they could see the time. I bought them some food from a vendor they suggested, we shared a meal, they got off the bus early and when I got to my hotel the cell phone was gone. Maybe it was a very stealthy pickpocketer in the terminal but now, unfortuneately, I�m a little more wary of friendly people and offering food to share.

The next day, I had the hotel employee call my cell phone in hopes that if fell out of my pockets into the hands of a good samaritan who I would gladly fork over 15 dollars to as a propina. I gathered from the conversation that the person who answered the phone was none other than the ladrone himself who wanted 100 dollars to return it which is about how much it cost. He could sell it on the streets for about 25 dollars. I didnt go for it but I did try to take my troubles to the policia, whom I spent several hours with. I actually enjoyed my time with the colombian police, muy amable once they do a little interogating first except for the time where the detective had me get in the car with 2 other plainsclothesmen and a small child to drive to the hotel and instead of driving to the hotel we went the opposite way and I noticed that we passed a sign saying Cali, a large city quite some distance to the southwest. Thinking at this point, oh this is what its like getting kidnapped, I say as nonchalantly as possible that the hotel is the other way. They said blah, blah, blah in spanish in a were not kidnapping you kind of way. Well, it was nothing, we were just dropping off one of the guys somewhere. The detective gets to the hotel, does his interrogation thing with the employee and calls my cell phone. Looking like he was using all his pretend im not a policeman skills, he couldn�t convince the ladrone to meet up and get 80 dollars for the phone. We all exchanged emails and said goodbye. I don�t think Im going to see my phone again.

One more thing totally unrelated to the above. The Andes in Colombia are obscenely beautiful. Deep, deep dark green grass, plants and trees push up everywhere they get a chance. Cleared farmland, grazing animals and wild brush. Like coastal california foothills in the spring except I think its like this all year long. It reminds me of the Excederin pain medication advertisements found in magazines circa 1970 so all you young folks out there wouldn�t understand, but the illustrators created a landscape with perfectly hemispherically shaped hills bathed in emerald light, gentle roads leading to friendly farmhouses. Just the kind of place you want to go to if you have one of those excederin headaches. And this is really what this place looks like.

Good bye for now. This internet cafe is closing.

Jon

[ClaudeRains]

Jon!

The rovers on Mars! The lander on Titan! Now, Quejt in Colombia!

After watching this site for over a year, finally someone's down there transmitting vital data until their batteries fail! Rock on, Jon! There are 300 others waiting to look through your eyes! Keep sending!

[Tiger Beer]

Keep up the postings! Great stuff! Inspiring.

[Guy Courchesne]

Tiger Beer, you keep posting too...getting myself un taco de ojo with that avatar of yours.

[tonydicer]

Head tacos are the way to go

[Guy Courchesne]

Your threads are starting to get locked down Steven. Sound familiar? Looks like they're coming for you...again.

[MixtecaMike]

[quejt]

As it happened, I decided to leave the fair city of Manizales and accept the temporary position in pereira. It was kind of sad going away from a place I liked with good weather to the hot humid cowtown that pereira is. Bit of a rivalry going on between the two cities in that people are pretty opinionated about which the fairer town be. I returned to the roach hotel that I had stayed at before. Its only 6 bucks a night, and only 3 for an hour if a little privacy is what you need. Across the street is a big pool hall and several other bars which can be divided into two classifications. Places to get shit faced after playing pool and places to find a trabajadera social to indulge the male urge after playing pool and getting shitfaced. This is where the 3 dollar an hour rooms come in. I live on hooker alley, skid row, otherwise known as rock bottom. Still, my hotel provides a cozy respite from all the shenanigans. Theres a little table where Ive spent many hours preparing lessons and studying teaching english books. I�m quite comfortable lying on my airmattress which lies on the saggy, sorry ass excuse for a bed. The lady who works there is friendly enough, in a rough and tumble kinda way. And I recently had a very nice conversation with some folks staying at the hotel who purportedly were in the maniquin manufacturing business. Their profession provided ample opportunity for spanish language humor.

I really doubt that I will want to stay in this heat but as of yet I don�t have a plan for after this month. It looks like there are possibilities in Medellin and Manizales, although I have found myself thinking that I kind of like the pirate style of teaching. I mean, I would have to make a major commitment to working pretty hard for an entire year in all of the legal visa working situations I�ve looked into thus far. While I like the working hard part, I don�t so much like the commitment part. Working part time in a school and then picking up private students seems to me a better way to create that delicate balance between work, rest and play. One reason I like working at centro colombo is that its a direct line into the culture and people. I havent really expoited it yet, but there seems alot of opportunity to hang out with people and make information type connections. Centro colombo�s teachers have alot of talent and dedication which is nice to be around. It is kind of funny speaking so much english though...

Don�t know if I mentioned it before but its pretty easy to extend a tourist visa month by month up to 6 months by paying a visit to the das people. It can be done in Manizales and Pereira, and, I believe, any capitol of any departimiento in Colombia. With proof of deposit of 25 or so dollars in the special das accounts, an onward plane ticket, 5 3x4 photos, and, ofcourse, a winning smile these folks will gladly and with little confusing line waiting, people behind glass scenarios provide you with said additional month. Like the police, theyre mostly a pretty friendly, low key bunch. They did say that teaching privately with a tourist visa was a big no-no, accompanied by that characteristic shaking of head, wagging of the upright right index finger and open, rounded mouth. They also showed a keen interest in the english teaching books I happened to be carrying with me that day. I lied, and said that I wasn�t teaching, just looking for work.

Major hurdle crossed,. I taught my first real class, just now, and it feels damn good getting past that. I feel like celebrating, being social even, unlike my usual druthers. Alas, no one here to celebrate with. I got into the staff room kind of late after class and only one teacher was still there. We talked abit but she soon went home. Walked a few blocks with the two queen bees, director number one and director number two, but that conversation was on the stiff side on account of the fact that I can�t forget that I may be fired after my trial period. Big insecurity going on now but I know I�ll get it eventually. I�ll definitely be more confident tomorrow.

This is going to read a bit like a self observation and Im doing it more for my self as I just had alot of experience packed into 4 hours that I�ve yet to process. Class number one. Had to teach present perfect to 4 adolencents and 4 adults, both groups having never been exposed to it before. We started off with some warm up stuff. What makes a good teacher student, kind of boring, but I wanted to establish that I cared about this stuff. Also a walk across the room with a special walk that the next person would copy, this was fun if a bit off topic. Then they wrote down some fun stuff to do in Pereira, mixed up and exchanged the sheets and attempted to find out who in the room had ever done the stuff. The idea here was to put them in a situation where they would need to use the present perfect and thereby provide them with a motivation to learn it. I have no idea if it worked. At least it showed me that, nope, they don�t know the present perfect. And suddenly an hour had gone by. In the next hour I shoved alot of present perfect down their throats. Listened to a tape, asked concept checking questions to draw out the concept of asking questions like "have you done this or that, yet" in order to make plans. I laid out the form and by that time they only had about five minutes to practice writing the conjugations. So Im worried that all the cerebral work we did today will be forgotton by tomorrow because they didn�t have a chance to practice.

The second class was an entirely different animal. All adults, much more advanced and we got off to a very natural start. Without an attendance sheet and an identical level class next door, I started introducing myself to the students milling about who didn�t know which room or teacher to go to either. I immediately told them how hard it was for me to remember names, let alone spanish ones, and a particularly gregarious student offered a mnemonic device to remember her name. This led to on the spot learning of all their nicknames if not their real ones. The rest of the class went smoothly just like the name learning but it wasn�t really teaching, it was just them having conversations that I set up. Since they didn�t want to stop writing or talking for each task, we didn�t cover very much in the book and didn�t get to the grammar. We were talking a bunch of malarky about life in cities like kyoto and seoul because I don�t think anyone really knew that much about those places. Still, that didn�t stop them from chatting away and then confidently providing presentations on the nonsense that they just learned. Alot of stereotypes came out and I mentioned this but it would have been great to have some japanese or koreans there to inject a little reality.

So I think im going to avoid the long wind up introductions for these classes to make sure theres a balance of theory and practice. The free activities really seem to eat up the time. Ill make sure theres a balance of all three.
I don�t like the way text books teach the grammar or at least its different than what I was trained to do. Personally, if I ran the program, I�d just teach it in spanish with a few quick rules, answer questions and make sure they understand in spanish as well, but spend most of the time on controlled and free practice. Teaching a complex concept to people who barely speak the language is just going to plain take alot of time. What else...a couple of sullen withdrawn types, one of whom started out as all bright and bushy tailed and then did a bang the table 5 times thing. I think i got this guy, 14 or so years old, mad but I don�t know what happened to make it so.

Well, the internet cafe is closing and I�ve yet to walk the deserted streets quite this late at night, so good night for now.

Jon

[quejt]

This coming week is semana santa, a big religious thing here I gather, enough so that school is closed the next week. Odd taking a vacation only a week after starting work. I actually don�t quite know what to do with myself, being all geared up with no one to teach. I decided to stay in Pereira instead of traveling about. I suppose I�ll read some teaching books, try to find some hikes nearby and at least buy a hat and walk around in shorts. *beep* trying to blend in by wearing hot sweaty jeans while the full tropical sun burns the back of my neck to a golden crispy brown. No, here comes the gringo in pantolenatas and a hat, handing out papayas to anyone who looks my way. Maybe itll be more acceptable during semana santa or maybe itll be worse, a violation of everything held sacred during the coming week. Thats the thing, I really don�t know what is going on here. My spanish is pretty much that of a 4 year old and its a block between me and everyone around me.

Having said that, I�m getting more and more involved, albeit slowly, with this place. I�m on very friendly terms with people at the places I buy things - hotel people, internet cafe people, the resturant I go to all the time people. I�m also beginning to run into students and other miscellaneous repeated faces. The students say, "Hello, Teacher!" Pereira definitely has that small town feel in that respect. I�ve been invited by another teacher and also a student to go off on some day trips to farms or hot springs or something. I think I�ll go with the student who has a sister whos married an australian. Thatll feel the most natural as I�ll provide the english language starved australian with someone to talk to and I�ll have that family goes into the country experience. I don�t know whether its me making an effort to talk to people or its the Colombians friendliness, but starting a conversation, getting invited to do things, smiling, making eyecontact all happen more here.

About teaching. Overall it seems to be going very well, although I haven�t been observed yet. Some highlights this week. Got the advanced group to do a dance warm up walking down the hall way, changing the walk halfway to their own walk and having the next student copy the walk in the opposite direction. Lots of laughter and embarrassment. Hardly any language but the idea was to warm them up for the next task. Two groups of students planned a mime together to illustrate a word. This was a nice part in that their language was driven by a purpose - to plan the mime. They were very creative. For "nightlife" it was boyfriend and girlfriend sitting at a cocktail table, another girl gets the boyfriend to dance with her all sexy like, and the now jealous girlfriend stands up and pulls the boyfriend away. Another word, "scenery" found one person posing as a tree, another flapping his arm-wings and another on all fours posing as a mountain. Got the same group on another day to learn "despite" by coming up with a sentence on the spot - "we can still learn in this class, despite the noise from across the hall" this was a minor drama an hour earlier. I explained that we use despite for contrasting ideas in a sentence and then got them all to stand up in a circle start a sentence and have another person finish it with a contasting idea. They all picked up on it, with just a few false starts which the other students corrected with my prodding. Taught a large conversation class, a group of twenty or so students that I had for the first time. Used an idea from a book. Got them to guess who I was thinking about, writing their questions on the board. Then in pairs, they asked eachother these and other questions to guess who their partner was thinking about. Today I subbed a very low level class for another teacher and it was easy peasy. The teacher provided me with all the materials, I went over them, modified them slightly and the students pretty much got everything. One thing I learned before and applied with them was to make a sincere effort to learn their names at the beginning of class. I must remember to use the names more during class because I had forgotten some after 4 hours.

On the need to improve side, a student complained to the director that I spoke too fast. The director had suggested earlier that I give them a chance to write or say what they liked disliked about the class but I forgot to in the class that Im having more trouble with. It started with a class of 7. One person changed to another class, another hasn�t showed up for two days, another looked very frustrated by the end of thursday, two students, aged 12 and 14 seem very engaged and able to get things, another older man smiles alot and likes participating but speaks with great difficulty compared to everyone else. The last student I saved for last. He drives me crazy. Hes 10 years old, doesn�t listen when others speak, doesn�t quickly do things I direct him to do, needs requests and directions repeated because hes not listening. Once he banged the desk 5 times hard. Hes also the best speaker but he doesn�t get the grammar any faster than the other students, so its not just that the class is too easy for him. I asked the director about him and apparantly I have to put up with him for another week, before he catches up to the childrens class where he belongs.

Well, teacher Jon signing off.

[Euster]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the updates, they make for very interesting reading.

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of wages have you encountered out there? I've the possibility of a job in Santa Marta earning 9,000 an hour, but it doesn't seem like a lot. When I was in Medellin making enquiries the standard seemed to be 15-20,000 pesos. How does this compare with what you've found?

Cheers,

Ewan.

[quejt]

I havent asked many places what they pay. A teacher in Bogota who works illegally told me that he gets 15mil an hour. Someone else says they make 10mil an hour illegally, although locals only make 6. The centro colombos in medellin and pereira offered similar salaries of about 1.3 million a month plus benefits working split shifts about 6 teaching hours per day. Im still doing the math as to what it works out to hourly. Directors of some supposedly better paying places, mostly universities i think, have said they pay much more than centro colombo.

Good luck

Jon

[quejt]

A week of not working went surprisingly fast, with lots of sleeping and an occasional outing. I took a walk from La Mirador Camelias, over the hill, to Parque Industrial; a couple of walking tours of Pereira and an excursion to La Pastura, a national park 2 hours from the city. Although the later was a beautiful walk along a deep, forested mountain gorge, it wasnt worth the torturous drive in a bus, called a chivas, that was really more like a boat. Constructed half of ill connected sheet metal
and half of multi colored arched wooden beams, lugged by a motor that seemed barely able to carry the mass of humanity that lined the bench seats like sardines and seemed about to spill off the roof where an uncounted number held on for their lives, it rattled and bumped its way over what only could be described as a country lane, honking the ocean liner horn that somehow got installed earlier. My butt was not
made for this experience. The commraderie was nice, all of us suffering so. When the bus lurched dangerously to one side as it dipped into one of the numerous, large, potholes that dotted the way, several people would spontaneously scream and beg God to spare our lives. I cant help but think there was an element of seriousness even though the effect was to make everyone laugh. Nervous laughter I think that only came after the bus ceased its fatal descent toward the precipice below. The biggest screams were when an obviously not so experienced driver took the wheel as the previous driver offered helpful pointers, in some kind of real life bus driver training.

Most of the people came with camping gear or were staying in a nearby park run hotel. I came with nothing more than a sweater and I definitely was not jealous of the mryaid ways people had of carrying heavy and bulky items so that they could have the camping experience. I walked about four hours and that was enough even though there was no climax of any sort to the walk. I was suffering from lackoftouristinfoitis and also a certain jadedness from having walked so many miles on the appalachian
trail. Yes it was beautiful but after walking so many miles on tree canopied rocky trails in humid weather, you begin to get a deja vu feeling everytime you do it again.

Spoke with a criminal judge who was waiting for the chivas at the bottom of the trail. Although he said that he heard strictly criminal, not political, cases, I coaxed him to talk about some corruption issues. Two problems preventing a judge from giving a just verdict are the possiblity of getting assasinated and the temptation of large bribes. He mentioned two judges who were killed in Pablo Escobars Medellin quite a while ago and the story of the Cali boss, Rodriguiz, who was caught in Spain and extradited by both Colombia and the USA. Spain handed him over to Colombia where
he was tried by a bribed Judge on some petty misdemeanorish crime. He now lives in Miami. Probably the Spanish were bribed too. On a similar vein, I ran into a teacher on the street a few days before and he got to talking his pretty cynical attitude about the press, government etc in Colombia. He description of the scene was a corrupt, medieval gangster society where the old established landowners, read coca growers, were the real power behind the throne, the way dukes, banons and counts
etc were in europe some time ago and that anyone who did not toe the line and was immensely successful and popular would probably get killed. Hence no change.

This week I have been the victim not of political tyranny but social flakiness, mine as much as the people around. My social calendar would have filled out quite nicely this last week otherwise. Lots of broken promises, lost numbers, and misunderstandings all around. I look forward to the clarity of work next week. Still, being a gringo in Colombia is great. Youre a kind of mini celebrity or a freak, Im not too sure which, but in any case one gets alot of attention. I did manage to spend an evening
with a family. That was a nice night. My students sister said I was funny and i dont know whether this was my first successful attempt at humor in the Spanish language or me getting laughed at for my ineptitude. I still cannot get a spanish joke. The Australian seemed to have the opposite problem as me. He would laugh at the jokes and generally understand what was being said but he hardly said a word and I dont think he really could, whereas I was yada, yada, yada. The combination of abilities
was nice, but so also was all the attention I was getting. I had a conversation the other week with a New Zealander and two strictly spanish speakers and that coversation was no fun, even though the New Zealander spoke pretty good spanish so he could translate if necessary.

I still havent decided whether to stay in Pereira after this months stint teaching. Even though the weather took a turn for the cooler, its still too sultry for me. Pereira is also a new city, with new wealth and a corresponding dearth of culture. If Colombia was Los Angeles, Pereira would be the San Fernando Valley. No museums for instance, and few universities. Other than that its great. Very friendly people, very walkable, low key atmosphere, great job(for me anyway), relatively healthy economy, some seriously low rental rates. If I were to elect to move on to greener pastures, I dont have much of a plan. Anyone know of a cold climate Latin American city with a healthy dose of culture?

Jon, over and out.

[quejt]

Major depths of frustration here, technological and social. What with the impossible to understand phone calls to cell phones with barely a whisper of a signal, people who just dont comply, my own soon to be broken promises of music to a class, Im about ready for a major meltdown. I made an impulsive purchase of an Ipod on the way to the airport right before I left LA and I just made a futile attempt at using it. You have to install a program before you can download, which is a major inconvienence at an internet cafe, and an impossibility when you realize you forgot some critical item back at the hotel. Do I have the stomach to go back to the hotel, get the missing item, reinstall the program only to discover that I had to take seriously the warning that had appeared saying the service wasnt available in Colombia? No, I might scream, but im not going to replay the last two hours. Better to just accept that my will is a tiny unimportant speck that just flits about on the winds of chance.

Speaking of tiny little things that float about in the air, some run of the mill Colombian bacteria decided to make an incursion into the back of my throat a week ago. Harmless to, and spread by local people, foriegners often react unfavorably to their homemaking activities in the form of repeated hacking coughs, sore throat, difficulty swallowing and a general malaise. After sloughing through a week of these symptoms and envisioning my vital life signs slowly and irrecoverably draining down the Rio Otun, I made some inquiries into the local health care system. One of the teachers at Colombo was studying to be a doctor, so I spoke with her. She recommended a clinic to go to and gave me a few pointers on what to say. She also mentioned the word tuberculosis which, although I dont know the meaning exactly, I do know that its a very bad word, worse than trogar, churra or even hijo de puta. My head now full of all the star crossed heros and heriones people diying of tuberculosis in all the 19th century literature and period movies Ive read and seen, I bravely go to the doctora to accept my fate. The Clinic is spotless with a operating room decor of white with lime green tiles. The nurses all have white tights and smart looking smocks which were obviously remnants from those period piece movies I saw. The doctor, who is dressed a bit more 20th century, doesnt agree with the T word diagnosis and gives me her bacteria theory which is the one Im going along with now. Two shots of penecillin and an antiinflammatory prescription later, Im out of there with the expectation that there should be some improvement in 72 hours, which, Im happy to report, is the case. My throat is no longer nearly as sore as before although I still have the cough. Jon 1, Death 0, game to be continued.

Aside from the brush with death and the occasional frustations, things are going along swimmingly. The teaching is falling into a kind of routine. I made peace with the 10 year old in class by giving him lots of exagerrated acknowldegement for good and bad things he does. He also has bonded more with the other students. He still has trouble focusing but hes getting something out of the class and enjoys it. My teaching style is improvisational. I read the course book and often come up with a way of presenting the material or other small changes, deciding what I want to emphasize. I would prepare more stuff ahead of time but I lack ideas. There are hardly any "recipe book" type books in the school which I could use for skeletal activity ideas to be filled in with whatever the teaching points were. And as i have accepted some subbing classes the past couple of weeks, I havent had time to search the internet for ideas. I wish there was a good ESL bookstore around here like the one I visited in Bogota. Ive heard onestopenglish is a good site...

I find myself more and more wanting in the language department. Situations Im in motivate me to be able to say things I cant currently say. So I head back home, look up words or grammar. If I have time that is. Lately, with teaching and being sick, not much time for spanish studying or conversation. I really need work in the listening department, Im not too sure how to go about it. Real life conversations help but have a tendency to be excessively directed by yours truly or be a flood of incomprehensible, and therefore boring, gibberish. Im thinking a language lab, tapes of some sort, formal classes or a private tutor or teacher friend.

To which end, I�ll probably be making some changes. Pereira is too hot, the bugs are biting, my lazy bones are crying out for descanso and Im confident that I can find as nice a job somewhere else as what I got now. It feels a wee bit fickle and it kind of hurts to say goodbye to people and places I�ve grown fond of and accustomed to. Hopefully its not a big mistake, but Im moving on. Most likely to Manizales, with its cooler climate, rugged mountain terrain, unversity town feel and maybe a job starting in June at the centro colombo there. Inbetwixt then and now, I plan to work on my spanish, look for part time, temporary or private tutoring gigs and, maybe take some tango lessons. Ive read on the pbh site that theres a hostel there with a kitchen which would be a relief on my cholesterol clogged veins. Ive really got to start eating better. This steady diet of tasty whatever I want street food must end.

Went to a lovely place last weekend. Bussed to the pituresque, small town of Salento, rain lightly falling. After a hearty breakfast of beans, eggs, arepas and hot chocolate, the weather cleared up a bit and a jeep went up to the valley of Cocora - a delightful horsey kind of place with a trail leading up into an intensely green pastured side valley, surrounded by steep canyon walls which wended their way this way and that, pressing in more narrowly the higher and steeper the valley went till it dissapeared from sight blocked by a distant pyramidally shaped green peak, a sentinal beckoning-warning for the unseen and even higher forms beyond. As the arrival time was about noon we didnt get too far and we got back even later. The last bus back to Pereira had already left, so I had the chance to travel briefly through Armenia, to transfer to a bus bound for home. I would like to go back to this place.

[comenius]

Jon,

Just wanted to drop a note to say that I really enjoy reading your updates. I hope you'll continue to post them!

-Comenius