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Colombia Zoom Session

Added Sep 20, 2022 •

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This session was recorded on Monday, September 19 by Ms. Sachowitz & Mr. Sutphin.

Show Transcript

text so welcome all to the Columbia 2023 Elite course we will be going to cut the Hannah and bottom Kia the music Christophe was Joe Arroyo singing in Barranquilla McKayla which means I'm saying about on Kia and we will be too so just to get us started the agenda for today we're going to start off why should you come to Columbia we'll review the itinerary answer questions at any point feel free to write request question since the chat Mister Sutphin and I will be attempting to monitor it while also speaking about our trip we have 100 people on this call at this moment and now it's 101 so we'll do our best to get to all questions and comments and at the very end will review our policy is very briefly that we know you'll be hearing them as well for Miss monelli the final little Preamble this is a preliminary plan it's a collaborative planning process so it's looks very similar to what we will be doing at the end but it's not set in stone yet the change and so I think I'll let just let me know first about why Colombian first a little bit about yourself I know some of you been through quite a few meetings tonight so we'll see I'll be as brief as we can persuade myself cranks up then they've been teaching at Saint Mary's 20 years and I've been involved in the enrichment LEAP program travel to Haiti nine times in a been to Mexico to study border issues and a couple years ago as well so I traveled many times and as we get into the presentation will explain a little bit about our philosophy and why we think this program is so important why traveling is such a valuable educational tool you can see a picture here myself my daughter off three years ago she and I went to Cuba with the group and then you can see on the right on the 2nd with with the trip last year she took the Puerto Rico yeah and why Columbia why this trip I actually came up with idea for this trip and work very closely with Miss molinelli and CSA to put it together because in my research as a Spanish teacher looking at cultural resources learning about Spanish speaking countries Colombia just came up again and again that's such a Wellspring of culture in particular looking at afro Latino culture there is so much that comes out of Columbia I believe it has the second largest afro Latino population after and Encarta Hannah and another town that you'll learn about in our presentation shortly just the the amount of things to do culture to see it living and to learn the history about is just astonishing so this trip My Hope is that we come with Open Hearts and Minds to learn about life in Colombia to grow in our knowledge and appreciation of African American history in particular and its culture as it exists today and so we're going to have an amazing trip and bond and it'll be so much more than just a spring break the next slide so I'm going to talk a little more specifically about Colombian why we think it's such an important trip obviously there's tremendous travel opportunities all of which are worthwhile but specifically Columbia why I'm drawn to it while I think you should be drawn to it on first of all it's it's a it's one of the most vibrant countries in Latin America right now Dynamic diverse there's an indigenous culture a Spanish tradition and there's the second was for saying the afro latinx Latin X culture as well stunning and colorful geography the scenery is amazing the people are Charming there's culture food music dance place where so many different things are going on right now too politically that it's just short of creating this explosion of interesting called culture worth exploring and I think there's also a really important geopolitical issues going on right now in that area you know Latin America Northern Latin America Central America has struggled for so many years for so many complex reasons part of a it was the colonial and postcolonial Legacy lot of it was also the post-imperial Legacy that they were sort of struggling with and then the trigger we all know so much about is the narco-trafficking and it has been decimated for so many years but this is a country that is in it to send it to you right now and they've been able to Grapple and move through and and deal with some of those choosing a creative way you know right now they have a new leftist government that's written a new constitution that's inclusive they're trying these Justice and Equity programs and it seems economically that they're taking off right now there's a robust democracy that is blooming there right now it's the safest it's been in many many years it's basically like a young democracy that is flowering right now both culturally and politically so worthwhile and that sense as sort of a prison by with which to explore how much that's going on in Latin America today I would say the third Point another reason why you really ought to consider this trip is simply that most of you either have or will travel at some point in your life you're up or other places that are fairly common I'm guessing most of you will never be to Columbia again so this may be one of those opportunities so I would say jump on that this is a really unique place in unless they put down their the beaches actually these are some of the most stunning beaches on the planet all along the northern sections of part of of Columbia are just amazing and then lastly I would say the other reason that's really important is on sakowitz you should go on this trip because sacrus is really a remarkable teacher knowledge of Latin America is immense and she's an amazing human being will be wonderful to travel with things that offend you didn't put that on the slide this is very awkward that we shall continue thank you very much so what are we actually going to do we're going to leave on March 2nd which is Thursday night go to SF to cut the henna now this sounds like a direct flight it's not it'll be to probably three flights to get us to cut the henna which is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia so it'll be a little while for us to get there when we arrive on the 3rd basically that's the day so we're going to ride will have a welcome dinner and we'll get ready to really get started on Saturday March 4th yes then we're going to be doing a Cortana tour moving through several of the important parts that event. Philippe in Los piratas this is going to be more of like historical and archaeological tour of some of the history of the part 2 Hindi area on March 5th we are going to be place that this is this is this is why we're on this trip we are going to San basilio de Palenque this is one of the original palenques or free towns established in the new world this car that Hannah was the home of the slave trade in Colombia and escaped slaves went into the wilderness and they start up their own towns and this one has survived no others have survived so it's considered the first free town in the new world it's a UNESCO site for intangible cultural heritage for Humanity we will spend an entire day there they so much culture they will do a dance demonstration for us there braid hairstyles Workshop hair as a symbol of resistance they used to put Escape Routes in their hair like this is going to be mind blowing just to be able to see. First person and will also have a ceremony at a traditional medicine center of Palenque and then on March 6th Monday about an tour of the historic Old Town going to have lots of dancing that's going to be going on for most of this part of the trip on in this is what's so remarkable about parts of Colombia is the fusion of some of the traditional dance afro dance Traditions so we're all going to be exploring a lot of this dance culture in here as well Frankie has also really known for its kind of bottle and it has kind of a house which I believe we will see Carnival will have already passed when we go but it is a very International city with a lot of culture as well on the 7th we will go to a Taka Taka which is the inspiration for my condo from A Hundred Years of Solitude so we will be driving out into what seems like nowhere because that is where my condo is listed as well and on Wednesday in cartajena we're going to be turning there and hopefully working with several Service Learning opportunities and schools and you can see here hopefully will have the opportunity to work with a lot of the children parts of the itinerary or going to be filling up as we're moving in closer to the the days of departure but right now we're looking to work Christmas County schools in the area on March 9th we're going to hit the beach we're going to Isla Del Rosario this is a series of islands which are 30 miles off the coast of cut the henna there coral reef based we will have Beach time walk around the island spoilers do your thing for about 5 hours and as you can see it will be beautiful and that I believe will be our last day and then airport heading home back to San Francisco it's about a 24-hour trip it's a long long trip with some way over so you can see we leave on Friday and then arrived back on what time do we arrive back to tell you I don't actually know the actual. yeah so I have on some questions in a chat which I think we are we're getting close to answering those some of them are private messages but I'll answer them for everybody next x 24. Just a step back for a moment and think about this you know we talked about you been in some other meetings perhaps tonight we talked about the repelling terrorism in the mission and the importance of multi-generational groups of kids traveling together and creating an intentional Community those are all very important pieces of this program even more important than that when you think about a trip like this makes me think about this idea of really being out of balance or really taking positive risks exploring things that are new maybe things are really difficult the ancient Greeks had a term called h which means being out of place and that's something that I think we're going to really strive to make happen this year which is to put ourselves in a place where were pushing some limits and really being out of balance and uncomfortable and learning to trust each other and push in the new directions in terms of the process of the application you may have heard some of this as well but next week there will be several mandatory meetings that your child will be able to choose from stringing a block they will meet with Miss monel and she will go over behavioral expectations and there will be a contract that will be handed out there's an application process and I'll be given the applications at that time and then they'll sign up into giving us this information I'll bring it home to you you guys will then fill it out with them in the application in the contract will be due September 27th and that's a hard deadline so if you do want to go it must be in by that day and there is no deposit required this year so there's no impediment to to jumping in and deciding on which trip to look at we do encourage you to apply to multiple trips on pick your first choice second choice and third choice and then most likely you will get one of your top choices you have until the 31st to actually formally drop without any penalty financially the other thing is about the criteria on how you get selected several moving criteria that are you to evaluate kids for certain trip summer one is which trip are you most committed to and Care the most about also we're looking to create some age diversity on the trip we're also looking to give some level of privilege to seniors that have a travel before and then class is given priority numbers and priority numbers are also used to determine which which trip to kids are able to go on we're also looking to create some diversity in the groups and and trying to actually make sure that really best friends and couples aren't movie together so that once again kids are pushed in this notion of a topaz kind of pushed a little bit out of your comfort zone we do encourage you probably heard this multiple times tonight get on your passport if you don't have one already and then make sure that the passport is valid all the cancel six months after the travel return date and we're looking for students that are really committed to pushing themselves in this new Venture in this new space and that means that you have a level of commitment level responsibility and what we're going to try to do is create a space where there's some intentional formation that goes on leading up to the time that we leave we're looking for kids that are interested in a pot and have a positive attitude looking to explore and try some new things in a bag seems like that's you then possibly this could be a trip for you we got some questions in the chat vaccination requirements I'm not currently sure we will definitely find that out before the and make sure that we all have that we have been pulled from some teachers who traveled internationally next year that if you like having a covid vaccination hard physically in person people traveled last last year vaccination card with you I had a couple questions about the weather it'll be hot and we can you can also look up projected weather for February March in any platform there was a question about safety and drug cartels if you'd like to take that one was dressed up in a 3 in terms of their their risk assessment and I understand about the state Department's risk assessments they take a whole country had a sort of mash the whole area up in the 10 most of Northern South America and Central America is either a three or four clumbia is considered one of the safest places the entire region and you also have to look at the specific areas that were traveling to these are all the safest areas these replaces the TSA travels with they have fixtures on the ground we wouldn't be going there if it wasn't a safe place there are houses in Columbia that aren't terribly safe right now and we're not even anywhere near those and those are places on the border near Venezuela and some on the on the western side were there still some activity related too far but we're going there hasn't been any of this for quite some time in fact Columbia right now you can look this up as one of the most heavily traveled tourist destination in it most of Latin America right now so it's a pretty popular place there is always going to be some level of risk wherever you travel or whatever you do I'm so you just have to ask family and assess your level of comfort with that risk but I think it's no different than traveling to America in that there are some places that you go and there are some places you don't go and we're going to be going in all the places that are are safe and well patrolled and considered to be a place for Taurus investment in this trip to my daughter is currently living and teaching in Colombia is that marrying and ourselves a little concerned at first but she is when I talked to her she said that she feels safer than she did when she was living in New Jersey and traveling to New York so I think again it's being aware of your surroundings and we will always always follow the guidelines that are that that keep us all safe combination we usually will stay in how's it's not going to be necessarily you know that what was the fancy hotel chain not not the Marriott but they're nice people will have roommates and I will be staying places for a couple nights in as well and will be figuring out who your rooming with and how many people per room once were a little further along in the process for accommodating food allergies we ask in advance we can accommodate I also recommend when is particular about their food due to health or medical reasons like bring extra snacks for yourself because there will be something for you to eat but it might not be as exciting as he wanted to be so just like having some gluten-free bars part of me or a protein thing to be helpful it looks like I think we'll be going through Bogota probably there is nothing anywhere near direct from San Francisco Columbia and will be spending the first I think three nights will be in cut the henna then we'll go to Barranquilla and then we'll be back and cut the head so those are at the two big cities that will be spending if anyone else has any questions Spanish speakers do you have to be to Spanish speakers know but you know if you had me in your class you're going to be speaking Spanish on this trip so get ready it's such a wonderful opportunity to like actually use the skills but no the language that a student has or what level in a language there and has no bearing on their ability to join us in Columbia any other questions we might be wondering about money I know Miss molinelli sent this out this is not not I experienced it we're looking at 4446 hundred for the experience this includes most meals as well and were looking at maximum of 30 students so we're looking at 24 to 30 given that participation in this I think we might be closer to 30 than 24 but it'll depend what people sign up for so. Is the expected guys with three adults a company no more questions and that started all this determined later on I'll just roll through to see if I see anything else but there will be more than what we're looking for so to speak to that it really does depend on who gets in you know it we have no idea how many people are going to be applying to each trip so it will all depend on that okay so like I want to go back a couple spots so I leave you all not with that money but yeah the islands or small children let's do that Islands Islands okay thank you so much if you have anymore questions stop recording now

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