DAY FOUR - All about the Maple Leaf

Denise - Today we went to El Camino Academy, our host school here in Bogota, and also the school that I am teaching at from January to June.  It was such fun to be able to show them the school where I teach and introduce them to my class.  I was proud to introduce the team to my students but also introduce my students to the team.  It was Canada Day at ECA today.  Each one of our team had a different topic about Canada and had two minutes to tell each group of students from PK-Grade 8 that came by their table about it.  Some of the topics were weather, money, sports and natural resources.  All in all it was a very enjoyable day for all.  

Garrison - We were given the privilege of going to dinner with a family who goes to El Camino. The generosity they showed to us was unlike anything I have ever seen. While we were driving, they gave us souvenirs which I did not expect. Soon after, we went to the mall and they bought us shirts and took us out to dinner. This giving spirit is truly inspiring, and I hope that I can imitate that same selflessness in the future. Even when we didn't know what to do, they continued to be kind and offer us more. I was told before coming to Colombia how much generosity they have, but you can't describe the extent of it in words.

Ally - Garrison and I tackled tonight's situation with wit and foolishness to say the least. The family we were with had quite an impressive status; if I understood what they said with their broken English correctly; the father was a retired body builder, PhD student who studied artificial intelligence, and an electrical engineer, while the mother was a specialized lawyer. They brought their son to translate, but unfortunately he'd decided doing that was not in his best interest. I found the night so humbling, they'd appreciated our presence so entirely even among our cultural errors. I'd made the dumbest mistake and said "no thank you, but thank you," when being offered to have a gift bought for me. Later when we were given supper the family said that that made them very sad, how could I possibly mess up so bad. So I told them lets go back and buy the gift. All night Garrison continued to tell me that he was socially inept, made sense because I'm sure he's said si eight million times each hour. It's okay Garrison, I felt inept as well. All the while, tonight was an absolute blessing.