Happy Birthday Donna!

One of the unfortunately aspects of this assignment was leaving the US just days before Donna's birthday. Technology has improved. In my two year assignment in Ecuador (1979-1981) I never made a single telephone call. Of course there were no computers. I salvaged an old manual typewriter from the Peace Corps storage room and was perhaps the only person in the village that had even that. It was a wonder.

We have WIFI here in the Hotel Puerto Colombia. Skype makes video calls essentially free. We have frequent contact with family by email, text, calls through computeres and cell phones. It's a wonder, but also an emotional challenge. We learn to manage expectations.

Monday July 9: It's just about 6:00 AM and it's hot already. The heat really makes it difficult to work.

I walked to the primary Catholic Church Sunday morning. The church is large with a high and architecturally interesting ceiling, some nice stained glass and statuary. All of it is pretty new and in good condition.

I arrived after the mass had ended, but sat a while and thought about what I'm going to need to be helpful here and to support my family in the US. Sociologists would call this a big role conlict. Answers will take time.

After that I walked down a long and littered beach and met up with some of the other volunteers. We swam / waded in the ocean. The waves were moderate and the current strong. I headed back pretty quickly to avoid (unsuccessfully) a sun burn. The water isn't very clean either, but there was a strong breeze that cooled you off a little. Puerto Colombia is a tourist town, popular on weekends.

The beach has dozens of little cabanas that tourists rent to get out of the sun. Vendors sell food, sunglasses and other little things in the crowded part of the beach. Almost nobody walks to the end where we were. Like a lot of things, there's potential, but the litter and lack of planning devalue the destination. I'm sure the Colombian tourists are more accustomed to these conditions. Still, having broken glass, old shoes and plastic waste on the beach takes away from the experience. I understand one of the goals expressed in regional and local plans is to improve quality of beaches to attract more tourism. Since much of the trash is washing down the streets and into the ocean only to wash up on the beaches, work is needed both at the source and though frequent, perhaps daily raking and cleaning of the beaches. Public goods are hard to finance.

I spent the afternoon and evening sitting on the tile floor of our cramped but air conditioned hotel room while I read through a lot of documents on economics, financial literacy, education in Colombia in order to prepare for a presentation I am doing on Wednesday. I'm not the least prepared. I'm usually up by 5:30 AM. The early morning is a lot quieter and a little cooler than the rest of the day. I hope I can get used to the heat. There probably won't be any air conditioning where I am assigned.