At this point, I’ve been in Colombia for about a week and a half. We started in Cartagena De Indias, a beautiful Caribbean historic city, spent a week in San Basilio de Palenque, and are now visiting the universities and schools in the city of Barranquilla. Palenque is a fascinating town. The people in this town are incredibly friendly and show a high degree of eagerness and curiosity towards the work that the other PIRE students and I are doing. Dr. Lipski knows the land very well and we have set up a means by which we can get a fairly high number of participants by the end of the experience. I proposed a study which would require 30 participants and as things stand, I currently have 26. This is exceeding expectations. Furthermore, the community is incredibly welcoming. I have made local friends and bump into friendly former participants. That being said, it is a massive culture shock. I’ve never been anywhere quite like this place, and I look forward to continuing our work!
