TLP: Fantastic Opportunity

The first time Mr. Hide commented about the Teen Life Project was when came from December vacations. At first, I wasn't really interested because in the only thing I could think was that I had entered school again, and I was really tired. Soon, after we started making our Google lists and started looking at the other school's webpages I got a little more interested. However, my real interest started when we made the Introduction Video. At first, I thought it was going to be imposible to make it, but when we got the pictures and music it was easy to put it together.

After that, was when we made the Wiki and we started looking up after our goal. At first, I thought that we wouldn't achieve the goal because every school was like in their own stuff. We didn't talk to each other and few comments were posted. That was when I started loosing the interest again. Then, we started talking about the phone call. The day of the phonecall we went to Mr Hide's apartament and get to know his baby. That was really fun. That day, I realized that the TLP was starting and that it was going to be really fun.

Then came the part of choosing the topics. We needed to think a lot in what we chose because it was a very long project and we needed to be very interested in our topic. At first, I was thinking in terrorism. Especially the one here in Colombia. Then, we thought on poverty. That made us think a lot. We really liked it because in Cartagena there's a lot of poverty so we could investigate on that a lot. Then Isabel and me were thinking to change to eating disorders, but then we decided to stay in poverty. That was when the posts started. Even though it was interesting investigating about poverty, it was very hard to make each week 500 words of writing. There, I started loosing my interest again.

Few days later, some of the students of Malaysia add me to their msn. Getting to talk to them and know about their lifes made me become for interested. Then, some students of North America add me and I added some. That was when I became interested again. I started thinking in how was that I was making the same project as other 3 schools in the world. I was talking with people I didn't know existed. I was talking with people very different from me, with other ways of living, activities, etc. There was where I realized how much I could learn from those people and how much I could discuss with them.

Finally, making the video. That was a hard part, but it was really fun making it. Isabel and I went to Niños de Papel. That is a foundation that helps poor children. That day I realized how fortunate we are. How fortunate we are of having a family, food, and a home were to sleep. One of the girls of the place answered some questions we asked, and I realized that we are very fortunate persons. The people there don't have a family that goes after them and loves them. That is something very sad. Finally, after many problems for finding a camera, we finished the video!

I, and I know that all my classmates are happy with what each of us did in this project. I want to congratulate Mr Hide and all the teachers from other schools. I think we achieved our goal.

Imagining Songs

It seems as if water was falling from a lake. As I heard the first part of the song, what first came to my mind was a girl drinking water in a forest. This happened beside a lake or something. This girl was a poor, beautiful, and kind girl that lived near the forest. Then, I imagined the girl running looking for someone or something. I also imagined that in her way, she encounters many obstacles, like animals or enemies who try to atack her but at the end she always beat them. At the end, I imagined the girl etering a castle and getting rewarded. The king rewarded her by marrying his son, the prince. They both loved each other from a long time ago so they were both very happy. Finally, she realizes that the music she was been hearing was from a group of musicians from outside the castle. The day of the wedding the girl looked awesome. She was always beautiful, but this day she was even more. She had a very long white dress with her beautiful hair under a veil. The music that played as she entered the church, was the same music she heard the day she was rewarded with who was now going to be her husband.


The second one made me think on the farms and the cowboys dancing with their hats and their ropes. It remembered me a movie, I dont remember the name, that showed some cowboys dancing with hats like those from Mexico and then they entered a place like a restaurant that is tipic from the cowboys. This place is like all in wood and to enter the bathrooms there arer special doors that when you push them they don't stop moving. In this place all the cowboys drink beer and most of the time, in movies, in here is the place where the people always end up fighting.


The third song made me remember sad moments in movies. It made me remember the tipic moment of most movies. The main character is sad so he takes a taxi and it is raining so you see the rain plus the tears in the face of the person. The movie that mainly reminded me was The Parent Trap. It made me remember when the girls, afte the camp, reunite their parents but then they went each home. At the end, everyone gets living together so it is really happy. The end of the song reminds me the palenqueras from here in Cartagena singing in the beach.

Poverty in Cartagena

Finally, I could research about poverty in Cartagena. While I was researching I found a website called "Cartagena, Como Vamos." It talks about different things in Cartagena. In 2005, it was said that Cartagena's population was 1.030.149 people. From this, the 49% was considered as poor people. As the people living in Cartagena said, the topics that most attention need in Cartagena are education, health, and jobs for people. Nicolas Curi, is planning a Project "una Cartagena mas social y equitativa." This means a more social Cartagena with equalness. It consists in a place that offers better conditions for its people.

In the summer of 2005 a survey was done. This was done to see the perception of the economic situation. 1000 people above 18 years old participated in the survey. Following the results, the 29% of the people in Cartagena said that their economic situation in 2005 was better than in 2004; the 46% said that their economic situation compared to 2004 was the same. On the other side, the 25% said that their economic situation compared to 2004 worsened. The arguments these people discussed were: the cost of the food, the cost of the public services, lack of jobs, and lost of job. Some people don't eat the 3 meals a day because of lack of money, but definitely, others don't eat it because they don't want to or because of eating disorders. One of the primary causes of poverty is lack of basic needs. So a family, to be able to live, they need a budget. For many families, this budget is not enough in order to be able to live. The basic needs are: a proper house, a living with basic services, being able to eat, being able to go to school, and feeling good with your economic situation. In Cartagena, many families have a lack of these things. The one who less people has is the basic services one, most of the people don't have it.

Finally, after all the surveys done it was viewed that Cartagena's poverty increased from 2002 to 2004. The lack of basic services is what affects most poverty in Cartagena. Cartagena needs so much help in order to overpass this situation. It needs the help of its people, government and politicians. Cartagena is not the only city in which this is happening. Poverty is affecting worldwide!

I think that getting out of poverty is not easy. There is so much poverty in the cities that getting out of this big problem isn't as easy as it looks. Not even if all the wealthy people help others this problem is going to end, what we really need is a miracle. I feel so sad when I am in my car and I pass by a poor family. They look so sad in the floor, all dirty, and hungry. There are some kids that stand up in the streets asking for money, but if they get used to receive money from others they are going to be no one in life, so that’s why many people don't give them money. Also, some kids, as they get money they go and buy drugs, so that is why sometimes it is better to buy them food instead of giving them the money. I wish I could someday grow up and change the world, but I know this is just a dream.

Poverty in Developing Countries

According to Poverty.com, many people die because of hunger and homelessness. Actually, 25,000 people die each day because of this reasons, this means that every 3 and a half seconds someone dies. However, most of this people are children. Although many people die because of hunger, inreality, there's enough food all over the world, but the problem is that many people have a lack of money, so they aren't able to buy it. Because they don't eat, they don't get energies, so they get each time weaker and weaker so they end up dying.

However, there are some ways in which these things are solved. There are two programs which help to solve this problem. For adults, there is "food for work." It consists on diging and building things, but instead of getting paid with money, they are paid with food. For children, there's a program called "food for education." This one consits of giving food and education to children. If they get well educated, they can work, and this makes them go out of poverty.

I am especially interested, as I told you before, on poverty on kids, but also in poverty on developing countries. A developing country is a country that has low economy, low way of living etc. Sometimes, the government of the country affects if it is poor or not. A developing government is the government of a developing country. If the government is poor, the country has more probabilities to have poor people. Also, if the country is a developing nation, it has poorer people because there is less advances and less jobs. Developing nations are reguarly called "South." This is so because most of them are located in the Southern Hemisphere. Often, in developing countries there's 'corruption'. This means that some judges or policemen take off bribes to rich people, so obviously this affect the poor. Also, there's worser corruption. In the government this happens too, but much more worse and with huge amount of money. Another fact that doesen't let poor people get our of that problem is the lack of opportunities and jobs.

In developing countries, many people die because of many diseases. Some of these include diarrhea. This disease is mostly caused to poor people in developing countries. It is an infectious disease that works in the intestines and can dehydrate you and can lead you to death. Also, many people die because of eating unsecure food. This means that the food or water isn't cleaned in order to be eaten or drinken. Definetely, the disease that kills the most is Aids/HIV. This disease affects the most in Africa, which is the poorest continent, so the poorer the place, the most it atacks on. Finally, a very dangerous disease also, Malaria. This disease is spread by mosquitoes and it kills millions of people yearly.

"An absolute poverty defines poverty as the state of living under a certain,
pre-determined amount of income or consumption. The most common absolute poverty
line is the $1-a-day line."

What I think about poverty in developing countries is very simple. Obviously, developing countries are poorer than developed countries, so the have more poor people. Also, that the people aren't wise enough. Some causes are caused by the same people of the affected country. If they know that being corrupt will cause more harm in your city or country, why do they make it? They need to realize that being rich isn't the only thing in the world. Yes, its true, people need to be able to afford some things, but I think that is isn't fair that while some people are starving in one place, others are going shoping in another place.

I could finally research about developing countries. Still, I want to research on poverty in Cartagena. Maybe, this may not be posible because I didn't find enough resources and I could only do it on my observations, but the schools from other countries can't observe this.

Helping Poor Kids

Poverty is not having enough resources for someone to live, living in very bad conditions, and suffering a lot. This is what millions of people around the world are suffering from. This is happening all around the world, but especially in Africa. While I was researching, I found out that the poorest countries in the world, are located in Africa. Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Congo, Tanzania, and Malawi are just some of the poorest countries in the world.

I also took a look at other resources. Grameen Foundation is a foundation fighting agains poverty. Their goal is to push poor people out of poverty with dignity. This foundation works in: Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. This foundation works with microfinance. This is small loans from different companies in order to be able to help the poor people. An example seen in this webpage is that if a woman borrows $50 to buy a chicken soon she'll have many eggs, so she will be able to sell the other chickens born and have more money.

Another website I looked at was one called: Child Poverty. Right now, in many countries, many people live under $2 per day. Poverty is not only affecting poor countries, developed countries are also being affected by this. 1 of every 10 people in a rich country suffer from poverty. However, in developing countries this is worse. Poverty populations are garder to adapt to changes, and have a lack in education. Meanwhile, better educated populations can adapt to changes easier and faster. Poor children end up very sick because they aren't able to pay medical resources. If a country spends some money in helping a poor kid, it sabes more because the child will not get sick.

What is Child Poverty?
Child poverty is a significant lack of the basic
needs required for healthy
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
development. Child poverty is also
defined as a lack of opportunities
(capability deprivation), a lack of control
over one’s life, as social
isolation and as discriminatory treatment at the
hands of others.

Poverty is categorized as a lack of: food, education, and medical resources. About 650 million people live in poverty conditions around the world. This is something very sad, and each time the number grows more. Also, about 14 million kids about under 5 die each year because of poverty conditions. Some people think that poverty is only seen in develping countries. Unfortunadely, this is not true. Canada, which is a developed country, and ranked the best one to live in by some people has each time more poverty. It is very sad that a wonderful country like this one, is loosinf control under poverty.

Finally, and look at a last website. It was called Who are America's Poor Children? In the U.S the following states are the ones who have most poverty: Louisiana, Missisipi, Arkansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia, New York, Alabama, and Tennessee. From these states, Louisiana is the one who most poverty has. Children Poverty is very dangerous. It can lead to social problems, mental problems, and health problems. This is more likely to be caused when the children is more young.

Now, that I have already researched about other foundations and organizations and other important things, I still want to research about poverty in here. Cartagena is a very poor city, and most of it's population is composed of poor children. I want to learn more about it and put lots of effort in it.

Poverty in Kids

I am concerned about many things, but I am mostly concerned about Poverty. Poverty is something really sad, especially in kids. This is something that each day grows more and more and we all know that what will mostly solve it is education. While I was searching for information about my topic I learned many new things. What primarly affects the amount of poor people in a place is its country. Poor countries obviously have much more poverty than others. This is so, because poor countries often owe huge amounts of money to richer countries. For example, Africa, has most of the poorest countries in the world, so many poor people live there. On the other hand, there's Canada which has a very small percentage of poor people. Really, I have never been to Canada, but from what I have read, it isn't a poor country.

I also took a look at some other websites. Another one was: Kids Care which also talks about poverty in kids. CARE is an organization to help poor kids and their families all over the world. They are trying to end poverty by suppliying different things to poor people and countries. CARE, helps to build things such as hospitals, schools, water wells, and houses. It also tries to improve the education on poor people. CARE is being help by people who donate money in order to help others. CARE also provides food for some families and help improve their community, this organization has been helping for 50 years. For this organization poverty means the following:

Poverty means not having enough food, shelter, clothing or medical care to live a healthy life. Poverty hurts kids. Almost 1 billion people in the world live in poverty, and more than 500 million of these are children. We know that the best way to escape a life of poverty is through education. But in the developing world, more than 125 million children never attend school. Another 150 million children who begin school must stop before they learn to read or
write because they must work to help to feed their families.

Children should spend their youth by playing, laughing and joking; living happy. This is imposible for poor children. They spend their days workinf and asking for money in the streets in order to survive. Sine children can't even work because they die very young because they don't have food or medical resources. All of this happens because of lack of help and money. What really amazes me about poor children is their attitude. Although, inside, they are ying and are very hungry they always have a happy attitude. On the other side, most of the rich children only complain and complain because they are never happy with what thery have. They always want more. I think it isn't fair that while some kids don't cry because they don't have shoes, other cry because they have Adidas and wantes Nike.

You may think that an option is public schools, but really it isn't. Some parents force their children, specially girls, to stay at home taking care for their younger brothers or sisters. Other parents, force their children to ask for money in the middle of a street and at the end, the parent take the money from the child who has stand in a street all day. Really, poverty is something the world needs to be aware of. Help others as you want others to help you. I have seen many people who as others ask for help they ignore them. I hope someday we can make a change in the world were poverty ends, but I now this is just a dream.

I think that now, my next step is discuss with my partner about what we both found. I will also want to research about the poorest country in the world and how do poor people survive there. Also, research on other organizations that help poor people. Another thing I will like to investigate abour is poverty in Cartagena; that is what I am mainly interested in.

Weekends

As I was reading Paulina's Blog, I got the idea to talk about hanging out. In her post, she explained what she do on weekends and what she does to have fun. Here in Cartagena, there's not much to do, but we always have fun wherever we go.

Fridays is they day our weekend starts. In the afternoon, some people have volleyball, soccer, or basketball practices. I have basketball practices, and almost all Fridays we have games versus other schools. I really enjoy this practices. Then, we go to our houses and get ready to go out. Almost all Fridays we go to the commercial area. This is where Mc Donalds, Crepes, and El Corral are. Sometimes, after we finish eating we go to El Campito or to Club Cartagena. I finish the day very tired, so as soon as I get home I fall asleep. Sometimes, I sleep over at a friends house or viseverse. In sleepovers, we sleep late, so the next day we eake up really late.

Then, we wake up on Saturdays. As I told you, is we had a sleepover, we wake up late. Usually, on mornings, we go to the pool, but sometimes I go out with my mom and we do familiar things. Some afternoons, we get together in a house and get to see movies, but sometimes we go to Juan Valdez or stuff like that. In the nights, we usually go to the more residential area. There is where El Campito, Club Cartagena, and El Otoyal us located. Sometimes we eat at Club Cartagena and they stay there, but we usually eat at El Otoyal and then go to El Campito or to Club Cartagena. There, we talk, have milkshakes or if there is a soccer or baseball game we see them. At the end, we go home or if Friday we didn't have a sleepover we may have one.

On Sunday, I wake up sad because it is the last day of the weekend. This is a familiar day. Sometimes, but almost never we go to a friends house to see a movie or something like that, but the majority of the times, we are with our families. Sometimes my family and I go to the Castellana. This is a mall a little far from Bocagrande; where I live. Other times we go to farms. There, we ride horse and things like that. Almost all Sundays I go to visit my grandma and all my cousins also go, so I have a very good time. Some Sundays are just for staying home at bed, especially when I am tired. Then, on Monday we arrive to school very sleepy and at first hour we have English class.

Sometimes, on weekends, we go out of the city with our parents. Sometimes, we go to Rosario Islands. This is a beautiful place where we have LOTS of fun! There, we go snorkling, ride kayak, donut, and many other things. Some islands have beaches, so we just swim there and have fun. In the night, we play boardgames or look at the stars. Everyones hopes to see a shooting star to ask for a wish. Other weekends there are parties. Most parties are located at Club Cartagena or other clubs. Also, they are located in the house of the host. On weekends we also go to the beack and ride wave runner, donut etc. Although there's not much to do, we always have fun!

Colombia; Beautiful but Dangerous

Hi, my name is Isabella and I study in Colegio Jorge Washington (COJOWA). This school is located in Cartagena, Colombia in front of the beach. It takes part of the SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools). The past October I turned 13 years old. I go to school from 7:00AM-2:30PM. After school, I usually play tennis or basketball; my favorite sports. On Weekends I usually go out with my friends. We usually go to Campito, Club Cartagena, Mc Donald’s, El Corral, and other restaurants. Sometimes, I go with my family to Rosario Islands or to farms. Wherever I go, I am never bored.

Something I am really concerned about is Cartagena's security. Some years ago, walking by Cartagena's streets was like walking by your house, this means it was very secure. Although Cartagena is much more secure than any other cities, there have been many serious cases having to do with unsecurity. The poor parts of Cartagena are very dangerous. This is so, because the people don't have money, so they steal things from other people in order to sell them, that way, they get the money they need. Then, comes Centro, Laguito, and Manga. In this places, it is dangerous walking alone. Finally, there is Bocagrande and Castillogrande. In here, people walk alone, but still, there have been cases of caused by unsecurity.

Another issue concerns me al lot is poverty. The majority of Cartagena's population is composed by poor people. This people don't have resources needed in order to survive, so they look for fast solutions. Some work in the streets as "vendedores ambulantes". They are people who invade the streets and sell things such as purses, earings, glasses, food and many other things. Other people, decide to transport drugs. Most of these people end up in jail or even dead. Some other poor people decide to enter the FARC. In Spanish FARC is Federacion Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia. These are people who think that Colombia should be equal in all senses (social, politic, and economic). In order to complete their goal, they do unlegal things. For exmaple, they capture people who have a lot of money and they kidnap them. Then they ask their family for a huge amount of money, the family pay and the person is free. They also kill lots of people and even force kids to join the team. Right now, driving through Colombia is very dangerous because of this, so imagine how it's going to be in a couple of years!

Finally, my last concerning issue; the consume of drugs. Some people, especially those who have depression, consume drugs very often. At first, they start and just taste it. They think that by consuming drugs they are going to find hapiness. Really, they are damaging their lives. Once they get involved in drugs, they can't get out of it. The consume of drugs can also affect many other people. When someone is druged, he or she isn't really conscious of what are they doing. As this happens, some kill people or cars accidents occur. Also, some poeple die because of consuming so much drugs. Little by little, more people get involved in drugs, and if this happens we don't know what will happen to our country in a few years.