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TOURISM TODAY
Academic Trek
This March 11th, for the fourth time in a row, students from Purdue University, Indiana, came to Cartagena de Indias in order to learn about our culture and our language teaching methods.
The american students were assigned students of the programs of pedagogy and of tourism companies of Unicolombo to assist them as translators during their stay. After a walking tour around the city, on their second day the Purdue students visited the Unicolombo University, and managed to feel the familiar and welcoming atmosphere of this Institution. "It felt like home" one of them mentioned in his final essay on the journey.
Tuesday was their first day in Palenque. Painting, rust, water, soap, broom and roller were the work tools of American students. It was imperative, as it’s sought a cultural exchange, an exchange of knowledge of languages (palenquero and English). Therefore a day was scheduled in which the Purdue students were divided into three groups and each carried out three rounds of language teaching and basic themes of their language, for a total of 9 sets of students, 10 to 15 students each group. Also the students of the school benkos bioho had their own time to teach the palenquero language with common phrases and basic grammar. It is important to point out not only the arduous and disinterested work of the Purdue students, but also the great hospitality and warm welcome by the palenque community, since without knowing the contributions they would make to the community, they received the visitors with joy and love, as if it were a distant relative, as if they were family.
Transforming, incredible, unforgettable, and captivating were the adjectives the Purdue university students used at the last dinner at the luxurious Santa clara hotel. On this last occasion, it was the American students who honored the work of the translators and accompanying delegates by the Unicolombo University with the words of each one of them, shirts and badges of the University, in addition to the proposal of a similar program sponsored by Purdue University for Unicolombo students wishing to be part of an exchange program to that great university in Indiana.
Purdue University in Cartagena de Indias and Palenque
By Milton Martínez , VII semester.