Santa Marta - Connecting my 10 year old son with friends...

Hi!

We're a family from the US living in Santa Marta, Colombia for 4 months.  Our son, Jack, who is very outgoing at home is having a tough time transitioning here.

We'd love to find him some local friends who share his language.  Do you know any expat families in Santa Marta wiht a son in the 9-11 year range? 

We live in Los Cocos (on the beach just south of the Marina) and have a nice pool in the building for fun playdates.   

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Eric Karpinski

On thing that (sadly) surprised me in Colombia, is to discover that there is a LOT of bullying between kids.
I don't know if it's the case for yours.

Steve:  Do you have children?  We are getting ready to move to Colombia with school aged sons and would like to hear more about what you have seen/heard.

Hi Beckhamm

I have a 14 years old daughter, and I lived for about one year in Bogota. But at that time, my daughter was not with me. Still, I was living in couple with a Colombian woman with a 11 years old girl at that time.
We had a middle class living style and the girl was in a random school, not at all one of these expensive schools where  the local elite and expats send their kids to (like Colegio Nogales, or el Colombo Britanico).

I found that there was more bullying issues than in my home country.  I could compare with what I lived with my daughter (who is 2 years older than the daughter of my Colombian partner). I also found the kids pretty, how to put it, buyoant, including in the classroom. But then again my point of reference is the French education system where the teacher will expect no noise at all in the classroom unless he is giving permission to a student to talk.

Eric (the original poster) mentioned his blog, which I read, and there are some interesting articles regarding shcool life and how his kids are somehow the point of attention of the locals, Interesting read.