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El Cocuy Boyacá, September 15, 2009
Hello cherished friends united by faith in Christ.
Happy month of love and friendship.
In our country, in the month of September, we celebrate the festival of love and friendship. The following is the most usual manner of celebration:
At the beginning of the month, groups of friends, colleagues from work, fellow students and peers get together. On slips of paper, everyone writes down names of who wants to participate in a game called “Secret Friend.” Then they mix up all of the slips and each person takes one. The name on the slip is who will secretly be their friend. Then, there is predetermined period of time that the friend has to discover who is matched with them. Before figuring out your “secret friend,” you send jokes or clues with small details to make the game more fun. On the day when you discover who your “secret friend” is, each person leaves a good clue for their “secret friend” who has three tries to guess your identity. If they don’t succeed, the group will tell them who their friend was. On this day, there are many parties and celebrations. Also, flowers and chocolates are given and everybody expresses feelings of love and friendship, like on Valentine’s Day in the United States.
I want to tell you about my town, which is located in the north of the department of Boyacá in Colombia. It is always 10OC here, and we only get the seasons of winter and summer. The population is 6,400 people: 3,000 in the urban area and 3,400 in the rural area. We have a town of wildlife and an abundance of water. We also have the snowy mountain of Cocuy, which attracts tourists from around the world. We hope they will visit this beautiful part of our country.
Concerning my actual life, I will share with you that I am a 14-year-old girl. I am about 5’3” in height. This year, I am in 9th grade. We are finishing the school year, and I have done very well. In addition to studying, I like playing basketball and music. I am learning to play the saxophone so that I can join the woodwinds band of my town. I am also part of the children’s basketball team of my school. In basketball, we have been very successful and we have gone to other towns to represent our school.
My goals for the future are to finish my baccalaureate and attend university, where I will study English, and become a member of the national police force. I would also like to travel to other countries, although my family can’t pay to make my plans a reality, I have a lot of faith that I will achieve this with the help of God.
I would like to learn many things about you and continue communicating with you because I like having friends and learning many things from other countries.
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.
Until later,
Johanna Alejandra
12 NOV 2009