A Piece of Colombia

Incredible how fast three weeks can fly... and how much can happen in just twenty four days.

Carina and Deepika left on Saturday night after having spent just over three weeks in Colombia. I was so blessed by their company and loved every single day. Their visit provided me with joy and fun in the middle of an odd transition back into life in Colombia. Conversations with them were full of encouragement and I consistently was pointed back to Jesus. I enjoyed seeing Colombia through their eyes-- having wonder and awe sparked within me once again. I loved introducing them to my precious friends in Colombia, sharing with them a piece of me. And I loved having them get to know my parents, allowing them to understand me a bit more.

And quite honestly, I loved getting to know them better.

Because it would take an extremely long post to go over everything we did, I'll save you guys the novel and just give some snapshots instead.

Service

When we arrived in Colombia, the fourth grade teacher at ECA had to leave, so Carina and Deepika were able to help fill in some of the holes left behind. They put together Carina's education background and Deepika's math major and taught fourth grade math several times. Though ECA is definitely not a "needy" school, they were able to bless the teachers and administration by taking a couple classes off every one else's plate.

We were able to go to my dad's foundation (www.fimcol.org) on two different occasions. The first, we simply played with kids and then led them in a crafts project... making bookmarks. I think it'd be fair to say that the kids' favorite part was the stickers-- by far. They were thoroughly enjoying looking through stick er books and pasting them all over a 2in x 5in piece of paper. The second time we showed up unexpectedly because our plans for the day were rained on, but it turned out to be a big blessing to the foundation because they were overwhelmed and were struggling to keep the kids busy that day. We were able to play with them, teach a Bible lesson and get them ready for lunch.

In addition to this, we joined ECA high school students (grades 9 and 10) on some of

their service days. We went with the ninth graders to the Recycler's ministry (the one my class was involved with for three years) and helped at a drop in center. Though there weren't many kids there at first, it was a lot of fun just running around and playing tag. Later we were able to help kids with their homework. On the right you can see a picture of Deepika, me and

a six-year old named Claudia Camila. I've known her since she was three :)

The next day we went with the sophomores to a special needs orphanage in Bogota. I had never been to this one before, so I was quite excited. It took almost two hours to get there, but it was definitely worth the drive. The three of us worked upstairs with kids who had severe special needs and we simply fed them and held them. It was marvelous.

Later on in the trip we visited another special needs orphanage about an hour away from Bogota. The kids were older here and we worked with kids who were able to run around and talk, so they were less disabled than the previous orphanage. We played Jenga, Uno, Twister, Candyland and made crafts. Deepika had to fend off young boys who were begging her to be their girlfriend.

Trips

We took two main trips while Carina and Deepika were here in Colombia. The first was to Prado, a lake about five hours away from Bogota. Since its elevation is significantly lower than Bogota's, the weather is HOT. There we were able to read, talk, sleep, swim, ski and wakeboard. We were surrounded by beautiful scenery and amazed by God's majesty surrounding us. We had an adventure Saturday night (see previous post), but were able to see God's amazing peace working throughout the whole ordeal.

Our second trip was about two hours out of Bogota. We went to La Vega and Tobia. We spent some time at the Peñuelas finca and then we headed down to Tobia for some white-water rafting and zip-lining. Deepika was extremely scared, but was able to do it anyway. I think our rafting guide sensed her fear and tried to make her side of the boat rock more. Anyway, after lunch we zip-lined between two mountains... it was about 1200 meters long and 200 meters high, and we reached a speed of about 70 km/hour. Great stuff :) Below is a picture of our zip-lining group, minus Machi who was taking the picture :)

Tourism

I hate feeling like a tourist, but we did some of that anyway!

Firstly, we went to Chicaque, a natural park a little bit out of Bogota. This definitely isn't typical tourism... but I'll include it here anyway. We went hiking for about five hours in a cloud forest. It was definitely beautiful!! But by the end of the day, Deepika and I were about to die and Carina was just dancing up the mountains.

We went to Monserrate, a famous tourist destination in Bogota. We took a cable car up the mountain and then walked around this famous Catholic Cathedral. I'm always reminded of religion's power to enslave when I walk around Monserrate. I whispered a prayer, thanking Jesus for my freedom through his work on the cross. Monserrate is also a great place to go, because you can see the a HUGE part of Bogota from the top of a mountain. It's beautifulllllll :)

Ahh... I love it when friends visit Colombia. I love sharing this corner of the world with anyone who is willing to love it in return :)

Thanks for coming, my dear friends!

Search Party

"We contacted the Minister of Defense and a helicopter was about to take off from Ibague to start searching for you. We had two marine boats and one police boat, two canoes and our boat looking. We were whistling and yelling... now I want to hear your side of the story," my mom approached us and stood watching us with her hands on her hips.

I was shocked. The Minister of Defense? Really? Marines? What?

The shock produced laughter in me. I looked at Carina and Deepika and just started giggling. There was a real, actual search party... searching for... me and Deepika.

So, I took a deep breath and launched into "my side" of the story...

While in Prado, Deepika and I were sitting in the lake around dusk, watching Carina ski. She got up on the third try and as we cheered wildly for her, we finally lost sight of her and kept talking. If you've ever been to Prado, you know how easy it is to get lost in conversations while floating in the lake surrounded by glorious scenery. However, it soon began to get darker... and darker... and darker until Deepika nervously asked me if we were ever going to get picked up. I figured something happened to the boat and suggested we start swimming back toward the island. So we started swimming... and as we continued talking we witnessed the first stars appear in the black canvas above us. The water reflected the glimmering lights and the slight waves were relaxing.

But all this wasn't enough to loosen the knot growing in my stomach... Why hadn't my dad picked us up yet? If a boat came straight toward us, we'd have no way of swimming out of the way fast enough... I began feeling more nervous and I could sense Deepika's panic quickening. We decided to pause and pray for peace and protection. The sense of relief was almost immediate. We figured we might as well keep swimming toward the island.

For the next hour and a half, Deepika and I continued swimming and talking about everything and anything. The quiet night was only interrupted by our voices and frequent giggles. Then, we were shocked when we heard a small boat motor approaching and turned to see a spotlight blinding us.

My memory is a little blurry about what happened next, but I heard Deepika frantically saying, "Vivi, oh my gosh. Vivi. Oh my gosh. Vivi..." and then her voice began to quiet as her gripped on my arm tightened. I was laughing. I was laughing because I was so scared. I tried swimming out of the way of the boat, but felt my legs as heavy as lead. I wondered if my arms had turned into spaghetti... and I imagined what it would feel like to be run over by a boat. And I couldn't help laughing... it was laughter triggered by frantic nervousness.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to find my voice and began shouting, "Ojo! Estamos aqui!!" (Watch out! We're here!). And the motor stopped. And we could hear voices... They were murmuring to one another. I picked up something like, "There they are! We found them."

We were asked to climb into a dug out canoe with these strangers who claimed they had been looking for us everywhere. I obeyed as quickly as I could, struggling to climb into this canoe without tipping it. Once Deepika and I were safely in the boat they began telling us about how worried my parents were...

But it wasn't until I got back to the island that I realized just how worried they had been.

The Minister of Defense?
Marines?
Policemen?
Stopping every car leaving Prado to make sure we weren't stuffed in the trunk?
A helicopter?

For the next hour I was answering phone calls from worried friends making sure we had been found. Apparently our pastor's wife had sent out an email asking for prayer.

Deepika and I tried to think back about our night swim, when we were so oblivious to the panic consuming everyone else. We really had been surrounded by God's peace through all these prayers.

What a day!

Ready or not... Here we goooo :)

I head to Colombia tomorrow.

Tomorrow... for three months.

Three months is just enough time for me to feel like I'm living there, not just visiting. Strange... because I've never actually spent a summer in Colombia. Ever. When I tell people that, they usually look really shocked and ask me to explain. You see, I've spent most summers of my life traveling around North America with my family, visiting supporters. We're normally in the Chicago area for a couple of weeks at a time and then we go off on random adventures to different corners of the United States. In high school, I've spent at least a month in Canada at Camp Medeba. Between my junior and senior year, I was in Uganda. And last summer I was at Medeba the whole summer.

So now, I finally get to spend a summer in Colombia. I'm so excited... and yet, I feel an unexpected nostalgia.

I won't get to experience long, summer evenings. Or lightning bugs at dusk. Or warm, sunny days and then the comforting lull of a summer night. Why these things keep popping into my head, I do not know. It'll be different spending a summer in a place where the sun sets at 6:00 pm and where the weather is always betwen 65 and 75 degrees F (18 and 23 C).

It'll be odd spending a summer working full time.
As of now, I will be working at an English Insitute as an ESL teacher for companies who want their employees to improve their English. This should only be 3-5 hours a day and then in the afternoons, I hope to work with World Vision in some kind of internship. When I'm not doing either of those, I will be helping my dad with the foundation. I'll probably be working on translating the website, so they can have an English version up as well.

It feels unreal that I'll be back in Colombia for enough time to unpack my clothes, settle in and try to feel at home again.

Well, goodbye America. I'll see you on August 12.