My posts so far have made it sound like my time here in Colombia has been amazing and without any problems. Part of that is true. It has been amazing, and I haven't had any major problems like getting mugged, getting sick, getting hit by bus, or anything else life-threatening.
But, that's not to say that parts haven't been difficult.
A couple days ago I started to feel a bit homesick. I hate being torn between two places. It is such a strange feeling. Knowing that you're only going to be somewhere for a few months is strange. It's like when you go through a breakup: for a time, the other person is the most important person in your life, then after a breakup, they're barely a part of it. Being in a place for a small time feels like being in a relationship that you know is not going to last.
I've also started to feel a bit caged....mainly when I'm at the Perrows' house in Medellín. I've heard so much cautionary advice that I'm a bit afraid to go out...plus, I've never hailed a taxi or been in the city without someone who lives here. I also don't have a vehicle (first time without one since I was 16), so I'm having to rely on others for transportation, which is a humbling experience. There have been a few rough days because of the 'feeling caged' thing. Fortunately, I'm about to head out into the city with Paul to explore a bit...hopefully, I can gain some independence in getting around and using public transportation.
Another contributing factor has been my lack of discipline in spending time with God, which is ironic considering the nature of the trip. This is usually at the heart of whatever problem I'm having, but like the Israelites, I seem to forget pretty often. I think I'm on the upswing in this area though.
That being said, there are some amazing people that I've gotten to know, which has made my time here so far really great.
Changing subject....
Culturally, there are many differences here in Colombia. But I haven't really experienced much culture shock because there are so many ways that it is similar. An example of this happened last night. Bill Perrow, his son Michael, Paul, and I went to Éxito, which is like a Safeway or a small WalMart. Most of us who have lived in a town with a Walmart as a kid have stories of ridiculous things we've done in WalMart. Well, last night at Éxito, Michael pushed Paul around in store wheelchair with a riculous cart-thing attached to the front the whole time we were there. And I couldn't help thinking that this is just like other stupid things we do at Walmarts back in the States.
Another thing I want to mention is about posting pictures on here. Legally, I am not allowed to post full-face pictures of kids in the program online....which is part of the reason that I don't have any pictures of the kids up. (Also, because I am pretty lazy when it comes to taking pictures). Hopefully, I'll be able to take some creative photos of the kids (such as all of us covering part of our faces with our hands) that I can put on here. The main reason for all this is to protect identities....which I don't think would be a problem on this blog, but it is probably best to just follow the rules.
Finally, I would like to let Darren Webb and Dustin Marks know that I have now heard Days of Elijah (Los Días de Elías) in two languages.
22 June 2010
19 June 2010
A week and a half in...
Sooooo, it's been a while since I posted.
On Sunday, I attended my first Colombian church service in the driveway/patio at the Perrows' house. The church meets outside under a tent. Then, the little kids go in one room and the youth in another. It had a bit of a different feel to it...a little more upbeat than most services. Afterwards, all of us gringos went up in front of the group and sang a song in English (I think it was "Lord, I Life Your Name On High). Then, Bill told the congregation that I would be teaching English....and a bunch of them wanted me to help them learn English. So, we set up times for that to happen today (Saturday...six days later). I had three kids come this morning, which wasn't as many as I thought would come, but it was still good.
I spent Monday through Friday on the farm with the boys. That was a good time overall. I didn't get a ton of work done because the boys are off school and just hanging out, but I was okay with that. I haven't had any formal classes with the boys, but Paul and I have spent a ton of time informally teaching the kids English....while they teach us Spanish. That's been good because we all something to teach and something to learn.
The food is very different what we usually eat in the US. For breakfast, we have an arepa (sort of a thick soft taco shell) with a block of queso. Every day. Luckily, it's pretty good. Every other meal...and I mean every meal, we have rice. Luckily, I like rice. Usually, we have some type of meat or vegetable too. We have various types of juice made from fruits that we don't have in the US. Overall, the food is good, though. On Wednesday, we took the boys to a waterpark (which they get to do maybe once a year, and only when a group of gringos comes), and instead of pizza or a hotdog like you would expect, this is what I had at the waterpark food court:
Another thing that needs to be understood about Colombia is how schedules work. They are very tentative. You have to be able to go with the flow and be ready to change it up. For example, Paul and I just found out that most of the boys will be going to their homes for a two week vacation before school starts up again. Only five of the twenty-five boys are staying at the farm. Not only that, the team from West Virginia is leaving on Monday. So....Paul and I might stay in Medellin for part of the week and explore. But we don't really know what's going to happen. We'll see.
In future blog posts, I hope to be a little more insightful and deeper.
But until then, here are some pictures of the Boys Farm:
On Sunday, I attended my first Colombian church service in the driveway/patio at the Perrows' house. The church meets outside under a tent. Then, the little kids go in one room and the youth in another. It had a bit of a different feel to it...a little more upbeat than most services. Afterwards, all of us gringos went up in front of the group and sang a song in English (I think it was "Lord, I Life Your Name On High). Then, Bill told the congregation that I would be teaching English....and a bunch of them wanted me to help them learn English. So, we set up times for that to happen today (Saturday...six days later). I had three kids come this morning, which wasn't as many as I thought would come, but it was still good.
I spent Monday through Friday on the farm with the boys. That was a good time overall. I didn't get a ton of work done because the boys are off school and just hanging out, but I was okay with that. I haven't had any formal classes with the boys, but Paul and I have spent a ton of time informally teaching the kids English....while they teach us Spanish. That's been good because we all something to teach and something to learn.
The food is very different what we usually eat in the US. For breakfast, we have an arepa (sort of a thick soft taco shell) with a block of queso. Every day. Luckily, it's pretty good. Every other meal...and I mean every meal, we have rice. Luckily, I like rice. Usually, we have some type of meat or vegetable too. We have various types of juice made from fruits that we don't have in the US. Overall, the food is good, though. On Wednesday, we took the boys to a waterpark (which they get to do maybe once a year, and only when a group of gringos comes), and instead of pizza or a hotdog like you would expect, this is what I had at the waterpark food court:
Another thing that needs to be understood about Colombia is how schedules work. They are very tentative. You have to be able to go with the flow and be ready to change it up. For example, Paul and I just found out that most of the boys will be going to their homes for a two week vacation before school starts up again. Only five of the twenty-five boys are staying at the farm. Not only that, the team from West Virginia is leaving on Monday. So....Paul and I might stay in Medellin for part of the week and explore. But we don't really know what's going to happen. We'll see.
In future blog posts, I hope to be a little more insightful and deeper.
But until then, here are some pictures of the Boys Farm:
12 June 2010
First day at the farm!
Day 2 was not quite as exciting as Day 1. I hung out at the Perrows' house, played some Fifa (I'm going to have to become a futbol fan....I'm in South America during the World Cup), and read a little bit. I got to hear a few Spanish worship songs a bit later, which was cool. Later in the night, the team from West Virginia came. I was expecting a youth group....because youth groups do mission trips, right? Well, it turns out that it's all older folks with jobs and families and stuff, which will be good. They seem to be pretty strong in their faith and seem like good people.
BUT...today was pretty amazing. In the morning after breakfast, we (the team and some of the staff) gathered outside to go over some rules and such. Then, we had a devotion. It was about prayer....which is something that I'll never completely understand. I know we are supposed to do it, but there are a lot of views on why, what the effect is, etc. We prayed through one of the Psalms, meaning that we would read some verses, pray, and repeat. It was pretty awesome. We talked about how prayer is essential, and not something we just tack on. This is something I need to work on.
Most of the team is staying about a week and a half, but another guy, Paul (or Pablo in Spanish), is staying almost as long as I am. Then, he's going to Chile and traveling the world...or something awesome and crazy like that. Anyway, he's a pretty legit guy, I won't be the only gringo spending the summer here.
Then, we went to the farm. We drove up this crazy-steep hill to get there...I didn't know cars could go over inclines like this. We stopped for a bit to see the view from where we were, and I took a video of it:
When we got to the farm, the first thing I did was roll through cow poop and get it on my hand. Great way to start off.
But the boys were awesome. They were super-friendly and excited to see us gringos. It should be fun to hang out with these kids all summer. We went up to the computer room with all the recently donated computers, and the first thing they did was get on Facebook, haha. One of the kids that added me as a friend posted on my wall "como esta tu relacion con DIOS", which means "How is your relationship with God?" I thought that was cool.
I also found out more about what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to prepare some lesson plans that will both help the kids learn how to do things on the computer (such as using a search engine to find out information) and learn about God. I'll teach the lesson plans, but also keep a record for them so that they can be used in the future. The goal is about 50 lesson plans, so could be taught once a week for a year in the future. I'll also get to help teach English to the boys using the computers. If you know of a good, free, online program for learning English, let me know!
So yeah, I'm excited.
Also, all the famous Colombians on the money have sweet mustaches:
10 June 2010
First day in Colombia!
Wow. My first day in Medellín, Colombia, has passed. I've done more cool things today than I have the last four weeks of the summer. Let's start from the beginning.
At 3am, we left my house in Festus for Lambert Airport, saying goodbyes to my family, etc. Flight leaves St. Louis at 6am, and I arrive in Miami. An hour later, I leave Miami for Medellín. Here's the first interesting story.
When checking in at Miami, the nice airport employee sees that my seat is in the 27th row of the plane, and asks if I want to be moved closer to the front. I tell her that would be great. Then, she asks me if it would be okay if I flew in First Class. That sounded good to me, haha! So, I was in the front of the plane, and I got served a three course meal! Starting with salad and bread. Then, I had the halibut with potatoes. Finishing it off with an ice cream dessert and a glass of wine. And I didn't have to pay for any of this! Every time they brought me something, I just kind of laughed to myself a little bit because it felt so weird that I'm enjoying this fancy meal on the way to a foreign country to work with an organization that helps homeless kids. But....I very rarely will turn down a free meal.
When I arrived in Colombia, the airport people were very nice, showed me where to go, and helped me cut through lines (wheelchair powers at work!). I was told my Spanish was very good...though, I can't understand anybody unless they speak pretty slowly and enunciate.
I was picked up by Luis Eduardo, a guy who works for Open Arms and knows barely any English. We had a good time talking (and attempting to understand each other) on the drive into the city. He was super-friendly and said that the kids will love me and that I'll learn a ton of Spanish. Here, things were feeling pretty surreal as I was taking in the sights with the windows rolled down....it was great.
Before I go on, I need to describe how people drive here. It's not like how people drive in the US. In the US, people stay in their lanes and try to avoid conflict. Here in Colombia, there are motorcycles weaving in and out of traffice, people passing each other contantly, cutting each other off, cars stopped in the road...it's just insane. Yet, it's a controlled chaos, and I felt oddly safe in the van with Luis Eduardo.
Curvo Peligroso = Dangerous Curve
The city of Medellín!
Road leading up an insanely steep hill to the place where I'm staying.
We arrived at the house of Bill and Wanda Perrow, the founders of the Open Arms Foundation. I got to see my room, which is great. There's only two steps into it, and I have my own bathroom. I hung out here for a while with Justin, Michael, Juan Guillermo, and Christian. Then, we and a guy from the US named Doug who may be living here indefinitely working with Open Arms (he's still trying to figure that out) went down to the city to try to get a battery for Doug's laptop. This journey had us walking up the hill pictured above (so steep!), me riding on a motorcycle for a while (intense, but I'm still alive), traveling on the Metro over mountains and buildings (shown below, but earlier in the day), riding the subway, and riding a taxi back. We didn't find the right type of battery, but I did make my first purchase using pesos, which was a juice beverage.
Back at the Perrows', we had burgers for dinner. I haven't met Bill yet, but his wife Wanda is super nice, and they have an incredibly cute little girl that likes to push my chair around. Then, after watching the end of the Resident Evil movie with some of the guys...here I am writing this and going to bed. Crazy day.
The team from West Virginia gets here tomorrow night, so I'll probably just be hanging out here tomorrow. I still haven't seen the Open Arms building or the Boys Farm or met any of the kids in the program...but I'm okay with taking some time to adapt first! God is good!
And I can't kill this stupid mosquito in my room tonight. Grr.....
08 June 2010
The Final Countdown
So, I will be leaving my house for the airport 24 hours after writing this. In 27 hours, I will leave Lambert International Airport. In 30 hours, I will be in Miami, making a connecting flight. In 34 hours, I will be in Medellín, Colombia.
I'm feeling a little better about the trip now. The last few days have been really fun and encouraging. Here, I will list some highlights. Lunch with AJ (friend from Mizzou) on Saturday, then driving up to Columbia for Ben and Mazvita's wedding. The wedding was a reunion of sorts, and not only did I get to witness the marriage of two awesome people, but I also got to hang out with a ton of awesome friends and dance like a dancin' fool. Sunday morning, I got to hear a really good message from my home church's associate pastor who used to be a missionary in Mexico. I had lunch with Darren (friend from home). Then, I got to hang out with Stacey and Evan (friends who used to live in Columbia, Missouri), eating Steak 'n' Shake and winning a game of Settlers. Today, I went out to eat with family to celebrate my parents' 36th wedding anniversary. Tonight, I used Skype to talk to some friends in Colorado and at Mizzou.
A lot of the worry and anxiety about the trip has subsided, and now I'm feeling pretty excited about it. My first week and a half there, I will be working with a mission trip group from West Virginia. I'm not sure specifically what I'll being doing during this time, but it will be relatively structured because of the group. Then, after the group leaves on June 21st, things will be a little different.
I read Psalm 63 today. I want to seek God with the passion that David describes in the psalm. I have bolded the truth that lies behind why I want to seek God. In the end, God will uphold us while we cling to Him. Here are the first eight verses of it for your reading pleasure:
"O God, you are my God;
earnestly, I seek you.
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed, I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
When I write my next post, I will be in South America! Hopefully, with some cool pictures or something. ¡Nos vemos, mis amigos!
I'm feeling a little better about the trip now. The last few days have been really fun and encouraging. Here, I will list some highlights. Lunch with AJ (friend from Mizzou) on Saturday, then driving up to Columbia for Ben and Mazvita's wedding. The wedding was a reunion of sorts, and not only did I get to witness the marriage of two awesome people, but I also got to hang out with a ton of awesome friends and dance like a dancin' fool. Sunday morning, I got to hear a really good message from my home church's associate pastor who used to be a missionary in Mexico. I had lunch with Darren (friend from home). Then, I got to hang out with Stacey and Evan (friends who used to live in Columbia, Missouri), eating Steak 'n' Shake and winning a game of Settlers. Today, I went out to eat with family to celebrate my parents' 36th wedding anniversary. Tonight, I used Skype to talk to some friends in Colorado and at Mizzou.
A lot of the worry and anxiety about the trip has subsided, and now I'm feeling pretty excited about it. My first week and a half there, I will be working with a mission trip group from West Virginia. I'm not sure specifically what I'll being doing during this time, but it will be relatively structured because of the group. Then, after the group leaves on June 21st, things will be a little different.
I read Psalm 63 today. I want to seek God with the passion that David describes in the psalm. I have bolded the truth that lies behind why I want to seek God. In the end, God will uphold us while we cling to Him. Here are the first eight verses of it for your reading pleasure:
"O God, you are my God;
earnestly, I seek you.
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed, I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
When I write my next post, I will be in South America! Hopefully, with some cool pictures or something. ¡Nos vemos, mis amigos!
03 June 2010
"Are you ready for your trip?"
"Are you ready for your trip?"
I never know how to answer this question. 'Yes' and 'no' are both appropriate answers. Yes, I've raised money for the trip, gotten immunizations, bought a plane ticket, and have the logistics in place. No, I don't think I'm emotionally or spiritually ready, I haven't prepared enough through working on my Spanish and spending time with God.
"Are you excited for your trip?"
Double answer here again. If I were not going, I would be wishing that I was going. So, 'Yes,' but only in the sense that the alternative would be boring. But a resounding 'No' has been the theme of the past week. I can't believe I'll be in South America in less than a week. I've felt almost depressed at a few moments this week....because I know this whole thing is going to tough. It's going to be so unlike anything I've ever done, with so many added difficulties that I've yet to experience.
But the thing I fear most is the fear of just being in the way. I fear that I won't really have any contribution to the Open Arms Foundation (the organization I'm working with) or much positive influence on the kids. There are two mains reasons for this: language barrier and my disability. Talking to the kids will be difficult, and I won't be able to help out much with physical tasks around the farm. I'll get to teach English and computer stuff, but that will only comprise a portion of my time there. I really don't know what to expect.
When I'm feeling down, the problem is usually rooted in me not spending time with God. I wonder what's going on, then have a "Duh" moment (pictured here) where I realize that I need to go to God.
My weaknesses seem especially apparent right now, like they were waiting for a perfect time to jump out from behind the corner to mess with me. Fortunately, Jesus says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness."
Now, I just have to believe that.
I never know how to answer this question. 'Yes' and 'no' are both appropriate answers. Yes, I've raised money for the trip, gotten immunizations, bought a plane ticket, and have the logistics in place. No, I don't think I'm emotionally or spiritually ready, I haven't prepared enough through working on my Spanish and spending time with God.
"Are you excited for your trip?"
Double answer here again. If I were not going, I would be wishing that I was going. So, 'Yes,' but only in the sense that the alternative would be boring. But a resounding 'No' has been the theme of the past week. I can't believe I'll be in South America in less than a week. I've felt almost depressed at a few moments this week....because I know this whole thing is going to tough. It's going to be so unlike anything I've ever done, with so many added difficulties that I've yet to experience.
But the thing I fear most is the fear of just being in the way. I fear that I won't really have any contribution to the Open Arms Foundation (the organization I'm working with) or much positive influence on the kids. There are two mains reasons for this: language barrier and my disability. Talking to the kids will be difficult, and I won't be able to help out much with physical tasks around the farm. I'll get to teach English and computer stuff, but that will only comprise a portion of my time there. I really don't know what to expect.
My weaknesses seem especially apparent right now, like they were waiting for a perfect time to jump out from behind the corner to mess with me. Fortunately, Jesus says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness."
Now, I just have to believe that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)