Don't worry, be happy, you're in Colombia!

I'm sorry this is a little late again, we had a lot of very late nights last week so I never got time to post. Although we had a crazily busy week, there isn't much that's interesting to re-tell. We taught some more BSL classes, which the kids just love and we have started work on an exciting project. Each pupil and member of staff gets a square wooden tile on which they have to design and paint something that represents them (this was harder to explain than we first thought, as the Colombian education system does not encourage creativity or thinking for yourself). All these tiles will then be stuck together into a larger frame and hung up somewhere in the school. Most of the pupils have now done theirs, but due to a famers' strike in the centre yesterday only about 10 kids made it to school so we still have a number of people to try and catch up before Friday.

This week we have witnessed a lot more of the Colombian hospitality. We were invited to the pastor's  house on Wednesday where we had ajiaco (an amazing Colombian soup served with avacado and rice) and spent some time talking about his testimony and his vision for the Bogota vineyard church. His testimony is incredible - his Dad was part of the most dangerous drug cartel, he ended being homeless as a child for a number of years, was taken in by someone who practised witchcraft and was then invited to church by someone and from that point on gave his life to Christ. His vision for the church is to buy their own place (they currently rent the top floor of a persian restaurant) in Chapinero, the neighbourhood where we are currently working and living. Chapinero has a large red light district, and has a very big problem with homelessness and prostitution. Victor (the pastor) wants to set up a coffee house in the church as a way of building relationships with people, especially students of the nearby university, but also to get out on the streets with the homeless and the prostitues and build relationships with them by sharing in their experiences and doing life with them. It's an incredible vision and I really pray that this will go ahead. Out of the blue this week they were donated a posh coffee maker, the kind used in coffee shops, which is a huge answer to prayer as there is no way they could have afforded to buy one, and how can you start a coffee house without a coffee maker?

We were also invited to another church member's house for ajiaco on Friday, which was a great chance to spend more time getting to know people and practice our Spanish. I also had my first phonecall in Spanish that evening, which I was so worried about, as it is much harder to speak a foreign langauge on the phone than face to face, but it was fine and I made myself understood and could understand the reply! The people we were going with stopped at the Colobian equivalent of Waitrose on the way, and whilst we were waiting we had a look to see what imported food they had that we couldn't find elsewhere - bad idea! We found a small bottle of wostershire sauce for about $10 (I can't find the pound sign on here, so just read $ as pounds!!), brie, smoked and blue cheese, each about $6 for a teeny piece and sausages, again costing a fortune. I hadn't realised how much I was missing cheese with flavour. The Colombian stuff is pretty tasteless and plasticy. Definitely on the list for when I come home, along with cereal which I am once again missing!

Sunday was our last service at the Vineyard church. We wanted to say thank you to them for being like a great big family to us, but we hadn't had time to prepare anything before the service, so I sat during the sermon trying to write something in my best Spanish, which I then read out. I have no idea how much of it made sense but they loved the fact I tried in Spanish and gave me a round of applause at the end. The whole church then prayed for us as we move on to Santa Marta, which was so touching, and it really made us realise how much they cared about us - they weren´t just pretending to be like our family, they really cared about us as if we were family. After the service, we shared lunch with a lot of the church members in the persian restaurant where we have church. It was a really special time, but also sad to have to say goodbye. I think that might be a semi constant feeling this week!

During the meal, Victor came out with my favourite quote of the week. He is hoping to come and visit us in Santa Marta because the vineyard church we will be working with there is a plant of the Bogota vineyard, and Abi was asking him if he had made any plans with the pastor from Santa Marta. Victor replied, 'Don't worry, be happy, you're in Colombia. I don't want to make plans, I'll just turn up!' I think this pretty well sums up the attitude of Colombians towards most things! Sometimes it is frustrating that plans are made and then don't happen or get changed, but we are learning not to bother planning things most of the time, and through this God has taught us a lot about his faithfulness and by not having plans it has forced us to put our trust in Him a lot more. In Britain we plan stuff so much I think it can sometimes be difficult to rely on God fully, or perhaps we don't even leave room for God's plans at all. This also ties in with the spontaneous hospitality that seems so common here. If we are constantly tied to plans then do we have room for this kind of service? Just my intresting thought for the week - don't know what you guys think about this?

Prayer requests:

• That leaving won't be too sad, that the sentiment will be deep but not too upsetting
• I currently have tonsilitus, so prayer for healing would be great!
• That the project in Santa Marta will be ready to receive us
• For the vineyard church and Chapinero in general
• For our spiritual reflection day on Thursday, that God will really be with us and we will have a really good day with time to reflect on our time here in Bogota and that we will be open to what God wants to say to us

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Only in Colombia...

After last week's mahoosive update (thank you to anyone who stuck with it through to the end), I'll try and keep this one fairly light!! I have a lollipop for inspiration and some upbeat music so hopefully this will be a fun post...

As the title of this post suggests, we have had a number of crazy/awesome experiences this week that really wouldn't happen anywhere but Colombia:

Because this week was Semana Santa there were no kids in school so we had the place to ourselves (or so I thought when I rolled out of bed and came downstairs in my pyjamas on Monday morning to discover the teachers were all in, much to their amusement...) Monday was just a rest day for us as we were shattered after a few very intense weeks. Mary and Naomi went out for a while and came back and told us about an incredible experience they had just had at McDonald's. This made Josh and I desperate for a burger, so we also headed out to McDonald's. Whilst we were waiting for our order we noticed some of the workers signing to each other so we started a conversation with them in Colombian sign language. The smiles on their faces when they realised we knew sign language were so big. It was great to meet some deaf people outside of the school and it means this is a burger I will never forget.

From Tuesday to Thursday we went away for a retreat to the countryside. Some of Abi's friends have a finca about 4 hours from Bogotá near a town called Villa de Leiva, which is a beautiful old colonial town - one of the few that survived the Spanish conquistadores. The finca (a house with a small plot of land) was absolutely beautiful with stunning views of the mountains. Colombia is so diverse, and I couldn't believe how different this area is to Bogotá. On the Wednesday we hired a driver to take us round a number of the local attractions. He had a pick-up truck with 5 seats inside, and there were 8 of us in total, so obviously some of us went in the back. But then we discovered there are certain roads where it is prohibited for people to travel in the back of pick up trucks so we had to cram all 8 of us inside the cab for these parts - only in Colombia! This was particularly fun after some obleas (wafer things) filled with arequipe (a very sugary hyperness-inducing caramel) with bohemian rhapsody playing at full volume... Lunch on Wednesday consisted of a huge platter of meat (pork ribs, a local sausage called Loganiza, black pudding type sausage, grilled beef and grilled pork) with potatoes, plantain and boyacan arepas. I have never before seen so much meat on one plate - once again, only in Colombia!

On Thursday we went to see a tagua workshop. Tagua is a type of seed that is particularly common in Colombia and they make lots of things from it. It was really interesting to find out more about it (more info on my Blipfoto if you want to know) and to see a craftsman at work. The bus was supposed to be picking us up from the finca at 3pm. Gloria, one lady in the family who owned the finca, had been at the house the whole time we were there and really wanted to cook lunch for us before we left, so we headed back to the house for a delicious soup with corn on the cob and chicken in it. The bus driver then phoned to say the traffic out of Bogotá was crazy and he was therefore running really late and wouldn't be picking us up for another 2 or 3 hours. This then led to another 'Only in Colombia' moment. We wanted to go out and get ice creams, so we were going to walk to the nearest town to buy some. Most of the family who would be spending Easter at the finca had arrived by now, and wouldn't hear of us walking to the town, so someone went and got their car to give us a lift. We couldn't all fit in so Josh and I said we would stay behind. After this car had left, someone else went and got their car because they were worried that we would never get to see this town otherwise. No amount of polite refusal would work so we followed behind in another car. When we arrived back with the ice creams, we sat around with the 12 or so people in this family eating and chatting. They then put the salsa on and started dancing with us. When the bus finally arrived, the whole family came down to the road to say goodbye and they were all hugging and kissing us, even though they had only met us an hour before. This is so Colombian - can you even imagine this happening in the UK?!

On Friday we made hot cross buns and lime curd to help us get into an Easter mood. Abi came over on Saturday morning to help us book flights to our next project on the coast (we leave in less than 2 weeks, I can't believe how fast time here has gone) and we then travelled up the mountain to Paraiso, a neighbourhood where Jen, another Latin Link missionary, works. It was her 21st birthday so we went up to give her a mini surprise party, complete with tea and cake.

Sunday was an Easter Sunday to remember. We had hot cross buns for breakfast whilst listening to all the Easter classics (See what a morning, He has risen etc etc). Then we went to church where we introduced the Colombians to hot cross buns over coffee. After the service we went back to Abi's house with lots of Colombians from church for a lunch of fajitas, followed by an easter egg hunt (well, chocolate football hunt, as they don't sell chocolate eggs here) then a short salsa class and a few ceilidh dances. Such a crazy afternoon, and definitely another 'Only in Colombia' day, but an Easter day that will stay with me forever. It was very different to Easter back home, but equally special.

This short blog post has turned out to be quite long...sorry I got a little carried away! And there's still so much more I could tell you. I haven't even started telling you what God has been doing over these past few weeks. Maybe I'll save that up and write it all in one big post at the end of our time in Bogotá...

Love you all lots! Chao! (They need to learn how to spell Ciao here...)

Prayer requests:

• That our last 2 weeks would be really productive and really special
• For improved Spanish skills, which will be really important in Santa Marta
• Thank God for his presence with us over the past few weeks, and for all the crazy yet amazing things we have been able to do and experience

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Covered in ice cream!

Hello again! I’m sorry I didn’t get chance to write an update last week, the school found out on Friday afternoon that the government were coming in to inspect on Monday, so the time I would usually spend writing my blog was spent deep cleaning the kitchen and organising the sports cupboard.

Since my last blog, we have had two fantastic cooking classes with the pupils. In the first one we made ice cream the old fashioned way of mixing ice and salt in a container around the cream. This was inspired by our visit to Usaquen (mentioned in my last blog) where we saw some people doing this in metal bowls. We adapted this slightly to use 2 sizes of zip lock bags. Our test went really well with just plain vanilla ice cream so we decided to add some flavourings. Unfortunately this dramtically slowed down the freezing process so the first class didn’t get to eat theirs until the end of the day after we had put it in the freezer. From then on we went back to plain vanilla and let them add flavourings like fruit pulp (super common here – it’s sorta their version of squash) or crushed biscuits at the end, like a sundae. The kids loved doing this, although some of them were surprised it was cold and one person even tried to put it in the microwave! We didn’t quite understand this, because ice cream is fairly common in Bogotá so it’s not like they’ve never seen it before… Most weeks we seem to be covered in flour from our cooking lesson, so we figured ice cream would be less messy. We forgot that ice melts, and a couple of people managed to split their bags, so not only was there a mini flood at the end of the lesson, we were also completely covered in cream and salt. Being covered in cream or flour does make a difference from being covered in cement in Tanzania!

In our other cooking lesson we made mini scones with them, and gave them the choice of raisins or cheese to flavour them with. It was roughly a 50/50 mix as to which flavour they chose, but everyone put jam and cream on the top, regardless of the underlying flavour. Cheese is often combined with a type of guava jam called bocadillo or put into hot chocolate (both of which I have tried this last week), so I’m not entirely sure the Colombian’s have worked out that cheese is savoury!

The teachers at the school kept telling us how jealous they were of the kids’ cooking lessons, so we organised an after school lesson for them 2 weeks ago, in which we made a Bakewell tart and mini egg custards. They absolutely loved it, and it brought out their inner child – I think more flour was thrown in this lesson than any lesson with the students! It was definitely an unforgettable lesson, as half way through the Bogotá weather hit and a very heavy hailstorm followed by torrential rain led to the upstairs of the school flooding, so we had to pause our lesson to go and sweep out water for about an hour!! This week they repaid the favour and taught us how to make empanadas (the Colombian version of a Cornish pasty) and a layered dessert of biscuits and a creamy lime filling. Delicious!

We also had a day of incredibly successful music lessons two weeks ago. Patti, the director of the school, wanted us to try and increase their awareness of vibrations, so we used this as our focus for the lesson. Due to one thing and another, we had no lesson plan 5 minutes before our first lesson, and we just prayed for inspiration, and God told us to stop worrying and that we would be given the ideas as and when we needed them. Which he did! We started our first lesson and the ideas just came and it went so well. We used the bass drum with some rice on so they could see the vibrations and sat them round it so they could all touch it and feel it. We then made them take their hands off the drum and see if they could feel it through the floor, which they could. A lot of the advice we were given/found said that it’s best if they take their shoes off, but here in Bogotá they think you will get sick if you don't have shoes on, so that didn't work for us. They were really good at remembering where they had felt vibrations before and telling us what made those vibrations. It was a great lesson, they were really engaged and we learnt a lot too.

Another special lesson we did this week was a social studies class with grades 10 and 11. We spoke to them for about an hour on life in Britain, what our home cities/village look like, what some British traditions are etc. and then they had so many questions to ask that it continued for at least another 45 minutes. They were so interested to find out about Britain. They learn a lot about America here, but not so much about the UK. They were fascinated by the loch ness monster, and they couldn't get over the fact some people might eat pheasant from time to time, but to them it's perfectly normal to eat guinea pig!

The school inspectors were meant to come on Monday, hence why we had spent Friday night tidying some rooms. They phoned up on Monday to say they couldn't come and eventually turned up on Thursday for a grand total of 8 minutes... Patti seems to think it went well, so we are all just praying for the license to come through in the week after Easter.

In our weekends we have done a variety of things. We went to see Bogota club, Millionares play football at their home stadium which is just round the corner from us. The atmosphere as great, we won 4-0 and Josh really enjoyed having something more manly to do (He is very good at putting up with us three girls!!). On that Sunday we stayed at the pesian restaurant where church is held for a delicious lunch after the service. The following weekend we met up with all the other Latin Link missionaries in Bogota and went into the centre of town. There was an amazing carnival going on, and the costumes of all the percussion ensembles made me think that SYPE (Shropshire Youth Percussion Ensemble) never tried hard enough with our outfits! We then went up the Colpatria tower, which is the tallest building in Bogota and has a spetacular viewing platform at the top where you can look out over the city and the surrounding mountains. We finished the day enjoying a lovely tea in an amazing Colombian cafe. On the Sunday we went to church, enjoyed a lunch together at Crepes & Waffles (this really needs to be introduced back home...) and then Felipe, one of Abi's friends, came over to give us a salsa dance lesson. Although I was very self concious at first, it turned out to be a lot of fun! This weekend just gone we had a very relaxed couple of days. We spent Saturday wandering around the centre of Bogota, exploring the artisan markets (where I bought Mum's birthday present - ooh look she's all excited now!!!)  and on Sunday we went horse riding up in the mountains around Bogota. It was great fun but I was minorly terrified the whole time. I had a stroppy horse who didn't want to do anything she was told, would try and bite any horse that got too near, and would stop to eat whenever it fancied. But the scenery was awseome and it was a cool way to see it. This week is Semana Santa (holy week) so there are no kids in school. We are going to use this time for some planning, to visit some of the other Latin Link projects in Bogota and also to relax and rest after a very busy few weeks.

Sorry this has been so long! As usual, Blipfoto has been updated, and I've now added a link at the top of this page :)

Prayer requests:

• Team Health - Josh has had a bad stomach bug and is just finishing his antibiotics, so prayer that he would make a full recovery quickly would be great. I've also been very tired recently, so prayers for energy would be fab!
• School License - pray that this would come through and the government wouldn't keep dragging their heels over this
• Final few weeks here - pray that goodbyes wouldn't be too difficult and that we wouldn't be to apprehensive about moving to Santa Marta.

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