Photos from Quibdo

Looking through my eyes while I was in Quibdo

This is father Edison

The towns big Catholic cathedral

Our first evening in Quibdo there was an amazing 

storm that brewed as we wandered around the center. 

This picture was taken in a dark street at night just as 

 lightning flashed iluminating this photo.

Way cool.

These next few photos are from the program 

that Father Edison leads.

It is a program of integral education where

the kids learn sports, chess, how to behave and 

work in a team and group, etc.

I photographed many a foul.

Father Edison gathering the group for

a serious talk.

The kids have big personalities

and great smiles

Photo out of order:

The street side market place

A child preparing to leave after

a long hot day of soccer.

A view of the town is in the background

The street side market where you can 

buy platano, chopiduros, dried fish 

and all sorts of other colorful, delicious

tropical fruits and vegies

Long boats bringing in the Platanos

This is the popular form of transportation.

Costs 500 pesos = $.25

She's recieving change

Platanos are a principal element of the

food here

A colorful display of a particular variety of mango,

they are about the size of one's palm.

Champiduros.

I have a lot of photos of this fruit

because they are so beautiful

Washing the limes

A bunch of dried fish

The long boats that bring the havests

from accross the river

Chompiduros

A georgeous display of the goodness

the earth gifts us with

The Parking Lot

Cooling off the platano?

Flash Dance Style

The Cornacopia of Quibdo

Photos from Bucaramanga

Friends, Fun and Sites of a whirl-wind tour of Bucaramanga

Padre Jorge Chowing-down on some Goat...It was really Good

Taking a break in a local café

Love these doors from a Catholic Church

Colombia's Independence day parade in front of the Episcopal Church/ home

The mission up the hill

Bible School with the youth group

Local friends

Youth Group Bible Study Singing

Here we are all together in the humbly constructed Church

The Church Kitchen

Youth Group

Service

A view of the Mission Comunity

a chick in a bird cage...I found it humerous

The president of the Comunity who is responsible for the electricity, recent wave of construction and the begining stages of a school whith the latest pride and joy...school desks

From left to right Father Fernando, a member of the parrish, the president of the community and Deacon Eduin

Future site of the constructed church, housing and school

Evening mass 

The main church and where Father Jorge and his wife live

The street in front of the Church/home

In Quibdo

Well, I am now in Quibdo for the next two weeks to visit with Father Edison. As I write this his 12 year old daughter is being entertained by my computer and the foreignness of the language. Audra and I arrived yesterday around 2pm after a one hour flight from Bogotá. After a lunch of bean soup (one of my favorite foods in the world), fried fish, rice and salad we changed our cloths and Edison took us on a world-wind tour of Quibdo on foot. One of the stops included a university where we met with an anthropologist/lenguist and talked with him for about an hour. A this university he and his team are compiling anthropological records of the history of Choco and Quibdo which include books, poetry, singers, athletes, musicians, etc. This information will be shared with V.... University and is funded through England. It has been a long time that I have had to concentrate so hard to understand a conversation. I caught about two-thirds. I started to pick up more when the conversation turned to linguistics and the Pelenque (which means walled city). I was investigating Choco, Quibdo just the other day to investigate the local music. The professor has invited us to join him in a visit to Pelenque which is the last remaining slave settlment. Here, half of the citizens speak a spanish-franco creole that can not be understood by spanish speakers. This city has preserved its native african roots for hundreds of years. It would make my trip if I got to visit this city. After this meeting I was exhausted. Yet we did keep going at least for a few more hours. I think we got back to the house around 8pm. We will be staying with Edison and his family for the duration of our stay here. Along our visit we were inundated with students and professors clamoring to practice there English with us. Others might handle such a situation better than I do. However for me, it just gets overwhelming. Especially when I am already tiered and there are intense personalities demanding of your attention. A group of university students just dropped by wanting an impromptu English class. We will have to talk to Father Edison to help us organize something so that Audra and I can help but we are not taxed.
The life style here is very humble. Maybe half or better of the streets are paved. The houses are sturdily constructed and many are colorful. I am reminded that the very same resources are more comfortable in a cooler climate. Audra and I went to bed last night sticky from the heat and humidity. The humidity is what takes the cake here. It is almost always at 100% and it rains practically every day. Then the heavens opened up. All that evening as we were walking around we got to enjoy the distant lightning and thunderclaps that I have missed so much from Alabama thunderstorms. Around 6:30 Edison took us to Rio Calive and Rio Quito that merged together to form Rio Atrato. Because of the storm forming we were blessed with a fresh cool breeze. The river smells alive and fresh. With the constant breeze and the scent my mind was transported to the beach fishing with my dad. ( It made me miss my dad and the beach back home, but in the good memory way.) Thankfully the rain held off yesterday until we were back in the house. It poured even as we were going settling down to sleep, sticky and all. However I did sleep very well and much needed.
After having lunch with Edison this morning we were told that we would be teaching English to a school group in the morning and at a government college in the afternoons. I´ll be sure to let you know how that goes.

It seems like each day that I am in Bosa I grow closer to God and fall more and more in love with this mission. Everyone has a gift that God intends to use for a specific purpose if we are only willing to take the time to listen. My time in Bucaramanga was that very time of meditation and quite that I needed to discern God's voice. In the short two weeks in Bosa I have gotten to know most of the in's and out's of the children, business side, personalities, needs and pains of this place.
I have found myself serving more as a fellow companion in this mission along side Father Alberto and Mauricio and not just someone to teach English. Although this is still a rocky transition that is going to take patience and time. Monday, Sandra, who is to be the cook while I am away was there. This gave me time to take inventory on what food stuffs we have and make a list of what the mission will need per-month, week and day. I was also able to make out a menu from Monday to Saturday that is nutritionally complete. This included teaching Sandra about how to combine whole grains and legumes to create a complete protein. I was sure to include many of their local favorites. Sandra seems willing to follow the menu and make sure that everyone eats all of their vegetables.
Father Alberto is a bit overly cautious about my work schedule and we are now discussing the fact that when I am there I want to be the one to cook, clean and care for the children so that he doesn't have to pay someone to help. The discussion is still more of him letting me talk and then going ahead with the ideas he previously had in his mind. I am reminded constantly that I must rely upon God for patience. My friend Lucho and I are energized to help Alberto get the mission organized and supplied with the needed resources. While Alberto and Mauricio have the heart and are endearingly idealistic, it will take experience, organization and a dose of reality to see this program to sustainable success. I am really learning what it takes to make a mission successful from the ground up. This is an invaluable experience. I am going to be taking advantage of the resources around me to learn the basics of business that can be applied to missions, such as accounting, negotiation, etc.
Along with the parrish and mission where I work, Alberto is also working with an elderly care home located under his apartment, he has a service mission in another location at 4pm on Saturdays and another location at 7pm on Mondays. The very little time I thought he might have had to at least take a nap and see his family he has covered up in travel and even move work. Mauricio, his brother-in-law, who is Alberto's right hand man has thoughts of moving away to start his own mission. I am trying earnestly to convince the both of them that God calls us to rest one day out of the week. My tactic is just to repeat myself time and again until I am blue in the face and then keep repeating it until they take a day off each week. A sick or burned out priest seven days a week is of no use to anyone but a healthy energized priest six days a week is a recipe for spiritual growth and a prosperous community.
As I get to speak to some of the members of the parish, neighborhood and friends of the mission I am now charging them with homework to help me convince him to rest. Along with the issue of rest is the issue of spreading oneself too thin. With so many other fledgling missions in the work Father Alberto can not put the energy into the mission and parish of Bosa that is needed and if Mauricio decides to jet we would be down an extra pair of eyes and hands. In my opinion both are detrimental to the success of this mission. I am hoping that we can come to an agreement to focus on getting Bosa to be self sustaining before moving on to another project, with the understanding that this will take years.
Monday I was made even more acutely aware of the needs of this area. There is a tiny three/four year old boy who lives in the same building as most of my kids and is beloved by many. Roland absolutely adores him. They were playing and laughing for a good half-hour or hour until all of a sudden the little boy went very quiet and long in the face. Roland brought him over to me and I sat him in my lap and hugged on him. The kids told me that both his parents were working and had left him and his older sister in the street with no lunch. Roland at one point was kind-of playing a game asking him if his father hit him often and hard; it is just so a part of the life here. He had such a despondent look on his face. The kids also told me that he was sick. I carried him into the house with a group of the kids trailing behind to give him a bit of lunch. It is so funny that even when a child is hungary he still doesn't like carrots or tomatoes. After a bit of food and drink and time to warm up to me he started to show off his strong personality leading us into laughter.
This is why this mission is here. If we could get the money we could provide scholarships for such children. No child should be neglected or wonder if anyone in the world cares about him or her. Our eyes have been opened now the responsibility is upon us to act.
Again if you feel called to support a child in this mission or what ever means of financial support, including donating computers (we need at least four), cloths, reading books in Spanish,etc. please write me. There is an official bank account being set up for Bosa through the Episcopal church where 100% will get to where it needs to go.

Hit the ground running. It's what feeds me.

  

So since writing the blog about Bosa I was supercharged to take full advantage of the experiences and memories that the mission could offer.  I returned from Bucaramanga early thursday morning having slept through most of an eight hour bus ride.  Thursday night I lucked up being in the office at just the right time to be invited to a private Eucharist that was held in the little chapel of the Cathedral.  In attendance were all but one of the priest of the Bogota area.  This included Facatativa and Bosa.  Also in attendance were two Episcopal Franciscan Monks.  One from NY and the other from San Francisco who I had actually met just a few days earlier in Bucaramanga.  It was the intimate parting ceremony in honor of Rt. Rev. Luis Fernando.  Who as of Sunday August 2nd is officially the Bishop of the Northern Provence of Ecuador.  It was a lovely ceremony in its warmth and tenderness.  It is always a special moment when you can look around a room and every face is a friend and a dear soul. 

I had planned on attending the ceremony.  Unfortunately plans were changing from a car ride that would cost next to nothing, to a bus ride that cost a couple hundred to a plane ticket that would cost a few to many hundreds.  I elected to sit tight in Bogota. 

In the mean time I was able to devote myself to work.  Since beginning I have learned had to manage the mission, some of the economics, many of the psychological and emotional issues that plague the children and I can now rock a kitchen that is equipped with four gas burning eyes  and a humble selection of pots, a couple of pans and one decent knife.   One of my greatest joy is when they ask for seconds. I have discovered that handling the cooking and the kids is too much for just one person.  

The few times I have found myself juggling this alone I realize there just isn't enough of one person to care for the kids as they need to be cared for.    Not to mention the little tricks of life that occur.  Today, for example, just as Esefania had to run out to deal with a responsibility my name began to be called out emphatically; it was something about the upstairs commode overflowing.  After getting to a moment I could step away from the kitchen I climbed the stairs and turned the corner to see a small flood of back-up water.  It's little things like this that make the job a bit more interesting and defiantly unpredictable. 

I moved myself into a leadership position with Father Alberto to the extent I kicked him out of the mission two days out of every week I am in Bogota.  I got a solid taste of what his life had been like over the past three weeks.  Seven days a week at the mission, six days with the kids from 7:30am to 5:30pm.  On top of that he gives services tuesday through saturday at 7pm.  Last week I slipped my feet into his shoes for three days, this included celebrating holy eucharist.  By Wednesday night I entered the apartment and straight into bed.  My mission is now to help Father Alberto get consistent reliable help from the diocese, especially when I will be out traveling.  He's on the fast track to burning out if he doesn't get some balance into his life. 

I really don't know exactly what it is about Bosa that makes me so content.  It must be the dynamics the kids and I have.  They feed me and energize me.  I end up looking forward to spending time with them even as I am waking up at 5am.  That says something I think.  

Be Blessed