Gaining perspective in Bogota

Hola Amigos!

It is now the end of our second day at Luz y Vida, and we are currently at Annie’s house.  Annie is cooking us dinner tonight and we are helping with some maintenance and cleaning while we are here. The girls did some painting (we forgot to bring painting clothes, so we turned all of our clothes inside out– including our pants– and we look awfully silly!) The guys are doing some plumbing/electrical work too and putting some fixtures up in her bathroom.

It’s been a great day. This morning on the bus to Luz y Vida, the girls were talking about our next blog and how we were going to tell you all that we have fallen madly in love with Bogota and we are all going to stay here. (Rich would of course have to move here as well!) We have all decided on our new careers here: Laura is going to be a dog walker and a teacher. Bekah will be the school nurse at Luz y Vida and she just informed me that she also wants to take up veterinary medicine.  I have found my calling as a salsa dancer, believe it or not (all those Zumba classes have apparently prepared me for Bogota as we found out at Annie’s party last night).  Craig, Josh and Tyler are going to stand on another’s shoulders at street lights and juggle machetes and flaming torches (we saw some other guys do this, and collect money from cars stopped at the light).

OK, seriously, let me tell you why we love it here. First of all, it’s beautiful. The city we had seen the last couple of days has far exceeded our expectations. Secondly, these kids at the school are just so awesome, and the ministry is completely inspirational. Third, we want to be fluent in Spanish. You should hear Annie speak in Spanish, it blows us away. Fourthly and most important, the people we have met so far are so amazing and so much fun!

Annie's Birthday/Latin Dance Party

Camilo, Julian and Alex in the Formando Vidas bus

Annie has been the best hostess, but we’ve also been made so welcome a lot by other Formandos Vidas staff.  Alex lives in the apartment connected to the place where we are staying called 127 House. He is originally from Venezuela and has been in Bogota for 13-14 years and has literally raised 15 children (none of which are biologically his children); children that needed a stable home and family. Note that he is only in his early thirties right now. Alex is also one of the funniest people we have ever met! There is never a dull moment when he is around. It is hard to explain his humor in a couple words, but he is dramatic, silly and always full of energy and a lot of hilarious facial expressions— you just never know what to expect from him. He is also a really scary driver, but we still appreciate of his driving since he has driven us around A LOT.  He only knows a little English; he is a ridiculously great dancer (and very over-the top in that too). The dinner he and his cousin Edwin cooked for Annie’s birthday party was the fanciest, most fantastic thing we’ve ever eaten! We have been spoiled! Edwin is currently going to chef school, so yeah, Rubaix Team, we have a chef too.

Cuisine for Annie's Birthday Dinner (Vegetarian Version)

Alex also raised 2 other guys that we’ve spending time with: Julian and Camillo. More on them in a later post (see the photo above).

So… like i said, this morning we were just bubbling over with how amazing this experience in Bogota is and how different it is than what we expected. Then, after school today we walked to where Annie lives now. This is definitely not the same kind of neighborhood as where we’ve been staying and spending most of our time. It’s pretty scary here. Annie is more than grateful to have the accommodations she has, but we are kind of sad to see where she is living. Don’t get me wrong, she has definitely been making the most of her house, it feels homey and inviting, but it is not the kind of living conditions we are used to in the States.  It hit us once again at the kind of sacrifices she has made to do the Lord’s work. So, our perfect, beautiful Bogota is not quite so, but it doesn’t change how we feel about the people here!

Well I’ve blabbered on enough, and I’ve managed to miss some more cleaning duties, so it’s time to wrap this up. I want to tell you more about the people here, the kids and share some prayer requests for both the team and the Formandos Vidas ministry which i will do in the next post.  I hope these pictures post OK today. I’m posting one of Alex, Julian and Camilo in the bus which has been our transportation; one of us and our new friends at Annie’s party last night (after we danced for HOURS!) and the Team today with our paper bag puppet crafts! We won’t be posting photos of the kids for their own safety, but we have tons of photos to share with you all when we get back!

With love,

The Bogota Team