Medellin is a beautiful city with a pleasant climate and incredibly generous people. I am blown away by the giving nature of the people here, they still have so much love to give after living in/through difficult times. Colombia has struggled with corruption, drug wars and drug lords causing the displacement of people, unemployment, deaths, disappearances of loved ones, it has caused such turmoil and pain for the people of Colombia, and all they have been through they give so much of themselves and take pride in the beauty of their country. As a friend said, “We can talk for 20 minutes about all the bad things about Colombia and then carry on for hours talking about all the beautiful things.”
The church in Medellin, San Lucas, runs a preschool during the weekdays, which I was able to help by reading stories in English, helping in the nursery, and playing with the kids, ducks and bunnies. When I pulled out a camera to snap some photos, the children took the camera hostage, fascinated with taking pictures and getting the instant results (I've posted some photos). They loved hearing me talk, just saying their names in English was the greatest for them and great fun for me.
What I had the most difficultly with, aside from the slurred speech and beans at every meal, was their generosity. They work so hard, long hours, they don't make much but they insist on paying for things, were willing to take a day off, or fit in any time they could to spend with me showing me the city and still felt like they weren't attending to me well enough. When I tried doing dishes or helping they responded by saying, "please let me attend to you." All they wanted to do was give; it was overwhelming, humbling, and beautiful. Allowing someone, anyone to give what they can and then in turn being able to receive it graciously without immediate action was difficult.
As I was listening to "Love" by John Lennon on the plane ride home, I thought a lot about my experience, and what I could to with these feelings of being overwhelmed. How to pay it forward and live love. I thought about the difference between the power of love and the power of fear and what they can do to a person depending on which we choose to invest in. Here are the lyrics for Love:
Love is real,
Real is love
Love is feeling,
Feeling love
Love is wanting
To be loved.
Love is touch,
Touch is love
Love is reaching,
Reaching love
Love is asking
To be loved.
Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
We can be
Love is free,
Free is love
Love is living,
Living love
Love is needing
To be loved.
3 comments:
A beautiful post. The pictures on Facebook are terrific!
We've just returned from an overnight to Wenatchee. We took our International Whitman student along with us. He is from Bulgaria, had an old friend in W, and asked if he could come along. We were so thrilled to have him and to share part of the beautiful NW with him. I think maybe we feel about him as your "fostering" parents feel about you. We want him to learn about our country and to enjoy the experiences that are so new to him. He's an amazing young guy, freshman at Whitman but his dad is an international diplomat for Bulgaria so he has lived all over the world....anyway, we had a great time to showing him the "Apple Capital" as Wenatchee likes to call itself:)
Audra, it has been so great to read your blog! What wonderful adventures await you. This sounds like a once in a life time experience. To be able to serve others is an amazing blessing. My husband Christian grew up over seas and describes it as humbling and eye-opening. He served a mission for our church to Hong Kong for 2 years and he talks of the experience with such joy.
I am so happy to be able to follow you through your blog. I have always wished we lived closer to your family so we could know eachother better. Perhaps this "blogging" is an answer to that. Good luck to you and our prayers will be with you!
Your cousin, Leah Jensen
It sounds like you have really had some adventures, I think that the people there are so humble for the most part, you are on your way to finding a way to pay it forward. The Lord loves us and wants us to be like our older brother Jesus and one way to do that is find more love to spread around. Love YA!!! Aunt Sue
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