10 incredible months and two more to enjoy

I had the opportunity to attend the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Anaheim, California a few weeks back. Since returning to Bogota I have been digesting my experiences during convention and in Colombia. After a few days away from Colombia I returned feeling revived and inspired, especially after having had the opportunity at General Convention to share with others what Colombia is like. So aside from learning a great deal about the Episcopal Church, what really struck my heart was an overwhelming emotion for the United States and Colombia. The interest people in the states took in wanting to learn and be open about Colombia, offered hope that the perception of this greatly misunderstood country is changing one person at a time.

While in California I was asked many of the same questions I was asked before I left for my mission last September. Is it safe? The church wouldn’t send you somewhere that dangerous would they? What about all of the drugs and the cocaine in Colombia? And the guerrillas? The FARC? Aren’t you afraid of getting kidnapped? Before setting out for my mission I wasn’t exactly certain how I should be answering all of these questions, so I tried my best to respond with the little information I had educated myself with through the internet and stories of other travelers, hoping this would help bring some peace to my friends and family.

This time around when it came to answering to these same questions I was able to answer with honesty and experience. I was able to share all of the knowledge about this country I had; how incredibly hospitable, loving and kind everyone is. How wonderful, diverse and rich in culture this country is. And when you arrive in Colombia you will feel like you are living in a different world, not because everyone speaks a foreign language or because the food tastes different, but rather because of how the people will make you feel, welcomed, loved and cared for, stranger or not.

paint.

A few of the latest additions to the apartment are a lamp, light coverings, a bathroom rug, a luxurious cushioned toilet seat, a violet plant and robins egg blue, a lighter version of Robin’s egg blue and mint green walls. One of these days I will capture the beauty of this recent transformation the apartment has been subjected to, it is definitely something to share with the whole wide world.

Painting was a task bigger than we had anticipated, not because painting was a new experience for us, or the walls were huge or there was tons of detail to fill in, but for reasons having to do with the end result of the colors we ended up with. The colors on the paint chips were nothing even remotely close to the colors that ended up on our walls.

Just so we are all on the same page, revamping the apartment is something that Laura-Catherine and I have been talking about for awhile and to finally have in all of the proper supplies ready to go, we were almost unstoppable. There were four of us painting, three rollers and a brush, we all started in different rooms hoping to be efficient, conquering the entire apartment all at once, which actually ended up creating more work rather then less.

The color I started with turned out to be a decent green, I was happy and just kept right on painting. It wasn't until I stepped out of my own little world for a minute to take a break that I saw the robin’s egg blue in the breakfast nook(adjacent to the living room), then I checked the hallway and was struck by the bright mint green. I didn’t even try and hide my disappointment, or dislike for the new 80's remodel. Fortunately for us, the two colors least aesthetically pleasing colors matched, and the decent green was the one that clashed. After discussing this "minor issue" we settled on painting over the decent green by adding white to the breakfast nook color and painting the living room with that. The decent green was salvaged for our bedrooms, it was a bit dark for the size of the rooms so we added some white to lighten it. It has started to grow on me and matches the sofa so it isn't all that bad.

taking time to remember to remember

My inspiration for blogging recently have been on the lower end on my motivation scale. Unhappy with this, not understanding why, and trying to type up something that made sense for a blog entry was extremely frustrating and got worse the more I tried to reason with myself, the more I tried to figure ‘it’ out, literally the more I tried to force it, the worse it became. Many hours were spent typing gibberish, deleting, retyping and reading other blogs in search of anything, any small seed of inspiration I could get to grow. My goal was to have something posted last week, but Friday came around and still not luck, still no blog.

Then came Saturday, a gift from God. I had the entire day to myself and it was just wonderful. My family called in the morning from the lake to wish me a happy 4th of July, I found comfort in the warm blankets of my bed, movies in English, drawing/sketching and making my own food. I did not leave the apartment nor did I talk with anyone aside from the necessary, polite saludos. The day was perfect for catching up on my thinking, relaxing and just being with myself and God. This day reaffirmed that I need to provide myself with days like these more than every so often.

Sunday Padre Alberto picked us up early for a day at his parish in Bosa (the outskirts of Bogota). Laura-Catherine and I stepped out of the taxi on to the unpaved road and into the church with the tarped walls, dirt floor and patched tin roof. At the end of each service we introduced and explained who we are as missionaries and people and what we will be doing to help with the mission. Before I go any further, a little about the mission we will be helping with in Bosa: it is called Operation Rescue, created to rescue the children from the streets and from the television while their parents work literally from sunrise to sunset, if not longer leaving the children home alone before and after school.

We spent Monday, the opening day at the mission, as well. I am left inspired and at a loss of words. These two priests, Alberto and Alejandro have had a dream of starting a church and a mission like this, for who knows how long and have dedicated their lives to achieving this. About 2 years ago they were able to start regular church services in Bosa, and various other locations around Bogota, 7 services, 2 priests. Another thing you should know is that it is rare that a priest gets paid enough to live on which usually leads to many part time priests and a full time something else, lawyer, professor, police officer, etc... Alejandro and Alberto live solely on the generosity of the parishioners, which in some areas of the city is hardly anything. So to live off of this, support a family and build a mission from the ground up is very difficult, and very incredible.

What moves and inspires me above all of this is the dream, the passion and the love they live. It reminded me that it is not always easy, in fact more often than not dreams are difficult to achieve, but living and believing in them, in others and in yourself is what makes dreams come true.