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| View From Our Apartment to the East |
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| View From our Apartment to the West (Raining) |
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| Heavy Rainstorm |
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| After the Cleanup |
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| The Neighbor Mouse |
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| After the P-day Shopping Spree |
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| Don't Ask How Much that Peanut Butter Cost |
When Mike and I decided to serve another mission, we found ourselves drawn to the idea of helping those in poverty. We were called to serve a PEF/Self-Reliance mission. PEF stands for Perpetual Education Fund. It was established in 2001 in response to a need seen by our Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. Young people from impoverished countries caught the vision of a better life while serving as missionaries and when they returned to their homes, saw their dreams of a better situation die from lack of opportunity. Members of our church and other generous individuals donate funds to the PEF, which now has over 60,000 young people worldwide using it to fund their training or education. The PEF now has sufficient funds in its endowment so that all of the loans are made only from the earnings of the endowment. These funds are administered by volunteers (like us) and are paid directly to schools and vocational training programs on behalf of students who have taken courses and prepared a plan for their success. The programs they enter have been carefully screened to ensure the best possible outcome leading to a job (no funding for medieval European art history majors:) Recently, the PEF has been moved to be part of a broader self-reliance initiative for international members of a more comprehensive age range. The purpose is to teach principles and provide tools and services that will help many more members move from poverty to spiritual and economic self-reliance. It will now include many training programs targeted at self-employment and career development.
Immediately upon starting school, the student begins the habit of making loan payments at a set, low rate per month. Upon graduation, the repayment amount increases, but at a very low rate of interest. The repaid loans provide funds for new students to participate, which makes the program "perpetual". Come January, the amount owed can be reduced by achieving good grades, never missing a payment, and by getting a job after graduation, among other incentives.
During our six months in Colombia, Mike and I will be operating the PEF/Self-Reliance Center in Bogota, a city of 10 million. The Center teaches courses relating to self-reliance and jobs, among many other services, emphasizing the truth that God desires to bless all of His children, both spiritually and temporally, one affecting the other. We will mentor any who come to the Center, members of our church or not, and help them, through job skills, business management skills and other skills how to be self-reliant. We will try to match available jobs with qualified candidates. Our work is cut out for us!
When we arrived in Bogota at 12:30 a.m., we were greeted by a driver from the mission office who took us and four other young missionaries to our residences. We were happy to see a security guard at the gated and locked entrance to our apartment building. The guards are present 24/7 and each apartment has a phone wired directly to their desk. Our 6th floor apartment requires an elevator, which has space for two people and not much else. I took the first run up with two of our suitcases and as I fumbled to get the key in the lock of #601, the light in the hall went out and I was left in the pitch black. Freaky!! The hum of the elevator soon sounded again and Mike came to rescue me. Our apartment is considered very nice by Bogota standards and I will leave it at that. We are super thankful to have a king-sized bed and no bugs that we can see. Someone from the mission thoughtfully left a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, a box of milk and a bottle of lemon pop in the fridge for us. A whiteboard in the kitchen had a message scrawled on it, "Welcome Home", which gladdened our hearts before we fell into bed at 2:00 a.m.
The next day we were awakened by the sound of beeping horns, car alarms and chatting people as we like to sleep with the window open. The temperatures here hover around 65-75 degrees during the day, year round (mainly because of the altitude), so don't think HOT when you think of Bogota. It is downright chilly and the apartment has no HEAT. We quickly dressed to be ready for our 9:00 a.m. pick-up by our supervisor, Bro. Gomez. The Self-Reliance Center will be consolidating to a new location in January, but for now we will be in temporary quarters about a fifteen-minute walk from our apartment. The traffic is similar to that in Honduras - lots of cars and motorcycles, lots of dashing pedestrians in, out, and around cars stopped for traffic lights, and LOTS of honking. First impressions - nice areas interspersed with poor areas, beautiful, green mountains, graffiti everywhere, and lots of people. The Colombian people are a slender, handsome, friendly, and relatively short group.
After our first day at work, we walked to the grocery store to get supplies, then ate lunch at a little restaurant called Diana Garcia, which had delicious sandwiches! We began at a table outside, but moved in when I got too cold. I accidentally left my bag outside with passports, money, camera, etc. and thank heavens, a waiter found it and brought it to me. Blessings from heaven already. After lunch, we tackled the apartment, cleaning every nook and cranny from top to bottom. Lots of junk tossed and everything has a place in OUR HOME. We have our bedroom, another room that could be a bedroom, three bathrooms, a study room with two desks, a living room/dining room, a kitchen and a laundry area with a washer and dryer - so lucky! Did I mention there is NO HEAT in the apartment, although there is a small wood stove.
Wednesday morning, we met our neighbor when we rang the bell to ask where to put the garbage. Leonor is a lovely woman about 70 years old. There are four doors on our floor (the 6th and highest floor in the building). One of the others is the apartment of her daughter and granddaughter. We chatted awhile and I took the opportunity to ask her a VERY important question, "Can we flush the toilet paper down the toilet or does it have to go in the wastebasket like in many Central and South American countries?" She assured me we could flush our paper. Yeaaa!!! We were invited to share a cup of coffee, then she remembered we were Mormon and said, "Oh, yes! No coffee. Juice then?" I laughed and said, juice would be lovely, so I now have a new friend.
The office elders took us downtown on Wednesday to get our residency cards. All four of us squished into a VERY small taxi and we were off. We needed photos for our cards, so I assumed we would stop at a photo store to get them taken. WRONG! As we walked down the busy sidewalk, the elders stopped at a big blue umbrella with a sign attached reading, "PHOTOS". The "photoshop owner" reached into a Styrofoam cooler next to her chair and pulled out a camera and a roll of blue fabric. Gesturing for us to follow, she walked about ten feet down the sidewalk to a covered bus stop and proceeded to hang the blue fabric on the side wall letting it unroll into a white backdrop. REALLY? Taking passport photos in a public bus stop? I love international moments such as these! The process of getting our cedulas involved lots of lines, lots of waiting, and lots of interesting people to watch. Returning to the office, we met President Andelin, our mission president, who took us to lunch at a restaurant called, "Armadillo". Hermana Andelin joined us and we had delicious salmon and vegetables - not armadillo.
We have been busy learning how to run the computers, with all of their programs and keyboards in Spanish. It's tricky. Speaking of tricky, that describes how we get into the building where our office is. It requires standing in line everyday to check passports, take fingerprints and a photo, then entering through turnstiles that are activated by your fingerprints. After four days of this, we were finally taken to the security office where our photos and fingerprints were put into the system so we don't have to stand in line anymore, but can go directly to the turnstiles and TRY to pass through. Sometimes the glass (where you put your finger) is dirty, sometimes your finger is cold and doesn't register, and sometimes we try to go in the turnstile the wrong direction. You must pass through to exit the building also, so we get lots of chances to practice. We should have it down in a week or so:) As for entering into the office after we get up to the third floor, we must be buzzed in, then a special card is swiped over a sensor which opens the second door. We got our own card the third day, which was great.
I ate my first typical, Colombian food at a little place near the office called, "Sopas de su Mama y Postres de su Abuela" which means Soups from your Mom and Desserts from your Grandma. My soup, called Ajiaco, had chicken, corn, cream, finely ground potatoes and big, green nasty-tasting capers. Luckily, the capers were in a little dish so you could add them, but I was wise and tasted them first. The soup (without capers) was delicious! Bro. Gomez had a good looking vegetable soup, but when I found out it had cow stomach in it, it didn't look quite so good. Mike had a delicious seafood soup that seems also be typical fare at most area restaurants.
Our Thursday "juice" invitation with our neighbor was delightful. Her granddaughter, Elisa, was dressed as Minnie Mouse, complete with a black nose and whiskers. Evidently, she changes into this outfit every day after school so I think we have a mouse in the building after all:)
On Friday, we opened the office all by ourselves with our very own set of keys. The office I.T. guy got our cell phone hooked up, so we have internet service with our "hotspot". We pack it around wherever we go and activate it when we need the internet. It works quite well. We are thrilled beyond belief to have my iPhone here so we can receive texts and do "FaceTime" with our family. The miracle of technology! I even watched Season 4 of "Dowton Abbey" the other night, which some fairy downloaded into Dropbox for me (thanks Matt). That's my entertainment for the next six months, as we decided not to get a TV. If we need news from home, the internet provides it just fine.
On our Saturday "P-day" or Preparation Day, we did three batches of laundry and visited a very nice mall that was all decorated for Christmas with tiny white lights and giant Arctic animals in white fur. We also took a taxi to the HomeCenter (like a Home Depot) to get some necessities like pans to cook with, garbage cans, laundry soap, light bulbs, hangers, and a blanket for me. Did I mention it is COLD here? Half of Bogota was there shopping. Very interesting experience. We ended up buying a little too much in volume and weight. We tend to forget we do not have a car and have to go places by taxi (very cheap). We had to drag all of the bags out to the curb and hail a cab, then stuff two of us and 14 bags of stuff into one of their cabs - did I say they have SMALL cabs?
Sunday was the day I had been waiting for, as I wanted to make some friends (everyone in this city is behind walls, gates, and locked doors). We looked up the church address on lds.org and set out, but the map on the internet didn't take into account the apartment building that blocked the road. We asked several people out for walks if they knew where "La Iglesia Mormona" was located and finally got lucky when someone who knew overheard us asking another person. Entering the church was like coming home to Honduras - lots of "besos" (cheek kissing) and lots of handshakes. Lucky us, the Primary children presented the program for the service. Lots of U.S. Embassy families attend this ward and their children speak beautiful Spanish. The songs were sung in Spanish and English, alternating verses, so everyone could enjoy the music. The talks were all in Spanish, even though most of the Primary consists of English-speaking kids. Mike mentioned afterwards that his High Priest's instructor is a U.S. Army Special Forces guy and is huge.
We celebrated our one-week anniversary in Colombia with hot dogs for dinner. We stopped at the store and picked them up along with buns, ketchup, mustard and a special find - cheddar cheese! We boiled them up nicely, but when we took our first bite, something wasn't right. Note to self: Colombian hot dogs are individually wrapped so tightly in plastic that you can't even see it - but you can taste it!
All in all, we are doing well. It rains at least a few hours everyday, which makes the tree-covered mountains a beautiful green. We never leave the apartment without an umbrella! There have been some spectacular thunder and lightening storms, too. Fun, fun, fun! We love our adventure.
If you want to write a letter to us, you may send it either to the mission office or to our apartment.
Address them to - Elder Michael and/or Hermana Kristi Anderton at:
Office: Colombia Bogota North Mission
Calle 72 # 10 - 07 Oficina 1001
Edificio Liberty Seguros
Bogota, Cundinamarca
Colombia
or
Apartment: Calle 69 #5 -66
Apto. #601
Barrio Quinta Camacho
Bogota, Colombia
After this post I will try and put them on the sidebar for easy reference. Chao!
#wifewrotewarandpeaceandwehadtoedittofitonblog (added by her husband)
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