Clear Sailing at Last (To the River)

 

A Picture For Last Week's Posting - "Whopper King" (Burger
King Has Units in Colombia and They are Called Burger King)

 

Monday 20. There is a saying here, "dar la papaya", which means to give someone a reason to steal or take something. Using your cell phone while walking down the street would qualify as doing something which would "dar la papaya" to a would-be thief. "Dar la papaya" literally means, "give a papaya". Mike also had another one used on him this morning. He was talking with one of the volunteers about doing something in a different way in the future, and then asked if the person understood and was in agreement\onboard. The person said they were “enchufado”, which literally means “plugged in”, like an extension cord.

 

Lots of activity at the office this Tuesday 21 as the Career Workshop took place in the "Sala de Capacitacion" (teaching room). Fifteen individuals between the ages of 18 and 60 participated. A sister from a nearby ward volunteered to teach the workshop. She is a psychologist by profession and the students seemed very engaged, because we heard loud applause coming from the room several times. As the semester is about to begin for many universities, the phones were ringing off the hook all day and the emails were flying fast and furious from students waiting to hear if their loans had been approved and\or their tuition checks were available. The entire application and disbursement process for five countries has been moved to offices in Peru and they are feeling the effects of what each institute previously dealt with. The institutes, which are part of the Church Education System, have been involved in administering the Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) from the very beginning in 2002. Now, our office will take the role of meeting with students to help them make an educational plan. Those electing to use PEF funds are required to take a "Planning for Success" workshop, which we will now teach. We or members of our staff plan to meet with each new participant to make sure they understand the program. Some students may decide to use government-sponsored programs and other scholarship opportunities instead. Jonathan, who has been in the office everyday for the past week or so, came to the office this afternoon so excited. He got a job! This university graduate with a degree in psychology got hired by an AT&T call center. He speaks English quite well and is excited to be working, even if the pay is $2/hour (more if he sells a certain number of service contracts). He said the final interview was online and that he enjoyed talking with a very nice woman (in the U.S.). He told her about his mission, the church, and family home evening. He is the sweetest guy. He wants to begin the Church's addiction recovery program here in Colombia and asked for help in connecting with social services. He talked with someone in the area offices in Peru who arranged a meeting with the woman in charge of the Social Services program in Colombia. They are meeting tonight and we are very excited for him! We left work early to attend the Bogota Temple, where we did some family names in initiatory. As if "Anderton" wasn't hard enough for Latin lips to pronounce, some of our family names simply stymied them (such as Francis Brian Fetheringham). It was payback for us having to pronounce Antequero Anzoategui and Restropo Bohorquez.

 

Workshop Group

 

It’a Wednesday 22, and the internet\phone guys are STILL working on the lines. The painters started on the office exterior today and outside the front door, the ground is covered with super-sized scraped-off paint chips. The Career Workshop Part 2 took place inside with all participants in attendance for the second day and each dressed very nicely in professional attire. They practiced going to an interview. Almost all were on time, which is a big tribute to yesterday's teaching. Our weekly staff devotional/staff meeting began at 9:00 a.m. and lasted until 11:00 a.m. Mike did a great job of laying out the vision of where we are going with the program and everyone seems very excited to have direction. If we do nothing more than get this office organized, cleaned thoroughly, all of the nooks and crannies devoid of accumulated paperwork and junk, and the program headed in the right direction, we will feel very satisfied. We hope another couple can step right in when we leave and carry on what everyone has worked hard to put in place.

 

Painters Hard at Work

Thursday 23. The highlight involved a mother and her adult daughter who came into the center asking if they could learn about the church that runs this office. They have been inspired by the current activity and feel that any church who desires to help people help themselves is one they wish to investigate. The love in this place just oozes out the front gate and over the walls:).

Hermana Amaya

Elder Amaya

Ferney

I'm still laughing after using Google Translate on Friday 24 to understand one of the comments on a student's PEF account. The Colombian hermana who called the student recorded something in her notes about not being able to speak with either the student or his contacts (the "papa y pariente" - father and relative), then another sentence followed which I didn't quite get. I wanted to understand the entire comment, so I copied and pasted it into Google Translate, which translated the above sentence as "I was not able to make contact with the potato or the relative." HA! No wonder they couldn't make contact - potatoes don't answer the phone! I learned the word "papá", meaning father, needs an accent mark over the last "á" - otherwise it means potato! So funny! The hermana that recorded the notes had a good laugh at that and said she had better start using her accent marks! One thing that I was NOT laughing about today was "the smell". Our office is the only room at the CAS with it's own bathroom. Ever since we arrived, the toilet hasn't flushed very well. When the flush button on the top of the tank is pushed, the bowl filled up to the rim with water, then the water slowly descended to its normal level over several minutes. Edgar said he had this new toilet installed a couple of years ago, but it hasn't worked well for a long time. We put "fix the toilet" on our office renovation punch list, and today they removed the toilet to see what was causing the problem. First of all, in most Latin American countries you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet. The "tubes" just can't handle it. You must put the used TP into a little, plastic-lined basket that is always found next to the toilet. Most assuredly, some "gringos" hadn't been instructed properly in toilet paper disposal, so the "tubes" were probably plugged up. With the toilet off and the "tubes" inside the toilet unplugged, the workers removed a large, cement covering in the driveway to expose the hole in the ground where the bathroom's two "tubes" (4" PVC-type pipes) deposited their contents after exiting the building. One tube is for gray water from the sink and the other tube is for the toilet contents. To make sure the tubes were free and clear, the workers poured a bucket of water down the bathroom’s now-exposed hole. Immediately, a big problem was discovered, so they called us outside to see. Instead of water running out the toilet tube, the water just seeped out. Evidently, when the driveway was poured last year, someone slopped cement into the hole and plugged the end of the toilet tube almost completely. The interesting thing Mike and I observed, though, was that both of the tubes dumped directly into the hole and were unconnected to a larger diameter pipe which sat about a foot and 1/2 away. Hmmm. After the workers removed the chunks of cement blocking the end of the toilet tube, we came out to take another look. Trying to understand exactly how the whole system worked, we were a little shocked to see that it worked exactly how it looked. In plain language, when the toilet is flushed or the sink drained, the "contents" flow out of the tubes, across the dirt in the bottom of the hole, then into the bigger pipe (hopefully). During heavy rains when the water backs up, a valve in the larger pipe prevents the contents from backing up into the toilet. (Good to know.) We asked where the contents that flow out the pipe go and they replied non-chalantly, "to the river." I asked if it was treated with chemicals or anything before it was dumped into the river and the answer was negative. Mike asked if they ever swim in the river and they just laughed - apparently not. Then he asked, "Where exactly does the river go?" All we got were blank looks. The smell inside our office was pretty ripe by now, but the cleaning lady came through with a can of "Glade" giving us a breath of "Fresh Aire". The toilet was soon replaced (they cement the thing right to the floor with no wax rings in sight) so it should be good to go on Monday. The painters have been busy prepping all week. The outside overhang has been scraped and the roof tarred. Inside, every screw and nail (many painted over during the last job) have been removed and mudded over. Mike is inspecting and supervising the work, so they are getting a vision of what a job well done looks like. He demonstrated how to use a putty knife to remove paint slopped over the edges of the tile (taping does not appear to be standard practice). The dark-colored chips in the white floor tiles are being repaired and water-marked and dirty ceiling tiles are being cleaned. Three broken, paper-towel dispensers are being changed out for new ones and three non-working soap dispensers are being removed in favor of pump-style bottles of hand soap next to each sink. Colombia didn't realize a couple of "particular" missionaries were coming their way! My self-appointed job each morning is to pick up the trash out in front of the office before anyone arrives. I get lots of stares from people walking by, as trash on the streets is a part of everyday life and I think people become oblivious to it. The month is coming to a close and our team of missionaries\volunteers has whittled down the 400+ calls on our “high-priority” list (resolving problems of all sorts with PEF loans) to about 50. We have recruited any young person who walks through the door seeking a job to volunteer a few hours in the center while they look. We scored one volunteer last week and one this week. Both young people are computer savvy and provide a welcome addition of technology smarts to help the senior missionaries (I refuse to include Mike and I in that description, though we are seniors:) These returned missionaries are fearless about tackling computer glitches, talking with people in person, or dealing with others on the phone. They add spark to the office. It's like a beehive of activity now with the merger of the PEF program and the employment center into one Self-Reliance Center (CAS or Centro de Autosuficiencia). We want that feeling to continue so individuals seeking to improve their economic situation can feel the energy of hope swirling around them. We share with people God's desire to bless them both spiritually AND temporally. We love the work we do and are so glad to be here, helping in whatever way we can. Each small effort is appreciated and we love these people.

The Great Unplugging

Cement Removed

Sleeping in until 8:00 a.m. on Saturday 25 was delicious! Mike and I both sat in bed with our computers after breakfast and worked on tasks - me with my little iPad and he with his HP laptop. The battery in his computer keeps overheating, which causes the computer to shut down (he is going to have it cleaned this week). To alleviate the problem, he places the long, narrow drawer from our sofa table on his lap and places the computer inside. Since the laptop is an inch wider than the drawer, front to back, it sits at a slant, providing a little air pocket underneath. Our floor fan is then directed towards the drawer, which keeps the battery cooler. It seems to work and we are hoping the poor HP will last until the end of the mission. We finished up about noon, then went for a walk. I dropped two jackets off at a tailor shop so they can shorten the sleeves. I've been tucking them up since we came and decided to finally get them shortened properly while it can be done for $6.00 apiece. We enjoyed a long, long walk again, before arriving home in time to get cleaned up for a 6:00 p.m. baptismal service at our ward building. We received a phone call from the full-time missionaries at 5:00 p.m. asking Mike if he would speak at the baptism of Juan Carlos and Edwin. Juan Carlos, a friendly, outgoing gentleman of about 45 years of age, walks haltingly with crutches as the result of a back injury. He seemed so happy. Edwin's wife is a member and they have a beautiful three-year-old daughter. He looks like he's about 16, but is probably in his early 20's. A large group of friends, family, and ward members attended. When it was time for Edwin to enter the font, they discovered that the water was way too hot, so we watched some church videos while cold water was added. When Edwin came up out of the water after his baptism, he gave us all the biggest grin accompanied by a thumbs up sign. His little daughter clapped her hands in joy. It was so sweet. A chair was placed in the font for Juan Carlos' baptism and he sat sideways on it so the missionary could lean him back to be buried in the water. As Juan Carlos leaned back, his legs began to rise, but his entire body was under the water for a split second. Mike, one of the witnesses, deemed it "efficaz" (efficacious). We didn't stay for the refreshments afterwards, instead choosing to stop at the Italian restaurant down the street. I ordered chicken lasagna and Mike ordered fettuccine. My lasagna came in a bowl and looked/tasted like glorified mac and cheese with thick noodles and chicken pieces. It tasted good, but it wasn't like any lasagna I've ever eaten. Not a single red anything was in sight - no tomatoes, no tomato sauce, and no spices. Mike's fettuccine was a big bowl full of egg noodles with a little butter and a few shakes of green herbs. My salad was great though! Lots of veggies and crisp lettuce.

Incredible KR

Ouch!

Haircut Time

Juan Carlos & Edwin

It was another taxi-ride Sunday 26, off to Barrio Tierralinda to meet the leaders. Within one minute of arriving, the bishop asked if I would share my testimony during the meeting. It's one of the hazards of visiting different wards each week. I nervously walked up to the podium and when I looked down, I saw the four sisters who shepherded me in the temple last week. Looking at their sweet faces and knowing that they recognized me, a calm feeling immediately came over me. Mike said my Spanish is getting better every day. The 15 stakes on our side (the mountain side) of Colombia just finished two sessions of their first-ever ESJ (their version of Especially For Youth) and all the youth in the ward who attended shared their thoughts and feelings about the event for the remainder of the meeting. One young man reminded us so much of our 12-year-old grandson, Will. He shared, "We are the future leaders of the church and we need to strengthen ourselves to do this great work. We need to strengthen our testimonies of Christ, make good decisions, and walk in the correct way. This week was very edifying and I felt the spirit many times. It was a very significant event for me." Two sessions of about five hundred youth each, ages 14-18, gathered together for a week of spiritual nourishment, fun and togetherness. I spoke with the couple who headed the entire event, asking them if people from the BYU helped them put it on. They said that BYU sent a few manuals, but they learned the most from watching hundreds of youtube videos. The counselors for the week were the young adults in the stakes (18-30 years) and unlike EFY, all of them volunteered their time to do it. A young man in our ward couldn't stop talking about how great it was to know there were so many members of the church his own age. After sacrament meeting, we met with the bishop and asked how we could be of service to him. He had two people with employment needs and he is excited to work with us and will call a self-reliance specialist for his ward. He also invited us to join he and his family for dinner the next time we visit:) When Mike and I got home, I warmed up the dinner I had prepared the day before. As Mike started on his potatoes, he went to the fridge and came back with the pouch of "salsa de tomate" (tomato sauce). "Why are you putting tomato sauce on your potatoes," I asked? "It's not tomato sauce. It's ketchup," he replied, pointing to the word, Ketchup, in small letters underneath the words, "Salsa de Tomate." No wonder last week's taco soup tasted so weird! I put two cups of Colombian ketchup in it instead of two cups of tomato sauce! I spent the evening looking at sites for our post-mission visit to Amazona (as they call it). While scouting "Trip Advisor", I began having second thoughts, as I read the following two reviews about one company's excursions. "During our night canoeing, we did not see any caymans, but we had a huge anaconda swimming right under our boat - we could touch it, but we were wary of the pirañas." And, "The best attraction was the canoe ride on the lake. In the marshy corner of the lake, our guide told of seeing an anaconda. Going inside the marshland can be life threatening, as tigers or snakes can come in the boat." YIKES! I'm terrified of snakes….and a tiger? Mike commented that they were just trying to juice up the ad, there are no tigers in Brazil. Maybe they meant jaguars. Or maybe trigrinas.

The KR-Killer Tigrina - Size of a House Cat

Chao, chao!

Wired in Bogota

Monday 13, our office was inundated with wires, as the phone/internet lines were being installed. The way they did it was interesting. The two guys doing all the installation of the phones, internet, etc. measured how long the wires must reach from place to place. A box of heavy-duty, 1/4" diameter wire was taken outside the gate and seven to eight lengths of it were strung out on the sidewalk. One of the workers then bundled the wires together while the other one taped them together every ten feet with a strip of black, electrical tape. The first bunch of wire to be strung was about 80 feet long. After it was all taped together, they hauled it back into the office, removed a few ceiling tiles, then threaded it thru bit-by-bit. Since all the walls are solid cement, all the wires have to be installed through the ceiling then down the walls and along the floor. They have been at it for a week and the job continues. After work, we had the taxi drop us at the old office so we could pick up our two Christmas packages from Amy and Jon's families. Katie thinks theirs is lost, but we think it should arrive before we go home in May. We also found a Christmas card from our niece, Mindy, when we got home. The guard slid it under our door. We pretended it was Christmas Day as we opened our boxes and played a hand of Scrabble Slam (Amy's box), while chewing our gum (Jon's box). Amy also sent a surprise of two baggies with 1/2 cup of Bisquick in each so we can make Impossible Pie! I was craving it on Christmas morning, but was missing that key ingredient.

 

Installing New Phone & Internet Wires

The Couple in the Middle are the Amaya's (Colombia) - They Serve
With Us in the CAS and Are Wonderful People

Tuesday 14. We worked until 7:00 p.m., ate some chicken soup, and fell into bed at 8:00.

Wednesday 15, the phones rang all day long. Many of the students will begin classes in the next week or two and are awaiting word on their desembolsos (tuition checks). The area office in Lima is centralizing all the tuition payments and applications in one center, so there has been lots of glitches as everything gets set up. The keyword is patience. Many of the students don't seem to understand the 5/6 rule. For the six months prior to a tuition payment, the student must have made at least five payments or show five of six months with a negative or zero balance. What some have done is skipped paying for five months then paid all six payments on the sixth month, but that doesn't comply. It's been painful to have to explain why they must wait another semester until they comply with the 5/6 rule. We are trying to instill within them the habit of regular payments. The Church Education System is no longer involved with any aspect of the PEF program, so when the students go for help they are told to call Colombia PEF, which is us. We've been overwhelmed with emails, calls, visits, etc. but slowly things are clearing up little by little. Staring next month, we will be responsible for teaching the "Planning For Success" workshop, which is required for all PEF loan applicants. That should be fun! The internet phone guys are still trying to get the lines installed. The job was scheduled for one week, but they're still here.



Job Seekers in the CAS - Jonathan, Noraly & Carlos

Jonathan Got a Job This Week

Nestor Being Mentored By Jonathan

Thursday 16. Work and more work. Mike was very tired. We had to do some errands on the way home, did some walking, and he told me later he Zombie-walked the last half-mile. We are working 10-hour days, then come home and work another 2 or 3 hours catching up on what we didn’t finish during the day.

Friday 17. Our taxi rides to and from work reminded us of Star Tours - the 3D motion-simulated space flight ride at Disneyland where you enter the "star speeder", buckle in, then get tossed about for ten minutes until you're ready to hurl (Mike never goes on that ride, it hurts his back). It felt very similar, but without the "buckle in" part since most of the time the seat belts are buried deep in the seat crack. Our two drivers for the day must have been related – how interesting that our two wildest rides in three months happened on the same day. I was wishing I had our big camera to record the ride on video. It was super fast and super jerky. I'm sure those two drivers have to replace their brakes every couple of months. Just for fun, I have began keeping track of the plate numbers of the taxis we ride in along with the driver's name. Since we take taxis everyday now, I thought if we got the same driver twice, I could act like I remembered him/her (I included "her", but we've only had one female taxista in over 100 trips). When we use the Tappsi app, we get the name and plate number of our taxi before it arrives, so that gives me time to look at the list on my phone. We haven't had a repeat yet, but with 60,000 taxis in the city, that's not surprising! We walked to the Marriott Hotel to have dinner in their little cafe area. The hotel is a piece of U.S. heaven and we occasionally like to immerse ourselves. Both it and the Hilton are only a few blocks from our apartment.

Saturday 18. Schedule was the usual: Laundry, clean, cook for the next week, nap, long walk. This walk was to end at the Andino Mall, but before we got there, we passed another mall we had never seen before. And inside was, are you ready, a……a……a Taco Bell! I NEVER eat Taco Bell at home, but we haven't eaten Mexican food, or even seen an authentic Mexican restaurant since we've been here. Somehow, it sounded like it would be delicious. Nope. The mall also has the Hard Rock Cafe-Bogota, so that is on our radar for some other Saturday. Might even get a t-shirt.

Sunday 19, I finally captured a few photos of Sunday morning on the main thoroughfare 1/2 block from our home. Every Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., the police close one side of the Septima 7 (a divided, six-lane road) to all motorized vehicles. All morning long, the road is filled with bikers, roller-bladers, runners, strollers, etc. Mothers and fathers walk behind their little children on trikes and bikes, couples stroll hand-in-hand, athletes huff and puff as they run or jog, and even little old ladies shuffle along. It's a wonderful thing to just sit and watch all the people go by. We enjoy the event each time we walk home from church.

The Store in the Background is a Carulla, One in a Large Chain
of Stores We Frequent. It is Expensive, But Has Many Imported
Items and is Very Convenient

Our Street on a Sunny Sunday

Thank you to everyone who sent Christmas cards. My mom scanned any we received in Wenatchee and emailed them to us. Especially fun, were the cards sent directly to Bogota. Nothing was as fun as coming home to a letter slipped under the apartment door (thank you Marty and Mindy) or having the security guard hand us a card as we headed for the elevator (thank you Greg and Patty). One day we received three cards! FYI, we looked at the postage and one card sent from Denver cost 64 cents. Another enterprising family from Draper, UT (you know who you are) guessed the postage and put $5.50 on their card - both arrived safely:)

Just Say Yes to Cheese

As you can see by the post dates, we have been extremely busy for the past two weeks. The time has flown by as the busyness of the work has kept us hopping every minute. Monday 6 was ANOTHER holiday, "Dia de los Reyes", which celebrates the arrival of the three kings to worship the Christ child. Many businesses and families extend their vacations for another week after Christmas. It's crazy. Mike and I slept in and then, about noon, we took a long, long walk. The normally crowded and noisy streets were deserted and everything was closed up tight. We walked six blocks south, eight blocks east, then about twenty-two blocks north. One of the few places we found open was "The Flower Park", which is a conglomeration of flower businesses in one location. We asked the price of one of the beautiful arrangements and were shocked. The large, stunning mix of roses, gerbera daises, etc. was a mere $20. Some things really are a good deal here. We ended our walk at the Andino Mall which was open for business, and we ate a nice dinner upstairs in the food court. While eating, the familiar sound of rain pounding on the roof began in earnest. It was still coming down hard when we finished our dinner, so we hopped into a taxi and headed for home.

Boiling our Drinking Water for the Week

The Flower Park

Would You Believe This is $20?

 

On Tuesday 7, we enjoyed the long-awaited return of the Amaya's, as they showed up at the office ready to go to work. This sweet, senior missionary couple from Colombia will be working with us at the SRC (Self-Reliance Center). They have been serving in Bogota since last March, but took a two-month leave to go to Panama to help their daughter with a difficult pregnancy. Everything turned out okay, which was a great relief for them. Elder Amaya is a soft-spoken, quiet man and Hermana Amaya is a go-getter. They are sorely needed and very much appreciated. The workers came today and took out the big cubicle they had constructed on Friday. Apparently, it wasn't in the plan, so out it came. We also had them take some extra chairs, bookshelves, etc. that we didn't need. Carlos Fernandez, the former director of all welfare activities in Colombia (who is transferring to Peru), came in to collect his things. We were shocked when he only took a few notebooks and a little basket with flowers given to him by his mother who passed away Christmas Eve. He left us with "mountains" of manuals, papers, notebooks, books, CD's, etc. which will take days and days to go through. Edgar, our boss, also stopped by. I think he was shocked to see that his entire office was packed away in boxes. We are the directors of the SRC now so we were directing! Sometimes I am sure some people roll their eyes with our impulsive eagerness.

KR in Front of Our New Office

Mike Mulling the Cheese Shortage

Graffiti is a Problem

A Cold & Rainy Bogota Morning

Now we are at new location, it seems we are going non-stop every day. We feel so tired by the end of each day, but it's a good tired. Mid-morning Wednesday 8 the buzzer rang and I looked out the door to see a group of women standing outside the gate. The front door is ALWAYS left open, even when it's cold outside. Every so often when I'm freezing, I'll shut the door and go into our office, but seconds later, I'll look and Ferney has opened it back up. Ferney is a young, twenty-something intern who is being paid by the government to work at the front desk. He is shy, quiet, and never eats lunch with us or anyone else in the office. He seems to prefer solitude and is perfectly content eating alone. Even at the big area Christmas party, he took his plate and found an empty room for himself. Back to the women at the gate - (all appearing to be in their 20's or early 30's). I approached and asked if I could help them. Apparently, they had seen our sign, "Centro de Empleo" (employment center) and were interested in finding some kind of job. I invited them in to sit down and speak with Mike. Each of these women are mothers to a special needs child who they bring to the center around the corner at least three times a week to receive therapy. These mothers became friends as a result of being together while waiting for their children. The therapy class lasts two to three hours, so as they wait, they walk and talk. Each hopes to be able to find some sort of job that will help them provide for their family. I think they were hoping that we had a small business where they could work during the hours they wait for their children. We shared some snacks with them as we talked about what our center provides in the way of tools to help people find employment or start small businesses. They were especially interested in hearing about ideas for things they could do/make at home. I told them about the baby blankets I make and they may be back to see them one day. Mike and I walked to "Mi Casa" for lunch, which is one of the few places I will consent to patronize around our new office. The neighborhood around the SRC is very different from the bustling downtown location of our old office. After work, the Amaya's walked with us to a nearby grocery store. Things in this area of town are less expensive, so we bought things like cereal, yogurt, etc. I even found cornstarch and sage, which I have been searching for! We had the taxi drop us at Carulla's to continue the “great cheddar cheese hunt” but alas, no luck. We walked home empty-handed.

Visitors to the SRC

Thursday 9 began with a 5.5 earthquake in Santa Maria, some 160 miles south of Bogota, and was felt by many here in the city. Since we were in a taxi at the time, we didn't notice anything as every taxi ride feels like you're in an earthquake! It was a big day for us even without the earthquake, as we opened the office all by ourselves. It's quite the process. First, you must insert both arms through the railing of the big metal gates of the driveway connected to our office in order to unlock the heavy padlock holding the thick chain around the posts. The lock is on the inside of the gates, so it's a bit tricky doing it from the other side. Once the chain is free, you unlatch the gate. The thick, metal latch is wiggled back and forth which produces an awful screeching sound until it clears the latch and you can swing one of the gates open. Once through the gates, you return the latch to it's original position and replace the padlock. The next obstacle, the front door, has three, keyed locks, but only the bottom two are used (usually). First, a key is inserted into the top lock and jiggled in and out until it catches. You then turn the key clockwise two complete turns. Next, the key is removed and inserted into the bottom lock and is turned one complete revolution clockwise. At this point, you return to the upper lock, and turn the key slightly to the right while gently pushing the door forward until it moves a quarter inch. Holding the door in that position, you remove the key and return to the bottom lock, which will now turn all the way to the right releasing the latch so you can enter and punch in the four secret numbers to disarm the alarm. Lest you think we are finished, no. Now the front gates have to be opened. The padlocked chain holding the front gates together has to be removed and the chain replaced around one post and padlocked. The latch on this gate must be wiggled back and forth (screeching louder than the one on the big gates) and when that is done, the office is open for business! Visitors have to be "buzzed" into the front gate, which helps us feel safer. After work, we had the taxi drop us at the old office so we could retrieve the PEF cell phones from the file cabinet. The last load of our things apparently didn't make it and the phones were in the drawer of the "archivo". We collected our three phones, then took off for home via another Carulla. The great cheese hunt was still underway, but no luck. (Mike comment: For those of you that have been around my sweet wife for any period of time, you know that when she gets something fixed in her head, you just get out of the way. This month it was cheddar cheese.) When we got home, we ate dinner and Mike fell into bed and was fast asleep by 8:00 p.m. Sometimes, we're just totally exhausted. Interesting tidbit: The military is often out in force on the roads and highways and as you zip past, it is common practice for them to give you a "thumbs up" sign, which means “everything's good, keep driving”. Pilar told us the army is trying to present a new image of friendliness. Good for them!

Friday 10, so tired. Mike feel asleep on the bed with his shoes on.

Ahhh, Saturday 11, a day off from the hustle-bustle of the office. We got the laundry done, then continued on the great cheese hunt by going to yet another Carulla (I am literally dragging Mike around by this time). I asked the young man in the "deli" if they had received a shipment of U.S. cheddar yet. He remembered me and smiled, "Si, senora." He disappeared then returned with a beautiful, orange, cylinder-shaped brick of U.S. cheddar cheese! It was about 12" long and 5" in diameter. He asked how many slices I would like and I told him I wanted half of the entire brick. He blinked twice and asked, "Perdon?" I held up my fingers about 6" apart and repeated myself, "One half of the entire thing, please." The great cheese hunt had come to an end. When we came out of the store with our bags of groceries it was raining hard so we hopped into a taxi. I spent the afternoon making dinners for the coming week. At 5:00 p.m. we hopped into a taxi again to meet the Cely's at the Santa Fe Mall. They showed us all the stores in the mall, then we hit the ice cream store next to "Whopper King" where we enjoyed a giant banana split while Jon texted the play-by-play of the Seahawk-New Orleans game. So exciting! Going home, we had the taxi drop us at the Hilton Hotel, where we stopped and arranged a Super-Bowl replay\dinner for two on Monday, February 3, if all goes well. The staff there is so nice, as we stop and eat there frequently and talk football.

The Queen

 

Making Baked Potato Soup

Sunday 12, we took a long, $11 taxi ride to attend Barrio (ward) El Jordan in the Suba Stake. Riding through the narrow streets, we felt like we were back in Honduras. The people in this part of Bogota live in much more humble circumstances. The narrow, little chapel slowly filled with children and adults. The reverence during the sacrament portion of the meeting was exceptional. We have noticed the same reverence in most of the wards we have attended. It's amazing, because there are lots of children and tile floors which usually don't bode well for a reverent meeting. The purpose of our visit was to interview and photograph Richard Lopez and his family. Richard benefited from a PEF loan and now has stable work and is able to provide for his family. Mike shared the work of the SRC during priesthood meeting and the members are very excited about the changes. FaceTime with the kids was the highlight of the day, as is each time we hear from them.



Richard Lopez Family

Peeved Wisconsin Cheese Workers Forced to Work
Extra Shifts Because of Sudden and Unexpected
Cheese Shortage in South America

The Skunk Shirt - A Clarification

One of our family's hidden secrets is I love skunk shirts. I have worn and worn out several generations of them. But like skunks, they just keep coming back. Even though they may vary slightly in style, they usually feature an all-black material with one or two stripes down each side in the front. You may have noticed my current skunk shirt in many of our mission pictures (I actually have two of the same exact shirt, but only one here with me). You may have come to believe that instead of white shirts and ties, I only wear my skunk shirt. However, to make things perfectly clear, I only wear it on our P-days. It just so happens: 1) that we take most of our pictures on our weekly off-day, and 2) I only brought TWO shirts that are not white shirts with me - hence the overabundance of skunk shirt pictures. I wash it weekly, so have no fear, I smell fresh and clean.

 

 

Proof

Feijoas and 2014

Arising early Monday 30 morning, we packed up our suitcases, stripped the bed, then enjoyed an egg and potato dish for breakfast with the Cely family. Some of our group left in the car to travel to a nearby town to visit some other family members before we were up and about. We didn't know when they would return, so Mike and I went on a walk up the road where we met our host's little (really little) neighbor lady walking towards her home with a five-gallon bucket full of food scraps. The eating place down the highway saves the peelings and stems from the vegetables they use, and she goes each day to collect them to feed to her sheep (which graze in her front yard). Mike offered to carry the bucket as we walked back to her house while visiting. The sheep hurried towards her as she took the bucket from his hand and tossed the scraps onto the ground. They must know how good vegetables are for their health, as they chomped away at the carrots peels, potato chunks and assorted green things. Our chatting was interrupted by a loud burst of music which emanated from somewhere on the little lady's person. It was almost surreal as she reached into the front of her blouse and pulled out a cell phone. Earlier that morning, I was on the roof watching her haul buckets of water to her pila (cement washing area) in her backyard, where she scrubbed her clothes and her big, heavy rug, then hung them on a wire line to dry. It was so odd to think that she had a cell phone and we just watched her jabber away in amazement. We finally got on our way about noon, making a quick stop to meet Pilar, Andres and Estefania, who were staying another day with Andres's family. After arriving back at our apartment, Mike and I took a nap in our very own, comfortable bed, then got ready for Family Home Evening at the Colombia South Mission Home with President and Hermana Lozano, the Andelins, the Wakefields and one missionary recovering from an appendectomy. When we arrived, we were happy to discover dinner was on tap, as we hadn't had time to eat before walking to their apartment. The focus of the lesson/discussion centered on helping members who struggle. It seems there are always new programs rolling out, but afterwards, both Mike and I agreed that if the basic programs of Home and Visiting Teaching were faithfully done, new programs would not sometimes be needed.

Mike's New Very Small Friend

Her House

Her Ovejas

Washing Her Rugs

We Try Every New Fruit We Come Across - Here is
a Feijoa Right off the Tree - More Tart than
Mike Expected

Yellow in the House for Good Fortune
in 2014

Feijoa Smoothies

Our Wonderful Hosts

The Onions of Boyaca

Selling Wheat for Prosperity and Grapes for
the 12 Wishes

Lake Sochagota With Paipa, Colombia
in the Distance

Kristi Savoring Her Bizcocho

Monday Family Home Evening

 

Tuesday 31 we worked our last day at the office that is minutes (walking) from our apartment. Starting Tuesday, we will be taking a taxi to work every day. The office closed at noon for New Year's Eve, but we worked until 1:00 p.m., wanting to get our list of calls completed. A long nap was in order, since we had big plans for the evening - joining the Gomez family to celebrate a traditional Colombian New Year's celebration! At 8:30 p.m. our "chauffeur", Bro. Gomez, arrived to pick us up. He previously instructed Mike to NOT wear a tie or white shirt and for me to NOT wear a skirt/dress. This sounded fun! When we entered the door to their home, the heavenly smell of something delicious in the oven made us stop and take a very deep breath - kind of like on Thanksgiving when we get to Grandma's house. A turkey wasn't in the oven, but I did see a pig! We were going to feast on homemade lechona. I was glad the head had been removed so it would fit in the oven. There is something inherently creepy about eating an animal with it’s head still on and it’s eyes looking at you. The Gomez's little grandson, Benjamin, entertained us for the next hour or so with his cute antics and expressive faces. All I could imagine in my mind for awhile were our grandchildren's faces, and thoughts of home washed like waves over my heart. Being with such wonderful friends did much to alleviate our loneliness for family. About 10:30 p.m., their daughter’s husband’s family arrived and the party began in earnest since Benjamin's aunties are in their teens and early twenties. Dinner tasted as delicious as it smelled. Lechona (basically a pig stuffed with yellow peas, green onions, yellow rice, and various spices, and cooked in an oven for about 10 hours) is such a popular holiday food that there are literally pages of places in Bogota’s phone book (lechonerias) where you can order a pig, sized to the amount in your party.

At midnight, the Colombian traditions began to unfold. First, the bowl of grapes came out. You must eat twelve grapes in a row, making a wish as you eat each one. Next, you grab a suitcase or a bag, go outside and run around the block carrying or rolling your suitcase behind you. This is to assure yourself and family good travels in the coming year. We didn't participate in this activity, as we were too busy watching and photographing the Gomez daughters, grandson, and all the neighbors running along the road dragging their suitcases and bags behind them. When everyone was back inside, Sis. Gomez produced a bowl of cooked lentils and dispensed a spoonful to every single person assuring sufficient food for the coming year. My very favorite tradition was the beautiful family prayer offered as everyone knelt together. In addition to thanking God for all things great and small, appreciation was expressed for things which occurred during the past year. Specific blessings according to the needs of each individual family member were then petitioned and the list was not short - blessings regarding work, school, health, heartfelt desires, and dreams. It was a tender and precious memory I will never forget and we plan to make this tradition a part of our future Anderton New Year's celebrations. Every culture and every people can bless our lives in different ways. It is one of the reasons why serving missions is so important. We also noticed two other things over the final days of the year that were interesting. Wheat stalks for prosperity and the color yellow for riches adorned most every home. Finally, we kept seeing stuffed, scarecrow-type bodies sitting along the roadside, on porches, and on rooftops. Apparently, the “people” are filled with fireworks and scraps of paper (on which are written descriptions of any bad thing that happened during the year) This had a familiar Honduran feel to it, although I don’t remember the fireworks. The figures are dressed in articles of clothing from members of the family. At midnight, the figures are set ablaze and all the past year's troubles go up in smoke and flames (and it also creates the need to go buy some new clothes). The Gomez family created their own variation of this tradition by placing the slips of paper into a sock (which was inscribed with a smiley face and the year 2014). Sometime after midnight, they throw it into the fire.

Lest you think the night ended there, the karaoke began about 1:00 a.m. and we finally ended about 3:00 a.m. Our videos and photos contain some excellent extortion material. Mike and I were very happy we had the foresight to take a nap! Back in the apartment at 3:30 a.m., we fell into bed and slept until 11:00 a.m. the next morning.

Wednesday 1, the first day of 2014, was spent entirely on sorting and filing our photos, catching up on correspondence, and working on our blog since everything was closed up tight.

Work, work, work was on tap for Thursday 2 at the new office. Workmen arrived early and removed a wall, then reinstalled desks in one half of the room. Mike and I packed up the entire offices of Bro. Fernandez and Bro. Gomez, since they will not be working there anymore and are still on vacation. They will return to a room full of boxes to go through on Tuesday. Surprise! We didn't feel like cooking dinner so we went out and searched the streets near the apartment for a new place to eat. (There are tons.) To our surprise, not a half a block away, we found a Tony Roma's. Big signs are not the norm here, so it's easy to not know what is out there. We ended up choosing a little restaurant in the hotel we walk by every day. We were the only patrons, and ordered soup and pizza which were both delicious.

Friday 3 Our taxi turned out to be blue, not yellow - a first! Apparently, blue taxi's are electric and there are only fifty operating in this city out of 60,000. One would think the government would provide major incentives for taxistas to purchase these non-polluting cars, but that is not the case. The taxi was the size of a small SUV (much larger than our normal taxis). The best things were the backseat legroom and unburied, functioning seat-belts! After each Tappsi ride you are asked to rate the ride online and offer comments. I have a standard comment in the "notes" app on my phone which I cut and paste into the reply. It reads (in Spanish), "Friendly driver, but the SEAT-BELTS DO NOT FUNCTION!" Today, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, we cleaned the new, CAS office (Centro de Auto-Suficiencia) from top to bottom. Every file, every drawer, every shelf, every closet, every cabinet, every EVERYTHING was emptied out and scrubbed. The office cleaning lady who is there each afternoon was smiling brightly as she carried bag after bag of trash out the door, including the broken microwave oven. Bro. Gomez has had so much on his plate for so long and it is difficult sometimes to know what to keep and what to throw away. That's our specialty:) Now that we have all the equipment and supplies organized into one place, we realize we have a supply of staples to last through the millennium. While all this was going on, an enthusiastic young man, Jonathan, came to the center and sat at a computer all day searching for information on college programs in the U.S. He wants to get further schooling in his area of study to help him in his desire to counsel recovering addicts. We are so eager to get our new office up and running. We are ready for the holidays to be over since everything shuts down (including all Church offices). We found out at the end of our work day that there is ANOTHER holiday on Monday – the day where Colombians celebrate the arrival of the wise men or “El Dia de Los Reyes”. This one we did not see coming and it seems that there is even more of shutdown than Christmas or New Year’s Day, because most of the businesses close. This results in a mass exodus from the Bogota urban core to the countryside.
 

Mike Hard at Work

The Office Being Torn Apart and Put Back
Together

 

On Saturday 4 I did laundry and then we headed out to get some exercise. We stopped at a little café

around the corner for lunch. All the employees had a brown, Chevrolet logo on their shirts. We guessed that the owner probably has a car dealership, in addition to his little chain of cafes. Afterwards, we ventured out to HomeCenter store to purchase some items I have been wanting, like a sifter (the internet says this helps with cake baking at high altitudes by taking out 2 T. flour for every cup used and replacing it with 2 T. cornstarch, then sifting the mixture five times). Now if I can only find cornstarch! We also got spare keys made for our apartment. Our landlord told us to only make keys at HomeCenter because "other places don't make good keys." We did not listen and he was right. We tried making copies at two different places on the street (very cheap) and neither set worked. So we decided to heed his advice this time. I also bought a cooling rack (high hopes for good cookies), some more hangers, laundry detergent, etc. Next we went to Exito hoping to find sage, bay leaves, and cheddar cheese, which they have had before. I don’t like the flavor or texture of the traditional Colombian cheeses. I didn't find sage or bay leaves in the spices, but did find them in fresh form, so I am now drying them. We stopped on the way home to grab a bite to eat and as we were finishing, an American man came in carrying a LARGE, two-foot-long piece of an aloe vera plant. He explained that his wife was very sick in their hotel room and that the doctor told him to get a piece of aloe vera and get it blended into a drink. Man did he find a large piece! We were pleasantly surprised at how accommodating the restaurant was with his situation. The employee carefully sliced it in sections, peeled off one side of the tough, outer skin, then scraped the gooey flesh from the inside into a blender. She then added some other ingredients (who knows what), then poured it into a glass pitcher for him, gave him a glass and said, "que le vaya bien" (hope all goes well). Mike said the restaurant must have a "BYOC" policy (“bring your own cactus”) - it did look like a cactus. 

The Very Tired and Thrilled Shopper in the
Checkout Line

 

Sunday 5 we made took a long taxi ride to the north end of Bogota to attend the Villa del Prado and Granda Ward meetings. That will be our routine (attending different wards) for the rest of our time here. Our goal is to use Sundays to introduce the concept of the new Self-Reliance Center, show the members there are real people there that can help, share with the ward leaders what we have to offer, and find out if the ward has a functioning Self-Reliance Specialist. We actually knew about four or five families in the two wards (some being employees at the Area Office and others being family members of missionaries we work with) so it was fun. Fortunately for us, we were introduced to the Granda Stake Self-Reliance Specialist (the Stake that included both of the wards) and talked for two hour with him. Happily, he seems very excited to work with the "barrios" (wards) in securing a specialist for each one. The Villa del Prado testimony meeting was as inspiring and heart-felt as any testimony meeting one could attend anywhere on the planet. Such fine people. We were very impressed. The reverence during the sacrament portion of the meeting was exceptional. even with lots of children. What a great Sabbath.