Shoes, Parties & Tappsi

The rain stopped this week. No raincoats or umbrellas needed. Bogota's driest months are December, January, July and August, and it held to form this week. However, in looking at the 10-day forecast, it looks like we may get spotty showers every day from now until Christmas. Interestingly, the highest recorded temperature ever in Bogota is 80 degrees (Fahrenheit), so you can see it does not get hot here. This makes walking very enjoyable and we certainly do a lot of that.

Much of our work at the office revolves around the same things each day for the time being. So, until we get moved into our new office in January, there is not much to talk about on the missionary front. Also, most Church employees and members of all ages are turning their attention to the Christmas season. It is a VERY food and family-oriented time of year in Colombia, so there is not much time for PEF loans, job fairs, job searches, college classes, and the like.

We will be taking a taxi to the new office, as it is too far to walk, but when we return each day we will have the taxi drop us a mile or so from home so we can get our walking in and stop at the store for groceries. Our friends from the embassy shared a wonderful app with us called, Tappsi. You tap the icon, it finds your location by GPS, you adjust the address if necessary, and then tap "Pick me up here!". The app then displays a little map showing the location of all the taxis in the area. When it locates one for you that agrees to pick you up, it says, "Reservation confirmed!", then gives you the taxi's license number, name of the driver, and estimated time of arrival, along with a security code that you give to the driver. The taxis pay a fee to be part of the system and it is much safer than just hailing a taxi off the street. We have been using it a lot.

After work on Tuesday, we picked up one of Mike's suits and a white shirt that needed repairing. When he bought the shirt, he hadn’t noticed it had French cuffs. Not wanting to use cuff links, he asked if the "sastre" (tailor) could take the cuffs off and make them the button kind instead, using the spare buttons sewn at the bottom of the front placket. When we saw the results, it was incredible! The cuffs looked like all the rest of Mike's shirts with button cuffs. The total bill for hemming pants, repairing the lining in the suit coat, and remaking the cuffs was a whopping $10. Even though Bogota is not a cheap place to live, like most Latin American cities, services are much cheaper than in the U.S.

On Wednesday we took a taxi to the Alhambra chapel, which is our Stake Center. Our Colombia Bogota North Mission was holding their Christmas party/zone conference, and Pres. and Hermana Andelin asked if we could come and enjoy the party and take their missionary photo. We gladly attended as the mission's only senior couple among all the young missionaries. Mike was called out of the crowd to tell about us and to talk a few minutes to the missionaries about the importance of learning English while in the mission field (to help them with future job prospects). The building was awash in Christmas decorations and they were still putting them up. We watched as a young girl hot-glued rope lighting to the brick archway in the courtyard. A lighted reindeer and angel figures sat amid the greenery in the planters and the posts were wrapped in poinsettia garland with tiny white lights.

A special part of the day was meeting two young sisters and one elder from Honduras. Both of the sisters were from our mission area, one from the Guaymuras Stake and the other from the Danli Stake. The conference part of the day included many beautiful musical numbers by young missionaries sharing their talents on the piano, violin, and through song. All the missionaries lined up on the stage, in chairs and on the floor for the mission photo. Mike took three successive shots to get them all in then, pic-stitched the photo together when we got home. It turned out great, as you can see. Mike even photoshopped out the encroaching tables, chairs, and big, blue and white crepe-paper balls hanging from the ceiling! Afterwards, we helped serve the catered lunch of fried rice, beef, ham, potatoes, salad and flan. It was delicious. After lunch, the Andelin's taught everyone some fun group games the missionaries could use at Family Home Evenings with investigators and members. In one final game, all the missionaries took off both shoes and tossed them into the middle of the floor. The first table group to all have their shoes back on were to be declared the winners. The hermanas had it easy as their shoes were red, orange, yellow, gold, blue, etc, while almost all the elder's shoes were black. One of the cute hermanas thought it would be funny to slow down the guys, so she would grab two or three shoes and hide them outside the window, under the stage curtain, in the kitchen, etc. Those poor elders were stumped when all the shoes in the pile were gone and theirs were nowhere to be found. We all got a good laugh out of that!

KR in Front of the Alhambra Chapel - They Take
Great Pride in Their Church Grounds



Putting up the Christmas Lights Using
the "Hot Glue Gun" Method



Zone Conference Break

Hermanas in the Chapel

Missionaries of the Bogota North Mission - About 60% of the Mission

Serving Up Lunch

Posing for Hermana Anderton

Start of the Shoe Game

Hermanas Hiding Shoes

Found Mine!

Dos Catrachas - Missionary From Danli, Honduras



The Cooking Crew

 



On the way home from the party, we had the taxi drop us at a hardware store to see if we could find parts to repair our dryer. The foil ducting hose had fallen off, which was understandable since nothing was holding it on. Using scribbled drawings, we explained that we needed a duct-to-dryer extension and a vent clamp to hold the vent hose onto the opening. They had a clamp, so we bought that. Well, eventually we bought it. The sales procedure reminded me of China's. First, we selected the item, after which the salesperson went to the computer and ordered it up, printed a slip and sent us down to the cashier. I stood in line until it was my turn to pay, which I did, then I proceeded to the line to pick up the purchased item. The items were being sent up to the “cashier floor” on a manually-operated dumbwaiter from the basement. Each worker had a walkie-talkie, but they all just yelled down the dumbwaiter shaft to the person below. One by one, the items arrived and one-by-one each of the people behind me received their items. After a fifteen minute wait, our little vent clamp finally made it's way up the dumbwaiter, my receipt was stamped and we walked out triumphant in our purchase. Walking home along the highway, we passed a little hole-in-the-wall place with parts for washers and dryers. Miraculously, we drew the picture for the woman at the window and she went back to her shelves and pulled out a genuine Whirlpool metal, vent elbow which was just what we had been searching for all week! After arriving home, I pulled the dryer out and had it all working again in a matter of minutes. Getting the dryer parts took one week with visits to six or seven stores. Repairing the dryer took five minutes. It was a long day and we both fell asleep reading at 9:30 p.m.

A Bogota Mobile Nursery - This Was a
Very Long Truck Loaded with
Hundreds of Plants

Celebrations, celebrations. Thursday the employees of the Church in this part of Colombia held their Christmas Devotional (and lunch) at the same building as yesterday's party. It was part of a bigger celebration being broadcast from the Area offices in Peru. We watched the devotional portion of the program in the chapel together, which mainly consisted of talks by the Area Presidency and choir numbers. The choir members all wore Santa hats - I am not really sure how long our American Christmas traditions have been creeping into Latin American culture, but the world is becoming a small place. After the devotional, Mike offered to take a photo of the group, which turned out great, except one couple came late and were sad to have missed the photo. We called on our fabulously-talented photographer friend to photoshop them into the picture. The tables were set with red linens and the chair had linen covers tied with red and gold fabric bows. Lunch was pork rolled up with something in it (never quite got an understandable answer), ham, boiled potatoes, salad and for dessert, creamy white jello with red and green jello pieces, flan, and a cupcake. Each table had a burning candle inside a square glass vase filled with fresh bing cherries. Our table decided to eat the cherries and since they were so heavenly, one of the women at the table decided to go see if the other tables had eaten their cherries. Within moments, she returned with two candle vases full of cherries - which we promptly shared around our table. One by one, the candle holders on each of the tables made their way to our table. Mike told the candle collector that in case of an emergency situation in the country, he wanted to be in her shelter, as we would never starve! We were exhausted from two long days of activities, so we took a nap and when we awoke, decided to walk to the mall about a mile away, to see the movie, Hunger Games. We liked it better than the first one - not as bloody. Near the mall, while crossing a street, a truck pulling a trailer passed in front of us. Inside the trailer was a large, white ceramic horse which looked vaguely familiar. When I looked again, I noticed a sign across the back of the trailer - P.F. Chang's. What!!! As soon as we got home, I checked online and supposedly there is a P.F. Chang's right near the mall. We will definitely have to check that out.

Local Church Employee Dinner - We Currently Work
in the Service Offices (For Now) and Were Invited

The Missionaries\Volunteers\ Employees of the Service Center, the Bogota MTC, Bogota CES,
the Distribution Center and PEF

Another Day, Another Dinner

A note on our schedule – we are finding that we are spending so much time tied to an office (probably 40 hours a week – and that will even be more rigid with the new year) and then you add other evening and weekend events and obligations, we will probably have no set P-day (do the wash, etc.) or study time. We will have to make time to do those things and take a break when the opportunity presents itself. Our eating schedule has also changed considerably. We now eat our main meal at lunch. As we are often too tired to cook when we get home, we eat something light, usually cold. Life without a car is a big adjustment for us (Americans love their cars). We have to carry everything home that we buy and we are walking A LOT. We are at 9000 feet, and you notice it when you walk and lug things around. Mike is adjusting and his feet are taking a pounding. You just get tired more easily at this altitude.

Brother Gomez, our supervisor, left town for a road trip on Friday to train some stake PEF specialists, so Mike and I manned the new office for him all day. We accomplished many things, and are ready and raring to go with the new programs that will roll out next year. It will be a big job, moving all the computers, phones, files, etc., but we'll get it done. Everything just takes more time here. The distribution center for the country is in a room attached to our new office, so we knocked on the door and asked for a tour of the facility. The steel racks inside are filled with neatly stacked boxes of all the materials needed by the stakes, wards and members in Colombia. They also distribute the materials and clothing sold in the distribution center next to the temple. After work, we had the taxi drop us off about a mile from our apartment (getting our exercise). We stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream cone (caramel and vanilla twist - no chocolate here), then walked home.

Big plans for Saturday rolled around in my head the minute we awakened. I showered and got dressed in my jeans. I only brought one pair of pants/slacks and they are my beloved jeans which I adore wearing after a six days in skirts and nylons. I made pancakes and cleaned the house quickly, so we could get on our way. First we stopped at the Hilton Hotel to check out a place to host a Christmas party for our little office. Then we went to the Marriott to check out their restaurant. Whoooa - way too expensive, so we went back to the Hilton and reserved the "VIP" room and worked out a menu. I think they weren't sure about us using the VIP room, since I was in jeans and a zip-up hoodie, and Mike was in khakis and his skunk shirt (family and friends know what shirt I'm talking about). We convinced them, though, and we got the room for Monday's party. Next, we walked to a store where our neighbor said they might have a white cake mix. I need one to make Mock Raspberry Cheesecake. It isn't Christmas without it. Bad luck though - no cake. I may have to settle for a yellow cake, since that's all I can find in the stores and I haven't found baking powder yet to make my own from scratch. After the chocolate chip cookie disaster, though, I'm a little nervous. I read up on high altitude cooking and you have to jump through hoops to get cakes, cookies, etc. to come out right.

Our destination for the day was Coferias to view the Expoartensanias, which is an international exhibition for the handicrafts of Colombia. According to it's literature, "it aims to promote the arts in Colombia and develop a platform on which national and international distributors can find high quality products." There was live music, shows featuring native dances, children's teaching stations for weaving and painting pottery, plus lots of delicious food, beautiful native crafts, artwork, clothing, jewelry, pottery, rugs, furniture, etc. In short, building after building was filled with beautiful colors and wonderful Colombian handicrafts. We were sad that we have absolutely no room for anything in our suitcases (nor any more room at home to put things either). We did get a tiny ornament for our Christmas tree!

Coferias Exhibition Site

Some of the Wonderful Fruits and Juices of Colombia

There is a Great Deal of Bead Work in
Colombian Crafts - These Feature Millions of
of Individual Beads and Took Months to Make

Mike Liked the Hand-Crafted Bull Rings - Made of Fired Clay
and Some Measured 4 Feet Across

Beautiful Items Made Using Inlaid Wheat Fibers

More Beadwork

Wonderful and Colorful Tradition
of Basketry in Colombia

And If You are Thirsty, You Could Buy a Shot of
Hard Liquor Served from a Cart Pushed
Around by Young Teenagers

We Had Dinner at a Popular Stand Featuring
Food from the Colombian Caribbean Area

Sunday, I actually made a cake that turned out! I followed all the directions for very high altitude cooking, like preheating the oven for 20 minutes at a temperature 25 degrees hotter than the actual baking temperature, putting the cake on the middle rack and turning the temperature down, then baking the cake 15-20 minutes longer than the instructions. Our little cake baked for 1 hour 15 minutes and it came out great. I poured a container of strawberry yogurt on top of our pieces and YUMMM! Mike was so-so with the yogurt idea and when I grimaced, he mentioned that our dessert standards are plummeting.

Have a great week and chao from Bogota!

Los Anderton