Boyacá or Bust

Monday morning on the way to work, we stopped at Carulla to pick up an apple pie for our evening's get-together at the Andelin's home. Mike thought it was dumb to carry a pie to work and home again, but I didn't want to find the pies gone later on. He was probably right when he pointed out there would be plenty of pies left, since no one in their right mind would pay $14 for an apple pie (except for me, who wanted an Entenmann's import that would have a much higher chance of tasting like an apple pie). It was a long day, with only a short break for Subway sandwiches for lunch. There is a Subway in the back alley behind our office building. I'm so glad there are a few "U.S." food places here that provide a taste of home. An afternoon rain began in earnest shortly before we left for the day, so we hustled back to Carulla for "Popsy" vanilla ice cream, to accompany the pie I was still carrying with me (by the way – all the pies had been purchased and I smirked at my hubby). We bought a few other items, crammed them into our bags, then headed home to drop groceries before walking to President and Hermana Andelin's apartment five blocks away for a Christmas Family Home Evening with the Dyer, Lozano, Carpenter and Piepgrass couples. We watched a beautiful Christmas video of the wisemen seeking the young child, Jesus, followed by some singing of Christmas carols. Pres. Andelin, Elder Carpenter and I sang, "Would I Know My Savior", since I happened to know the song. Sister Andelin plays the piano and violin beautifully, which always adds a great deal to our gatherings. Everyone brought something yummy to share which is always fun! We felt the Christmas spirit in great abundance while walking back home in the drizzle.

Our December 23rd Christmas FHE Group

We worked a half day on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. Taking the very long way home, we enjoyed walking thru the streets where vendors of every sort filled the sidewalks hawking their wares of toys, wrapping paper, Crocs, sunglasses, hats, ties, games, etc. The colorful sight of parents and children filled us with a longing for home and of being with family. We stopped at a restaurant we have passed before and enjoyed a plate of paella for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a long first five weeks with nary a full day to just relax, so we prepared for a quiet, quiet, quiet Christmas Eve. Glowing candles and the lights of our little tree made our living room feel cosy and warm as we snuggled on the sofa in our pj's and watched a movie on Mike’s laptop (biggest screen we have), until we grew tired and went to bed. There was no putting out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, no watching the grandchildren open their Christmas pj's, no reading the Christmas story while the grandchildren put the nativity figures in place - in short, it was a very different Christmas Eve (sniff, sniff). Even though we received several invitations to share the evening with families, Mike and I had decided to share a quiet evening together.

Belts-R-Us

If You Are in Need of a Christmas Shirt, We Know
Where You Can Find One

 For Christmas Day, Wednesday, I had set aside a “ham” and a bag of small potatoes (Colombians prefer a wide range of smaller potatoes). I made scalloped potatoes and ham, a family favorite. The $18 ham was half meat/half fat and provided about six servings of meat – expensive, but DELICIOUS!! Mike found a website with free old movies, so we spent the afternoon watching one from the Alfred Hitchcock genre and another entitled "Royal Wedding" with Fred Astaire and Jane Powell. That made us so tired J, we took a nap! Talking with all the kids in the evening was the highlight of our Christmas Day.

The office opened back up on Thursday and we worked from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. With all the regulars out of the office until the second week of January, Mike and I have become quite adept at resolving problems without them. I made a list of the students we communicated with in working out their issues and it numbered twenty-three individuals for the day! Colombia’s university institutes, which usually handle the initial interviews, signing of papers, and other concerns are all closed for the holidays and, beginning in 2014, will no longer be involved in administering the PEF program. When the students call with questions, the institute’s new favorite answer to anything regarding PEF is: "Call Bogota!" (That's us!) We've been inundated and alone. Mike suffered from a queasy stomach after work, so I walked to several "farmacias" (pharmacies) searching for Pepto Bismol, but to no avail. Pepto is in every store in Honduras, but appears to be absent from this market. I settled for Buscapina, an abdominal-specific antispasmodic tablet, which seemed to help.

On Friday we were excited to return to Migración Colombia to pick up our official "cedulas de extranjeria" cards, which means we are now legal, temporary residents of Colombia. They are plastic and have an ID picture, very similar to an American driver’s license in appearance. Whoopie! The cedula is the most important document for anyone living in Colombia – it grants you access to buildings, opens bank accounts, is used as ID, and identifies you to anyone in authority as officially existing! Now we can tuck away our Washington State Driver's Licenses, which have sometimes functioned (and sometimes not) for those functions up to this point. Amazingly, we were in and out within minutes, so we got back to the office earlier than planned. Our goal is to finish contacting all 411 PEF students on our high-priority list prior to January 1st, so we stayed quite late, before returning home to watch the BYU-Washington game on the computer.

Saturday, we packed our bags for a two-day adventure to meet some of the church leaders we will be working with. We hopped in a taxi to meet our hosts, the Cely's, at their apartment thirty minutes away. Juan and Cristina Cely, and their daughter, Pilar, are church-service missionaries who work with us at the PEF office. The Cely's live in an apartment, along with daughters Lina and Natalia, plus Pilar, her husband, Andres, and their daughter Estefania. The Cely's son, Cesar, and his wife, Sara, who live in Venezuela, were in town and also staying at the apartment during Christmas. Our destination was Hermana Cely's sister's house in Sogamoso, 224 km or about 3 1/2 hours away. We traveled in two cars - Pilar, her family and Hermano Cely in one car, and Cesar, Sara, Hermana Cely, Mike and I in the other. Once outside the city, the mass of high rises gave way to one and two-story houses, large tracts of green, open space, and lots of trees. It was beautiful, the air was noticably “mas frescita” (fresher) and I felt like I could breathe again. Our hosts made many stops along the way to share the beauties of their country with us. First was the Rio Sisga, where we viewed the beautiful man-made lake behind the dam. We took a few photos, jumped back in the cars, and drove around to the other side of the lake, where we sat awhile among other families and enjoyed the warm day and beautiful view of the lake. Llamas and a solo cow grazed nearby. Next stop - Puente de Boyacá, where one of Colombia’s main battles (1819) in their fight for independence from Spain was fought. The entire park and it’s statues, including the bridge, glowed with lighted Christmas decorations. At the top of a steep hill, we sat in a little cafe and enjoyed a hot drink that tasted somewhat like cider. Our next stop was an "artificial lake" near the town of Paipa, where lighted animals, windmills, a nativity and other Christmas decorations floated near the shoreline. While walking along the boardwalk, I thought I heard the word "comida", mentioned several times. I could see lights ahead, so I assumed we were headed for a restaurant of some sort. It was 7:30 p.m. and Mike and I had only eaten a scoop of ice cream and a cookie since breakfast. When I asked if the lights ahead belonged to the restaurant where we were eating, it caused a great deal of laughter and concern for "poor Hermana Anderton - she's so hungry!" After leaving the lake, we immediately stopped at a little shop along the road and my tummy was fed "aguapanela", a drink made from hardened sugar cane pulp (very interesting taste), almojabanas (a round roll made from cornmeal and eggs) and pan de yuca (made from yuca flour and cheese, in much the same shape as almojabanas). It wasn't dinner, but our hunger was abated. We arrived at our destination quite late and waited outside the wall until the metal gate finally swung open. Two big dogs started sniffing the car and I felt a little nervous, not being a dog person. At least they weren't barking. Hermana Cely's sisters, Maria (Ta-Ta) and Carolina (La Gringa – she is the fairer of the two) greeted us with besos and hugs. Maria's daughter and 10-year-old grandson, Alejandro, waited inside. All we wanted by this time, was to be pointed in the direction of a nice, cozy, warm bed. Our room was one of three, directly off the main living area, and the bed was certainly "cozy." We dropped our bags and were invited back to the living area, where the dining table now held big bowls of soup filled with small peeled potatoes, hunks of chicken, and a small cob of corn. My stomach was happy to be filled! After dinner we played Uno with seven people (which led to an interminable game) – after an hour of only one person getting to “uno”, we kept changing the rules and finally I pulled out a welcome victory.

Estefania, Juan, Lina, Natalia & Cristina

Loading Up the Cars

Mountains in All Directions - Just Outside Bogotá

The Reservoir on the Sisga River

Monument to Simon Bolivar

Puente de Boyacá

Stopping for Almojabanas, Pan de Yuca & Aguapanela

Dinner on Saturday Night - Mike Was as
Tired as He Looks

Sunday morning we awoke bright and early so that nine of us could be ready to leave for church at 8:30 a.m. The shower head had a small heater attached to it with two wires running from the overhead light socket to the heater. I was careful not to touch the wires! The "capilla" (chapel) was lovely and the Cely's were greeted warmly by many friends. This was where they first attended church as new members and Bro. Cely had served as Branch President at one time. The congregation has grown to become a ward and the chapel was filled with families. As we entered the chapel, the sweet and simple music of a Christmas carol greeted us. I was surprised to see a young boy about 6 or 7 years old sitting at the piano in a gray, pin-striped suit and a blue tie. When he finished playing the song, a young girl about 8 or 9 years old with long, dark curls, a pink hairband and pink fleece took his place. As her dark eyes peered over the music holder on the piano, she caught her mother's eye and smiled. As she finished playing her piece, what appeared to be an older sister, about 10 or 11 years old, took her place. Throughout the meeting, each of the three took turns accompanying the congregation for the four hymns sung. Each used the Simplified Hymn Book and the songs were played slowly, but perfectly. When the young boy finished playing the sacrament song, "I Stand All Amazed," he looked over at his dad, smiled, and his dad smiled back. Then he gave a little wave of his hand as if to say, "I did it!" After the service concluded, I went to the piano and took a picture of the young boy playing the postlude music. I told all the children what a great thing it was to develop such a talent in order not only to enjoy the gift of music, but to bless the lives of the members of their ward. I actually got choked up speaking as they were the sweetest, most beautiful children. Their parents are from Mexico and their mother teaches them piano. Their father attended school at BYU-Idaho and taught at the Provo MTC. All the children speak perfect English, which is a rarity, and will be such a blessing in their lives. Speaking English opens the doors of opportunity for education, work and service. Mike talked with many of the leaders of the ward and the visiting stake counselor to discuss the Self-Reliance Initiative and what they would like to see happen. He even got to speak with the Branch President of the Amazonas Branch, who was in Sogamoso visiting family for the holidays. His branch is in Leticia, in the middle of the jungle far from any population center. It is at the junction of Peru, Brazil and Colombia on the banks of the Amazon River. Members of the branch are drawn from the three countries, and both Spanish and Portuguese are spoken in their meetings. He has been the Branch President for four months and has seen the attendance grow from about 40 to 140. He was very excited about what we had to share with him and said he had the very person picked out to be his “Self-reliance Specialist”. Now we have to figure out how to set up Skype or some other form of communication to help them.

After we returned from church, we found the table set with a lovely dinner of meat, salted potatoes, and yuca (manioc or cassava). After feasting, everyone took a "siesta" (nap), then changed out of our church clothes and dressed for an evening outside. The Cely's took us to a little pueblo, Coralles, to see the Christmas lights. The entire central plaza, the cathedral, all the streets leading into the square, and the surrounding hillsides were covered in lights. We took "dinner" with us and chomped on the meat and potatoes leftover from lunch while we sat in the car. I was glad to also have an apple tucked away in my bag and a bottle of water (which I carry everywhere). It was fun to observe the families enjoying the festivities. Next, we drove to Nobsa, another little town decorated to the hilt with lights. My two favorite lighted features were Cinderella's carriage complete with white horse and pumpkin coach and the huge, sparkling Christmas trees made from the bottoms of clear, one-liter pop bottles. They were amazing! We walked around looking at all the beautiful lights, then sat listening to the music and talking about our families. What a beautiful Sabbath day being with people you love reflecting upon the Savior, the Light of the World.

Ward Pianst

Jovenes In the El Sol Ward, Sogamoso

The Christmas Lights of Corrales

Dinner in the Car

Colombian Version of Potato Chips

The Town Cathedral Ablaze With Lights

Food Court Selections

A Father Toting His Child

The Streets Radiating From the Main
Plaza Were Decorated with Lights

Santa's Train

Nobsa BBQ'd Corn Stand

Christmas Tree Fashioned From
Green Pop Bottles

Sara, Cesar, Cristina & Juan Cely
in Nobsa

KR With Cinderella's Carriage

Our Hot Water Heater - Just Be Careful and
Don't Touch a Loose Wire While Showering!

The Living Room of Our Attentive Hosts



Chao, chao from Colombia.