More Colombian Food & Conference Week

Monday 31. We taught Session 1 of our third Planning for Success workshop this morning to fifteen eager participants. As I have perhaps mentioned in a prior post, the Perpetual Education Fund is opening up worldwide to people over thirty years of age. This is a HUGE change and will affect so many families. Our new workshop included one man, age forty-five, AND his two daughters, all of whom are going to use PEF. Every member's situation is different, but they all have one thing in common - the Church is telling each of them that other members all over the world are willing to invest in helping Colombians exit the poverty cycle through education.

Our Busy Office

Ready for the Workshop

In the evening, we took a taxi to the CCM (missionary training center for Colombia) to join with seven other missionary couples for a dinner and Family Home Evening. The Dyers serve as the Presidents of the CCM and they hosted the evening in their apartment. Attending were Pres. and Sis. Wakefield (Bogota Temple), Pres. and Sis. Andelin (Bogota North Mission), Elder and Sister Piepgrass (area doctor), the Carpenters (mission office, Bogota South Mission), the Blaines (temple missionaries) and us. The delicious American dinner featured chicken alfredo, fruit salad, homemade rolls, steamed carrots and Texas sheetcake. Yum! Afterwards, President and Hermana Wakefield, former members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, presented a reader's theater called "Love Letters". It featured letters between couples in church history (David and Emma McKay, Spencer and Camilla Kimball, LeGrand and ? Richards and Joseph and Emma Smith), along with favorite songs of the era. The tender feelings expressed during times of separation (sometimes up to a year) and the personal insights into their real day-to-day lives filled us with laughter, hope and a renewed reality that we are all just trying to do the best we can with the challenges that come our way.

Family Home Evening

President and Sister Wakefield

Tuesday 1. We didn't leave the apartment until 9:30 a.m. today in order to visit the U.S. Embassy and apply for our new passports. With only one or two pages left, we decided to renew here as the wait time is only ten days and the price is the same. We opted for the expanded passport, which contains more pages than the regular one. (This probably means more adventures in our future.) The Colombian U.S. Embassy is huge (3,000 people) and security is tight. I would have taken a photo, but I value my life:).

One of our favorite foods is Ajiaco, a soup popular in Bogota, typically made with chicken, three varieties of potatoes, and the Galinsoga parviflora herb commonly referred to in Colombia as guascas (we refer to it as gallant soldier or potato weed). There is usually a small cob of corn added, with some white rice and a slice of avocado on the side. A cream sauce and large capers are provided on the side to add to the soup. It makes for a very hearty and tasty meal.

Ajiaco

Wednesday 2. Session 2 of the TPE was this morning. Teaching the workshops are one of the favorite parts of our work. We love to meet the participants and see the hope in their eyes. We returned home from work today and found a letter from our gas company slipped under our apartment door. Apparently, they stopped by on March 27 to do a safety check and we weren't at home (naturally). Now, five days later, since we didn't call to make another appointment, they came and shut the gas off. We went down to question the security guard about the situation and he verified that the gas company came on the 27th to do the building's security checks, but we weren't home. "That's because #1, we didn't receive any notification about such a check, and #2, we work from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day!" Aauuggghhh!!!

As I am writing this post and thinking back on our "gas adventure", it seems like a good place to insert one of Mike's favorite Colombian soups - HOT cazuela de mariscos (not that this soup causes gas, but my ire escalates a notch when I think about them cutting our utilities without notice).

The soup consists of a wide variety of seafood served in a cream sauce. It usually arrives at the table very hot (insert ice please), and the seafood fresh and suave. The mix creates a very pleasant taste. It is usually served with side of rice and plantain chips. Often the rice has a coconut flavor, and is quite good.

Cazuela de Mariscos

Thursday 3. Mike called the gas company first thing and went round and round with them about shutting off the gas without notification. They said we should have been home for the security check. The woman on the other end of the line didn't seem to think it was their problem if we didn't get notified. When Mike told her that we work all day, she said we should have had our empleada (housekeeper) there to open the door. He told her, "We don't have an empleada!" In the end, after talking with a supervisor, they finally agreed to come on Saturday. (I'll believe it when I see their faces.) Luckily, we will be home all day watching the World General Conference. Before leaving for the day, we checked the gas again and it was back on. When we went downstairs to leave, we asked our security guards if the gas company came in the last thirty minutes to turn the gas on. They said "No. We just took the wire off that was tied around your tube to shut the gas off." Thanks guys!! Mike asked if we could tie off the tubes to the entire apartment building for a joke and they took us outside and showed us the emergency shut-off valve for the entire building. They finally figured out he was joking.

We got two new volunteers today. Yippee!! Cesar just got home from a mission and is looking for work. While he looks, he wants to help in the center. Mateo is our other new volunteer, we found him last Sunday while visiting the Quirigua Ward. Mateo just turned in his mission papers and will leave in September. He offered to help us out Monday thru Friday, 8:00 a.m. to noon. The work in the center is a lot like full-time missionary work in the field. He calls people he doesn't know and chats with them, listens, resolves concerns, and offers help. He's such a sweet young man.

Maria, one of our other volunteers, spent the morning calling those on her list of "necesitados" or those who need help. One of the people on the other end of the line wanted to speak with me, since we had talked before. The sister recently had back surgery and wanted to take the TAL Workshop to learn how to better find employment. She expressed her deep appreciation for the monthly calls and the concern for her welfare. It was a perfect example of how we want this center to be a place of refuge, service (uno por uno) and following up. She doesn't have a job yet, but she knows she is cared about and loved.

Hermana Amaya invited a young woman who is taking the missionary lessons to come to the office so we could meet her. She is sixteen-years-old, sweet and beautiful. She lives in the same apartment complex as the Amayas and wanted to meet with the missionaries. Her mother is a member, but doesn't attend anymore. Her father lives in another city with his second wife. As she sat and chatted with us, I showed her our family photo book. She loves the church's emphasis on families and wishes her family could be more involved with each other. She helped me with some tough words in Spanish and I helped her with her English. It always amazes me how much our early language training affects the way our tongues operate!

Sign-ups for our workshops are multiplying rapidly. The employment workshop (TAL) has thirty-five on the waiting list, the small business workshop (TAE) has thirty, and forty more are already signed up for the next Planning for Success sessions (TPE). We will be finishing the current TPE with two classes next week and then we travel to the other side of the country to train the volunteers of the two new CAS centers there. Busy, busy, busy!

Just before going home, we got a call telling us that our power would be cut-off in two days if the bill wasn't paid. GREAT! I gave the bill to the missionaries last Sunday, so who knows if it got to the elder who's in charge of paying the utilities. I called the mission office and asked them to call me when they got the bill paid so we wouldn't worry. Since it took three months to reconnect the phone in the office, I can only imagine how long it might take to reconnect the electricity!

Friday 4. Happy Birthday to Max who turned two-years-old today! Thanks to Instagram, we saw his cute cake and decorated high chair then joined in the singing while he blew out the candles on his cake.

We hauled lunch to the office today to celebrate Ferney's last day and Rosita's birthday. Ferney, our office intern, has worked for the last six months as the front desk receptionist. His unique personality has driven Edgar (our jefe) to tear his hair out at times, but we know Edgar will quickly notice the absence when he has no one to make calls, type lists, run for refreshments, etc. We brought bread and a huge pot of Baked Potato Soup, Hermana Amaya brought salad, and Edgar, a cake and gaseosa (pop). We invited the workers from the bodega (church distribution next door) and two visitors who happened to be in the office. Mike told Ferney weeks earlier that we were going to give him a car for his going away gift, so Mike presented him with a plastic 4 x 4 toy. He seemed to think that was the best part of the party! Rosita received flowers and some lotion for her birthday.

Let's Party

Rosita and Her Colombian Roses

Ferney Gets His Car

We recruited two more volunteers today! Gloria is a spunky, middle-aged woman with a perpetual smile on her face. She serves as a CAS/PEF Especialista for her ward and has enjoyed the work so much she volunteered to help at the office one or two days a week with those units who don't have specialists yet. Melisa recently returned from her mission after only two months in order to have foot surgery. While her foot is healing, she will come to the center to help. She was so excited when we called, as most of her day is spent sitting at home waiting to get back to her mission. We feel so blessed with all this new help and know that Heavenly Father is filling in the gaps. We will soon be gone and we work a lot of hours! There is a air of excitement, hope and genuine love in the office, which we hope will multiply with each new success.

Mike spent an hour or so this afternoon on Google Hangout with a group of genealogists from all over the world. The group meets every Friday evening at 11:00 p.m. (Madrid time, as the group organizer, Sonia, lives in Spain). She asked Mike to join them as a guest speaker to explain his records system for photos and other documents. The Area Family History Director for Colombia is part of the group and shared a bit of Mike's system for archiving with Sonia, who immediately contacted Mike to schedule a time when he could speak with the group. It was quite amazing listening to people from all over the world respond and ask questions, and seeing Mike demonstrate and share ideas via the internet. God truly has a hand in the technological advances of our day in order to further his purposes.

The first remote teaching trial of our center, using the internet, will occur next week. Part of the changes in the administration of the PEF program resulted in the Church Education System (institutes) no longer being involved. The program is now administered by the Centros de Autosuficiencia (us) and we are hundreds of miles away from some wards and branches, many of which are accessible only by air or long trips through dangerous mountainous areas. We have a teacher who is willing to give the workshops online to small groups of students gathered in their homes or church buildings, so we are excited to see how it works!

Our sunny morning quickly got dark in the early afternoon when a storm blew in. The rain sprinkles turned to full-on faucets within a matter of minutes, accompanied by flashes of lightning and booming thunder. One brilliant flash of lightning with a simultaneous "KABOOM!" struck directly overhead causing the entire building (and me) to quake. I went outside and watched the streets fill up with water. Often the storm drains are filled with garbage, so all the water just runs thru the streets creating lakes and rivers. Since our last roof "issue" during a heavy rain, we watch things carefully for entering water. No problem this time. Luckily, the storm also finished unloading before it was time for us to leave.

Saturday 5. We sat at home all day Saturday waiting for the gas people to arrive, but they never did. The worst part was, our internet went out so we were unable to connect in order to watch General Conference and we couldn't leave to go to a nearby chapel in case the workers came. We will have to catch up on the Saturday sessions on a delayed basis.

Food again! One of my favorites dishes is Pollo Planchado. Colombians like to cook their meat in thin steaks, so just think of chicken in 3\8 inch thick patties, well grilled.

Pollo Planchado

Two thumbs-down dishes for Mike: 1) arepas, the national starch (when served without cheese or other adornments he finds it very bland and tasteless), and 2) cocido boyacense (some of the strangest and unappetizing vegetables ever). The latter consists of a heaping plate of several types of potatoes, peas in shell, 3 meats (pork, chicken, and beef), a small cob of corn, cubios, and ibias (the last two = the evil veggies).

Arepas

Cocido Boyacense

Sunday 6. Since our internet was still not working, we spent the entire day in our office using the internet there to listen to Conference. It was wonderful and we got so much done (no telephones ringing).

KR Enjoying Conference