My Colombian Chapter

Hola amigos! I hope December is treating well and you are looking forward to Christmas! (Prayer requests underlined, yeah, I'm sure you get it by now!)  Yesterday I went to visit my project for the first time! It was amazing, overwhelming, brilliant and eye-openin g. I met the lady who runs the project and oh my days. She is amazing. She starts cooking for the children at 4am.. and the children are then often there a few hours later and she often still has children there at 7pm. 6 days a week. She has very little help and is an absolute trooper! Her heart for the children is so obvious and the things she does for them is wonderful. There have been times when she has picked children up from hospital because their parents aren't interested.. I am so excited to work with this wonderful lady and learn from her. We were told some of the children's stories... my goodness. Absolutely horrific. Some of them don't have parents because they've been murdered, or their pa

(Prayer requests underlined) A couple of weeks ago, I went with my Spanish school to a comedor. This is similar to what I will be doing in January (but we just went for a couple of hours to serve lunch). It was a hugely eye opening experience... The school take students once a month and on the way always buy pudding for the children. They were so excited to get a chocolate bar (and lots of them tried to sneak 2 - I couldn't say no to their cute little faces!) The houses and area they were living is was quite frankly pretty shocking to see. Their houses were often no taller than me (and I'm short!) and made out of rubbish - tyres, old bath tubs etc. The teacher from the school informed us that just outside of the comedor was a big drugs hub which just happens whilst the children are around. Something children shouldn't have to see 😩, but sadly a reality here. I was terrified to go, because I knew that my Spanish wasn't going to get me very far, but I was so glad

The past few days have involved some eye opening experiences... (prayer requests underlined). This weekend just gone was a Latin Link retreat weekend. They have them twice a year in Colombia and it just so happened to fall fairly soon after our arrival! We headed off on the bus to a town a couple of hours away called Fusagasuga (a great name hey)! As we headed out of the bus terminal my heart slightly broke. Tens, more realistically probably hundreds, of Venezuelans were camped out by the terminal, most with not even a tent, just a bit of material attached to the wall . Many of them were trying to sell things to us through the bus window, including their money as their biggest note is worth less than the smallest Colombian coin (I think).. it was so horrid and sad to see, and it was strange to then arrive at a nice house in a sunny town. Hard to process I guess.  On the way, I also began to see more poverty . The further south we got, lots of the houses and shops were more self bui

Just a quick update to say that today I moved in with my lovely host family! They are a couple who have an older son (who is living in Scotland and doesn't come back till I leave) and they are wonderful. Look at the sign they made me! They are both super lovely and caring and I know I am going to to be well looked after. It is just round the corner from where I was living before too, so I know the 'barrio' reasonably well. The gym is just across the road so I have no excuses! Tomorrow I start Spanish school! It will consist of Spanish classes from 9-1, then a lunch break, then cultural activities. I think I will be doing 5 hours a week of dance lessons (which I am super super excited about) and then cooking lessons and trips out. Everything feels so surreal at the moment but I am hoping I will begin to feel at home once I have more of a routine. This morning was the first time I really missed home (which I'm quite impressed by!) but I am trusting that God's pl

Hola! I thought I'd take a few minutes to update you all on my arrival and first few days in Bogotá. (Those of you who are prayers - I will underline any prayer requests/thanks.) I arrived safely on Friday evening (19th) - the flights were super straight forward and entering into Colombia was much easier than it could have been.  The only slight difficulty was trying to fill in a customs form in Spanish whilst in the air (thankfully I had downloaded google translate and we had some friendly Colombian students sat near us!) I am currently living with the Latin Link short term co-ordinator for Latin Link and his wife who are flipping amazing. They have made me feel so welcome and helped us with sorting everything out and with a lot of translation!  I am sharing a room with another wonderful Strider (Anisa) - it is a blessing to have someone to share the new experiences with!  I will probably move at the end of this week to live with a wonderful lady (who lives super close to

I thought I'd make a blog for those of you who want to be kept updated about my time in Colombia and, for those who pray, I will underline anything that I would appreciate prayer for (thanks in advance)! My flight is booked for 19th October.. eeeek! I am currently unemployed... filling the time before I go! There are quite a few things still to do, so my plan for the next few weeks is to make sure I am really ready. The next thing on my to-do list is apply for a Visa - something that has seemed quite complicated!  I also need to read a few books, watch some documentaries (doesn't sound quite so bad after all) and keep learning Spanish - that is the plan for the next few days and weeks. I am in a strange place at the moment, flitting between excitement and nerves. I very much like my home bubble so I am starting to feel a little strange about leaving it. My biggest concern at the moment is being away from my much loved friends and family for 9 months , though I know in rea