Espinal and Prado

This weekend we travelled to Espinal to a Finca owned by a family that has children at our school. It was very last minute, as most things are here in Colombia, but we were all thankfu that we went. As always, everytime we are invited to do something, it turned out to be an incredible experience. The Finca is in "hot country", about 5 hours from Bogota. We arrived Saturday night about 11pm to this beautiful house in the countryside. The car rides are some of the most exciting parts of our trip since all 11 of us are packed tight in a van...I'm starting to be curious about why we say "packed in like a bunch of mexicans" because at times we have had 17 people in this same van. I've decided to start saying "packed in like a bunch of Colombians".

We stopped at a restaurant in "Mesa" on the way to eat dinner saturday night where we ordered a three big platters of chicken, potatoes, and platano. This seems to be typical of colombia meals and is delicious! However, we were not given plates or utensiles to eat with which was fine until we saw the sink area, which is in the middle of the restaurant for everyone to use openly. There you have a community bar of soap and a community bath towel to dry your hands. Once again, not so bad until you see the dirty stains on the towel and a lady dry her hands and then wipe her nose on the towel...which was followed by a friend of mine dying her hands on it not having seen what the lady had jut used it for. It was awesome! And of course after that we dared each other to use the towel...

Saturday night at the Finca we swam for a few hours which was so relaxing because it was very warm there which is hard to believe being only a few hours outside of cold Bogota. The Finca was so beautiful and we were so blessed to be able to get out of the city and see nature again. I cannot express with words how gorgeous this country is and I was in awe of this place that God has created that so many travelers have not yet seen because of the dangers of the country. Most of the territory we were in this weekend was Guerilla territory a year ago.

Sunday morning we woke up early, had a Colombian breakfast of arepas, eggs, fruit, and of course hot chocolate, then headed out towards Prado, another of God's amazing creations. This place is a lake, surrounded by huge mountains where everyone who lives there travels by boat because there is no road system. My pictures do not do it show the so everyone is just going to have to come see it for themselves (or you can see the video that I took while out on the boat). The area is not very touristy because the guerillas lived here only a year and a half ago and had run everyone out of the area except for the family on the island where we spent most of the day. The property we were on at first looked pretty run down but soon felt like turns on the boat and while waiting swam in the lake where later, we found out that there are sting rays that you have to scare away from the sand, and crocodiles in low water areas. I didn't get back in the shallow areas the rest of the day except to get in and out of the boat. paradise undiscovered. We took naps in the hammocks on the island mid-day and then had a huge colombian lunch with maracuya juice...mi favorito! After lunch we went out to find some high cliffs where we went cliff jumping, which was a highlight. Later that afternoon we headed back to the boat ramp to head back to the finca in Espinal where Sancocho, a Colombian traditional soup, was waiting.

Today we woke up early and drove back to Bogota. The view of the mountains coming back up was incredible. All of the natural beauty of this country has taken over my heart and all I can think of is how awesome our God is to create such beauty for us to enjoy and that he must really love us alot, much like how I want everyone I care about to be able to enjoy this beauty with me.

On the way home, Rafa, my principal's husband who is absolutely hilarious, and his son, Rodrigo, discovered that the windsheild wiper fluid sprayer actually is aimed to the right and shoots pretty far and so they begin spraying it as we passed pedestrians walking along side the road. What was even funnier is when we passed the guards/military men standing along the road and sprayed them as well...probably not the kindest thing for us to do but it wasnt spraying them alot because we weren't going too slow and it was warm so we were actually doing them a favor. What a great time road trips can be!

So we are back in Bogota now ready to begin the week (today was a holiday, we have one like every other week in this country).

And to update on my meeting last week: a teacher who was taking time off this year volunteered to do half days so I will only do kindergarten 2-3 hours twice a week to fill in for when she is not there, which would be a normal amount of time to spend with those kinder ESL kids. What a relief!

Thanks for everyone who is reading about my adventures...I'm sure it seems like all I do is travel and have fun but I promise I work too! We have just been really blessed with opportunities to get to know the country and the people here.

Guatavita trip, and a difficult situation

So, after two weeks of not blogging and updating I have many new experience to tell about. My third roomate arrived, we took a day trip out of the city to Guatavita, school started, we went to a salsa festival called "salsa en el parque", I learned how to make many tasty colombian juices, we found a house to rent nearby some of our friends, and tomorrow there is a chatnce I will become the kindergarten teacher instead of ESL...

The trip to Guatavita was really cool. We heard the history of the lagoon and how many people have spent tons of money searching for the gold that was thrown into the bottom of the lagoon as a tribal ritual to their god's. We also heard a story of the "three viejas" (three old women) which is the name of a set of mountains near the lagoon...the leader of the tribe was the only one permitted to have more than one wife and three of the women were not happy with this so they ran away from him. He saw them running in a distance and turned them into mountains so now the mountains are named "the three old women". I have also added a few picutures of us at the lagoon.

Also on that trip we had some fun taking pictures of random people we passed along the way. You will see three men standing in their gauchos...they thought we were strange for taking pictures of them. Then a friend of mine tried to sit next to a group of men at a small store and they all got up and walked away...probably because he is red-headed and looked pretty odd to them.

After Guatavita we had lunch at a outdoor recreation club. The view was gorgeous! I took some video that I will have to show when I return to the US of us on this swing thing...definitely the coolest swing ever! It is a telephone pole with three swings hanging that we each layed in on our stomaches and ran around in circles. On one side of the pole is a cliff so you run on the ground and then when you get to the cliff you fly through the air. This is probably not the safest thing for kids to play on which is most likely why I have never seen one of these in the USA.

The school year has started off great! The first day of school, July 7th, we had an opening day picnic which the families were all invited to and 85% of the families showed up. It was neat meeting the parents and they are all so friendly and welcoming (we practiced our spanish alot that day!). After a week of observing all grade level teachers and students, presenting at a few meetings about how to teach ESL kids, filling in for teachers, and helping out around the school, I am exhausted. I haven't had to do much planning like the other teachers but it is pretty stressful coordinating a schedule for ESL kids that works around all K-12 core classes and trying to fit in a few English classes for our Spanish speaking staff members. Today I was able to chaperone a enjoyable 7th grade field trip to the botanical gardens which I will try to load some pictures of. This was really fun and I was able to see this part in the city without having to pay. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go on more of these throughout the school year.

Sunday after church a few of us had lunch at our principal's home with her family. It's always a great experience when we join them because they know exactly how to help us experience the country. Afterwards we had plans to go to "salsa en el parque" with some of the single teachers and so the principal's son and daughter went with us. Rodrigo, the son, drove us so we got out of getting lost in the city and paying bus fees...always a plus. The salsa festival was cool and free and they even played songs that I knew. I was able to do a little salsa dancing and I have talked some of the girls into taking lessons, so that is very exciting! This guy from Cali, Colombia- the "salsa capital of the world" as he mentioned, tried to teach us some Colombian salsa moves. He also told us that he has cousins who live in Miami and we said what part- he said Los Angeles. We asked a few times to make sure he understood our spanish but he definitely thinks Miami is a state and Los Angeles is the capital.

As for this week...it has been pretty stressful for me. A couple that taught at the school last year, who are due to have their first child in October, have pushed back their travel date and sort of added an extra load to many peoples plates who have to fill their spots. We are still unsure of when or if they will return to teach this year so the school is exploring other options. The principal mentioned to me that she would like me to consider, and pray about, working with the kindergarteners to fill one of the roles...at first this sounded ok because 15/20 students in the class do not speak any english. Basically I would be working with them anyway so spending 2 hrs a day in the class wouldn't be too bad. However, I think she was thinking more of letting me take over kindergarten as the head teacher, and then in the afternoons teach ESL to everyone else who needs it. This didn't sound too terrible until I was talking to the temporary fill in teacher about upset parents who have been calling her with concerns and the hassle of doing report cards, etc. If I were to take this on I would be filling two jobs at the school and I wouldn't be with these kids enough of the day to answer their questions, like why their child used the bathroom on himself after lunch, because I was only in the room during the morning hours. And the report cards I would be doing would be based on things I wasn't able to see because I wouldn't be with the kids all day.

And so all week I have been waiting to hear what the future of Kindergarten will look like and yet need to be planning something but can't until I know which job I will have. To add to my stress, everyone is telling me their list of kids who do not speak english and need my help. And everyone wants to know when I am going to start helping their kids and the staff wants to know when I am going to start giving them English lessons and the pastor wants me to volunteer on saturdays downtown to teach our parents English, and so I am completely overwhelmed with the present situation and whether or not I should sacrifice my passion and my desire to serve the ESL kids so that the kindergarten can have a teacher. The Principal and Elementary supervisors have been meeting all week to work out this mess. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the principal to find out what is going to happen and I am hopeful that God will help me to be content either way this works out even if it comes to being with kindergarteners all day everyday. I have the choice to say no to all of these things and that's why it is so hard. I want to help and serve everyone here in everyway I can, but my friends are encouraging me to take care of myself mentally and physically and set limits meaning that saying "no" is ok. Please pray for me, that I will make the right decision and be willing to sacrifice what I want if that is what is needed of me.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers in advance and I will let you know how it turns out...

Love,
Casey