El Penon

Our Principal's husband, Rafa, has connections with pretty much anyone in Colombia and so we often get offered really cool trips out of the city. (He is kind of like the Christian publicity guy of Bogota if you want to call it that- meaning, he brings people in from all over the world to speak, perform, and minister to people in the city, as well as having his hand in numerous ministries throughout the city in some way). My first weekend back after break, his family asked us if we wanted to go with them out of the city to a vacation house owned by one of these people he has some connection with, who had offered it to us, no charge.

The place we went was called El Penon. This is a gated (very gated and secure) community in Giradot, about three hours from Bogota, with a lake and fancy homes, all made of white stucco. It was definitely fancier than what anyone would expect out of a vacation for missionary teachers. These homes were ridiculous! No wonder the FARC took over this community and ran everyone out- yeah they did, but sometime in the past year or two they were run out of the territory. That's probably why they required us to stamp our fingers, take a photo, and do a small background check before we could go into the community.

The house we stayed in was probably one of the smaller ones, sleeping 11 people (we fit 16). Every house has it's own pool and mango trees in the backyard. We had incredible food, thanks to the maid who takes care of any visitors at the home, and fresh juices the sip by the pool. It was a fantastic weekend getaway filled with boat rides, games, a crazy photo scavenger hunt, bonding time for us teachers and the high school students who joined us, and large amounts of peaceful reading time. When we left to head back to the city, we brought with us sunburn and tons of mosquito bites!

PEACE MARCH

Since last I wrote…

I’ve been back for a month now and this semester has seemed easier, more comfortable; more like a home than it did last semester. That is partly due to how little like home the states felt for the month I was there and my growing love for this county, its problems, and its people.

Many of you may have heard of the march against the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). This march took place on February 4 all over the world. When announced at the school a few weeks before that we would be taking part in a peace march, we all assumed it was a small event that happened every year. Then we started seeing shirts being sold along the street sides saying “No mas secuestros, no mas mentiras, no mas muertes, no mas FARC”. This translated means “no more kidnappings, no more lies, no more deaths, no more FARC”. I was so disappointed that I hadn’t bought one after realizing what a big deal this event had become after being started as a Facebook group. I arrived at school on Feb. 4, wearing my white shirt for Peace as told by the school, along with all other students and staff. At 11:15 the march began and classes were cancelled for that hour so that the whole school could participate. However, right before the march, the US embassy emailed our principal asking anyone with a US passport to not participate so not to draw attention to areas with high US citizen populations. The FARC are really against Uribe, the president here, and Bush, who they say are working together, and therefore would target citizens because it would look like we were supporting the US government’s role in Colombia. Many students were calling home to ask for permission to march with their peers because many of them are ½ Colombian or have lived here their whole lives and feel Colombian. For us teachers it was very disappointing because our reason for being here is to support the missionaries and stand behind them in their efforts to reach this country, and also to support the students, in their personal lives, which would include marching with them against something that affects them everyday. So, many of us decided to march anyway since it was our choice whether or not to go against the warning from the embassy. It was a great choice and it created a unity between us and the Colombians more than before. The students really appreciated our willingness to take that risk to show our support for them and their country. We knew we were putting our lives in danger when we came here and part of the reason we came here was because we knew the country's circumstances and wanted to try to improve those circumstances. Missionaries typically don’t go to places where they think they can avoid having to fight for something they are passionate about. Anyway, so that was a pretty cool thing to take part in and after seeing it on the news and in the newspapers, I was thankful I didn’t miss out.