I am posting from South America

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am currently on my first trip outside the U.S. as an adult. 13 people from my church have traveled down to Bogota, Colombia, to help out at a clinic, and visit a sister church that we help financially. We arrived very late last night, and stay for 1 week.

Today we went to the clinic in the morning, and walked around downtown in the afternoon, and went to a church service in the evening. Now having a 10pm dinner.

The people here are very friendly, at least the people I have seen so far. The clinic is in a very poor part of town, and they had me stuck in a room trying to fix some computers. They have 2 computers for over 100 kids to learn on!! Wow. I got 2 more working, and I am trying to get a third.

Gotta go, the food is ready.

I would appreciate any prayers, happy thoughts, or any other positive energy sent my way. I will post updates if anyone seems interested.

night.

2

Bogota? Good for you! Gosh I love the women there. (Sigh, to be young again.)

3

Hey, my best friend was just in Bogota. (He left yesterday for someplace in Peru.) Did you see him there?

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Of course, a lot of 'em are here. :wink:

5

Ah, Bogata.

Good for you, sounds like you’re doing some good works there, keep it up!

I remember being fingerprinted at the bank there to cash travelers cheques!

If you get the chance be sure and go to the gold museum.

By the way, what was for dinner?

6

I spent a couple weeks in Bogota many years ago. I loved it. I was there in the winter, so the nights were very cold, but the days were wonderful.
My husband’s niece is in Africa for a week, to teach English to Somali children.
She’s there with a christian group too. They have been expressly forbidden from prosyltizing, since any christian teaching is punishable by death.
We’re worried about her.

7

We may have passed in the airport.

Dinner was just a sandwich. Here, lunch is the heavy meal, and dinner is an afterthought. Sometimes they forget that in teh U.S. dinner is the heavy meal.
We all got back to the hotel/hostel tired an hungry, and asked the night guy to make us snacks.

Lunch, today, was made by some of the volanteers at the clinic: fish, plantain, coconut rice, and pinapple juice. Yesterday for lunch we went to a restaurant downtown. I had a plate with 3 meats, rice, beans, and bread. They have something similar to corn bread that is awesome.

We were supposed to go to the gold museum yesterday, but we ran out of time. Don´t know if will get another chance to go.

I would be worried too. Luckily, it is not so bad down here. Of course, we are not really here to prosyltize, but to see what it is like down here. Get a perspective on how a lot of the world actually lives. It´s crazy, the lack of infratructure they have (or don´t have) down here. And the area around the clinic is extrememly poor. They just make houses out of whatever they find around. Tarps pinned to discarded wood for walls. Car mats for flooring. I hope I can remember when I get back to Nashville. Everyone is taking lots of pictures, so that should help.

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He said something about catching a westbound boat to Peru.

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We passed through one of those neighborhoods driving from the airport. It was certainly a culture shock for me. I would hope the poverty would have improved by now (I was there in 1977) but it sounds like it hasn’t.
Good luck and stay safe. Even though it isn’t East Africa, it still isn’t a walk in the park.

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Thanks, I will try to stay safe.

Yesterday we visited a city north of Bogota. Evidently, the Northern part of Bogota is the rich area. It was a lot nicer than other parts of the city.