Listserve Post Monday, January 21, 2008 06:21 PM
I´m getting used to internet cafes now. We´re in Barrancabermeja
(arrived yesterday), the major oil city of Colombia and a very important city in many respects. One indication of its strategic importance is that after miles of land with no signs of ¨civilization¨ Barrancabermeja has power lines, oil pipelines to the coast, railroad lines, highways, the river which is a major transportation highway, and more.
I have to say, I love Colombia! I had forgotten how much. I had some bad memories from my time here as a student (28 years ago), and used to refer to my time here as a ¨growing experience.¨I had forgotten all of the things I enjoyed and loved. It´s a beautiful country! I commented calmly last night to a teammate that I´m enjoying the country, and she said it shows, that I look like I´ve found home.
One experience of coming home wherever I travel is meeting Friends (Religious Society of Friends). Saturday night, our last night in Bogota, I went to meet the clerk of Bogota Monthly Meeting and her husband. Most of our team ended up going to a party at our leader´s home, where his girlfriend´s family performed Colombian folk music and dancing. I was very sorry to have missed that, and at the same time I know that visiting the local Friends was what I needed. It was coming home. That´s one thing I love so much about the Religious Society of Friends, that I can meet Friends I´ve never met before and feel relaxed and calmed and treated like family.
As expected, Barrancabermeja is HOT! Actually, our leader told us it´s not as hot as usual, that January is usually referred to as hell and it´s much cooler this week. I´m grateful. I guess it must only be in the 90´s. So far I´m coping. I see this as a test as to whether I could live here for more than a few days. I´m managing to enjoy myself, but looking forward to getting back up into the mountains.
For those of you holding our team and local partners in prayer, here are some activities to be aware of :
Soon we will travel to Micoahumado (in the south of Bolivar province, for those of you who like to look at maps). Today we got to see an example of the type of motorized canoe we´ll travel in. It´s hopefully only about a 6-hour trip, 3 by boat and 3 by truck. I´m responsible for leading worship for the team on Wednesday, as we bump along in the back of a truck. :)
On Saturday our team will do our public action. We have chosen women´s rights as our
theme. Prayers for our partners who plan to join us are encouraged.
On Monday we´ll head back to Bogota, and in the afternoon we´ll divide into two groups to visit the U.S. and Canadian embassies.
I told some of you that I expected to lose weight on this trip. Silly me! Despite lots of walking, we are being fed royally. One of my favorites I remember from my student days are the fried platanos. I also love a common type of red beans (called red balls because of their size). Every time we visit someone, they want to feed us. We´re definitely eating well!
We did get a couple of hours in Bogota to do some sightseeing last week, and took a
cablecar up Monserrate, a hill which looks over Bogota and has a church on the top, plus the stations of the cross on a path along the hillside. I hiked up the hill as a student years ago, but was grateful to take the quick way up and down this time around.
This afternoon we took a couple of hours for a tour around Barrancabermeja with an
university professor... He is extremely knowledgeable about the history (geological, cultural, and political) of the region, and I could have listened to him and talked with him for hours more. Really interesting tour!
One of the things we stopped to see is the Christ of the oil, a HUGE figure of Christ erected by oil workers, made out of oilpipes of course. An indication of how oil is thought of around here!
Oh, another thing I´m enjoying is all of the flowers! Gorgeous!! Some very different than those I saw in Central America, but lots of bright colors and variety. Today I saw some gorgeous colorful birds as well as a very graceful white egret (large) over a lake. As I said, it´s a beautiful country! The oil refinery is not so beautiful, and I´m amazed that quite a diversity of wildlife has managed to survive (including several types of alligators, birds, fish, and mammals).
One of the things we´ve been hearing lots about is the extreme wealth of natural
resources in Colombia. Minerals, biological diversity, and more. The people, of course, are quite a wonderful resource as well. One can see why multinationals are so interested in being here.
That´s about all I can say now. I really am enjoying myself, despite the heat and the serious nature of our mission. I´m so eager to share lots about the trip when I get home!
[To my monthly meeting, your letter of greeting was much appreciated, and partners were pleased and grateful to hear that I represent others who are praying for them.]
"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal
violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) USA
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