Bogota is very different from everywhere else I have been...much dirtier and more rundown. But the landscape around Bogota...iiiiincredible! I am excited, I should get lots of Spanish practice and everyone here (in the ministry) is so upbeat...love it!
Bogota is a HUGE city and yet I don't find it nearly as intense as a big city back in the US. I am so glad that I didn't try to tackle Bogota earlier in my trip. Because of Colombia's (unfair now) reputation I think I would have been scared off my butt... but I have been in South America long enough now that I am not scared anymore. Whatever, people get robbed...but I am smart and I don't carry all of my valuables around town with me or in the same spot. At the same time, Bogota just isn't scary. Don't get me wrong, robberies happen here, but it just doesn't seem any different from any other major city that I have been in lately. So moral of the story, I am being smart and trying not to get robbed but in the end I'm not dwelling on the fear of it anymore.
As for my life here in Bogota...wow what a switch!! I have my very OWN room all to MYSELF in a HOUSE with a FAMILY. This is the first time that I have had a room to myself in months...honestly it was a bit overwhelming and WAY too quiet at first. Anyway, Ingie lives with a Dutch family from the ministry. They are...interesting :) Mostly nice. The kids scream ALL the time. No joke. BUT today the Mom went to work at the ministry and the dad stayed home and the kids were SO much better behaved. Even when the homeless people came over to the house for lunch...no screaming! It was amazing. I sat down and had a tea with him later, he is very nice. Except for one night he and his wife were (we assumed) fighting and he turned around and yelled at us for "whistling"...we assumed he meant whispering. Haha, it was very classic.
As for the work. Wow, the intensity leaves me feeling the exhaustion that I always felt at the end of a day of summer camp...but the pay here sucks! Saturday we went to a shitty part of town to help run a 'kids club' for some pre-street kids. It was crazy! We had 90 kids and I was put in charge of a group and told to discuss what "God's love" means to us. Ummm....kids were shouting ideas at me and I had NO idea what they were saying. I am sure the look on my face was priceless :) I just took every idea they had and had one of the older girls remember them all ;) Haha!!! We then played 'human knot' which didn't work out in any way. Lol, the craziness...oh man.
During the week Ingie works at a school that takes in street kids (who are usually rejected from traditional schools for various reasons). They have only 19 kids...oo but the craziness. Haha, are you seeing a pattern? I have always known that I wasn't cut out for orphanage/street kid work so this is quite an adventure for me. I am trying to be the strong adult, but I don't even know how to say things like "keep your hands to yourself," so I just say "your hands are for you only." Haha! And man the kids have so many more problems than your average kid, it's so hard! They try to fight so much, I have had to grab a couple of boys off each other...I am thankful that I have not seen any bloody fights yet!
Yesterday Ingie and I spent the day cleaning the library (a lot of Courtney references during this) and then the toy room. During the toy room some of the kids came in to help. My favorite part was when the 2 youngest troublemakers came in to help me wash toys and Ingie asked me, "will you be ok if I leave the boys with you while I look for a bucket?" In the smallest voice I could manage I responded, "alone?" Hahaha!! It was really a rather horrifying thought though...I speak Spanish but not a toooon and the kids don't really respect me because I'm not technically a teacher. I was so happy to be cleaning yesterday...that is something that I am good at and understand in any language ;)
But I don't spend everyday at the school with Ingie (since I also wanted to see the city!) One day I ventured out into the city by myself and it was such a huge success! I went out to the bank and the store and then caught a taxi out to the Monserrate (famous church on a hill overlooking Bogota). My taxi driver was hilarious! He said that I was only the second foreigner that he has ever had in his taxi and he had SO many questions. He wanted to know if we have Frito Lay in the US and if everyone looks like me and if my family has my eyes. He was very disappointed when I told him that I cheer for Ecuador in futbol and gave me the futbol flag from his window of his favorite team so that I could cheer for them back in the US :) Sometimes taxi drivers get creepy and start proposing marriage and stuff, but this guy was just genuinely interested in learning more about my country, it was super fun....and great Spanish practice! He was really worried about me going up the church alone...he said he wouldn't do it because he was scared. He was also worried that my water bottle would make me a target because if I had 50cents for water then obviously I have money for other things as well. He was very sweet.
To get to the Monserrate you can hike, take a mini train or a cable car...but hiking has gotten too dangerous so they just recently closed down the path (too many robbers waiting for dumb tourists...it's the same way in Quito at their TeleferiQo). When I got there I got in line to buy a ticket for the cable car on the way up and the train on the way down when 2 (obviously) Americans walked up and asked me to explain their options for getting up the mountain. Rescuing confused tourists is one of my favorite activities! Sadly the train was closed down so we all bought round trip tickets for the cable car. It turns out that the guys are Delta airline pilots and I spent most of the rest of the day with them. They were super friendly and thought that I was fascinating, so of course I loved them :) One of them just bought land in Washington and was asking me questions about selective harvests and reseeding and which types of trees grow well together, and do I know what a Tamarac looks like? I do I do! Haha, what fun. OH! And then he asked me questions about lightning ignited fires and such...I suddenly felt very smart, it was great. So we had a beer on top of the mountain and then rode back down just as the rain started! A taxi from their hotel pulled up so I rode down with them...where we learned that the president was staying at their hotel!! Then they put me in another fancy hotel taxi and paid to send me home. I need to meet more people with money ;) When I got home the dad here answered the door and he couldn't get over the fact that I came home in a taxi from a fancy hotel...he had to go tell his wife right away. Haha!
My sister asked about where I am staying. I am staying in the house where Ingie lives. The house is owned by a Dutch family (mom, dad, 16 month old and a 4 year old...both boys). The boys scream a lot, it is interesting. The parents are very "European" Ingie tells me...in other words they are odd about some things, mostly involving money. I have my own room and bathroom off the washroom. It was a little intimidating being all alone after months of sleeping in dorms!! They have wireless internet here, so that is addictive and terrible :)
Part of what the ministry here does is support "pre" street kids as well as taking in kids whose parents are not stable enough to care for them. One such boy, Jorge (4), lives with one of Ingie's friends (her entire job is to care for this little boy...in other places in the city other volunteers care for up to 10ish kids at a time) and he is absolutely adorable. He reminds me of a little Kael :) I was really glad that he got comfortable with me super quickly so that I can twirl him around and play cars with him...I miss having kids in my life! I met his baby sister the other night and she was sooooo sweet, very smilely and just precious. Their mom makes super cute kids, but she really needs to be stopped! (she has at least 3 others as well...the ministry is working with her so that she can take the kids back into her home)
I have met a ton of kids here and some of them just break your heart. Some of their stories are just terrible...they need so much love! I am so glad that they have Ingie, she loves them so so much :) and she is so good with them/for them, she has definitely found her place.
I continue to be blown away by Bogota. At first glance it is the most run down/underdeveloped country that I have spent time in, but then I run into things like Blockbuster where you RENT movies instead of just buying bootlegged copies on the corner. We ate at a Crepes and Waffles where they only employ single mothers or expectant unmarried women. They have Baskin Robbins!!! Their bus system here is incredible, very advanced. I can't remember what else I have noted, but my favorite expression has become: "What is this country, where am I!?" I am very impressed.
Oh man, I had a slow week last week because I wasn't feeling great...like I was coming down with the flu again. Every single one of Ingie's friends was sick with something different which didn't help me. I slept in a lot...which Jordie (the dad here) thought was amazing...especially since his kids scream so much :) I had an ear infection that spread into my jaw which was fun for about a week. Luckily that is done now and I am starting to feel like I am on the upswing...but of course Ingie isn't feeling well now so that makes me nervous. Whatever, upswing!
I am getting kind of excited to head back to Quito. It will be such a different place without Jill or the apartment or the school, but I am so ready to be back in the glorious world of hosteling and my Spanish can not wait to get better!!
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