And this was after the easy, dry hike.I have entered the Colombian experience I was more expecting, complete with knee-high mud, a bit of sickness, barely-functioning toilets, intense work, and looong bus rides. More to come, but suffice to say I am well, looking forward to being back in ¨home¨in Bogota after some time away, and finally feel like I merit some of the prayers and well-wishes that I know are being sent my way.
My past week in pictures:
Teammates Aj & Mireille eat a leisurely lunch during our team retreat in the mountains outside Medellin. The retreat provided time for the entire FOR Colombia team to be together, break bread..errr...arepas with nutella and peanut butter, and to blaze a new trail into this beautiful farmhouse. Without a road out or any contact with the outside world, we had three intense days of bonding, singing and even working.
Tipping point?
Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city, has really nice public transportatin. Really nice. After experiencing success with a metro system that makes Washington, DC's look dirty, they put in a "metrocable," or Swiss-like gondola system.
The high-tech, quiet and immaculately clean cars climb into the hills on the outskirts of Medellin, where for about a dollar they enable the poorer residents who live in the nieghborhoods along its path to descend the hill in about ten minutes, rather than making the treacherous descent on a bus. There are signs placed along the metro and the metrocable urging residents to take the clean, considerate, efficient culture of this public transportation success back to the streets of Medellin. The picture below was taken right below where the metrocable passes over.
Madres Peace Prize
During FOR's August human rights delegation, I was perhaps most moved by the work of the "Madres de la Candelaria." Since 1999, a group of family members of those disappeared in the dirty war in Colombia have gathered outside the largest church in Medellin each Wednesday at noon
to ask for their safe return, or as they chant "Los queremos vives, libres, y en paz" - We want them alive, free and in peace. We had the opportunity to visit them, hear their stories, and show our support for their work, and to congratulate them on winning the Colombian Peace Prize.
