Calle 5 #14-32
La Mesa, Colombia
aaronlaurak@gmail.com
A Few “Accomplishments”
Dear friends and family,
We hope you are all well. We find ourselves amazed that we've already been here two weeks. In some ways it feels longer. We're also surprised at how many things we've been able to get done, and yet we also feel like sometimes there's not quite enough to do. Bonnie Klassen, the MCC country rep here, called yesterday, and when we told her this, she said it is not uncommon to feel that way in the first few weeks and months. She reassured us though that the work would come, probably more than we could "ask or imagine." Here's a list of some of the things that we have done (read the bold print if you just want the short version):
1) Established a good relationship with Pastor Martín and his family. We call their children Abby's "primos," cousins. It was wonderful to stay with them for our first week. Even though we expected it to only be a couple of days, we were not sorry it turned out to be longer. They showed us around town, fed us delicious typical dishes, and made us feel very welcomed. We've also been introduced to the congregation, as well as the elder team. They are very excited to have us here and are already asking us if we can teach some English classes or theology or something. Pastor Martín keeps telling them, patience, they're going to be here for two years!
2)Gotten to know the school principal, Guillermo, as well as some of the teachers and students. This week we were introduced to the student body during their morning line-up (they all come at 7:00 and stand in rows, we suppose for morning announcements and such). After a few words, Guillermo handed Aaron the microphone, not to his complete surprise, but not to his pleasure, either. He managed to say a few things that made sense in front of that group of 500 students, and while he was talking, as seems to be her habit, Abby chimed in with some babbling of her own. The students roared with laughter and delight. Afterwards, the younger ones crowded around wanting to look at, touch, and fawn over this little "preciosa, linda, hermosa, divina" (precious, pretty, beautiful, divine) baby girl.
3) Learned how to get around town and get all the basic necessities. We can get some of our food at a little market up the street a block. On Wednesdays and weekends we can go to the central market and get awesome veggies and fruits, many of the familiar, and some not. For instance there is this one fruit called the granadilla that has a hard orange shell that you have to crack open to get to the slimy, snot-colored seeds, which you sort of suck out and chew up whole. It's pretty good, and supposed to be high in iron. We know where several internet cafés are and where we can make international calls. We have yet to find a place that sells cool ethnic cloths, ziplock bags, small pocket notebooks, or measuring cups.
4)Traveled to Bogotá and obtained our provisional foreigner ID cards. We went expecting to be there a day, perhaps having to come back the next week or so to get our cards. It turned out that we needed to get photos, blood type tests, and pay a chunk of change to get them. This took the better part of one day. The next day, after having stayed at the home of Peter Stucky, the Colombian Mennonite Church president, we were able to go back to the immigration office, turn our things in, and then wait for about 2 1/2 hours to get what we found out were "temporary" ID cards. We have to go back in December to get the permanent ones. While in Bogotá we also visited the church office, met some interesting and kind people there, and got to try the taxis and the public bus system. It has its charm, but the pollution, congestion, and sheer size just got to us a bit and we were very ready to return to La Mesa. It felt like going home.
5) Moved into our house. As some of you may have seen on our website, www.kauffmanhome.net, we've got some pictures of it posted. It's a great place, with plenty of space inside for us and even some guests. Like we've mentioned, it's also got a small fruit plantation out back, with probably at least 20 fruit trees. Last week Aaron climbed up in the mandarin tree with Martín and Elsi's oldest boy, Andrés, to get some of the many mandarins down. We've also been picking oranges as they ripen, and cut off a bunch of plantains that were ready to eat. The problem is its more than we could ever eat before they go bad. We gave some away, and we'll have to keep doing that. Or open a fruit stand out front, one of the two. We're very pleased with the furnishings that Guillermo helped us get, though Laura wishes they were of a more vibrant color. We still would like to get a desk, bookshelf, and some sort of table or TV stand.
6) Signed up for internet services at our house. Yesterday Guillermo went with us to the Telecom office, the "Verizon" of Colombia. We learned about the different plans, and then, though we hoped we were going to be able to sign up right there, were given a number to call to sign up. So Aaron called in the afternoon, and at the advice of Guillermo, asked if there might be an operator who could speak English. No, was the answer, so he braved the conversation in Spanish. The man was very patient and helpful, but just when we were about finished signing up, the phone call got cut off. So he called again, of course getting a different operator. After explaining what happened, he was able to get the number to dial on our computer and the info necessary to finalize the contract online. So we tried the number, and it didn't work. Another phone call to Telecom revealed that we needed to use a different number and configure certain things in our dial up menu on our computer. Again, the number did not work. In a final call to Telecom, again to a very polite, but different, operator, we learned that our phone line is restricted to local calls, and that we need to contact the homeowners whose name the phone line is in and get them to authorize extended local service so we can call Bogota to get our internet access. Whew! It was a tiring experience, but kind of exhilarating, too. The short of it is that we should soon have internet access here at home!
7) Had our first moment of homesickness. Last Friday, our first full day in our house, it sort of hit us as we were cleaning that we're here, very far from home and loved ones, and that things are very different. We shed a few tears together, but then got on with our chores. That sort of helps us feel normal, attending to daily business like cleaning, shopping and cooking. We do miss our friends and family, as well as the familiarity of our home. Sometimes when we're walking down the street, it suddenly feels like we awaken from a dream and realize, wow, we're in Colombia, and we're going to be here for a while! But it's not a negative sensation. We're growing and confidence and trusting more in God each day, believing that we really are here for a purpose.
8) Made friends with a few English speakers. One of them is Ruth Daza, a teacher at Colegio Americano who grew up bicultural and bilingual, living about have her life in the states and half her life here. She also has a beautiful little girl, Angela, who's about 5 months old. We know she will be a good friend. Another is also a teacher at the Colegio, named Ruben. He is very kind, warm man who teaches math and physics. He spent a year in Canada with MCC's international exchange program, and is glad to have folks with whom he can practice his very adequate English. Finally, we met another missionary couple, Billie and Jeanette, who've been here for four years. They're with an independent mission agency and have worked at building relationships between the different church groups here in the area. They just left yesterday for an extended furlough in the states, but plan to be back in March.
These are the highlights of our first couple weeks. We continue to feel very welcomed, safe, and excited to be here. Please remember us in your prayers. We think of you often.
With love,
Aaron, Laura & Abigail