| Thursday, March 31, 2005 |
| My Feet Are Cold Today. |
| "Why?" Is the question you might be asking - "Why would Erica put that as the title of this blog?" Well... in response to your very appropriate question - the answer is because I would like to address the idea that some people think Bogota is an oven. My friends, this is not so. I can see my breathe in the mornings while I am waiting for my bus (at 5:50AM I would like to point out - Colleen Ruten, eat your heart out!) - sure in the mid day (from 11 to 1ish) it may feel like an oven, and the sun can roast you in 10 minutes flat (perhaps this is just a me thing?)- but this beautiful stiffling heat only lasts for that long, and is usually followed by a chilly downpour. My feet are cold today, because today I decided to be comfortable and wear my flip flops (Spring is in the air Ruth!) to school instead of the normal (uncomfortable) shoe shoes I wear. Bad idea. My toes are blue - which I am kind of ok with, because it masks the flourescent glow that they would otherwise be giving off! These last few days, I have been busy here at ECA teaching the innocent little children - I have gone home everyday tired, but pumped because I love what I am doing! I also had a meeting two nights ago with Andrew, the "stand-in" director of an English Academy here in Bogota - I will be helping out there 2 nights a week with teaching English: and it is really cool b/c they also do a LOT of evangelism through the institute; we had a phenomenal talk about living the life and being the light that Christ calls us to - it pumps me up that they actively want to share Christ in a sensitive - Spirit way... BOOYAH. Life continues on... I got to talk on the phone last night with the one and only Sabrina Swereda... my fellow South American visiting friend... and was again reminded of how beautiful it is to encourage one another: dang, I was BLESSED! |
posted by Erica @ 5:08 a.m.  |
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| Sunday, March 27, 2005 |
| Semana Santa, Shwarma, Dogs. |
Hello there - I feel like it has been forever since I have updated this blog things here, but in reality - its only been like, 6 days - not EXACTLY forever... Anyway, I have been good. Crazy bored and feeling like death would come upon me if I didn´d do something soon, and then CRAZY busy and feeling like death would come upon me if I didn´t get some down time soon... I know I know, I´m an extremist.
1) Semana Santa: Translation: Holy Week: This Easter week here in Colombia is certainly more celebrated than in Canada - there are huge processions in streets, everyone travels and visits family, stores close for the long weekend... you name it! As a result of the travelling bit, Bogota is a lot emptier of people - which I enjoyed because the air was soooo much clearer and you could see the mountains/hills (?) around Bogota a lot better and quite frankly: I thought it was dang nice. I also got to see a procession here in Bogota - not a big massive one like you see on the news nightly, but a smaller version of a Catholic tradition. People in the procession were dressed up like Pharisees, disciples, you name it... it was a little strange, I thought they weren´t really serious about the dressing up part, but in reality - it´s something that is taken very seriously. It´s interesting to observe.
2) Shwarma: If you ever live in the Middle East, you MUST experience the goodness of Shwarma. Today, I was BLESSED to go to Boulevard Niza after church (thanks for the reminder Joan!) and eat Shwarma from a restaurante in the mall - hoooooo doody was it ever good.
3) Dogs: Reason #1 why I am coming to strongly dislike perros: Because for the last 3 nights the ridiculous amount of dogs lounging on rooftops have kept me up throughout the nights. Sleep is my precious, and they continually robbed me of it. I wish I was joking about the amount of dogs, but honestly, I have never seen so many dogs in my entire life: in a city of 8 million, every single home owns at least one - unbelievable.
Hmmm... what else to say? Church today was interesting, I went with Leidy (I stayed at her house) and Emma to their church, El Rebaño (I think is the name???), for an outdoor service in a parque close to the church building - it was interesting because we chose a parque where many, many games of futbol were happening (on Domingo it seems the city comes absolutely alive with the beautiful sport... basically if there is an open space, guys are out playing), I´m full of thoughts about the service, and not sure I´m ready to share... but I am glad to have had the experience. The MB Church´s here are intense... the love of God is definitely real and passionate in there intensity - it is crazy every Sunday to observe worship and different responses to the sermon... I now know why in Peru Nathan´s sermon was too short - they like em lonnnng... while I wish I could be fully understanding of everything that is happening, I love knowing and praying for the congregation´s growth and worship... to know that we serve and love the same God regardless of different languages, cultures, etc... neat lesson.
These last couple I stayed at a friends - it is interesting to observe different ways in which people live - I had a really good time this weekend, there was a LOT of Spanish (yesterday I forgot some words in English... ridiculous!), a LOT of differences from even my Colombian home, and a lack of sleep. Being away from what has become familiar was actually quite hard - I didn´t expect to miss my own house so much, but I definitely did - I came home on Sunday with a renewed appreciation and love for my house and my family: God has blessed me with a very caring and fun home!
The last thing I would like to say is that God is good. So often in these days He is reminding me especially through His Word of His FAITHFULNESS... I often say that I want to live my life to bring GLORY to Him, regardless of whether I understand what God is doing or not. This is a time when I don´t always understand what is going on or what ULTIMATE purpose I am working towards... that I would be faithful in WALKING would be intense... trusting in Him to do the leading - not knowing where to or why... Oswald Chambers talked about this a few days ago: AIY - More of God and Less of My Worries - I want to rejoice in being near Jesus. This is my prayer. |
| posted by Erica @ 11:20 a.m. |
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| Monday, March 21, 2005 |
| Lets Talk Food |
So these last couple of days have brought with them some traditional, or maybe typical is the right word, Colombian foods. In the last 3 days, I have eaten (or tried to eat) tamales, chorizos, changua, granadija (spelling???) and tinto. Tamales - WAY different than I thought these would be... it was this mashed corn type stuff with a piece of chicken wrapped in plaintain leaves - tasted pretty good, but the mashed type stuff threw me off a little bit. Chorizos - DEFINITELY my favorite of the foods I´ve tried so far - this is like a sausage thingy, but spicier in an arrepa - I put this ahi stuff on it and almost lost my face it was so incredibly hot... however, I continued to eat it on my chorizo. SO good. Changua was just this morning for breakfast, and I`m not too sure how I feel about this - it´s a soup made up of milk, bread, egg (basically, a fried type egg in the soup) and cilantro. Texture wise the bread was a bit of a problem... and I don´t know how I felt about the cilantro - but I`m glad I tried it because everyone always tells me about it. Granadija is a fruit that looks absolutely sick inside - you crack it open and inside are these black seed things covered in kinda a slimy grey-y/see-through sack thingy... and you suck these seeds out of the fruit shell. It was actually pretty good once you got over the look of it. Sra. Reyes had a good laugh at me as I tried to eat it... Now Tinto is black coffee. The funny thing about this, is that I have managed to avoid drinking any coffee while I´ve been here... exciept that Saturday morning someone had JUST asked me if I´d had any yet... to which I was pumped that I hadn´t and wouldn´t you know it... the very afternoon... tinto. It was strong - so very very strong.
The last thing that I ate yesterday for lunch was most definitely among the best! After church I went out with a big group of people to this meat restaurante. I would call it by its name, but the sign definitely just said "carne" so I figure "meat" is the name of the restaurant. Basically, we ordered this basket that came with yucca, potato, arrepa and a massive amount of bbq´d (not a typical NA bbq... its kind of like a round wire thing that the meat is placed on, and then rotated around a fire... unbelievable) meat. The restaurant itself was cool enough with all wooden chairs and a big leafy canopy type roof...but then the food was amazing! I just thought that maybe SOME of you might be wondering about this - maybe you`re bored, but maybe you think its cool... of course, these foods were not everyday type foods - usually we just have rice, potato, and meat. Still very good... but fun to see variety. |
| posted by Erica @ 5:54 a.m. |
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| Friday, March 18, 2005 |
| Beautiful Worship... |
| Today at the school was elementary chapel day. I saw perhaps the most beautiful thing of my life! Today the grade 3 kids were in charge of the chapel, and they spoke on forgiving one another and asking God to help you get over anger... but at the end, oh man... they sang along to this Mary Mary song "Shackles" which is a cool kinda song - but to see these grade 3 kids singing and dancing about God breaking our chains, setting us free so we can praise Him - DANG. Then at the end of the chapel they led us in a song - I dont know the namee, but it has the lines... "King of all kings, oh so highly exalted... glorious in heaven above..." All I could do was cry through the entire chapel - not because it was worship in English, but mainly becuase I am reminded again of the purity of heart I am required to have... and I marvel at the beautiful God that is in each of those kids... SHOOT - Seriously prime moment in my life! |
| posted by Erica @ 2:05 p.m. |
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| Thursday, March 17, 2005 |
| Why I had the best day ever... |
| Because God is Good... that is why. So - on Wednesday, the bus for El Camino most definitely did not come and pick me up... so I ranted and raved and had my little fit with God about my discouragement, etc... and wouldnt you know it, that very afternoon (after I laid in bed for two hours complaining and wondering what on earth I am doing here...) I got a phone call from the director of ECA and ALL IS WELL!!!! I most definitely have gone for the last two days and have LOVED every minute of it... I think I may look into going into teaching when I get home - university perhaps here I come??? We{ll see... anyway, today I sat down and scheduled in all 20 of my ESL kids... I have come to realize the neeeeeed for some of these kids to have 1 on 1 teaching... one girl is in grade 4 and barely speaks english - how she is supposed to do the work is beyond me... pray for her actually, cuz she has a really broken spirit about the whole process, well call her Feefee. Ok, anyway... I am most definitely pumped because today I also had a talk with the elementary principal who stoked me up to be there - everything is getting sorted out with my time, my presence... oh man is it sweet to finallyyyyyy feel like I am doing something helpful! Also tonight, I hung out with 2 girls and had a phenomenal talk (mostly in Spanish may I add...) about one of them[s lack of desire to be in the church, but desire to pursue God... this is the stuff I live for! I got to (try) and encourage this girl to focus on the glorfiying aspect of living life... it was dang hot. Yeah... all in all these last two days have served to encourage me UN believably - PRAISE GOD... He is so wise and knows when to send His goodness! Thanks everyone who actually reads this and prays - I love you all! |
| posted by Erica @ 5:07 p.m. |
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| Monday, March 14, 2005 |
| Frustrating Day! |
| Ok. So - I was pumped to get to go to El Camino Academy and help out. And I still am. But I would definitely ask for your prayers as there is a definite hitch in transportation stuff. Today I did go - and it was tight! I am placed in a class with grade 4´s (quite a bunch of kids may I say) with a teacher from Chicago - Tara Hamstrom - a very nice girl. I can see why I am there as she has 22 kids in her class, and 16 of them are girls... lots of "she hurt my feelings..." kinda stuff going on I guess, so cool discipleship opportunities are there with the kids! I also talked today with the principal of the elementary schoola bout the ESL thing. I will probably have 8 - 10 core kids that I will work with, and about 6 - 8 as needed kids to work with. I´m so excited for that opportunity... as nervous as I am at the same time. I had a cool talk with Tara today about the opportunity to serve others in ministry by caring for their kids. The transportation thing... aiy! How frustrating... basicall, the problem is I just live too far away and to pick me up adds like, 15 minutes to any buses route. BUT I most definitely can not just hop onto Bogota buses by myself... over 3 million people each morning take the trans-millenia buses (which is only ONE of the types of transportation!!!)... imagine me, lacking Spanish, trying to do that! Pray, pray, pray. Otherwise - I am awesome. I feel like an idiot cuz I roasted today and now look like a tomatoe, and tonight I got to watch a game (basically like soccer) called banquitas... the guys that were playing were possibly the most amazingly talented peopel I´ve ever seen! Bascially, the ball is hard, and 1/2 the size of a soccer ball... and their footwork - oh my word. It was heinously amazing. I have to run now... to all out there who read this, I appreciate the prayers - God is slowing revealing areas I can minister in here... even if it "only" friendship and encouragement. |
| posted by Erica @ 3:32 p.m. |
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| Saturday, March 12, 2005 |
| Sunny, blue sky.... |
Today is dang sweet outside... the sun is shining, no clouds are to be seen - I am in a camiseta y sandelias (or something like that) and it is good. Things here in Bogota are going well - I have been having a bit of a stomach something something, so I have made the concious decision to stop drinking tap water. Possibly a good idea? Meh, if not bright then beautiful right? Just kidding... in all seriousness, things here are progressing - today I have my first meeting at la iglesia Dios es Amor (what will be my home church for the year) for the youth group. It´s all obviously going to be in Spanish, so that should be interesting, but I am going anyway. I have become surrounded by a group of girls my age who are a combination of interesting, wonderful and patient - they are most kind about my brutalization of the spanish language, and laugh at me when I do something dumb (quite often). God is most definitely present along this journey, as just the right amoutn of English is mixed into my day. I have been especially blessed by a girl named Emma who has been in Canada for a year (2 years ago) with MCC`s exchange program, and who often understands my homesickness or confusion - what a blessing! On Monday I start work at El Camino Academy, which is a Christian school originally for the children of missionaries, but which now also is open to other students as a result of the growing¨dangerous^ situation. I will be helping as a grade 4 teacher´s assistant and am now solely responsible for the school´s ESL. Hehehe... that´s a nervous laugh for all who are wondering. I´m excited about this because I will be going every day for the next month while Paula is busy with MIJUCO training. In April I will join her and Tomas on a more regular basis with MIJUCO. At the school, I`ll be getting a free Spanish lesson everyday, along with fellowship with other Canadians and American teachers. I am pumped. Regarding the dangerous situation - there haven´t been any times thus far where I have felt ANY fear as a result of my surroundings. I am always with at least one or two people and so they tell me when it´s necessary to walk fast through an area or cross the street, etc... all is well! About my visa: More prayer is needed as our attempt the other day to apply for a different visa did not fare so well. Basically, we were sent to 2 wrong offices, and will have to attempt a third time this next week. I am leraning a lot about Colombia, I am learning a TON about myself... but most importantly, daily I am learning to trust that God is 100% in control, and 100% with me.
PRAY: That my homesickness would become less, and that my Spanish would become more. And that my visa situation can be resolved. |
| posted by Erica @ 8:57 a.m. |
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| Tuesday, March 08, 2005 |
| Bienvenido a Bogota |
Hola... (that's Spanish for hello...) I am finally here!!! I can't believe that after one year of talking about coming, the day has arrived! I gotta say, the trip here was good - often interesting - but good. I had a night in Miami on the way, so I definitely took advantage and went walking in the water at the beach... oh yes, it was studly. Although a person in Miami wouldn't want to look too closely at what the people are wearing; or in most cases, not wearing. Traumatizing experience with a dude in a speedo - who thinks up these random outfits!? I don't have too long and this keyboard is different, but I wanted to let you all know that I have safely made it here, and have been duly greeted by Paula Reyes and several of her friends; many of whom speak English... PRAISE THE LORD for safe travels and liking it so far!
PRAYER REQUEST: I am only here on a 60 day tourist visa, pray that my applicatioin for a 1 year religious visa goes through asap! |
| posted by Erica @ 4:10 p.m. |
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| Thursday, March 03, 2005 |
| My hair is done... I am officially ready. |
OK - first of all - Tony Ricci is a genius. Secondly; I love my parents who pay for such genius to occur. Got my hair done today people; and two words for you: Me. Yow. Put it together and what do you get: Meow! Dang; I look good. Hehehe... I'm just kidding (?) with y'all. I'm doing good here in Edmonton before leaving for Colombia - stuff is seriously getting done and each day I feel more and more ready to go. Basically this is a really pointless post; I just wanted to talk about my hair. Yes, I know - I am incredibly shallow.
PRAYER REQUEST: Pray that all the plans made so far would hold firm as I travel and that everything goes smoothly. I depart Edmonton on March 7 at 12:30 am (basically it's Sunday night)... and have an overnight stay in Miami before taking off for Bogota at 7:00am on March 8. |
| posted by Erica @ 4:41 p.m. |
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| About Me |
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Name: Erica
Home: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.
Mother Teresa |
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