what a wonderful weekend. all of mcc colombia - about 30 of us now - went 3 hours outside of bogota in a small town called villa de leiva for our tri-annual (is that a word...three times a year?) retreat. it was SO wonderful to spend time with all the mccers and get to know new people, see new faces, and have new conversations. very relaxing time, we did a lot of catch up listening in big groups to how everyone is doing, where they're at, etc. also had a large chunk of free time where we were able to relax together, play games, and just spend time with one another. many times over the weekend i found myself feeling extremely content with being here in colombia. sitting around talking to others and being re-energized about why we're here and what we're doing made me feel many times that "im exactly where i want to be right now." sometimes in the midst of a busy schedule in a huge city i can forget the passion i came with. so often i just want to get out of bogota and get to zambrano, but i do realize that this time is important and valuable.
we had a lot of great conversations, too, about the role of the church and the role of mcc in the conflict situation. how to we balance taking risks with being responsible, etc. i learned a lot more about projects that are going on in the country and it made me very impatient to be part of the changes happening. one month in i still feel like im more an annoyance to other mccers than a co-worker helping change realities here. janna, an experienced mccer, reminded me that until i've been here a year i can't even try to evaluate what im doing here. i just want to be part of it and its hard to have patience in the beginning months. also difficult to think about how so many of the projects are so wonderful, but are so long term, as they must be. how do i balance my passion for whats going on here with the reality that ive committed to two years, which is hardly anything in the perspective of real change. just thoughts.
on a lighter note, i went horseback riding in villa de leiva, which was fun. a large group of us rode about 45 min to a small lake where we jumped in and swam around, a beautiful thing. the way there i was TOTALLY frustrated becuase my horse would not so much as trot, so i switched and was galloping the whole way back, which was way more fun.
i was able after many days of sleeping on a sofa to finally take a bed home last night. becuse of all the confusion, i have kind of a not-the-best mattress that was already here in the mcc office, but i only have another 6 - 8 weeks here, and ive been sleeping on floors, bad mattresses and couches since i got here, so im not too worried. it was wonderful to finally have a bed in my rom...makes it feel like a room. ill take pictures tonight and put them up so you can see a bit of how the apt looks. finally got a key and we think we have the hot water working a bit better, so things are looking up...even though last night when i got the bed in my room it wouldn't assemble correctly. we're pretty sure they sent the wrong bed, but i tied it together with rope and slept on it anyway. felt sturdy enough. haha.
we have decided to drop one of the night classes we have at the seminary, which is really helpful. our days are too full, in reality, to have any time to see the city or even do our homework in the evenings. also there's the fact that i understand less than 20% of what goes on in one of the classes (severe exaggeration that was, but who's suprised about that...). all this to say, we're not taking the eclesiology class anymore...just the conflict transformation one. i feel really good about this decision.
so much more to say, as always, but ill leave you with this window of my life...im off for lunch and to buy some sheets and blankets for my new bed before we meet together for conversations about culture this afternoon. thanks for the emails, as always, to those of you who have corresponded. i appreciate so much hearing from all of you. i miss you all and love you dearly...and a few pictures from the weekend!
captions...
#1: on the way to villa de leiva, we stopped at the famous bridge in boyaca that was built on the place where the last battle was fought for indepencence, and the bridge represents the tie between spain and colombia now (i think)
#2: one night a bunch of us went downtown to listen to live, traditional music of the area, and we found ourselves dancing salsa some of the evening. i was not disapointed.
#3: me mad at my horse telling him to go faster.
#4: swimming in the pond
#5: the group sitting around...much of what we look like.