this is esther sitting outside her house - out back where they have this thatched roof and open space...we eat meals here and spend most of our relaxing time in this area, where there is a hammock and breeze.me painting my bedroom, esther making sure i don't do anything stupid.
me painting...
david, member of the church who is building my apt.
me and mario
my apt...the back entrance. other cousin of the family
from my bedroom, bathroom on the left, closet on the right.
from door looking in on my will-be kitchen and living area
norvy in the hammock
from the back door of the pastors house looking back through the patio and on to my apt.
esther...pastor
living room of pastor's house from front door looking in
front of pastor's house looking in


zambrano is without doubt one of the hottet places i've ever been in my life. located right beside the magdalena river, largest river in colombia, it doesn't seem to pick up the breeze off the waters like it does in sincelejo from the caribbean. pretty much all air movement dies on the river. so its really hot.
i've been on the coast about two weeks now. sorry its taken me so long to post. in these first couple of weeks i'm doing a balancing act between sincelejo and zambrano. (sincelejo is the larger city, out of which sembrandopaz - one of mcc's partner organizations, with which i am working - is located.) because sembrandopaz's office is in sincelejo...and because it is the largest city near zambrano, i need to spend some time here getting to know sembrandopaz and sincelejo before heading out to live in zambrano for good. so at the moment, dodanim, torin and i are all living in an apt in sincelejo until we permanantly move to our locations.
while i'm at it, the address for sembrandopaz is as follows:
calle 32 N # 17 - 194
avenida alponso lopez
sincelejo - sucre
and for those of you who don't have it, my cell number is (country code 57) 320.836.9113. feel free to call whenever you want. :) and if you send things to the sembrandopaz office i will get them, as well as the bogota office. not actually sure which will arrive sooner…it is quite possible that sending things to bogota will arrive in my hands quicker. but we can experiment.
i have been to zambrano on three visits. i’ll try to give a small window into these three visits to help you get a feel for what life is like.
the fist visit was when johan and erin were still on the coast here with us. we went with them, torin, doda was sick, and Ricardo (Ricardo esquivia, founder of sembrandopaz, closest thing to my “boss” here on the coast…wonderful man). on the way out to zambrano, we passed a large truck that had had a serious accident, which we did not witness, and i know very little of what happened…seems virtually impossible that the driver could have made it out alive by the looks of it. anyway, this truck had been carrying cartons of milk, so there were hundreds of people carrying away thousands of bags of milk – on foot, bike, car, motor, donkey, pretty much any way possible. it was hilarious. and a bit disturbing in the midst of the scene of such a serious accident. but asi es. visit was good. i met a few people, really liked them. we talked about the stuff i’ll be doing: teaching theology in a bible institute that the church does, heading up some kind of community gardening project, working with youth programming and children’s programming, helping with worship/teaching piano. on the majority, seemed good. people were in the pastors house all the time because its like 2 houses away from the church and pretty much the congregation is constantly at the pastors house. then we left.
second visit. went overnight for one night. met a lot of people from the church. really liked them. the pastor i get along with really well. well, its actually a couple that pastors the church. my main contact is esther, the female, however, and i really like her. she also has three children. an older son, who i have not met, and two daughters, one 23 and one 18. the older, norvy, especially, i am getting to know and am excited about having a friend who has lived in the city and has worked with sembrandopaz and is open to great conversation. the younger is a lot of fun, as well, and i’m enjoying getting to know the whole family. there are also two cousins, one 11 and one 24 who, although they do not stay at the house, are basically under the care of the pastors’ family. the younger, Mario, is at the house all the time and he’s already a great buddy and i have confidence that we will spend many hours together in the future. i learned how to drive their motorcycle because they said that was an important part of me living there and living with them. i wasn’t mad. then i left, and on the way home about 10 min from sincelejo, it was DOWNPOURING. seriously, a monsoon. and a rock hit the windshield and it shattered all over the driver. don’t worry, the bus did not come to a complete stop. rather, all the people in the front of the bus scurried to the back and we drove the rest of the way with rain pouring into the bus while someone tried to hold a tarp over the driver, who was drenched and bleeding from the windshield. ha.
third visit: longer. went to baranquilla…largest city on the coastal region. Ricardo was worried since i traveled alone and wanted me to go in taxi rather than in bus this first time. i, hesitantly, agreed. was told the taxi would pick me up at my house at 5 am, where i would go to Carmen de Bolivar and go the rest of the way to baranquilla in bus with ester and norvy. at 6 i was still waiting for the taxi, and finally Ricardo said i could go to the transport station. went…said the taxi was leaving soon. at 730 i told them i was going to take a bus. Ricardo, hesitantly, agreed. they followed me to the bus station. a bus was leaving in 15 min. i said i was going. taxis said they could leave right now. they put me in the van and we drove around picking up a few other people in sincelejo. i was mad, but glad to be finally leaving. after we picked everyone up, rather than leaving the city, we went back to the tranport station and waited. they don’t travel until the vehicles are full. problem is, they had told me we were leaving. so in that time, the bus had left and i had to take the taxi. at 930 we left sincelejo. its about a 3 to 4 hour trip. we arrived at 130. i was the last person the driver dropped off. i was not happy. then he started flirting with me. wanted to know where i lived, what i did, who my boyfriend was. i was annoyed and made up an identity. then he stopped at a gas station and bought me a snack because i was famished…hadn’t eaten since 5. i thanked him and told him i didn’t want food i wanted to get where i was going. at 230 i finally got dropped off. i told him i wasn’t going to pay the full price and he got really ticked. esther told me i had to pay it. if she wouldn’t have been there, i really was not going to pay. anyway. that was my travel.
when i got to zambrano, i was there 3 days. learned a lot more about the community. met more people. the people are grand. wonderful. i really like them. the town is small. basically nothing there. young adults pretty much don’t do anything. when people graduate from high school they don’t have anything to do, because there isn’t really work in zambrano…not much at least…and they don’t have money to go to university or travel anywhere. so they stay. doing nothing. for this reason, the church has activities every day out of the week. count it, 7 days a week. really intense for me, although i understand the reasoning and appreciate the fact that because of this church, none of the youth do their years of military service. their peace theology is really strong. an interesting dynamic with the rest of what i experienced. sunday morning went to church…about 200 people i’d say. pretty evangelical. i helped out with children’s church. for the most part, feeling alright. sunday night they have another service…for new members, they say. they had an alter call and people were slain in the spirit, etc. it was intense. that’s sunday nights. after, all the youth, who is anyone under the age of 35 and unmarried, hung out on the street outside and such. sweet getting to know people and just chilling.
monday night they have a biblical institute (and thursday night). they want me to teach theology during the thursday night sessions once i’m there. so i went to listen and see how it went. we have very different understandings and i think have a lot to learn from each other. i’m hoping that since our base is the same – jesus, the bible – they won’t find me too heretical. bonnie told me today that it will be a good challenge for me. ☺ i agree. i think there’s a lot to learn on all ends, i think.
this is getting really long and my neck is getting sore and its intense to read so much all in one setting. next time will be more comprehensive. trying to give you a picture, though. i will have some internet in zambrano. i don’t know how fast it is, yet, but there is some way to connect to internet at the pastors house. a blessing. so keep sending emails. i love hearing from people, and i’ll still be able to receive mail fairly frequently, so send them down. i love you all and i miss you and hope to hear from you soon.
oh, and i’ll be living in a small apartment that they have built in the past weeks right behind the pastor’s house. there are some pictures up. all day monday i was painting, which was wonderful. other than the heat, it was so great to have shorts and a tshirt on and do physical work. wasn't really physical labor, but it was so hot it felt like it. i was covered in sweat and paint by the end of the day. but it was really fun. so yeah. the apt is simple but i'll have my own space which i'm glad for.
i love you all. i miss you. hope to talk to you soon.