I was in the jungle the other day and saw this animal coming towards me. I did not scream as it was not charging me, but simply walking around looking for food. The person who was with me laughed and said that it was a "chiguiro". It looked like a wild boar, but he again laughed and said on no it is like a rabbit. Now just imagine that a cross between a boar and a rabbit, but as I began to feed it out of own hand, I realized that it's teeth were very much like those of a rabbit. They, more came up to be fed, were very docile and their coats were thick and course. Their feet were webbed and they ate the plantains we offered with no hurry, just as was their pace in all that they did. I did notice that they had a pig like tendency when they ate. Their slobber was covering their faces and they had no can to clean it off. The plantain that now covered their face was just leftovers for later.
In the rest of my journey into the jungle on this day we encouraged monkeys in the wild. I have been to monkey island several times now, but this was different. The monkeys were simply happy to sit in the tree and watch us. The were curious about us, but not enough not make an entrance. They were happy just hanging out and watching. There were several different varieties of monkeys that I saw. There were tiny ones and large ones and spider monkeys. It was great fun to just watch the trees and look for them.
Finally, I also saw a couple of scarlet macaws. They were both beautiful and curious about us. I took a lot of pictures of them and then I guess one of them got tired of me and decided he had enough, so he charged at me. I almost peed my pants. I just know he could break my finger in half had he wanted to.
Oh well that is enough for today. I will share more later, Make sure you check out the new pictures
in the blog, you might even see a chigurio.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
A three hour tour...
Hello, it is Ginger here...
If you don't get that joke, you are way too young. Ask your parents to explain it to you. This past Monday I went with Arles and Manuel to visit Marasha. It is the site of our camp for the teenagers this October. BTW, it looks awesome and I covet your prayers for the camp. I know that God has incredible things planned for these teens and I want all of us to cover the camp, the staff, the teens, and the team coming from Concord with much prayer.
Anyway, back to the song...ugh well I mean the story. David, with Amazon Expeditions, graciously agreed to take us to Marasha on Monday. He has a small aluminum boat that was perfect for the 4 of us. The only problem was that the river was not agreeable on this trip. When we were dropped off at the port we had to walk about a mile down river on the river bed in order to get to the water and David's boat. The river is down a lot as this is the dry season. Finally we get the boat and we were off. We were flying along on the river well on our way to Marasha when all of a sudden I was in Manuel and Arles' laps on my knees. It felt very much like we had hit a brick wall and I had been thrown from the back to the front.
Well, come to find out propellers do not do well when submerged in sand. We had come across a sandbar without knowing it. David quickly jumped out of the boat and we were in water that was just over ankle deep. OH NO! Stuck on the Amazon. Well David worked hard to get us free and we finally were on our way again.
We continued on our way and just before we got to where we were going, we realized that it was impossible to get there the way we were going because the river was so low it had created a huge island that ran from side to side and we were not able to pass by at all. Yeah!!!!!!!
We turned back around and carefully retraced out "steps" because we didn't want to get stuck again. The island that we had been traveling beside ran the length of our journey on this day so we had to go back to the beginning and go around it. Finally we made our turn and arrived at the boat dock for Marasha about 3 hours later than planned. That's life in the Amazon!
If you don't get that joke, you are way too young. Ask your parents to explain it to you. This past Monday I went with Arles and Manuel to visit Marasha. It is the site of our camp for the teenagers this October. BTW, it looks awesome and I covet your prayers for the camp. I know that God has incredible things planned for these teens and I want all of us to cover the camp, the staff, the teens, and the team coming from Concord with much prayer.
Anyway, back to the song...ugh well I mean the story. David, with Amazon Expeditions, graciously agreed to take us to Marasha on Monday. He has a small aluminum boat that was perfect for the 4 of us. The only problem was that the river was not agreeable on this trip. When we were dropped off at the port we had to walk about a mile down river on the river bed in order to get to the water and David's boat. The river is down a lot as this is the dry season. Finally we get the boat and we were off. We were flying along on the river well on our way to Marasha when all of a sudden I was in Manuel and Arles' laps on my knees. It felt very much like we had hit a brick wall and I had been thrown from the back to the front.
Well, come to find out propellers do not do well when submerged in sand. We had come across a sandbar without knowing it. David quickly jumped out of the boat and we were in water that was just over ankle deep. OH NO! Stuck on the Amazon. Well David worked hard to get us free and we finally were on our way again.
We continued on our way and just before we got to where we were going, we realized that it was impossible to get there the way we were going because the river was so low it had created a huge island that ran from side to side and we were not able to pass by at all. Yeah!!!!!!!
We turned back around and carefully retraced out "steps" because we didn't want to get stuck again. The island that we had been traveling beside ran the length of our journey on this day so we had to go back to the beginning and go around it. Finally we made our turn and arrived at the boat dock for Marasha about 3 hours later than planned. That's life in the Amazon!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
A Day in the Life...
I have been encouraged to write about what happens in my life here to give everyone a glimpse of what it is like, so I will just give you a run down of what it is like.
I usually get up about 5:30am. Yes, close your mouths those of you who know me well. This is very much a challenge for me, but life begins much earlier here than in the US. I awaken to ensure that those that have school in the morning get up and complete their responsibilities and are feed before they leave for school at 6:00am. After they leave, I usually shower and get ready for the day myself, I then go to the main branch so that I can catch up on emails and the blog.
I tutor English at 8:30 for those who are in the morning group. The youth are very excited about English and are eager to learn it. I get excited about it. Tutoring starts at 9:00 each day. There are different focuses for each day; Cognitive, Physical, Pre-vocational, Spiritual, and Social-Emotional. I am responsible for the Spiritual tutoring. The tutoring ends at 11:30 for lunch. I will talk about food a little later. During the lunch 'hour' the youth finish their homework, they eat and prepare for school, getting changed into their uniforms and get there things together. At the same time, those that had school in the morning, come to the house eat lunch, change out of their uniforms and begin their homework. Then we as leaders run the same program in the afternoon as we did in the morning.
The late afternoon is usually a quite time for me as the youth are either in the school of music, Batuta, or school. That is the time that I am seeking the Lord. I also am writing devotionals for the youth at time time. It is my desire that they learn to connect with God in a personal way each day.
The evening is spent with the youth that live in the house with me and my calendar depends on their activities, Monday nights, I watch the boys play futbol in the park, I help with homework, I listen to them practice their music, I prepare dinner for them and then I process the day with them over dinner and we have a time of prayer. I am usually going to bed about 11:00 after preparing for the next day.
OK, now about the food, it is different than I expected when I left the US. We have a lot of rice and a lot of "soup". The soup is made with all of the veggies and meat in it. The meat is cooked and served in the soup with the bone in. It varies from day to day, some days we have fish soup, beef soup, and chicken soup. Of the 7 days of the week we have soup about 4 of those days. We have fish about 3 days a week. Pasta one day of the week and that is my favorite day.
One of the youth in the house celebrated his 17th birthday this month. His mother invited Lucy, Carmen, and me to her house for lunch to celebrate. I prayed beforehand for the ability to graciously accept whatever was presented before me as I suspected it would be different and I was guessing fish, as it is so readily available here. I was wrong. We were first presented with a HUGE plate of rice. And then I was pleasantly surprised when I was presented with chicken soup. This was not strange to me at all, I could handle this with no problem. WRONG! I stired the soup to get a soupful and came up with a chicken foot. This was not the first time I have seen this in my bowl, but the first time, I was able to pass it to on of the kids without offending anyone, now, I had no way of doing that. His mother was so pleased to be able share with us. She had not celebrated his birthday since he was 9 years old becuase she could not afford to. So I did not want to offend her. So I prayed and took a deep breath, smiled and was gracious. God is stretching me in so many ways right now. I appreciate all of your love and prayers.
I usually get up about 5:30am. Yes, close your mouths those of you who know me well. This is very much a challenge for me, but life begins much earlier here than in the US. I awaken to ensure that those that have school in the morning get up and complete their responsibilities and are feed before they leave for school at 6:00am. After they leave, I usually shower and get ready for the day myself, I then go to the main branch so that I can catch up on emails and the blog.
I tutor English at 8:30 for those who are in the morning group. The youth are very excited about English and are eager to learn it. I get excited about it. Tutoring starts at 9:00 each day. There are different focuses for each day; Cognitive, Physical, Pre-vocational, Spiritual, and Social-Emotional. I am responsible for the Spiritual tutoring. The tutoring ends at 11:30 for lunch. I will talk about food a little later. During the lunch 'hour' the youth finish their homework, they eat and prepare for school, getting changed into their uniforms and get there things together. At the same time, those that had school in the morning, come to the house eat lunch, change out of their uniforms and begin their homework. Then we as leaders run the same program in the afternoon as we did in the morning.
The late afternoon is usually a quite time for me as the youth are either in the school of music, Batuta, or school. That is the time that I am seeking the Lord. I also am writing devotionals for the youth at time time. It is my desire that they learn to connect with God in a personal way each day.
The evening is spent with the youth that live in the house with me and my calendar depends on their activities, Monday nights, I watch the boys play futbol in the park, I help with homework, I listen to them practice their music, I prepare dinner for them and then I process the day with them over dinner and we have a time of prayer. I am usually going to bed about 11:00 after preparing for the next day.
OK, now about the food, it is different than I expected when I left the US. We have a lot of rice and a lot of "soup". The soup is made with all of the veggies and meat in it. The meat is cooked and served in the soup with the bone in. It varies from day to day, some days we have fish soup, beef soup, and chicken soup. Of the 7 days of the week we have soup about 4 of those days. We have fish about 3 days a week. Pasta one day of the week and that is my favorite day.
One of the youth in the house celebrated his 17th birthday this month. His mother invited Lucy, Carmen, and me to her house for lunch to celebrate. I prayed beforehand for the ability to graciously accept whatever was presented before me as I suspected it would be different and I was guessing fish, as it is so readily available here. I was wrong. We were first presented with a HUGE plate of rice. And then I was pleasantly surprised when I was presented with chicken soup. This was not strange to me at all, I could handle this with no problem. WRONG! I stired the soup to get a soupful and came up with a chicken foot. This was not the first time I have seen this in my bowl, but the first time, I was able to pass it to on of the kids without offending anyone, now, I had no way of doing that. His mother was so pleased to be able share with us. She had not celebrated his birthday since he was 9 years old becuase she could not afford to. So I did not want to offend her. So I prayed and took a deep breath, smiled and was gracious. God is stretching me in so many ways right now. I appreciate all of your love and prayers.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Fun in the Sun
Last Tuesday was another Holiday for Colombia so the kids had no school. So what do you do on a hot summer day? Of course...you go swimming. The four youth that live with me, their tutor Robert and I packed up lunch and headed for the jungle. At Kilometer 11 there is a swimming hole that we went for. It was outside of town (11 Kilometers) and then about 3 Kilometers into the jungle. As we were getting out of the jeep the youth were expressing their own concern saying that this place was known to have snake on a regular occasions. Ok, I know that I am not a girlie girl, but this whole experience was stretching me just a bit. We found our spot and began to get ready to get in the water. Some were faster than others. All were faster than me. While I was watching and deciding if I wanted to go in, I see two women on the edge of the water cutting up a chicken and cleaning a fish on a log in the water. The one cutting the chicken would cut off a piece and then dip it in the water to "clean it".
After a while of swimming the boys decided that they would climb a tree that was over hanging the water and jump from the highest branch. Jeison was so very funny to watch as he quickly got to the top branch wanting to jump, but the he would freeze and not want to jump, and not want to come down. He waited about 20 mins before he jumped because he was scared.
I very much wanted to jump from the tree because the high dive has always been one of my favorite things, however it was impossible for me to get up the tree because I am not a monkey. I did however jump from the "cliff" that ran along side the edge of water.
It was also very fun to watch Marlon as he fished in the water. We had no fishing pools, but he was not stopped because of this. He simply took his hand towel and put it under the water and patiently waited for the fish to swim over it. Then his plan was to scoop up the towel and catch the fish. He would even drop pieces of bread in the water to draw the fish. He did catch a few fish that were about an inch long.
While we sat on the bank and ate our lunch Darwin played his guitar and sang and Kimberly laid in the sun on the log. We all relaxed and enjoyed our time spent together. The day ended with ice cream...how else could it end. LOL
After a while of swimming the boys decided that they would climb a tree that was over hanging the water and jump from the highest branch. Jeison was so very funny to watch as he quickly got to the top branch wanting to jump, but the he would freeze and not want to jump, and not want to come down. He waited about 20 mins before he jumped because he was scared.
I very much wanted to jump from the tree because the high dive has always been one of my favorite things, however it was impossible for me to get up the tree because I am not a monkey. I did however jump from the "cliff" that ran along side the edge of water.
It was also very fun to watch Marlon as he fished in the water. We had no fishing pools, but he was not stopped because of this. He simply took his hand towel and put it under the water and patiently waited for the fish to swim over it. Then his plan was to scoop up the towel and catch the fish. He would even drop pieces of bread in the water to draw the fish. He did catch a few fish that were about an inch long.
While we sat on the bank and ate our lunch Darwin played his guitar and sang and Kimberly laid in the sun on the log. We all relaxed and enjoyed our time spent together. The day ended with ice cream...how else could it end. LOL
Monday, August 6, 2012
The Dry Season has Begun!
Mucho Sol! Mucho Calor!
We have been having many days of a lot of bright sunlight and no clouds. Everything seems dry and the only moisture I have seen is the sweat running down my back! But God never promised me it would be cool and breezy!
While it has been hot here, things are great! This past week we have had a team visiting from Memphis, TN. Bellevue Baptist Church sent a wonderful group of people and they got to share Love of Christ with all of us. Part of the team built a covering for the patio to hang clothes out to dry and the rest of the group lead VBS types of activities in the house. It was great fun getting to know these brothers and sisters in Christ.
On one of the days of their visit all of us went to a place on the Amazon River called Monkey Island. For those of you who have never been, it is a place where Spider Monkey live in the wild and you go and feed them bananas. They jump all over you as you feed them. It is great fun and something you don't get to do everyday. This particular trip to Monkey Island was different for me. It was the first time I had a bunch of them jump on me when I didn't even have a banana in my hands and it was the first time I have been bitten by one of the monkeys. Several times a couple of monkeys fought over a banana in my hand and on one of those time my finger got in the way. Another time, I was scratched on the forearm. It was not bad though, all of the wounds heal quickly. I do have a strong urge for bananas though. LOL
We have been having many days of a lot of bright sunlight and no clouds. Everything seems dry and the only moisture I have seen is the sweat running down my back! But God never promised me it would be cool and breezy!
While it has been hot here, things are great! This past week we have had a team visiting from Memphis, TN. Bellevue Baptist Church sent a wonderful group of people and they got to share Love of Christ with all of us. Part of the team built a covering for the patio to hang clothes out to dry and the rest of the group lead VBS types of activities in the house. It was great fun getting to know these brothers and sisters in Christ.
On one of the days of their visit all of us went to a place on the Amazon River called Monkey Island. For those of you who have never been, it is a place where Spider Monkey live in the wild and you go and feed them bananas. They jump all over you as you feed them. It is great fun and something you don't get to do everyday. This particular trip to Monkey Island was different for me. It was the first time I had a bunch of them jump on me when I didn't even have a banana in my hands and it was the first time I have been bitten by one of the monkeys. Several times a couple of monkeys fought over a banana in my hand and on one of those time my finger got in the way. Another time, I was scratched on the forearm. It was not bad though, all of the wounds heal quickly. I do have a strong urge for bananas though. LOL
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Week of Celebration
Last week we had a blast. Not only was it the first week for the teens to be in the new house it was the week of the festival to celebrate the amazon culture. It was combined with Independence Day (July 20) and included a nightly celebration in the part with many performances even by the Batuta orchestra that includes many of the kids from La Aljaba. There were also 2 parades. One to celebrate the culture and another one on the 20th that was a military parade. I noticed that almost every home had a flag out to show their pride in Colombia. This was wonderful for me to see. It was fun for all, although standing for a parade that lasted 2.5 hours in the sun was a bit much for me. I posted pictures for you to see the fun.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
To make you laugh!
I thank you all for your prayers for me, specifically for the prayers for me to pick up the language more rapidly. I am coming along in it day by day. I do have to share a couple of stories with you. The people down here are still laughing at me.
The other night I was taking prayer requests from the teens here and Marlon asked for prayer for karate. At least that is what I thought he said. I responded that I didn't know he was interested in that, I could arrange that for him. I got excited because this was new for me in that I had NO CLUE he was interested and it was something so simple that I could help set up. He said no and repeated the word. I agreed, saying I understood what he was saying. Someone else repeated the word and I again assured them that I knew what he was saying. I began to tell him how I could make it happen. He finally laughed and smacked his head with his hand. They finally helped me to understand that he was not saying karate, but "caracter" which sounds JUST LIKE karate. He was asking for God to change his character not to participate in karate. I was blown away and laughing all at the same time.
Next, I was in church and the preacher repeatedly asked the people to repeat what he was saying. I understood what he was saying but it takes a little more thought for me to be able to repeat it back with the right words, so I looked at the person beside me and said también and every time he asked us to repeat, I said también, Which means also or me too. The person beside me got so tickled, I thought she was going to pee in her pants. So now whenever I don't understand what someone is saying, I say it again and they just end up laughing at me. Everyday is an adventure in laughter and fun!
The other night I was taking prayer requests from the teens here and Marlon asked for prayer for karate. At least that is what I thought he said. I responded that I didn't know he was interested in that, I could arrange that for him. I got excited because this was new for me in that I had NO CLUE he was interested and it was something so simple that I could help set up. He said no and repeated the word. I agreed, saying I understood what he was saying. Someone else repeated the word and I again assured them that I knew what he was saying. I began to tell him how I could make it happen. He finally laughed and smacked his head with his hand. They finally helped me to understand that he was not saying karate, but "caracter" which sounds JUST LIKE karate. He was asking for God to change his character not to participate in karate. I was blown away and laughing all at the same time.
Next, I was in church and the preacher repeatedly asked the people to repeat what he was saying. I understood what he was saying but it takes a little more thought for me to be able to repeat it back with the right words, so I looked at the person beside me and said también and every time he asked us to repeat, I said también, Which means also or me too. The person beside me got so tickled, I thought she was going to pee in her pants. So now whenever I don't understand what someone is saying, I say it again and they just end up laughing at me. Everyday is an adventure in laughter and fun!
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