Well it has been over a month since my last post and for that I apologize. When we signed up to come down here on this adventure, we had no idea that we would be so busy! We get up every school day around 5:40 am and catch the teacher van by 6:25. There is a meeting of some kind every day at 7:15 (7:00 on Fridays). School is over by 3:00 but for us, we have some kind of after school something going on every day. For me, Monday - Spanish class, Tuesday - The Truth Project (a video series that will help us get our full fledge ACSI teaching certification), Wednesday - Spanish class, Thursday - I lead fitness classes (which haven't started yet because I've been sick but we'll get to that in a minute or two) and Friday - Spanish class. Most of these go till 4:00 and then the first teacher van leaves at 4:15, which gets us to our apartment between 4:45 and 5:00. Then if we need any groceries or have to stop at the mall for whatever reason... we are home even later. It gets dark around 6:30 or so, which doesn't give you much time to do anything outside in the evenings. Plus we are usually so exhausted from school that all we want to do is eat then go to bed. We have been even more exhausted the last few weeks because I have been sick and Matt has been taking on some of my class, above and beyond his already overwhelming course load. Next year he is going to ask to teach less classes. I personally am quite happy with the number of classes I am teaching, when I can actually be at school and teach them. So about two weeks ago, I started to notice that my throat was hurting and my voice was not as strong as it usually is. I mean I thought I was use to using my teaching voice (i.e. my challenge course voice) but it is not quite the same. Anyway, after a week of fighting that off, my body gave in. On July 28th, I stayed home from church because I was not feeling well. I put some Vicks Vapour Rub on my throat to try to help it feel better and ended up getting some kind of allergic reaction or chemical burn on my neck. I went to school on Monday and felt worse so Matt took me home right after school. I stayed home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday, trying not to talk and keeping an ice pack on my neck to try to get the burn to feel better. Then came back to school on Thursday. That was a poor choice of days to come back on. That is my busiest PE day with four out of five of my PE classes. At least my burn was feeling better. However, by Friday (with only two PE classes), my voice was fading quickly, plus the cold that I was also fighting was starting to win. So we spent the weekend resting, watching movies, doing lesson planning and trying not to talk above a whisper. Well let me tell you something, whispering is just as bad as talking when you do not have a voice. Monday went pretty well at school. I would whisper to one kid then they would relay it to the class or I would model something and have them follow along. Even my Kinder class (which Matt came to help with), listened better than most other days. I show up to school on Tuesday and the nurse pulls me aside to check up on me. Her name is Sol, which is Spanish for Sun and is a wonderful person, a great nurse and an incredible prayer warrior (we go to the same church). She has been checking my throat every day to see how it is doing. Today it was bad enough to pull me in to her office, with a translator. Basically, she told me that I needed to find someone to cover my classes, she was going to call the specialist to get a prescription over the phone but if she could not get it over the phone then I needed to go to the hospital and should be ready to leave whenever. In Bogota, they are big on having people wear medical masks if they have a cough, are sick or there is too much smog. So I went upstairs with my mask to find Matt and let him know what was going on and of course I am a crying mess. Sol also told me that I was not allowed to talk or teach. So I spent the next few hours making sure everything was planned out for the people who were taking my classes for the next three days and waited for the ladies to get things sorted out. At first my principal was going to take me home, then another lady who had another errand to run. After Sol got off the phone with the specialist (there were a lot of kids in the infirmary so she was rather busy), they decided that I need some kind of an injection to go along with my list of meds. They wanted me to nip this thing in the bud as soon as possible so I could go on the staff retreat this weekend. Anyway, I guess I was able to get the injection at the pharmacy but Sol would rather do it herself, which would mean coming back to school unless they would let Sol come with us. So then they went on a search for another lady who works with the learning centre but is also a pediatric nurse. Once they found her then they had to check with other principals, one of which was not in that day, to make sure they knew what was going on and to make sure it was okay... anyways, about 40 minutes after they said we would leave we left. We stopped at a university bank so that Lucia (the gal driving, assistant to the principals and lives in our complex) could pay her rent (which was a good reminder for us to check on our rent). Then we went to a pharmacy and Sol got out to get my list of prescriptions, which came to a grand total of 26.500 (about $14-15 CND). We all went back to our apartment and she gave me my injection, in my bottom, which I cannot remember ever having done. Man alive did that hurt! I love Sol though, after the injection, she prayed for me while rubbing my bottom as well as my back. It was really relaxing. The ladies left me in bed and I tried to sleep but it was almost time for me to take my first round of meds. So I took them and made lunch, then watched a movie and slept.
I do not know if any of you have ever lost your voice or have been told to not talk but wow is it challenging. It really makes you value verbal communication. I have had people respond differently to my not being able to talk. They all know I have lost my voice but that doesn't stop some reactions. I had a friend tell me that he thought I was incredibly boring to grocery shop with because I didn't say anything. Another said it was so weird to be talking to me but me not respond. Others kind of enjoy just being able to talk about whatever and all I can do is listen. I find it funny trying to communicate without talking to people who don't always speak English. I guess in a way it isn't that much different than how I try to communicate normally when I don't know the Spanish word for what's going on. One encouraging thing is how loving the community at ECA is. When I was waiting for Sol and Lucia, countless people came up and asked how I was, that they wanted me to get better, glad I was going home, and were going to pray for me. It is amazing how close I feel to the ECA family even though I have only been here for less than 6 weeks. So I am at home and have time to sit down and write a post. Looks like you benefit from my incapacity.
Other than being sick and staying home a lot (I have only ever had one sick day in my life... here I will have at least 5 by the time this week is over) and being at school, we have been busy. Yes, that B word again. We've been attending church regularly as well as a bilingual small group (although right now there is more English than Spanish). We've gone on the Transmillenial transit system to visit another couple teachers for dinner. We've gone curtain shopping in South Bogota (the poorer area) with the leader of our small group, who use to teach at ECA and has two girls at the school (one in 3rd grade and one in 5th - so Matt and I teach both of them). We've had countless movie nights with other teachers. We've hung out with Brady and Delainye, our good friends who live in the next building over. We can actually see into their kitchen window from our kitchen window. They are great. We clicked instantly. We met them as they were actually coming to look at the apartment we now live in. I think their plane had arrived a few hours before we me them. I am so thankful for them. We are very similar so we get along really well and are at similar places in life; both couples have been married for 2 years, thinking about having kids, and a bunch of other things. So they've been great to have around. We also went on a little hiking tour to Guatavita, which is theoretically the location of El Dorado (city of gold). It was neat and so great to get out in nature. I personally don't really feel like I live in a huge city; it really seems pretty similar to home. I mean we are in a city in a valley and there is quite a bit of green around. But nothing beats a 'hike' in the green mountains. We gained even more elevation, so this little hike was a good starter hike. Then went out to eat in the town of Guatavita and did a little shopping. The pictures are posted on my facebook page. Our internet hasn't been running well enough for me to post any pictures here but I'll give it another try.
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Us at Guatavita Lagoo
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| The whole trekking group |
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| Kylie and I doing a little mountain pose on the mountain. The security guard did not approve of our idea to go on the top rail so we settled for the second rail. Oh well, this is still fun! |
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| Where we ate lunch. I guess it is very Colombian. At least the chicken was good. You had better like chicken if you come to visit because the beef is tough to say the least. |
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Kylie and Leroy aren't too impressed while the rest of us (Brady, Delainye and myself) seem to be enjoying ourselves!
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Hurray, it worked! So that's a little taste of our Guatavita adventure. Oh and we have been bouldering! There is a student at school who does climbing competitions and has a bouldering wall in his backyard. It is incredibly challenging. I mean it doesn't help that I have been sick the last two weeks and haven't exercised much, plus I have not been climbing in two months... but that was the most challenging wall I have ever been on. It also doesn't help that Eric is an amazing climber! Wow! I have climbed with some really good climbers but wow, he is incredible! We are trying to convince him to come visit us next summer in B.C. and go climbing! He has taken Matt to a bouldering gym a couple times but this was my first time participating. His family fed us dinner and we climbed for a bit. The cold air was NOT good for my health and now my body is incredibly stiff. I think other than family, the thing I miss the most from North America is a bathtub. So far, I have not seen a single bathtub. There may be a few in some of the bigger, fancier houses but I haven't seen any in the apartments. That makes me so sad. I miss bubble baths so much. I think that would help me get better faster. :) So that serves as a warning to those we are visiting over Christmas... I will be taking LOTS of bubble baths! We are still trying to sort out all the details of our North American visit over break but once we finalize those, we'll let y'all know.
Well I think that's long enough of a post. I will work on posting more often but having the posts be shorter so it isn't such a task to sit down and read through it. No promises but I'll give it a shot. I love you! Feel free to email us, we now have what we think is a more reliable internet provider. Please continue to pray and support us. We figure that this month things have settled down enough to actually keep a detailed record of what we spend to verify that our budget is enough. We'll keep you posted and may be asking for more money, I hope we don't have to but you never know. Continue to keep your eyes focused on Christ and everything else will fall in to place!
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
James 1:2-8 NIV
