Day 14 - Provisión de Amor

On Monday June 22nd, we headed over to Cota, which was about 45 minutes to an hour and a half away. First we stopped at a private elementary and intermediate school that is run by the Church of God and is specifically for those who are underprivileged. The buildings are not in good quality due to lack of funds, which normally wouldn't be allowed in Colombia. However, since the school has produced such high scores and competent students, they have been allowed to use the buildings that they have. One of the buildings was a former house and is about 300 years old.

The 300 year old building

There is a slight fee each month for students, but it's no where near as much as the other schools. ..also, they give out tons of scholarships. Some get scholarships depending upon their socioeconomic class. Each term, the top 3 students of each grade get a scholarship for the next term. The girls of the orphanage Provision de Amor all go to this school. Then we headed over to the Provision de Amor orphanage. When the shuttle was trying to park in the parking lot of the orphanage, since it was a tight spot, the driver accidentally backed up too far and hit part of a cement building, which left a dent in the bus. We had to climb LOTS of stairs to get up to the orphanage. As Bogotá is already about 8,000 feet high, and since I'm anemic, I was really struggling with getting out of breath. I wasn't physically tired - like my muscles didn't hurt, I was just completely out of breath and I was afraid of passing out. Thank goodness there weren't any more stairs stairs than there were. When we got there, we all went to a living room type area that was decorated with balloons and welcome signs. We all introduced ourselves and the girls all introduced themselves to us, except for the youngest, Yudy, who was scared and hiding under the table. Each of the girls was wearing a Lee University shirt that they were gifted from Lee after Mission Week. The head of the orphanage was wearing her Mission Week shirt from when she visited Lee to speak of their organization since it was the focus of Mission Then each of the students on the trip presented the girl we were assigned to a bag filled with clothing and essentials. Then all the girls opened their bags.

Some of the girls changed into their favorite outfit and we all hung out together, talking and being shown around. The girls loved showing us around the orphanage, showing us their bed, the library, etc. but even more, they loved having pictures taken and taking pictures for themselves. I let several girl run around with my camera, as long as I was alongside and as long as they wore the strap around their neck. Yudy was one of the girls that just went all over the orphanage taking pictures of everything she thought pretty, and taking pictures of me with some of the other girls (before another girl would ask to have her turn at taking a picture). It was surprising how assertive, confident, and talkative that Yudy became since only about an hour earlier, she wouldn't let anyone see her face as she hid under the table. My girl, Sonia, was another one of the girls that liked to have her hand at taking photos. Soon, it was time for lunch. We had the typical rice and chicken with arepas but this time, there were also little potatoes that were really good, along with a sweet plantain (plátano maduro) that had a bocadillo de guayaba (sweet guava paste stuff) and cheese. The cheese was an odd edition and I could barely taste it, but the entire thing was good nonetheless. After lunch, we went back to the living room area for dessert, which was a chocolate cake with raisins which was, in my opinion very dry and bland. Most of the girls danced dances they had prepared for us. The daughter of the pastor (who did not live at the orphanage), Ana Sofía, sat on my lap once again (the first time was when the girls of the orphanage were opening their bags) and then started experimenting with my camera as so many of the other girls has done. Then, after a word of prayer and a giving of thanks for us that came, we had about 10 or so minutes of free time before we had to leave. In this time, another girl, Lady, began to take pictures with my camera. She had us outside so that she could take pictures of the countryside and so that I could have a nice background behind me in her photoshoot, in which I was the model. It was so cute cause she kept saying stuff like, "Okay, now where else should we take a picture?" Since she initiated the modeling session, I had some others take a picture of us acting like we were models.

Lady and I modeling

That was the last thing that happened before we all had to get back on the bus to go back to Bogotá. Several of us went out to walk around the city near our hotel. Of course, we made a stop at Juan Valdéz. The one next to our hotel in Bogotá was absolutely giant and very beautiful. There were three levels (including the roof), but there didn't seem to be room anywhere, until one of the workers showed us to another side of the cafe that we didn't realize had seating that just happened to have enough seats to fit 7 people. Outside it was a little chilly, but I noticed that there was a little thing of rocks in the middle of the table that looked like it would act like a fireplace. We got a worker to turn the fire on, and it felt so amazing!

I ended up going to a grocery store for dinner, but we went late and so there weren't many options. Since I wasn't too hungry, I just had a bowl of yogurt, granola, and fruit with a carbonated passion fruit soda.

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