Bienvenidos a Colombia!

Praise the Lord, Jessie and I arrived safely in Bogotá with all of our luggage (no small feat with 8 checked bags!). It’s hard to believe that it’s Tuesday already – we've been here a week! Time has flown by in a blur since we arrived last Wednesday and for now we are staying at Pastor Luis’ apartment (the spiritual director for CDA) until we get a place of our own (which may take another week or so). Jess and I have been spending a bit of time in the office, visited one of the CDA schools in a poor slum called Cazuca, and begun planning the myriad of details necessary to restart our Spanish lives.

Today we had our first visit with the OBGYN who will deliver little baby Isabella. In another great answer to prayer, he also speaks English! Dr. Ricardo Caceras did a lot to allay our fears and doubts about moving to a foreign country a few weeks before going into labor, and both Jessie and I were pleased with the Hospital de Santa Fe, which is the best hospital in the country. We got a tour of the labor and delivery ward which was very clean and very modern. We were blown away by the 3D images and the fact that we got 4 pages of printed pictures, a DVD of the whole ultrasound, and a CD with all the pictures on it. So far, I'm a big fan of Colombian medicine. Here is one of the pictures of Isabella - who is perfectly healthy (the doctor checked EVERY single one of her 1000 parts and organs), weighs about 5lbs and is 34 and a half weeks old. Check out more pictures at our picture link on the right hand side of this blog. (Yes, she's definitely a girl, and the weird smudge on her face is the placenta wall, she's got her face smashed up against it)



We have also checked out the local grocery store, The Home Centre (similar to Lowe’s or Home Depot – you would have loved it dad), and Carrefour which is like a Super Walmart. We’ve had the chance to try some local food and see some of the sights – we both continue to be amazed at the size of this city. Bogotá lies in an Andean plain and is relatively narrow running North to South. This picture is taken from the mountains on the East side of the city looking West across the narrowest part of Bogotá and is only a thin slice of the whole massive metropolis.















The city is hard to characterize since it is so full of contrasts; buses, cars, taxis, pedestrians, and the occasional horse drawn cart compete with the motorcycles and bikes for space on the crowded roads, glass covered skyscrapers, quaint boutiques, electronics stores and ultra-modern malls complete with movie theaters are scattered around between old dilapidated buildings, hole-in-the-wall cafes, and car repair shops. About 10% of the city could be in London, New York or Paris, but the majority of the population will never see or experience it. The remaining 90% is a poor, desperate population, eking out a living selling gum, cigarettes, fruit, and candy out of hand drawn carts, or begging at stop lights, or living in the dirty, graffiti covered slums. In the North part of town, globe trotting executives chat on their Motorola Razr cell phones, while college kids with dyed hair and facial piercings text message each other on their way to internet cafes. However, as one leaves the North and drives South, you quickly begin to notice the forgotten masses, and the huge slums that dominate the Southern end of the city. All of CDA’s Bogotá projects are in the South part of the city and it is there among the poorest of the poor, and particularly with children, the most vulnerable and needy residents of the slums, that CDA labors to restore hearts and lives.















This is a picture of a street in Cazuca, a slum on the South side of town where CDA works

Jessie and I are both excited to be here, a little overwhelmed by the massive transition we're going through, and missing home a bit, but eager to begin the work that the Lord has called us to do here. All of the CDA staff have been so friendly and unbelievably helpful and selfless as they have begun walking us through a Spanish speaking bureaucracy, setting up medical appointments, and arranging transportation etc. Parents - we are being well taken care of : )

Thank you for your continued prayers, we know that it is only through prayer and God's grace that we can settle in, and have an impact here in Colombia.