Continuing Adventures

The last two weeks have been really unbelievably busy for me. Jessie and I flew to Cartagena on Monday September 24th for two nights/three days of a vacation (see some pictures of it here). It was a long needed break, a chance to finally do something for our anniversary (that was in June) and a chance for Jessie to finally see the city, since I had been there twice before on business without her. We enjoyed the hot weather, the pool, the sights and sounds of the old colonial city and spending time together without email or phone calls.

On Wednesday night, Jessie and Isabella left and about 10 minutes later I met two Dutch journalists at the airport. Henk and Evert flew in for a two week trip to Colombia representing the Reformed Daily Newspaper, Evert as a journalist, and Henk as a photojournalist. During the next two weeks, during which Jess and Bella traveled to the US for a wedding, I had the chance to tour CDA projects, and translate interviews for these two gentlemen all around Colombia.

They are writing a series of news articles on Colombia covering the armed conflict, the drug trade, poverty, indigenous rights, the evangelical church and the relationship between the church and the state. There will be a series of 33 pieces published in Holland between November and February and part of this series will be focused on CDA’s work within this national context and will be a valuable fund raising opportunity for us in Holland. The Reformed Daily did a similar series of articles years ago and raised a great deal of funding for us. My job was translating, coordinating transportation, hotels, meals, and serving as a tour guide both for Colombia and for CDA.

We visited Cartagena, Bogotá and then in the South of the country, we visited Santander de Quilichao, Popayan, and Corinto. Though I have a extensive knowledge of CDA's work in Colombia, this trip gave me the unique opportunity to visit a number of nationally regarded leaders and experts. We visited El Tiempo - the largest most important newspaper in Colombia for an interview with the chief editor for Public Order and Armed Conflict and a tour of their presses, we had the chance to speak with the President of the Evangelical Counsel of Colombia (CEDECOL) that represents the majority of the protestant churches here in the country, we met with the director of a Mennonite NGO dedicated to Justice, Peace and Non-Violence, as well as the director of a well known, frequently published independent research counsel that covers the conflict here in Colombia. We also paid a visit to the manager of a manufacturing group that produces various foods, and beverages all made from the coca plant and finally spent time with the Association of Indigenous People of North Cauca. Click here to see a few pictures of the trip (I was so busy talking and translating that I didn't take very many).

Our time in the South in the Department of Cauca was one of the more fascinating and dangerous portions of the trip. The whole time was a non-stop sequence of doing all the things the US embassy says you're not supposed to do:

• Go to Cauca
  
• Travel from Cali further south late at night (we did it in a little SUV with 4 big guys crammed in the back seat, 2 in the passenger seat, plus the driver)
• Sleep in a cheap hotel in Santander de Quilichao (pronounced kilichow)
• Walk around Santander de Quilichao at 11 at night
• Visit one of the five maximum security prisons in Colombia - the one in Popayan and then go inside and hang out with inmates who are all serving 40 - 60 year sentences (most for murder and involvement with the guerrillas)
• Travel around the Cauca region in a bus (just his driving was very dangerous let alone where we were, in the midst of a very "complicated" part of Colombia as they say here :)
  
• Visit a suspicious indigenous community school off of a dirt road past the last military checkpoint in an area where all the towns are famous for the massacres that took place there over the years
• Spend the morning with an indigenous group that is very leftist/communistic in its ideology and who hates the government and army (seriously, some of them probably are in or were in the guerrillas)
• Stop on the side of the unpaved road to climb over a barbed wire fence to walk through tall grass that could have been mined to get into a coca field
• Walk around taking pictures of the coca plants in someone's field without asking permission

Praise the Lord we all made it home safe! Lest is sound like we deliberately took unnecessary risks, there was a lot of prayer, we did have armed security with us and the indigenous community placed us under their protection (for whatever that's worth). We also were traveling as members of the press, which does offer at least a little bit of protection, and after all is said and done, hopefully Henk and Evert will be able to put together a great set of articles that will raise a lot money for CDA.

One result of all this traveling and all these interviews was a really incredible and unique opportunity to meet and speak with national experts representing multiple view points and political and religious perspectives. It was like getting years worth of education and information on Colombia in a matter of weeks. Very very interesting. For those of you who are interested, the post below is a list of some of my personal conclusions regarding the current political/security/religious situation in Colombia.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.