Third Week - Good Food & Hard Work!

Our Overseers and their wives had us over after Family Watchtower Study.  She is from the Caribean north coast of Colombia.  She made us Arrapa (A-rape-a) which is a traditional corn pancake, she then fries it, and cuts it open, drops in a raw egg, then cooks it a little more. 

Here is a video of our sister making Arepas!

This was another new food- Obleas!

This is the Branch in Bogota, in the city.  Bogota has 8 million people in an area built for 2 million!  They even have a law that if your license plate ends in 7 you can only drive in the city Wednesdays and Fridays.  The Branch is used for Shipping,  the Bible school for single brothers, and other schools.  Over the weekend Bethelites can come down and stay the weekend at the branch.   

This is our Kingdom Hall- which inside the Branch in Bogota. 

This Brother is from California, and is serving where the need is great in Medellin. (Med-a-sheen)

The kids on the streets ( not brothers) wear their hair filled with grease, and put up in what is called a Mangochewpow.  We asked why it was called that, and the brothers said- ever looked at a mango seed- then you'll know why!

This is our Main Overseer Hugo and His wife Perlly

Shannon & Crystal sanded by hand all of the base that the brothers made. 

The brothers poured an aquaduct in the floor of the kitchen - it turned out perfect.  Much of the furniture is made by hand also. 

The white resin dust gets everywhere! 

This is our friend Jonatan - he is from the coastal area.  For some reason I was having trouble understanding the Spanish of the brothers that we were working with.  Then I found out that the brothers from the coastal areas of Colombia have a different way of speaking that even the people from the other parts of Colombia don't understand! That made me feel better. 

This is Marilyn.  She and her family are all from Trinidad.  They came here because her husband got a job transfer. He worked for the former oil company BP .  Crystal had her first talk on Friday with Marilyn.  She is a great cook too! 

This is Jaime.  He is a technical designer.  He designs furniture for companies that later produce the product.  He just signed up to be a regular pioneer.  He is a good teacher- and is part of the English Congo.

A little More of Family Day

     We put together a little video of Family day. Hope you enjoy it! 

    We are making good progress on our project.  Right now we are anticipating to be 3 weeks ahead of schedule!  But we still have a lot of work to do.  We are completing phase 1.

     The government requires a sanitary cove base on all commercial kitchens.  The brothers found that ceramic cove is very expensive, so they decided to make their own.  They are pretty ingenious,  they created forms in the carpentry shop, and filled them with a plastic resin, thus making their own cove base.  In spanish it is called a Zocalo (zow-ka-low.)  It looks good too!  

                             

Sanitary Base - Zocalo... and the hole that Crystal fell into ( you'll understand later!)

                         

  They learn to manufacture whatever is needed to get the job done.  I really like the work ethic of the brothers.
     It was a sad week though, some of the young  temp brothers that were accepted for 3 months completed their time here, and went home.  We really enjoyed getting to know some of them.  They were really nice young men, who love Jehovah.  It was really nice to see that.

Hyro (Colombian Brother on Lef)t, and Sabastian (Right) They are from Medellin.

Crystal and Shannon worked really hard this week.  They were taking hammers and chisels and tearing out tile.  The pounding took a toll on Crystal's coordination.  By Friday, she fell in a hole, and threw coffee in her face, wacked her head on a door frame in front of the main overseer, and to top it off, she nailed her head on a cabinet leaving a nice goose egg on her forehead!  Thank goodness for the weekend!  Monday we probably will all be required to wear helmets!  She is ok though, nothing a little rest can't fix (:
                                                                          

One of the little brothers in our Congregation in Bogota, English.  He and his family are from Trinidad, and he is a little character!

      We went to the Congregation on Friday for the TMS and Service Meeting.  Looks like we all will be used quite a bit!  Jason had a service meeting part, and I had the Bible highlights.  I have the public talk in a week ,  and he has one the week after.  Shannon and Crystal had a demonstration on Friday, and they both have talks next week.  The brothers enjoy having native speakers to learn from- they say they like our accents!   That's all for this week!

First week in Facatativa Colombia

Hello Everybody!  No we haven't been captured by the Colombian Cartel!  We finally got internet access and a telephone in our room.  So now we can start posting.  Hope you enjoy the pics! 
Love,
Boyd & Crystal

The Branch was built about 20 years ago, and a new residence building was added 6 years ago.  During the construction and renovation, International Volunteers, and Servants were a regular fixture at the Branch.  Many of the brothers learned a little bit of English from the brothers, and they love getting a chance to try it out on us!

The grounds around the Branch are beautiful!  There is a small pond with fountain, and flowers everywhere.  We are about 8000 feet in the Andes mountains.  The elevation did make us a little tired at first!

This is the family pet here at the branch.  He loves attention, and loves to show off his feathers. When Crystal was trying to get out of the door, he blocked her off, and fanned out his feathers.  She had to wait until he was done showing off to get out! The brothers say when he looses his feathers, he goes into hiding until he gets them back. 

This is our room- it is really nice, we have a kitchenette, living room, bath, bedroom, and nice sized closet! 

Colombia has several indigenous languages, along with Spanish Sign language.  The branch produces the Sign language videos here.  See the 1 Ingles (English) Congregation in the country?  Thats where we were assigned!  We drive about 1 hour 45 min to Bogota.  The Congregation is new, and has about 30+ publishers, many of whom are learning English.  They have the entire city of Bogota- which has 8 million people! 

The Branch prints the Watchtower and Awake for 5 countries in South America.

Some of the faithful older ones, who have served for years in South America.  The sister        ( next to Crystal) Graduated from Gilead (28th Class I think)  And has served faithfully ever since.  She is a ball of fire.  The couple on the left  were Missionaries, then Circuit Overseers, then into the Branch.  He is from Kalispell MT! 

These are our friends Jason and Shannon.  They are from Arkansas, and this is their second assignment.  Their first was in Haiti- they left 9 days before the earthquake. We get along very well, and we are looking forward to spending the next 3 months together!

Sunday was Family Day- a very special day for the Bethel family in Colombia.  They all stay home and play games.  The entire family gets involved. This year was the first ever women's football tournament (Soccer) They really get into their sports, there were cheerleaders, and hecklers, they did the wave, and had endorsement posters from each dept.  They play a game called Tajo (Tay-ho)  In which you throw metal pucks at boards that are at a slant, and are coated in a thick wax.  In the middle of the board is a target, with firecrackers.  If you hit the board, and it sticks, it is 1 point, hitting the outside of the target 2 points, if you light off the firecrackers, 3 points, and 6 points for a bullseye. 

Brothers love to sing- and they are pretty good!

Family day culminates with a special meal called Lechona.  It is a whole pig, stuffed with rice, and cooked all day.  It is a specialty of one of the departments (states) of Colombia.   It is really good! 

The waiters dress in traditional Colombian Vacero dress for the day, and the family comes to lunch in more informal comfortable clothes. 

The other blond!    The brothers are so friendly, and loving.  We speak Spanish almost everywhere, but a few do speak a little English.

This brother bought a kitten for a sister who was going through a hard time in his hall. 

We went walking the town of Facatativa where the branch is located.  In the town center were native Combian dancers - take a look!

Shannon with some of the little sisters in one of the nearby Congregations

Our Crew with the hard working Colombian brothers

Our job at the branch is to install a new tile floor in the kitchen and surrounding areas.  It is around 5900 sq ft.  The tiles are 20x20, so we do cover area pretty fast. 

Lots of work to do! 

This brother is from the coastal region- lots of fun!

The Girls work hard- the brothers were a little surprised that they work along with us!

Here is the next phase of the project-the brothers will remove the existing tile, and an outside company comes in to ground down the concrete.