Bucaramanga

Good morning.  I am back to 1st world life in Bogota. We had a full weekend in Bucarmanga so I have lots of photos here today.  There are also a few posted over at www.bogotabridges.com.

First, I am thankful we walked away healthy.  We have a few bug bites, but that is it.  Thank you for praying. I also admit, I said "Thank you Jesus" many times to myself last night as I was able to go to bed in my own bed with a comfortable pillow. Now for the photos.

Off we go!

Avery with our team leaders, Joe & Becky

The girls on the first night, sleeping under mosquito nets.  Imagine hot and humid temperatures.  And have no a/c and mosquitoes.  I would classify our accommodations as 2nd world because we did have plumbing and water, although it was all cold.

This was breakfast most days...eggs. bread and slice of cheese.  Soup is also very common here for breakfast.  

Friday, we visited the University where Edwin (far left), his girlfriend Laura, and his brother John (far right) attend.

On campus housing is basically non existent at most universities in Colombia.  However, this campus has this 2 bedroom building for students.  That is it folks.

Even the basketball courts are converted into soccer fields.  Soccer is everywhere here, all the time.

The weather was so hot and there are lots of bugs which calls for an electric racquet to kill mosquitoes.

This a casino in a mall, which is a very common sight in Colombia.  Most malls have casino just like we would have a department store.  

There is a new bridge in Bucarmanga with many lights.  We drove across it and took some photos.

Saturday morning, we left early to visit a park.  We are standing in front of Edwin's house.  They live in an older part of town where there are many store fronts (behind the white garage doors) and owners live behind and above the stores.  Next door to Edwin's house is a vetenarian.  

This is the metal front door leading into their house.

We traveled about 1 1/2 hours to arrive at the park.  This was the first coffee Avery had during the trip and look how small the cups are here.

The girls and Edwin :)

This is a typical hat for some Colombians.

I'm telling you....any chance these people can play soccer, the opportunity is there.

We rode a cable car to the entrance of the park.  It is a 30 minute cable car ride across the canyon!

This is Laura's brother, John, Edwin, and Laura.

Edwin is drinking from his Memphis Grizzlies cup we brought him from Memphis.

John and Avery eating the fried ants (there is a photo of these on the Bogota blog).

Brook in front of the Claro sign, wishing she was in front of the Hollywood sign!  (Claro is a phone, internet provider here).

A beautiful view 

Lunch with Edwin's mom, brother, our family, Laura, her parents, and brother

This is part of a sculpture that represents a revolution of the common people of this area of Colombia in the 1600's against the rulers.

Isabella & Laura

That's Brook in a Chiva bus.

After the park, we rode to a marketplace.  The girls had fun with everyone playing games.  This was a highlight moment for me....hearing the girls having fun with people they like who are different from them in a different culture.

We got gelato at the marketplace. Yum!

I thought this was a unique building with pretty colors.

Later that night, we played a game of Clue...in Spanish. 

We ate at this restaurant and I think I had the best steak meat I've had in Colombia.

This is the pastor of the church in Bucaramanga, John, along with his wife and baby.  They are super sweet people.  There is a photo of Avery speaking on the Bogota blog.  He did a great job on Sunday. Mine was okay, but didn't go quite as planned, or as I thought.  Thanks for praying for our talks!

This is another couple from the church who ate with us.  They are also super sweet.  He was our driver to and from the airport and also a few other times during the weekend.

Overall, it was a good trip and it made us appreciate the weather and comforts of Bogota! The people were very nice to us there and Edwin's mom was very hospitable to us.  The conditions were not ideal, but it is good to be stripped of my comforts (from time to time :)) and trust in God to take care of me when I am uncomfortable.  Next time, I would do some things differently, but we are glad we went and glad to be home!

Now, this is very strange for us, but we are traveling again this week, so I will be off the blog grid again.  I know we didn't travel at all the first year, but now we are having a busy summer of travels, which is good with me.  But we won't be gone too long because school starts soon!

Happy week to you!

Thursday Favorites and Prayer Requests

I mentioned this on the Bogota Bridges blog yesterday, but here is a little more info. on our trip and prayer requests. After Spanish classes today, we will fly out to Bucaramanga, Colombia.  This city is located about 10 hours via bus from Bogota, so we will travel by plane with our team leaders for a long weekend trip. We will be staying in the home of Edwin's family. Remember our friend Edwin??  We will spend time visiting with him and his family and will visit a canyon there too.  There is also a church there that is part of the Colombian Presbytery.  We will be meeting with some members there and speaking on Sunday.  Avery and I will be sharing our story, and then Becky (our team leader's wife) and I will be speaking to the ladies on Proverbs 31...in Spanish. Please pray for us this weekend with these talks in Spanish.  This is the first major talk we've done in front of Spanish speakers.  

Also, on a more trivial personal comfort note, I need prayer for an extra dose of calmness and good rest and health. We are staying in a room with 2 twin beds where mosquito nets are the norm.  Yes, all 4 of us will be staying in there for 4 nights.  I will be taking an air mattress.  I am a little nervous about the food offered to us.  And I will need to go buy us bottled water.  Basically, I am praying we all walk away healthy from this trip.  Oh, and the first thing that got me a little nervous about this trip was learning there is no hot water.  Yep, no hot water in their house.  This is not good news for the girl who showers every day.  So I will be giving up some comforts for a few days, and that is not all bad. Thankfully, I've had some time to process this so I am going as prepared as I can be, and honestly, am feeling much better about this trip than when I first heard about some of the details. God has helped me to get my mind in perspective...basically off myself being #1.  On a sweet note, Edwin and his family are so excited to host us and have been making many preparations in their home for us.  Super sweet. 

Since I won't be blogging tomorrow or Monday, I am sharing a few random favorites with you on this Thursday post.

One of most missed foods is cool whip.  I know it sounds very silly to those who can go buy this at a moments notice.  But for one who can't and enjoys it, it becomes something I miss here.  On a bright note, my mom bought me several boxes of Dream Whip to bring back here.  I had never heard of this before, but I made some last weekend.  And oh my, it is the closest thing to cool whip I have tasted here!  

Super exciting and thankfully I have a good stock of this yummy stuff now. 

You read that right.  That is a personalized brochure:

"The Bridges Family's Incredible Vacation"

This was a piece of mail that we received in our suitcases from home last week.  

We are going on a family vacation to Disney!  We are several months away from this, but this brochure gets me excited about the trip!

Thanks for reading and thanks for praying for the trip this weekend.

Signing off until Tuesday.....

Qudres Carne de Res

Today I have a few pictures and prayer requests mentioned at www.bogotabridges.com.

I also have some photos here to share of our last night with our Memphis guests.  There is a well known restaurant here called Qudres Carne de Res, which is located in Chia, a suburb to the north of Bogota.  There are a few smaller versions of this restaurant in Bogota, but the biggest location is in Chia, which is where we went Monday night for dinner.  We have head about this place for over a year now, but this was our first time to go.

You ride down a pretty quiet side street and then you see lights everywhere.  This must be the place.

There are like 10 windmills lit up on the street.

We walked through the first part of the restaurant that had flower petals on the tables.

They apparently seat from the back of the restaurant and work their way to the front.  It is a huge space.

This sign says:

We don't have wi-fi.  Talk between yourselves!

This is the index of the menu.  Yes, the index.  The menu was 62 pages!!!

I ordered my typical fresa jugo en agua (strawberry juice in water).

It came in this fancy bowl!  I was trying to smile and drink at the same time.

This is how my bottled water came. 

This is Avery's hot chocolate, which are always good in Colombia.  The presentation just added to the taste here!

We ate our first set of appetizers before I could get a picture (fried yuca and empenadas with chicken).  This appetizer above was a basket of warm toasted bread, broiled tomatoes and grilled cheese to put on the bread.

A view of the bread

This is bread, criolla potatoes, and swiss sausage.

This is Avery's food...trout with shrimp on top.

I got salmon, salad, and criolla potatoes.

Andrew and Martin got the meat platter to share.  It was huge!  Some of it looked good, but others, not so much.  I'm just not a girl who can eat intestines and blood sausage.  I'll stick with steak, chicken and pork, thank you very much.

The 4 of us at dinner.

(The girls had been out with me during the day with our team leaders and the pastor and his wife from Bucaramanga.  An afternoon out and in Spanish is enough to make them want to stay in for the night!)

It was a memorable night and a fun way to spend their last night in Bogota.