Thursday, May 20, 2010

quibdó

Brittany and I flew to Quibdó, Chocó, Colombia last week. If you google 'quibdó', you will see this:
This is a very good picture of where Brittany and I spent 5 days working with an episcopal church mission. Our plane flew over an entire jungle of trees until we landed on a runway in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at the brand new airport and met Padre Edinson. We walked through the city for about an hour to his house. Along the way we stopped and met almost every person we saw. Padre Edinson seems to know just about everyone in Quibdó and they all love and respect him. Throughout our time there, we were introduced to so many people.

We went to Santa Ana our first afternoon. Santa Ana is a foundation for boys. Every day after school there is a program that is run by the government. During our time there they made jewelry and Padre Edinson taught them about the different surfaces of the foot that can kick a soccer ball.


The highlight of my trip was working with Padre Edison's mission for three days. It is centered around soccer and he teaches teamwork, concentration and determination. It was so much fun to play soccer and help him with his work. On the first day the sun was really strong but I couldn't bring myself to stop playing...it was too much fun. Thanks to that stubbornness, I am back in Bogotá with a pretty bad sunburn on my shoulders...but it was so worth it!


One kid hurt his leg and the others decided to 'pull' on it to help him. This is obviously something that they have seen on tv and I love it!
Brittany carrying home one of the tired kids after a long morning of soccer. Too cute!
On our last day, we taught english to a few classes at a local school. We taught them heads, shoulders, knees, and toes and the english alphabet. The kids were great and there were so many of them. Try to find me in this picture of their recess (hint: I'm the only gringa!).

After morning at the mission, we had a lot of down time. With the heat, people like to just hang out in front of their houses and talk. We spent our free time reading and playing uno with Edison's children, Edverg and Kizzy. Brittany even got her hair braided! It was nice to spend some time with Padre Edison's kids and see a completely different culture. Everyone in Quibdó was very welcoming and interested in who we were. To see more pictures of our trip check out our website: click HERE.
It was a great trip and I'm looking forward to visiting some other missions in Colombia. We were back at Usme this week and are back to some colder weather. My brother Tommy arrives tomorrow and I'm so excited to see him! I'm putting him to work in Soacha and Usme, visiting another city, and then we're meeting my grandparents in Peru for a few days!
Love, Kate

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kate! I'm Fr. Rob, the new priest at St. Andrew the Fisherman in Mayo. It is amazing what you are doing in Colombia! Keep up the good work. You are in my daily prayers. I look forward to meeting you and hearing first hand about your experiences!

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