I have spent the last week in Medellin, Colombia and so many incredible things have already happened. I’m excited to see what God has in store for the rest of my time here in Colombia and the rest of my race. Here are ten things I’ve learned in my first week:
1. I am NOT good at peeling/cutting/slicing fruits or vegetables of any sort.
We spend a pretty good amount of time in the kitchen and I am constantly afraid I’m going to slice my finger while grating carrots or peeling potatoes but I’m getting better I promise!
2. My back involuntarily arches any time cold water hits my head.
This makes showering in cold water especially difficult…
3. Lyndsee Landon is the funniest person I’ve ever met.
We laugh all the time as a team. We are so joyful because of Jesus but also because Lyndsee always has hilarious jokes or really just statements or situations that are utterly ridiculous. She is one of the most mature believers I have ever met and I feel like I’ve learned so much from her already but she really knows how to make people laugh. And my life goal is to be funny so I want her to teach me her ways.
4. I can get a churro and a Coke for 80 cents in the bakery on the ground floor of Ciudad Refugio.
Now, this isn’t an American churro, it looks more like a donut covered in sugar and filled with caramel (note the picture). It is delicious. Remember, Jesus is the bread of life so you should always eat a lot of bread and bread products. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself as justification for the number of churros I plan to consume this month… what are calories anyway?
5. I’m actually not terribly hopeless at speaking Spanish.
I’ve been thrown into a lot of situations just this week where I have had to translate or someone asks me how to say something. It still surprises me when I know the answers or when I actually understand enough of an answer during devotional to be able to translate. This has reignited my passion for Spanish and my desire to become fluent. I have learned a lot this week as well and am excited that my trip will have three more Spanish speaking countries where I can continue to learn and practice.
6. Don’t drink the tamarillo juice.
A tamarillo, or as they call it, el tomate de arbol (tree tomato) is a South American type of tomato. It makes disgusting juice. Don’t drink it. Politely decline. I chugged a cup of it on one of our first days here after I politely declined a cup at the start of the meal. People didn’t really like it so we had almost four cups of it and I didn’t want to be rude so I told some of my teammates, we just need to drink them and then proceeded to chug one of them. It was a mistake. I regretted it. Kirsten chugged a part of one as well and she can second my opinion. All the other juice here is wonderful (but the papaya juice almost tastes like medicine)- just stay away from el jugo del tomate de arbol.
7. Laughter translates well.
As I mentioned earlier, we laugh a lot. This laughter seems to be contagious and the wonderful women we work with in the kitchen are beginning to get to know us and laugh along with us. Despite the language barrier, we always find ways to amuse each other. Whether it is yelling “que” back and forth between our team and Mama Nena (the unofficial boss) across the kitchen (or even from different rooms) or attempting to use ridiculous hand motions and pseudo-sign language to get our point across, we keep everyone smiling with our antics. We do get some work done, I promise and we are learning more and more Spanish (and in my case, cutting skills) every day.
8. We need to be flexible.
Our schedule never looks the same day to day here and we often find out things last minute. As American missionaries, I’m still getting used to being introduced as such, we get asked to share something or lead something almost everywhere we go. Or, sometimes we get asked to lead youth group for an hour and a half the day of and we have to trust that God is going to give us the right things to say. But my advice would be, always have a go to scripture or message because you WILL be asked to share.
9. Uber is everywhere.
That’s right, everywhere. We took an uber today to get back to Ciudad Refugio from a coffee shop called Pergamino in El Poblado (highly recommend if you ever find yourself here). Our driver was so kind and we talked about the city and really all sorts of things. We might have gotten a little lost but hey, it was an adventure. Our driver may have also told Paxtyn that her name sounded like a sneeze but oh well.
10. The people at Ciudad Refugio are some of the kindest I’ve ever met.
Everyone we have come into contact with at Ciudad Refugio lives to serve the Lord. They are all so kind to us and serve us so well. As we have started to learn our way around the ministry, we are finding more ways that we can help and serve them as well. We have made fast friendships with many of the people here and I can already tell that saying goodbye at the beginning of September is going to be very difficult.
All in all, it has been an incredible first week full of love, laughter, prayer, Jesus, and a whole lot of potatoes. Did I mention we are going paragliding tomorrow?
