Hola and welcome back to my blog where I am delighted to report that I’m still here in Medellin, Colombia… 2 months after I was supposed to leave.
One of the things I get asked a lot is what am I doing here? What does quarantine look like for me? I’m not going to attempt to describe it all here in one blog (stay tuned though for more exciting content) BUT a huge part of what I do here is working with the women in the drug recovery program.
For the girls not much has changed during quarantine except for the fact that their families can’t visit and that they can’t go on outings anymore. Working with them was pretty much thrust upon me at the start of quarantine but what a blessing it has been.
A lot of the staff that used to work with the girls can no longer come to the foundation so the running of the program has been almost entirely left up to a wonderful woman named Yenni with the support of Thanh-Thuy and me – the last remaining volunteers.
Twice a week I’m up at 6am leading a morning bible study (in Spanish – yay) for the ladies, then I work with them in the kitchen all morning making food for the foundation. Sometimes it’s chopping potatoes or plantains (new favourite food) for 4 hours, other times it’s going through the food donations removing all the mouldy vegetables from the good ones.
I also give them English classes twice a week. And even though they are terrible at it and have no desire to learn, they somehow always turn out to be a lot of fun. And in an effort to not allow this quarantine to get the better of us we are doing exercise classes 4 times a week. So, all those Pilates videos that I have watched on YouTube are finally coming in handy.
And twice a week myself and TT do night prayers with them, which involves reading and teaching on the psalms – also in Español.
It’s a lot of work sometimes but it has been so rewarding. For one thing it keeps me busy which I am SO thankful for in a time where I could be sitting at home doing nothing – no shade to those who this is a reality for, because I know it sucks. But working with the girls for me has been so much more than an occupation. It has been such a privilege for me to be able to walk in friendship with these ladies, building deeper relationships and seeing them grow. As well as the fact that they’re just great craic and make my life so entertaining.
But growing in love for these girls has taught me some difficult lessons on tough love. While I want to be their friend and I want them to like me, what is more important is that they succeed, that they finish this process of turning their lives around and allow their lives to be transformed by God. And that means having to live seriously disciplined lives. And while I am not directly responsible for disciplining them, I am responsible for making sure they follow the rules and not allowing them to get away with breaking them. And to be honest, that’s been really hard, especially where I don’t see the point in the rules. But I have been learning to trust; trust the process, trust the leaders, trust the discipline, and trust in the God who is behind it all who knows the plans he has for each of these women and will not stop fighting for them. I don’t have to understand it all, I just have to be a source of love and encouragement to these ladies during these times, God has got the rest covered.
