Day 8 (February 24, 2023):





























We knew the ride back to Cartagena would be rough, as the afternoon winds pick up considerably. But we had no idea the rear of the boat would be THAT wet!! We were drenched. 



As the open bay was too rough on the ride back to Cartagena, we took a more sheltered route through a mangrove forest. 



This is Leo from a compassion Colombia. What a guy!  Wow, did he ever work hard all week. He organized everything for the group. And on day two, we realized it was Leo who had taken us to Pablo Neruda in 2010 to first meet Arnold and his family. Little did we know back then that we’d meet up with him 12 years later!


These are two gifted young musicians - pianist (left) and singer (right) - from the Compassion project at Bet-El Centro Cristiano two days ago. What beautiful and gifted human beings!  They joined us for the day at the resort. 

This is the director of the Compassion Project at Bocachica. She knows Alvaro, the seven-year old we sponsored when we visited the project earlier this week. She also joined us for the day at the resort. 




































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days 1-2 (February 17-18, 2023):

Image
“ South America, here we come!” When the alarm went at 5:45 AM, the reality hit me that the long-awaited day of the Compassion Canada Board field trip to Colombia was finally here.    All that stood between that moment and what we assumed would be a flawless trip to Colombia was a day of work. I was at the office at 6:45 AM, and Pam was at school before 8 AM, as usual.    At 2:45PM, we were both at home waiting for our good friend, Mel, to pick us up for a 3PM drive to Halifax Airport.    With a freezing rain storm about to start in Halifax, and a snowstorm just ending in Montreal, the timing seemed perfect to get out of Halifax before things got bad, and to land in Montreal after the snowy mess had been cleaned up there.    We had a four hour buffer to connect from one flight to the other, so we set off with a “what could go wrong” attitude.    Sitting in the Maple Leaf Lounge and enjoying a late lunch, however, the cracks in our seemingly flawless plan started to appear.    One dela
Read more

Day 4 (February 20, 2023):

Image
The Compassion Columbia office in Bogota, where we spent a good part of the day. Our delegation split up into small groups and we met with each of the teams in the office to hear about their work. One of the teams was dressed in traditional Colombian outfits. The country Director for Compassion told us that Colombia is known for three things: flowers, coffee, and hospitality. On the hospitality front, they certainly lived up to that expectation today. This special meal was provided to us for lunch.  This is a traditional Colombian soup which they serve to us today. It is quite thick and is made from puréed potatoes, chicken, and a special leaf that only grows in the Bogota area. It’s one of those dishes in Columbia that every son says his mother makes the best version! El Dorado International airport in Bogota, one of the biggest in Latin America. Canada has Tim Hortons. Columbia has Juan Valdez Cafés. Actually, they are a step above Tim Hortons and are more on the level of Starbucks.
Read more