Freeway Entertainment

Spotted these guys on the way to Fusa the other day. Makes traffic lights more bearable.

More Old Friends

Over the last fortnight, we have been enjoying meeting up with old friends. Below are some of the children I used to look after in the children's home with their families. It's been amazing to meet them again and to hear about their lives. I've been amazed at how fondly they remembered our time together 19 years ago as I do! I lived across the road from them and spent some of every day with the nine boys. We felt very much like family. They are all working so hard to make a living to support their families now. Three of them have little girls with whom Sophie has played so beautifully! 

John Alex

Norberto

 This picture includes Grant and Kathleen, the American missionaries we are staying with in their home in the north of Bogota. They are such an incredible example to us, so welcoming and hospitable, patient and kind. They've been in Bogota 20 years this year and have served in many different ministries across this city of 10 million people.

Maicol

Carolina - two of her brothers were in the home, one sadly has died since I was here, and I've not managed to contact the other.

 John Jairo and Ruben, outside Ruben's cafe.

Travel in Bogotá

There are many different ways to travel in Bogotá, this is one of the old buses that aren't used that much, we haven't used one of these yet, but we hope to give it a try.

We have taken most other modes of transport though, this is from the Fenicular,  a tram that goes straight up the ridiculously steep Monserrate. In the top left you can see the wires for the Teliferico, the cable car that brought us up.

The Rock Salt Cathedral

In The Rock Salt Cathedral, we saw loads of interesting things! Those things include the 14 stations of the cross! The picture here is of a small chapel made completely out of salt! We all thought that the miners must of been very resilient and skilful to do all that.

But in my opinion the coolest thing we did there was mining our own salt!! We used massive pick axes to hack bits of salt off the walls and when we had done the tour guide gave me and Sophie each a massive bit of salt - our salary 😂!

Posted by Ethan😀

Fusagasugá

We visited the IMC (In Ministry to Children) home in Fusagasugá (commonly known as Fusa), with Nancy, the Colombian director of IMC, who kindly drove us all the way from Bogotá. It was about a 2 hour drive along some crazy roads, and when we got there we were given a raucous welcome by the children.

We helped serve lunch, which was really cute because each plate was prepared individually for each child. Afterwards they gave us lunch which we ate whilst watching the Colombia vs England World Cup match. We also ate blueberry lollies.

And I played with some of the girls and boys for ages. 

Next, we met a family that mummy met 19 years ago and they had a puppy and a budgie and a bunny. Their house was very simple with an outside bathroom open to the rain, and parts of the wall were falling off. We want to help raise some money to get it mended. Despite their very modest lifestyle, they were very welcoming to us, and very pleased to see Emelye after so many years.

Posted by Sophie

Watching the Big Match

In one of the IMC children's homes in Fusa. Wearing my Colombia top, just to hedge my bets...

Salt Cathedral

Last week we visited the amazing underground Salt Cathedral just outside Bogota, painstakingly created by hand inside an old salt mine. The caverns, of which there are many, are carved out of 100% rock salt, and we even had a go at mining it ourselves using heavy pick axes. It was really hard work and we only managed a few minutes. The miners created the cathedral and Stations of The Cross by staying late in their own time. It is considered Colombia's very own Wonder of the World.