Continuing the Work

I have now been stateside for two weeks. My placement for field education this year has already been a blessing in terms of understanding what I do with this experience and readjusting. I work for a minister who lived in South America for years, in a congregation that is bilingual and has shown an overwhelming interest in justice and peace issues. As part of my responsibilities, I have been asked to assist with a local organization, the Kentuckiana Interfaith Task Force on Latin American Concerns (KITLAC). I cannot imagine a better context for re-entry.

For those of you who may still look this up, I have some announcements for you all in the coming weeks. This Sunday, in Louisville, an organizer who has worked in the flower industry in Bogota will be speaking at Old Louisville Coffee House, from 7-9 PM. In addition, Vilma Yanez, Moderator of the IPC, will be itinerating here in Louisville the weekend of September 29 through October 1, including potlucks and various speaking engagements. I have already arranged to help with her visit, and I would love to see y'all there.

This will be my last post here at Del Cristo Desplazado. However, I continue to write and contemplate and work for the realization of Christ's reign on earth in a vision of justice and peace. If you would like to read the rest of my ponderings, you can find them at my permanent blog, Catechisms and Cataclysms. It's not updated very often, but when it is, I like to pretend that it's worth reading. Please continue to remember Colombia in your prayers; I remember them every day.

I have arrived

After traveling 25 hours straight (including an overnight layover), preparing for the wront flight time, losing the name of my hotel, almost leaving behind my passport, discovering I'd been given the wrong visa and had to pay a fee 1 1/2 times what I should have, and getting part of my baggage lost by the airline, I am home in my dorm room. I'll let you all know more soon about the end, the process of readjusting, and the last few details of the week. For now, I'm going to sleep....

Ya salgo

Tonight, I leave the Universidad Reformada, in order to return to my official studies. I fly from Barranquilla to Bogotá, where I will stay overnight before flying home to Louisville.

I have spent two and a half full days this week translating complex documents about human rights, historical memory, and organizational development. While I find the topics fascinating, if I did not have a background in political science, I don´t think I would have understood them enough to make sense. There were a few instances where I had to look up the definition of the English words that had been assigned to their Spanish counterparts! 20 points go to anyone out there who can correctly define "usufruct" without looking it up in the dictionary. Needless to say, that´s left me a little exhausted on the writing front, which explains my week-long silence.

Yesterday, for my last full day in town, a friend of ours invited us over for lunch. We left for his house at 11:30, and returned at 8:30 PM. In the meantime, we enjoyed each other´s company, had sodas at a place called "The Singing Fish," and explored a human-made peninsula extending out into the place where the Río Magdalena and the Atlantic Ocean, in a region called "Boca de Cenizas," or "Mouth of Ashes." One of the locals taught Rachel and I how to fish with a kite, we saw scads of fossils, and had a grand old last day. That night, a small group went out for my official going-away party, where we played pool and had ice cream. It was quite the pleasant celebration.

Today, I am spending my last day as an accompanier in and out of a conference dealing with women´s rights and mobilization, and translated my last lecture as we spoke with a professor here about the intricacies of the current political news and examined approaches to their interpretation when we arrive home. While I look forward to seeing all yáll in the states, I´m not quite ready to leave. We´ll see if maybe, one day, I can return...