Takeaways

We are HOME! This weekend has been great- almost unmitigated positive experience. We’re all happy to be home, but it is in no way a reflection on any negative feelings we had in Medellin. Rather, it’s the product of a well-timed experience that produces thankfulness for both the trip and the return.

But I have consistent themes in my head as to “what this all meant”. I count ~10 main “Takeaways”. these are not the 10 ‘most important things I learned’, nor are they the 10 ‘most valuable things’ from our experiences. They are simply the 10 themes that pop up most frequently in my mind as I think over the last year. I also think these are the 10 most likely conversation topics I would have with you, our friends, the readers of this blog, if we were to sit down over coffee and talk about it.

~10 Takeaways

• Hold on to your kids: this was already said in a previous post, but it proved true 1000x over, over the year.  The depth of my relationship with all 3 girls in my family was immensely enriched.  And your kids are experiencing so much more than you know; you just have to slow down in order to understand it!
• Quality vs quantity: I’m really glad we spent time in one place, as opposed to moving several times.  The most valuable experiences in life that provide the most spiritual growth are the ones that go deep and make connections with peoples, communities, and cultures… I will take quality experiences over a number of ‘checkbox experiences’ anytime.
• Learning Spanish is Incremental: I was hoping that my children would pick it up immediately, by being immersed in a school that spoke Spanish. Similarly, I was hoping I would be effortlessly fluent by Christmas. In all cases, it took work and progress was incremental.

Goodbye, Colombia (goodbyes, #8)

We have been spending the last week outside of Medellin, but not yet in the USA. We have been on the island of San Andres, Colombia for the past few days. We thought it was smart to spend a few days processing and reflecting on the last year (thanks for giving us this idea, Pastor Delia! :-))

Cynthia came up with a list of questions. We’ve been processing over the last few dinners, in order to get ourselves in a thankful mindset, and prepare for reentry:

Abigail’s goodbyes (Goodbyes #7)

A few days ago, we said the last of many goodbyes.

Of course, we all knew this time would come. While we love Medellin, Seattle is our home and has been for the last decade(feels hard to believe, huh?) It just never seemed that real, I guess. It still doesn’t, at least for me. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve accepted it, and that’s that. But whether I felt them or not, they were goobyes nevertheless, and that is why I am writing this post.

Evie: We Leave and Spelling Bee (goodbyes #6)

One of the most recent events before departure was the school Spelling Bee. I had been picked as one of the representatives for my grade through a class spelling bee and we were competing against 6th grade.

At first, I was nervous because the tension of spelling in front of the entire 5th and 6th grade was pressuring and scary. I was worried that last night’s quizzing with Mom and skill gained would be forgotten.

Bird drama

At the end of my last post about the bird on our terrace, I was curious to see how long it would be before the baby bird left the nest as he was getting bigger and bigger.

Well, not too many days after that, a big bird who we can only assume to be “Papa Bird” showed up and started aggressively shooing away “Mama Bird,” who had been taking care of Baby all this time. She would frequently come and try to check in on Baby (sometimes with a female friend for support) but Papa would block her from reaching Baby and sometime even go at her physically, pulling out some of her feathers. I can only assume that like with many human families, Mama did the nurturing of the Baby and Papa stepped in when it was time for the Baby to be challenged with learning to fly!

Goodbye, Medellin (goodbyes, #5)

Today we left Medellin. Wow!

But we are not leaving Colombia, yet. We are spending a week to contemplate what this ~year has meant. More on that later.

Nevertheless, it’s a big step. the Big Medellin experiment is in the background. All the people, experiences, cultural differences, and memories in that city is behind us. Now it’s time to spend some time praying, and thinking , and being thankful for what has happened.

Goodbye, Uncle Scott!(goodbyes #4)

Our last dinner with Uncle Scott

One of the main reasons we came to Medellin was Uncle Scott. One of the biggest lifts of those first, difficult few weeks was our weekly dinners with Scott.

So it seems fitting, and especially sad, to say goodbye to Uncle Scott on our last night in Medellin.

“I’m sick of seeing palm trees… time to Go!” (Goodbyes, #3)

-Evelyn quotes

San Rafael, Part 2

If you haven’t yet read Our San Rafael Adventure with Paulina, you should start there!

The day after the chocolate farm tour, we were invited to Paulina’s family’s “finca” for breakfast. Fincas are the equivalent of a cabin in the woods/a beach house/a vacation/country house. Many middle and upper class people who live in Medellin go to their finca for holidays and weekends but there are also many people who live in the country and on their finca full time. Paulina’s family has a compound with several houses on the same property where her dad, sister, two aunts, a cousin and grandmother all live.

We had a delicious breakfast, homemade by all the ladies of the family (wish I had taken more pictures!) and then we were off to the charcos. Technically, “charco” translates to “puddle” but it can be so much more than that. San Rafael is famous for its charcos, which in this case, are the large natural pools under waterfalls that are perfect for swimming! Tim and I rode in a moto taxi with Paulina but the girls got to ride on motorcycles, behind Paulina’s dad and her sister, Leidy, who was also our guide for this excursion.

A delicious breakfast of arepas, pan de queso, huevos, bunuelos and homemade hot chocolate.

Leidy led us through the jungle trails to several charcos where we had a wonderful afternoon relaxing and playing in the water.

This was the best maintained trail of the whole hike because it led to a world-class yoga retreat in the middle of the Colombian jungle!

One of the yoga buildings

Staff housing

A beautiful blue butterfly!

The first charco

We did not swim in this one but I just thought this scene looked so pretty and peaceful and jungly.

The traditional lunch for a hike – rice, chorizo, yuca, an egg, platano and chincharon

Our San Rafael adventure with Paulina – Part 1

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you have probably heard mention of Paulina, our Spanish teacher. We got to know Paulina in a friend-of-a-friend way – some friends of ours in Seattle had been taking online Spanish lessons with her for years and when we moved to Medellin, they helped connect us. Paulina has been a big part of our lives this year…the girls and Tim took Spanish lessons from her once a week, I met her for an “intercambio” (language exchange) once a week at a coffee shop and she has helped us interpret numerous communications and situations from a Colombian viewpoint.

Paulina had invited us to her hometown of San Rafael, about 3.5 hours away from Medellin and on our last weekend there, we finally had the chance to join her! As we typically do for pueblo visits, we traveled via bus, which is an interesting experience in itself. Depending on the bus driver, the bus may be limited to just the ticketed passengers in seats, or he may choose to pick up passengers on the side of the road and also fill the aisles. It’s still not clear to me if this is legal/expected or just a way that bus drivers make a little extra cash.

The bus just as it was starting to fill up. A relatively comfortable way for me and the girls to travel, though for Tim, with his long legs, it is an exercise in endurance.