Running my own race

Over two months have passed since I first landed in Colombia! When I wrote my last blog post, I had a pretty consistent daily and weekly routine. I went to dance class every Saturday morning and hiked every Sunday before church. I prepared an entire breakfast smorgasbord every day after the gym. The neighborhood security guards knew when to leave the pool gate unlocked for my roommate and I. Life felt calm and settled. The last few weeks, however, have been filled with many adventures, a few mishaps, and quite a bit of change! You may want to settle in with a cup of coffee.

Best day so far? Cañón del Río Güejar

Without a doubt, September 14 has been my favorite day in Colombia yet. Together with my roommates and two other English teachers, I traveled to the nearby town of Mesetas to go on a guided river rafting tour through the Río Güejar canyon. We had a big enough group to organize private transportation, meaning we were picked up in a van at 5:00 am at a gas station in Villavicencio. After a two-hour drive along the base of the mountains, we arrived in Mesetas and had breakfast at a local restaurant before heading to the tour company to pay and get further instructions. By 9:00 am, we were on the river shore with life jackets, paddles, and helmets, learning about all the different paddling, swimming and rescue techniques (should we happen to fall out of or tip the rafts). This was my first time going whitewater rafting, and I had an absolute blast.

We spent about 6 hours rafting, paddling, swimming, and stopping periodically for snacks and to explore the jungle at the canyon edge. Our rafting guide, Miguel (far left in the photo above), explained that this part of the river was classified as intermediate difficulty not because of the rapids but the 16-kilometer canyon in which disembarcking is difficult or nearly impossible. Once we set off, we had to reach the end! Our guides did assure us beginner rafters that (I quote) this tour “es más para contemplación de la naturaleza,” meaning the rapids were relatively small and far-between, allowing us plenty of opportunities to contemplate all the natural beauty around us. And that we did! During the tour, we saw many birds, butterflies, and a large troop of howler monkeys (apparently not something our guide sees often, even though he is in the canyon almost every day). My absolute favorite moment of the day was seeing the sun reflect off of thousands of water droplets falling down over us from jungle-topped cliff walls above as we floated peacefully down the river canyon.

In addition to telling all about the history, geographic formations, and animal & plant life found in the Río Güejar region, our guide also told us stories from his own life and experiences growing up. As I understand, Mesetas—along many rural regions of the Meta department (Colombian’s version of a province or state)—has a complex and at times tragic history related to Colombian guerrilla groups and drug production. According to an article I read, “in 2004, the department of Meta was the department with the largest level of coca cultivation.” In fact, the area has only recently reopened for tourism. We passed under a cable bridge used to transport coca leaves across the river to a now-repurposed house where cocaine used to be produced. The more you know!

I will absolutely be returning to Mesetas in the new few months to enjoy river tubing and horseback-riding with the same tour company. All the staff and personnel at Llano Tours Colombia are kind, engaging, and experienced, and we had an incredible time!

Amor & Amistad (Love and Friendship)

September is the month of Amor and Amistad in Colombia. In addition to the many sweet treats and snacks I was gifted from coworkers and students alike, the month came to a sweet close at my university with an Amor & Amistad celebration. On the last Friday of September, UCompensar had a faculty & staff event from 5:00 – 6:45 pm involving cookies, ensalada de frutas (a Colombian specialty involving chopped fruit, shredded cheese and sweetened condensed milk), time for people to express their appreciation and love for their coworkers, and a free game of bowling at the university complex’s four private lanes. Hugs were given, pictures were taken, and this girl felt like God had (and still has) placed her exactly in the right teaching position for this season of life. To quote a song by Forrest Frank, “God is good, all the time. If He ain’t, then you lying!”

Even more new friends

God has continued to allow new people to cross my path, often at the most unexpected times. I very much enjoy meeting new people and forming connections in this city where I once knew no one! The only downside is that I now use Whatsapp almost exclusively to contact everyone connected to my personal & work life in Colombia, and some days, the notifications and conversations add up quickly.

We made friends with a young woman on our Guejar rafting tour who later invited my roommate and I to get dinner with her. I think I really have adopted a more Colombian mindset when it comes to valuing personal connections and being open to spontaneous or flexible plans. Why? Two weeks ago, I stopped at my friend Edward’s house after a workout to discover that his roommate’s friend was visiting from the UK. I surprised even myself by not only going out for lunch with them immediately but also inviting this friend to go swimming with me the next morning (while the roommate worked) and then attend CrossFit the following day. All my plans for household chores and grocery shopping went immediately out the window, and we spent three fantastic days together. Two Bogotá Fulbrighters visited for a weekend, so we hosted them on an air mattress and couch. Perhaps I have been shown such deep generosity and hospitality by my new friends in Villavicencio that it only feels right to do so for others.

New friends come in all shapes and sizes. I regularly play a few minutes of post-workout soccer with my CrossFit trainer’s six-year-old nephew. I was also invited to go hiking one early Sunday morning with a new friend, her boyfriend, and no less than one Chihuahua, one Doberman Pinscher, and two other mixed-breed dogs. We trekked up to the lookout point on Vereda La Argentina, where we had a view of the whole city. Along the way, we chatted about everything from language teaching to dog training, our shared Christian faith, and Colombian dichos or sayings. The other day, I ran into our neighbor and her pot-bellied pig eating pieces of guayaba as they walked past our house.

Medio Maratón del Meta

The Choose-Your-Own-8.5-Kilometer Adventure™ edition

This past Sunday, I got up before the crack of dawn to run my first (of hopefully many) race in Colombia. For those who pay close attention to my blogs, I was indeed supposed to run a 10-kilometer race on September 29 with a friend … but due to unplanned but entirely predictable circumstances involving an all-day pool party the Saturday before the race, I ended up not feeling well enough to compete. Mil disculpas, Iván.

I arrived at the Medio Maratón del Meta race expo, alone and fully expecting to pick up my race kit and leave immediately. Two hours later, I headed home having made two new friends and actually connected with a fellow professor from UCompensar whom I had not known was also a runner until I bumped into him at packet pickup. Amazing what the shared love of a sport + very long lines can do.

This past Sunday, I got up before the crack of dawn to run my first (of hopefully many) race in Colombia. At the early hour of 4:30 am, I also happened to run into my dear roommate who was making pasta before going to bed after dancing at a local discoteca and club until that same time. It was absolutely pouring rain—the street in front of my neighborhood looked like an actual river—but I managed to get a taxi around 5:00 am. By 6:20 am, I was ready at the starting line, watching a group of children perform a traditional joropo dance to send all of us runners off! #onlyinColombia

The race began, we all took off, and I was glad to be near the front so I did not get caught among crowds of slower runners. Or so I thought. I had set a 30-minute timer on my watch to keep track of approximately how far I had left to run. The race course was straight out on a main road and then back to the finish line. Fairly straightforward, right? Wrong, apparently. Fairly soon after passing the Kilometer 2 sign, I realized that I was also running alongside and past runners from the 10-kilometer race. Only after passing the Kilometer 3 sign after 15+ minutes of running did I realize that I had run too far and missed the turnaround point. By the time I doubled back and crossed the finish line, I had run 8.5 kilometers in just over 45 minutes. Next time, I will just sign up for the 10K!

Remember the new friends I made on Saturday? I met up with one of them before the race, to stretch, warm up, and start the run together. Afterwards, we bumped into the other new friend and her husband, who had just finished the 10-kilometer race. We took a few photos together, chatted about the race, … and then someone mentioned lechona. We quickly consulted local experts (three nearby police officers) on where to find the freshest post-race-pork-peas-and-rice, and then I found myself on the back of a motorcycle for the second time thus far in Colombia. Sans helmet. Sorry, Mom. It was a short drive, and breakfast was incredible (and free, thanks to the generosity of my friend’s husband). I’m now invited to another trail race in their hometown of Guamal in December.

Overall, this race was an incredible experience, and I am proud to be living and working in this beautiful llanero city!

My daily work at UCompensar

My classes continue to go well overall, and I feel that I learn new things about Spanish, teaching in a Colombian context, and my own native English language every week. I am starting to get a bit more creative with my conversation clubs—last week was fall/autumn and U.S. seasonal activities, and this week is llanero-themed due to the upcoming 13th Festival Llanero here in Villavicencio—and four to eight students still show up every day. Last Monday, 11 students showed up on the same day!

I work with students from Semesters 1 to 6, and each group is uniquely interesting, endearing, and challenging in their own ways. Besides a student once whistling to get my attention—he was then informed very firmly that he would not be doing so again—I have felt very respected by the students I work with. I know nearly all of their names now, and I do feel that they enjoy working with me, if for no other reason than a break from regular grammar or vocabulary instruction.

I also have incredible coworkers, and every day in the office is a new adventure. I never know if we will be celebrating a birthday, making an empanada excursion, or just sharing a two-liter soda on un martes normal. Yesterday, I saw my coworkers eating bread while I was still finishing conversation club. “Bummer,” I thought, “I wish I wasn’t missing out on that right now.” Ten minutes later, though, I walked into the office to discover a portion set aside for me. “The LORD alone is my portion and my cup” (Psalms 16:5), but His mercies occasionally arrive in the form of guava-stuffed bread and a mug of Coca-Cola.

All things taxi-related

Many things in my life lately have related to the Villavicencio taxi community. I used to ride with the same taxi driver to and from work every weekday and then to church and back with his twin brother on Sundays. Side note: the first brother then expressed romantic interest in me just as he was about to change careers and sell the car. This means that neither brother drives anymore, so it’s a good thing we just walk to class now. As part of a six-week professional development seminar put on by our university, Aliya and I also gave two interactive presentations on English in interactions with foreign tourists (September 20) and translation tools (October 3) to a room full of taxi drivers. Following our first presentation, we were gifted vanilla cookies by one sweet older conductora, which we then used to ‘pay for’ a courtesy ride home that another driver offered us. Oh, the places you’ll go!

Making a new house our home

Goodbye, Cerro Campestre Alto! Hello, new-neighborhood-within-walking-distance-of-my-university-and-gym! Last Tuesday, my fellow Fulbrighter Aliya and I officially moved to a different house in a new conjunto (the Colombian term for a gated neighborhood that usually has a pool and other shared amenities). Sadly, this did mean parting ways with our lovely other roommate Morgan—but we had a great two months together in the first house!

Thankfully, moving across town is extremely simple when you only brought 3 suitcases and 2 backpacks and don’t own any furniture. A few taxi trips over two days, and all of my belongings were at the new place. Actually unpacking and settling into a new routine in a different space has proved a bit challenging, mostly because the house was not super clean when we arrived, did not have Wifi until yesterday, and contains a semi-random assortment of dishes, household items, and furniture that we are still sorting through.

Odd collections of Tupperware and cleaning supplies aside, we love our cozy little house. Both of our bedrooms also have wall A/C units, which feels so luxurious. Stay tuned to see how high our electric bill runs this month. The neighborhood feels even more like a botanical garden than the last, we can walk to work in less than 10 minutes, and our main floor has floor-to-ceiling doors that open onto our patio. I can see quite a few dinner parties or evening gatherings with friends in our future…

More snapshots of daily life

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