A day in the life of a Formando Vidas missionary. . .

5:30 am- I wake up. I spent the weekend at the farm, so I need to head down with everyone else when they leave at 6:00.

6:10 am- we get a little bit late of a start. On our way down the mountain, Evie gets a phone call. All the buses are on strike today, can we stop and pick up some friends on our way down so they can make it into the city. We stop for them and continue on our way. Bogota looks surprisingly empty without any bus traffic. Today is supposed to be individual meetings for each area of the ministry. We try to figure out how we’re getting to our meeting place without being able to take the bus. Peter and I decide we’ll bike to Luz y Vida.

6:40 am- we get back to the 127 house. We decide to leave between 7:30 and 7:45. I make myself scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. (I’m so happy I finally bought bread at the store and that my eggs haven’t gone bad yet. It’s taking me a really long time to eat a dozen eggs.) Peter can only find one bike. We decide to take the Transmilenio instead.

7:30 am- I’m ready to walk out the door, when they say the meeting has been canceled. The Transmilenio is super crowded since, besides taxis, it’s the only form of public transportation available. Pickpockets are everywhere and lines are long. I sit down with my computer to work on some school planning.

7:40 am- The meeting might only be delayed until 10. Stay flexible.

8:25 am- there is indeed a meeting, and it will be at 10, and we should leave at 8:30.

8:30 am- Peter and I leave for Luz y Vida. It’s a beautiful day and the sun is out, and pretty soon I take of the sweatshirt I’m wishing I hadn’t bothered to wear. We get to the Transmilenio and push out way on when our bus shows up. It’s really crowded, and I’m afraid we won’t fit through the doors. It empties out as we get closer to our destination, but we stand the whole way.

10:00 am- we make it to Luz y Vida at the same time as Carolina. Our meeting starts with chit-chat, pony malta (a kind of soda) and bread. We open in prayer and spend the next few hours discussing the schedule, planning, staffing needs, and discipline.

1:15 pm- we leave for home. There’s been a rumor that buses are running again, but they aren’t, so we take a taxi.

2:00 pm- I start back where I left off, finishing up some projects for school. While I’m working on that, I heat up some leftover soup for lunch. Evie brings me a home made chocolate chip cookie. Yummy.

3:00 pm- I ask directions to a place where I can print off the documents I’ve saved to my USB drive. I make it there without getting lost, and find the 3^rd grocery store within walking distance. I also find the internet café where I print my papers (unfortunately they’ve run out of colored ink) and buy a glue stick. I head into the grocery store next door because I’m feeling like some ice cream, and nearly have a heart attack when I see the price on the closet thing to a half gallon that I see- 20,000 pesos! (about $10, and this was smaller than a half gallon). I decide the little corner store just around the corner from us is a better option. I stop there on my way back and buy popsicles to share.

3:30 pm- I sit around and chat and eat a popsicle.

4:00 pm- The 5 year old follows me upstairs when I go to work on the game I’m making for my second graders. She wants to help, so I cut and let her paste. She makes a great helper!

4:30 pm- Manny calls me on skype. The internet café he normally calls from is full, and the one he is at doesn’t have webcams. For some reason the sound isn’t working. We make do with the chat function of skype.

5:30 pm- the 8^th and 9^th grade students that I’m tutoring show up. We go over an English grammar test. We spend the next hour and a half talking about English verb tenses and reviewing 50 test questions until my brain is fried and I’m sure they no longer understand a word I’m saying. We finish up with some much more people-friendly listening comprehension- I show them some pictures of my trip to Europe and talk about my travels.

7:30 pm- I can finally start making dinner. I talk to Rebecca on skype and chat with 2 friends on g-mail chat while I chop tomatoes and onions and burn garlic once again. I think once again that I really need to freeze some meals so on nights like this, I don't need to start cooking so late.

8:54- I finish up my dinner and this blog post. Dishes, then finishing the game I started making, then devotions, then bed await. Peter came in a bit ago to let me know to be ready to head to Luz y Vida tomorrow for a regular day of school, but if the taxis and Transmilenio join the strike (which there’s talk of) there’s a possibility we’ll cancel.

Life is not always nearly as unpredictable as it was today here, but it’s definitely good to be flexible, and I’m getting more and more used to that each day. And, today was a wonderful day, despite the unpredictability of it, or maybe because of it. I enjoyed the sun shine on my walk to the Transmilenio and seeing more of Bogotá. I read all about the Transmilenio before I got here, but hadn't yet been on it, so I feel like I finally arrived. Our meeting, despite the late start, was really productive, and I loved being part of a school staff for the first time where we opened in prayer and God was looked to for help, instead of nothing but experience and "experts". I got to know another corner of my neighborhood better on my walk to the internet cafe, and thoroughly enjoyed my popsicle after the hot sun. Seeing the 5 year old's concentration, pride in her work, and playfulness as she helped me more than made up for the no longer perfectly uncrinkled pages I ended up with. Hearing (ok, seeing it in writing) that Manny FINALLY got his passport was super exciting. An unexpected chat with my sister and friends brought me several smiles. And after a weekend at the farm and my day with extra sunshine, I'm feeling ready to meet my little guys armed with phonics games, play-doh to use to write words, a math manipulative activity, smiles, love, and patience.