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March 1986 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 14, Issue 3 March, 1986
SETTLING IN
It is hard to believe, but we have been back in Colombia for one month now. Time has really flown by. Our first week was nothing but 16 hour days of cleaning and getting organized. After 18 months, there was a layer of dust so thick on everything that we could have planted potatoes in it. Rats had gotten into one of our storage rooms and created havoc. They had chewed up important documents, ruined some equipment for the radio program, and left behind a foul odor. But slowly, room at a time, we cleaned and organized things. The living room and kitchen came first. As soon as people found out that we were here they began to come to see us and we needed the living room and kitchen in order to be able to receive them. After those two rooms, we began to work on the bedrooms and bathrooms. Finally we worked on the office. By the end of one week we were in pretty good shape and by the end of the second week we were all settled in.
One major difficulty that we had was with the stove and the refrigerator. Both had developed problems during storage. The oven had a bad thermostat. After a ten day delay, parts arrived and Jeanie could once again use the oven. With the refrigerator, we were not quite so fortunate. It was in the shop for three weeks. They kept telling us "mañana," tomorrow. Finally they decided that the freezer had a gas leak in the tubes. It could not be repaired. We went out to buy one, but there were none available in the town at the moment. Again they said, "mañana." We will see. Hopefully we will have a refrigerator by the end of this week!
The Colombian Christians were anxious for us to rejoin the work. I had been trying to hold off the brethren until we were settled in. Once that goal was accomplished, I began to involve myself in the work. First, we had our monthly meeting. This is where all of the leaders come in for fellowship, council and training. It was a two day meeting. I mostly listened since I did not know what had been happening. Once that meeting was over, I began to do some calling here in Villavicencio. Though the brethren had done will in some areas, organization had really suffered. That seems to be one of the hardest things to teach. Also, as is their custom, plans for Holy Week has been put off to the last minute. Trying to plan for such a major event on such short notice was a major undertaking.
During the past month, I have missed lunch more times than I have been able to make it home to eat. My plans for easing back into the work on a more leisurely pace fell by the wayside. But it is great to be back into the work. There is so much to be done, and it appears that time is very short. But together, with God's guidance, we can do much during this time next term.
NEW SOUNDS
After a year and a half in the States, we have encountered many new sounds here in Colombia. Actually they are not new, but they do take some getting used to after such a long absence.
Once such sound is the constant din of traffic. In sleepy Rittman there is not that much traffic. Here we live only one block from the only road into this city of 300,000. There are the blaring horns as impatient drivers try to get ahead, as well as the screeching of brakes. Orderliness is not one of the outstanding traits of Latin American drivers.
There is also the nearly constant shouting of street vendors. The newspaper boy goes by about 5:30 a.m. Then several people follow selling breakfast type foods, Latin style. The rest of the morning is filled with the cries of the shoe repairmen, afternoon the kids are out of school and the people who sell snacks to them violate the quiet.
By evening the street vendors are gone and the loud music starts as people come home from work. For some reason people here never seem to outgrow that teenage habit of playing their stereo at full volume. After dark, dogs begin to bark at every passerby. Then by the wee hours of the morning, the roosters begin to crow. Even in a big city with tiny lots, many people still keep chickens. One other sound was so unusual as to startle us. After such a long time, the sound of gunfire at night would have us sitting upright in our beds with hearts pounding in our throats. That will take some getting used to before we can sleep through it!
Little by little those sounds begin to lose their strangeness and we notice them less each day. Little by little, we begin to settle into a different culture that will once again be home for us.