Reflections on my trip to Colombia

It's been a few days since I returned from Colombia, and now that I have finally had a few days to reflect on my experience, I would just like to share some of my experience.

The purpose of the trip was to have the North American Basilian Associates visit the Basilian community in Colombia, and connect with a part of our community that many of the community members have not seen.  We also were able to meet some of the Candidatos (candidates) who were beginning the formation process.  It was a great experience, and there is so much that happened, that I'm not even sure where to begin.

The majority of our time was spent in Cali, Colombia, which is where our school in Colombia is.  The School, Instituto Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion (INSA), is a K-11 school, serving approximately 700 students.  It was truly incredible to see the things that were being accomplished at the school.  INSA is in a fairly poor area of Cali, and Fr. Frank Amico, the Rector of the school, said that he runs the entire school on only $650,000 a year (which is not a lot of money!)  Some students only pay about $1 a month to go there, because the idea is to have a high-class school in a poor area, and open it to as many students as possible, to hopefully help them achieve a better future.

What is truly amazing about the school is that the students have an opportunity to learn 3 languages while they are there.  They of course learn Spanish, but every single student learns English from Kindergarten all the way to 11th Grade, and when they are older, they can also choose another language, from French, Italian, even Mandarin Chineese!  Walking through the school, you see so many smiles on the student's faces, and you could never tell which students were from a poor neighborhood, since everyone at the school is required to wear a uniform.  Some things also know no cultural boundaries, like the male student with 3 girls hanging off of him.

While we were there, one of the Priests took us on a tour of the Barrios (neighborhoods) surrounding the school.  In one Barrio, La Playa, which is where the poorest of the poor live in Cali, I could have easily filmed one of those "for only $1 a day, you can help a child in need" commercials in that area.  It was gut-wrenching to experience that poverty first hand, because when you're actually there, you can't just "change the channel" so you don't have to look at it.  I am so glad that the school is working to give the children from that area a good education, to give them a better future.  Makes me want to do something to raise money for the school, so that they can educate even more children!

We also had an opportunity to travel to Trujillo, Colombia, which is a city where over 300 people were murdered by various groups.  These groups were guerrilla groups, paramilitary groups, and even the Colombian Army.  It was very sad to not only see the memorial, but also to hear the stories about how some of the people were tortured/killed.  I won't post any of them here, because they are quite gruesome, and I honestly can't bring myself to type them out.  It is nice to see that there are people working to help the families of the victims cope, though, and that they won't rest until the violence has completely stopped. (it has lessened, but there are still murders that occur.)

Even though there were many sobering experience this week, there were a lot of positive ones as well!  The Canididatos at the house in Cali were some of the nicest people I have ever met, and even though there was a bit of a language barrier, we still were able to communicate, even using some creative ways to try to get our point across (like when Casey Johnson sang the Batman theme to try to communicate that a bat had flown into the library in the house.)

All in all, it was a great experience, and I sincerely hope that I have the opportunity to go back someday.  This experience helped me to re-confirm that I am making the right decision to join the Basilians, because the sense of community that I felt was the same sense that I get when I visit our North American communities, even with the language barrier.  The places we went, the people we saw, and the whole experience was very powerful, and I will carry this experience with me for the rest of my life.

I am so glad that I got this opportunity, and I hope that those of us that were on the trip can work to foster a greater sense of Community with our Colombian brothers, and work to help "bridge the gap" between the community in Colombia, and the North American communities.

If you're interested in seeing pics, I have them on my Facebook.  I may post some on here, once I figure out how... I'm still kind of new at this!

God Bless!