A pesar de mis expectativas, anoche fue un exito. Vinieron muchos, y puedo decir con un poco de seguridad que puedo hacer los pasos basicos de salsa. Despues del baile hicieron dinamicas (juegos). Aprendi unos cuantos que son super charros (graciosos). Hoy fue el ultimo dia con el siervo de circuito. Es un hermano muy querido con una excelente habilidad de discursar. Cuando el vino el martes, le puso la meta a todos a traer un invitado, y parece que funciono porque hoy habia una asistencia de 160 personas. Fue un buen fin de semana y pude tomar muchas fotos. (Fotos añadidas a Photogallery Itagui).

        -D.V.

About a month ago I mentioned that I wasn`t going to be able to give my talk in my base congregation of Naranjos, but that one of the brothers suggested that I take on another public talk that hasn`t been given recently. Well the brother never brought it up again so I figured it was a no go. Wrong. I just found out last night that I have 8 days to prepare a public talk for next sunday, which kinda freaks me out, but at the same time I feel that I perform best with tight deadlines so lets see how it goes. I have that talk programmed for Sunday the 18th. I have 2 scheduled for the 25th, one at 8am and the other at 11am ( I accidentally double booked myself). And then finally, the english talk in Poblado on December 3rd.

Tonight there`s supposably a "party" at my house for the jovenes, but I can already tell that not too many people are going to come. On top of that, the only sister that dances, a 15 year old, didnt get perrmision to go. I tried to invite everyone from Poblado as a back up plan, but they all have meeting tonight.  Well, on the brightside I´ll have more time to work on my talk.

            -D.V.

No pude dormir para nada anoche. No pude parar de pensar en la casa, y que voy a hacer cuando regreso. Hasta ahora he hecho buen trabajo en no preocuparme en eso. Tenia claro que son 2 mundos distintos, al mesclarlos en la mente me hace extrañar Fayetteville. Pero bueno por fin logre dejarlo a un lado y dormirme un poco. Al despertarme hoy ya habia olvidado de esas inquitudes, y aun mas al llegar a Poblado.

Fue otro dia excelente en el Poblado. Hoy hicimos una tactica diferente. Hicimos censo en varios complejos de apartamentos. Desafortunadamente, no nos dan permiso a entrar, sencillamente nos toca preguntar al guardia de la entrada si viven extranjeros de habla ingles en ese complejo de apartamentos. Si dicen que si, les dejamos con revistas en ingles para repartirlas a los extranjeros. Pero la mayoria de las veces nos dicen que no, y no podemos predicar a los guardias porque ese teritorio pertenece a la congregacion hispana. Pienso que tiene que haber un metodo mas eficaz, pero de todas formas estamos dando buen testimonio. La mayoria de los jovenes que apoyan el grupo no trabajan o trabajan con sus padres, y asi disfrutan de un horario mas flexible. Luisa, quien enseña ingles en una universidad, tiene una clase temprano en la mañana los viernes, y luego va directo a la salida. Da muchisimo animo ver todos estos muchachos poniendo el servicio en primer lugar

-D.V.

When I first met Daniel, he spoke of a theory, holiday mode. When on vacation (or holiday as the british call it), our view of common sense can easily became slightly distorted. You do things that you normally would never do back home. Sometimes they¨re little insignificant details, and other times they¨re not. For example, yesterday I payed about $90 for a pair of adidas. Back home, I would make fun of Chuy and the other shoe/cleet fanatics for doing the same thing. But since your on holiday, your thought process changes a bit, something that can be dangerous if your not cautious. Now I don´t even want to wear those adidas because I don´t want to dirty them. So when traveling, beware of holiday mode.

For the sake of bragging rights, I went to see Skyfall last night, which doesn´t have it´s U.S. release until tomorow. As far as James Bond films go, this is probably the cleanest one since the Sean Connery films. There are 2 kissy scenes that are literally 5 seconds long, and fewer shootouts than any other Bond film I´ve ever seen. Instead of focusing on Bond´s iffy habits, this film focuses more on the plot itself, and depicts Bond as more of regular guy with physical boundries. It features a lovely intro by Adele, and and awesome stellar soundtrack through out. Skyfall serves as a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Bond series, and it does an excellent tie-in at the end of the film with the original Bond films. I should leave the pharmacy gig and be a movie critic.

After the movie I headed back home so I could talk Argi and Sor to dinner for their anniversary. Only we had to wait a couple hours for Argi because of the elders meeting with the C.O. He finally got home at about 8, but by that time he didnt really want to go anymore because  had to wake up at 4am the next morning for work. But Sor was already dressed up and ready to go, so she kinda forced Argi. My aunt Esneda stayed home to babysit, so it was just me abuelito, abuelita, Sor and Argi. Dinner was great, and pretty cheap considering it was a fancy, classy restaurant. It was a great ending to another lovely day in Colombia.

-D.V.

Bueno no hay mucho que reportar hoy. Ha sido un dia tranquilo. Anoche continuo la guerra contra las ratas antes de la reunion. Me encontre con la madre, y la persigui con un palo pero se escapo para donde Argi. Abuelito ahora esta resuelto a comprar un gato para ganarnos la guerra, y yo estoy resuelto a llamarlo Mateo jeje. Hoy es el aniversario de Argi y mi Tia Sor entonces los voy a sacar a cenar ( depues de ver Operacion Skyfall en el cine B) )

Me hace dificil creer que ya llevo 50 dias aqui en Colombia. Todo ha pasado tan rapido. Aveces quisiera quedarme mas tiempo pero a la misma vez extraño toda mi gente en E.U. de Obama. Aun asi, no permito que eso me impide disfrutar todo mi tiempo aqui en Colombia. Es un pais hermoso con gente con gente maravillosa. Hay muchos areas con necesidad de varones que llevan la adelantera. Por eso, quiero regresar, preferiblemente acompañado con otros muchachos. En los 30 dias que me quedan, estoy resuelto a disfrutar cada segundo, y si no logro hacer nada mas, estare super contento con impartir animo a todos los que sirven con ganas aqui en Colombia. (Fotos añadidas a Photogallery Itagui)

    -D.V.

Last night was pretty lay back. We went to my dad´s cousin Adriana´s fast food stand. It was heavenly. Epanadas, buñuelos, fried chicken, salchipapas, the greatest collection of the greasist food ever imagined. My grandpa says he goes because he knows I like the stuff, but the truth is he ends up eating more than me.

Once back home, we walked into the kitchen to find a rat taking a relaxing swim in a pot of water we left on the stove. And thus began the Rat Wars. That first rat ran into a box where we keep all the tupperware and stuff. My grandpa cleaned out the box and smashed the rats head as I took photos from a safe distance. Then there was numero dos. Me and abuelita where in the hallway when a rat went zooming past us. We both jumped around screaming like little girls while abuelito chased the thing with a broom. It made its way to the balcony, where it then dashed into a tiny pipe for water. It then made a quick escape a la James Bond, jumping out of the pipe down to the sidewalk 2 stories down, and then walking into the restaurant next door. At that point we decided it was a good idea to bring out the big guns: non-poisonous rat adhesive (glue). Unfortunately, it was no match for numero 3, who ran right over the glue without even losing a hair. He then made his way to the balcony and we lost him. During our search for numero 3, Argi decided to join in on the fun. While I was looking out the window for numero 3, Argi lightly rubbed the broom against my foot, and scared the mess out of me. Once he recovered from laughing/crying, he told us he was fighting a rat upstairs before we got home. He managed to burn its tail and then it ran off. So that probably made it angry, which started the whole mess downstairs in the first place -_- woohoo ( Photos added to Photogallery Itagui)

Today the sun has been unbearable. Especially since I was already burnt pretty bad at the pool yesterday. I could only last an hour with the group in service. We have the Circuit Overseer this week, but I´ll probably only be there for half the week, then I´ll spend my rest of time in Poblado. I already got the C.O. visit in Newnan before I left anyways.

                -D.V.

Como hoy fue dia festivo, el hermano Alvadan armo un grupo para ir a pasar el dia en una finca. Lo que al principio me parecia aburrido, porque pense que era una finca normal con animales y que hubiera mal olor. Pero no tenia nada que ver con una finca. Era un terreno grande con una pisina y donde vendian comida. Nos encontramos todos a las 8 y nos toco caminar y caminar hasta llegar a un bus y luego caminar aun mas. Por fin llegamos a la primer finca, pero toda esa caminada era en vano porque la finca ya estaba reservada para otra congregacion de Testigos. No nos invitaron a quedar, entonces nos toco irnos, pero el dueño de la finca nos apunto en la dirrecion de otra finca. Creo que nos frustro un poco a todos, entonces despues de caminar un poco, nos paramos y todos se sentaron para analizar el texto diario. Luego seguimos caminando en la dirrecion de la otra finca, aunque estabamos en duda de que ibamos en la dirrecion correcta. Un hermano fue adelante del resto del grupo para encontrar la finca. Cuando regreso dijo que era barata pero que era subiendo por una montaña, y bueno ahi fuimos. La subida fue canzon, y tuve que literalmente arastrar a tia Sor para que llegara. Para mi valio la pena. Aunque si fue un lugar simple todos nos la pasamos lo mas de bien. Pasamos la mayoria del tiempo en la pisina, jugamos volleyball, comimos. Un poco antes de salir nos cayo un tremendo aguacero encima. Nos toco esperar una media hora antes de salir. Todo el terreno se habia convertido en lodo, entonces pueden imaginar lo "divertido" que fue la bajada. Aunque la salida no era de lujo, todos nos disfrutamos un buen rato. Tambien tuve la oportunidad de sacar un buen monton de fotos, cuales hacen un mejor trabajo de contandoles mi dia que mil palabras. ( Vean PhotoGallery Caldas)

    -D.V.

Saturday didn´t spare me a second of rest. I met Daniel at the Poblado Metro Station in the morning. We were planning on meeting the rest of the team for service, but no one else showed up to the station. So we worked our way to the Santa Fe shopping mall, preaching to any foriegners we ran into along the way. On the way, we stopped at "McDonalds". I put it in quotation marks because the only thing it has in common with the Mcdonalds back home is the name. Believe it or not, McDonalds is a luxury here. Leather couches and chairs everywhere, a bakery, waitresses, high prices, good service, clean. It basicly goes against everything I ever knew about McDonalds, I was in shock.

Once we left McDonald´s, we found the other half of the team, Andres, a local  who has a african accent when he speaks english, and Jonathan Whatley, a black brother from California in his mid-20s who is one of the main ones that takes charge of the group. We witnessed through the streets while touching on topics like, how to renew your visa, and how to adapt to the colombian culture. Jonathan definitly knows what he´s doing, and after 4 years here, he seems to have adapted to colombian life. He works for a company that does private english lessons that only hires foriegners. The 4 of us stopped for lunch at a cozy little cuban place, that made us all forget we were in the middle of the big city.

At about 3 we all went our separate ways, and I headed back to Itagui to go camera hunting. I found a 12 mp Sony cybershot for 150 mil pesos , which is like 80 bucks. Im getting pretty bad at converting from pesos to dollars. After a while you stop thinking in dollars completely. Anyways, the camera was alright, not as good as the one I had, but it serves its purpose. Im still going to look into repairing the other one.

At 5 Rodolfo Alvadan picked me up from my house on his way back from work so I could join them for family study. He said that he lived in a ok area, that even sports cars go in there sometimes. But once we got in the neighborhood, lets just say there werent any sports cars. He said the only problem with the area is that that local gangs struggle for control over the communities. They even knock on doors to collect a "security fee" every week. I asked Rodolfo what would happen if someone didnt pay up and he said "Sometimes they send a young kid to kill you, but everyone ussualy pays, so no worries". Once at Alvadan´s we gave his daughter bible study for an hour. Then we had dinner while they asked me questions about life back home. And then we did family study. Despite they´re economical hardships, they´re a lovely super close family. The father makes a wonderful effort to raise his daughter right despite all the shady influences in thier nieghborhood. It was a lovely day full of a activity, so I decided to use today to just rest and recover.

                    -D.V.

Tuve un puequeño ataque de panico anoche caundo quebre la camera mientras me preparaba para ir a la reunion. Tire el cinturon encima de la cama y pego contra la pantalla de la camera. Ahora no se puede ver nada en la pantalla, solo de una esquinita. Entonces no me queda de otra forma, tengo que comprar otra. Enojandome no resuelva nada, simplemente compro otro y ya. Pronto se me habia olvidado eso de la camera al llegar al Salon. Tuve la ultima asisgnacion, de 15 minutos, pero el hermano anterior me dejo con menos de 10. Aun asi todo salio excelente. Despues de la reunion, el hermano Alvadan tienia un monton de personas que atender solito en el departamento de literatura, entonces me meti por ahi para ayudarle. Los hermanos seguian vienendo en montones por media hora. Fue muy distinto comparado con trabajar con la literatura en Fayetteville.

Esta mañana sali temprano, y quede en encontrar a la hermana de Johnny, Luisa Garces en el metro de Poblado. Pero deje al grupo entero esperandome por media hora porque yo me monte en el metro equivocado. Me dio mucha pena llegar tarde, pero los hermanos estaban muy felices de tenerme ahi. Era un equipo de 10, 5 hermanos, y 5 hermanas. Me soprendio que eran puros jovenes. Aqui en Colombia habia notado que los jovenes aqui no tienen celo como los de Georgia, entonces me animo a ver este equipo de jovenes, la mayoria de ellos precursores. Despues de hacer la oracion en ingles ( me pidieron si yo podia hacerlo, pero no me salio muy chevere ) nos dividimos en 2 grupos. 4 se quedaron un parque, y los otros 6 en otro. Todos se sietan en el parque, y si ven un extranjero crusar por la calle una pareja se acerca. Comienza con una conversacion normal. Preguntan si hablan ingles, de donde son, luego le decimos de donde somos y porque le estamos abordando, y ahi comensamos la prestacion. La mayoria no quisieron hablar de la Biblia, y solo conversaron con nosotros por ser extranjeros tambien. Pero unos cuantos si recibieron bien el mensaje. Usualmente se hace censo, pero parece que no tenian territorio hoy. A las 12:30 todos se encontraron de nuevo. Daniel y James se fueron, pero los 8 que quedaban nos fuimos a el Centro Comercial de Santa Fe, donde habia ido con Daniel hace unos dias. Almorsamos ahi y seguimos predicando hasta las 4. Fue un dia genial, ensanche mi circulo de amistades aun mas. Los jovenes eran amigables, enfocados, y super chistosos. Hasta ibamos cantando Fun por las calles de Poblado. Ahi si me hizo falta la camera pero Daniel me mando una a mi correo ( Foto añadida a photogallery Itagui), y hay unas cuantas mas dispersadas por ahi en Instagram. Mañana, despues de servicio en Poblado, tengo que comprar otra.

            -D.V.

After finishing yesterdays post, I decided I had a serious craving for a decent, non-expensive cuban sandwich. I had completely forgotten it was holloween, but I was quickly reminded as soon as I stepped out into the street. These people LOVE holloween, I´ve never been in such a nuts enviroment. They closed off all the roads within 2 blocks of the park. The park was extremely, beyond belief crowded. You literally couldnt even walk without being pressed tight against someone. The costumes were ridiculous: devils, batmans, captain americas, witches, homeless people, nuns; even the poor dogs were in costumes. After a good half hour, I finally found a place that had cubans. It was a pretty long wait but it was probably one of the best cubans I´ve ever had :D

Today I went in early morning service with Andres from Asturias. On my way to meet him, I got a good look at the aftermath of holloween. Now despite being a big busy city, Itagui is always clean. However holloween seems to be a huge exception. The streets were pretty nasty. There were candy wrappers, beer bottles, confetti, and people trying to sleep of hangovers all over the streets. It was pretty bad. ( Photos added to Photogallery Itagui )

I got in contact with Jhonny Garces´ sister today. We´ll be meeting tomorrow morning at the Poblado metro station so she can show me where the english group meets, and I´ll finally go preaching with them. If all goes well, I´d be interested in joining them regularly until I leave, in only 35 days...

                    -D.V.