At last! The day had come for my first campaign, an event I had been anticipating before I even came to Colombia. The service meeting was at 8am. I was told to bring lunch and a hat and a umbrella. I didnt really see the point of the umbrella until we got out on the field. It serves as protection from rain, sun, and wild animals. It also works as a seat protector, and walking stick. It stopped me from falling downhill more than once. We started with 7 publishers. Me, my Aunt Esneda, Sebastian, Manuela, Guillermo, and 2 other sisters. Soon after we left town, an 8th member joined the gang, a pooch. I attempted naming her Fluffy, but aperantly, hispanics can´t pronounce that, and ¨fluffy¨ ended up sounding something like ¨waffle¨. So Guillermo ended up naming it Lucas, even though it was a girl. She stuck with us for the full capaign. It was shocking to me that people actually choose to live so excluded from society. I couldnt imagine how long it takes them just to go get a gallon of milk. In general the house holders where very plesant people who enjoyed hearing the good news. At noon, we took a half hour break for lunch, and everyone fed Lucas. After lunch was probably one of the more tiresome parts, the sun is at its peak, your legs are starting to get tired, and you´re definitly ready for a nap. However despite Guillermos age, he carried on with no dificulty whatsoever. He even left us behind for a while. We managed to work our way around 3 mountains, until about 430pm, when we decided to starting working our way back. That was definitly the most dificult part, because thats when exhaustion kicks in. On the way back we passed by some of the houses where we didnt find anyone on our first attempt, and found alot of them home the 2nd time around. I started to talk with a man that was sharpening his machete, when he started to get loud and angry and wierd. Guillermo took over the conversation at this point, while he casually ate a orange he picked from a tree. Eventually the man said he was busy preparing to slaugter the giant pig he had in his yard, so we left him to his buisness.We tried to leave Lucas/Fluffy/Waffle where we found her 3 times, but she just kept following us. On the last attempt Sebastian threw her over a fence, and we got about a distance of about 10 minutes, and she shortly caught up to us. So eventually we just gave her away to a farmer that was admiring her. We finally got back to town at about 6. We happened to run into a brother who gave us a ride home in his go cart/ taxi. It was a wonderful experience that I hope can be repeated before I leave.

                                                    -D.V.

Ayer en la tarde Guillermo me invito a acompañarle a unos estudios. Hacia bastante frio, y parece que me empeoro la gripa un poco. Despues de terminar los estudios, el me asigno los puntos sobresalientes para hoy y me mostro unos puntos que podria usar. Me da mas nervios estar en la plataforma aqui porque siento que esperan mas de uno por ser de los Estados Unidos, no entiendo porque.

Esta mañana hacia bastante calor, el clima aqui en Jardin es raro. Tienen las cuarto estaciones en un dia. Despues del servicio fui de compras para estar listo para mañana, mi primera campaña. Campañas son una salida especial al servicio donde van a teritorios aislados. Muchas veces pueden predicar el dia entero entre las montañas. Estoy ancioso de ir.

Hoy abuelito nos llevo al truchero. Basicamente una finca para pescados. Uno tambien puede ir y pescar todo lo que quiere. Te dan un palo de bamboo que tiene una cuerda y el ganchito para atrapar los peses junto con una bolita de carnada. Parece como play-doh pero a los peces le encanta. Cuando por fin sacas un pes, un empleado viene, lo desnuca, y le quita el ganchito de la boca. Luego cuando terminas, pagas por el pescado por la libra. Te lo pueden fritar alli, o te lo puedes llevar a casa. Asesine a 4, y abuelito agarro a uno. Fue divertido.

Ayer empece a extrañar a Fayetteville. Sobre todo la comida, pero en ese momento se me vino a la mente un consejo que me dieron la noche antes de mi partida. No debo a comparar mi vida en Estados Unidos con mi vida en Colombia. Son 2 mundos opuestos, y lo deberia tratar de esa manera. Uno no es mejor que el otro, simplemente es diferente a lo que estoy acostumbrado. Con ese punto de vista, espero disfrutar el resto de mi tiempo aqui.

-D.V.

Last night I went to my first meeting in Jardin, and there was a great attendance of around 50. Apparenly my grandpa told one of the elders I wanted to play soccer (not sure why), so he organized a group to go play. Except there are only about 2 or 3 young people in Jardin willing to play soccer, so we would have to drive an hour to Hispaña to play with the brothers there. So off we went. By the time we were leaving Jardin, it was about 6pm, which is sunset here. Soon the sun had come down and the moon had come up, and my grandpa detests driving in the dark. Roads in Colombia arent like the ones in the good old U.S. of A. No sir, theres tons of pot holes the size of full grown pigs, random cows crossing the road, and since the roads are surrounded by mountains, theres all sorts of rocks and rubble covering large portions of the road. All the obstacles are almost imposible to see in the pitch black night. We were following 2 other cars, and at one point the cars ahead of us stopped abruptly and grandpa barely stopped the car in time before rear-ending the brother in front of us. Instead of rear-ending him, we ran straight into a giant pothole that completely tore up the car. We barely made it to Hispaña. Whenever the car switched gears it would make a awful noise, as if it were about to fall apart. My grandpa just kept saying ¨You here that?¨¨This thing is jacked up¨(Loose translation). We finally arrived to the small stadium in Hispaña. It was a basketball court, where they simply replaced the basketball net for a soccer goal thingy. Apparantly it was the same staduim where they have Circuit Assemblies, but I couldnt see how. It was smaller than the average high school gym. We finally got to play, but it was hard to stand on 2 feet, the floor must had been recently waxed. I played my usual position: out of the way. I guess they thought i knew what I was doing, but they quickly realised I had no idea what I was doing after a couple auto goals, and after losing the ball as soon as they would pass it to me. Overall it was fun. One of the elders there booked me to give the public talk next saturday night. The ride back were terribly slow and nerve racking, but we managed to make it back to Jardin in one peice. My grandpa´s out and about trying to fix the car now.

                                -D.V.

Nos toco levantarnos mas temprano de lo normal. La reunion en Andes comensaba a las 8:30. No me sentia muy bien debido a la gripa, pero sabia que Jah se iba a encargarse de que todo saldria bien, y asi sucedio. Al llegar al pueblo de Andes nos tardamos un buen rato en encontrar el salon. Le preguntamos a unas señoras, pero ellas nos guiaron a una iglesia cristiana. En eso, por casualidad encontramos a unos hermanos quienes acababan a estacionar su moto ahi cerca, y ellos nos guiaron al salon. Bueno.. mas bie era otra casa. La surcusal de Colombia habia comprado una casa imensa para que los hermanos se podian reunir. El RBC lo va a convertir en un salon oficial pronto. Mientras tanto, unas precursoras se estan hospedando ahi. Tiene una sala imensa donde nos reunimos unos 50. Fue una bonita experiencia. ( Fotos añadidas a photogallery Jardin)

            -D.V.

Taking into consideration the circumstances, I had a decent night of sleep. For whatever reason, the right lense on my glasses had a long scratches on it, from one end to the other, that I didnt remember seeing the night before. I wanted to just go ahead and get my eyes checked and buy a new pair of glasses, but abuelito said it would be cheaper if I just waited until I got back to Itagui. It doesnt really bother me too much unless im under direct sunlight.

After a morning of service through rough terrain, I came home ,showered, and off we went to give my first public talk. First we met with a brother in the next town over, Andes ( I have the public talk in Andes tomorow ). The brother gave us directions on how to get to the town where I would be giving the talk, which was about half a hour away.

20 minutues into the drive, we came to a place where about 4 cars were stopped, and a man was sprawled out on the ground, in the middle of the road. One of the drivers, a taxi driver, got out of the car, with gloves, and blocked the road with a caution tape. Me and abuelito and all the other drivers got out of thier cars to see what state the man was in. His right leg was completely torn to pieces, and he was covered in cuts. He layed on the ground, still but conscious. Apperantly the man was on a motorcylce, and he crashed into the taxi while trying to pass it on a sharp turn. I dont remember him saying a single word. The taxi driver was tending to the man, while my grandpa walked off to see something else. I followed him, and we found the man´s passenger.. a woman with a huge gash in her head, covered in blood, standing frozen off to the side of the road. By this point the audience had tripled and everyone had got out of their car to watch this taxi driver tend to the man. ( Photos added to Gallery Jardin, caution, photos arent very pretty). Finally we heard the sirens in the distance. The taxi driver knew all the paramedics by name and actually instructed the paramedics. The road was finally cleared in a matter of minutes, and we made it just in time to give the talk.

It wasnt in a kingdom hall, it was literally in a brother´s living room. The group of ten brothers and sisters were very grateful that I had come, and so I gave my first public talk with lots of help from holy spirit. I cant wait to be able to give it back home in Fayetteville.

                                    -D.V. 

No se porque, pero el primero pensamiento que me vino a la mente cuando me desperte era sobre mi bosquejo ( la oja donde tengo toda la informacion para dar mi discurso). Se me occurio que no lo habia visto desde que llegue de Itagui. Entonces me levante de immediato y me puse a destrosar el cuarto buscando a ese bosquejo... hasta que llegue a la horrible conclusion de que lo habia dejado a unas 3 horas de distancia en Itagui. Me preocupe muchisimo, aunque no tenia planeado dar el discurso hasta la proxima semana. Abuelito iba ir a Itagui el viernes siguente para hacer unos mandados, y me aseguro que me iba traer el bosquejo a tiempo para el discurso. Entonces me calme un poco y sali a servicio con Guillermo, el coordinador/precursor, Manuela, y Sebastian por unas cuantas horas. A regresar a casa abuelito me dijo de manera muy calmado que habia un cambio de planes. Iba a dar un discurso el dia siguente (hoy) en un pueblo. Ahi si me entro el panico, y la busqueda empezo para un nuevo bosquejo. Fuimos donde Guillermo con la esperanza de que el tenia una copia. Le llevamos al salon donde tiene una coleccion de todos los bosquejos... todos... menos los mas recientes, que incluye el mio. Entonces regresamos Guillermo a su casa, y se le occurio buscar en su oficina, y ahi encontro una libreta llena de bosquejos y otros papeleos. Despues de pasar un buen tiempo buscando, estaba listo darme por vencido, hasta que, en una de las ultimas paginas de la libreta.. encontre el bosquejo que necesitaba! Despues de agradecer a Guillermo, el me presto el bosquejo. Le saque fotocopia, busque las referencias que necesitaba en Watchtower Library Online, y las emprimi, todo por menos de 25 centavos :D.

Lo unico que tocaba hacer era confirmar para el discurso para el dia siguente. Despues de sacarle copia fuimos al parque, abuelito se acerco a un puesto de paletas, y le dijo al señor que tenia que hacer una llamada. Estaba a punto de decirle a Abuelito que estabamos en un puesto de paletas, cuando el señor habro una gabineta y saco un celular. Lo presto a abuelito por 10 centavos al minuto y se confirmo para el discurso.

Despues de pasar todos las notas que tenia en mente al nuevo bosquejo, salimos a conocer el Hotel Balandu, la atraccion principal de Jardin.  Tenia un zoologico donde mucho de los animales estaban sueltos, pisina, sauna, billares,  y lagos. Es solo $60 la noche, y solo $4 para usar la pisina y el sauna por separados. Los hermanos de Jardin acostumbran ir de ves en cuando, y quede en ir con Guillermo el Lunes.

Luego sali al grupo a las 5 de la tarde, y terminas el dia comiendo hamburgesas en el puesto de Sebastian. A pesar de los obstaculos, todo salio bien al final del dia. ( Fotos añadidas a Photogallery Jardin )

                                -D.V.  

I woke up to a heavy downpour. Although it always sounds like theres a downpour from my room because of the river that runs behind the house. I was worried it was going to ruin my service day, which would have done serious damage to my service hours, but the day cleared up. There were about 10 people for the service group, which was alot more than I was expecting. I met the only jovenes in the hall, Sebastian ( photos added to photogallery Jardin). I also met the elder/pioneer that the sister told me about. He looks like a colombian version of a present day Clint Eastwood. I was paired with a 10 year old girl named Manuela( Sebastian´s little sister), whose mom was recently diagnosed with cancer. Her father is a ministerial servant; he sells fruit called masamorra all morning, then in the afternoon he has his cheesburger stand that he tends to in the park with Sebastian and Manuela. They´re a really nice family..

Jardin is known for its cofee and plantains. Everywhere you look, you see the little bushes with little red looking fruits. Apparently the red things are coffee. I had grananisado yesterday, which is kinda like a frappe, except it has fresh coffee grounds (among other ingredients). It was awesome.

Im trying to recover from a awful cold but the weather here doesnt help. Its slighty chilly with light showers at least twice a day. On the brightside, the family that we were staying with left to Medellin, and they gave us permission to stay anywhere in the house. So everyone cleared out of the attic, quick, fast, and in a hurry.

                                -D.V.

Despues de 3 horas de camino porfin llegamos a Jardin. El camino fue suave y pasamos por lindos paseos, incluyendo una cuidad de indigenas, o sea los colombianos nativos, parecido a los native americans de Estados Unidos. Parecen ser una sociedad independiente de los demas. Cultivan sus propios alimentos, tienen su propio lenguaje indigena, su jefe de la tribu, su propio emisora de radio, hasta canal de television. Antes era parte del teritorio de la congregacion de Jardin, pero con el tiempo el jefe de la tribu prohibio que los hermanos sigueran visitando. No quiso que los Testigos vinieran a cambiar las costumbres, creencias, y rituales de el pueblo. 

Llegamos a Jardin a las 9 de la manana. Por ahora, nos estamos quedando abuelita, abuelito, tia esneda, y yo en el atico. Como quizas podrias imajinar no es muy espacioso, pero es comfortable, solo no tengo lugar donde desempacar mis cosas, pero luego se resuelva. Con relacion al pueblo, el crimen es casi inexistente aqui. Gran parte del pueblo esta vajo vigilancia de cameras, y todas las grabaciones son transmitidas en vivo en un canal de television. Es un cambio muy fuerte comparado con Itagui.

Entreviste a la hermana con quien nos estamos quedando, quien era precursora, sobre la congregacion. Parece que esta bajo en animo. Tienen 40 publicadores, y de los 40 tuvieron una asistencia de 20 a la reunion anoche. Tampoco parece ver tanto apoyo para las salidas al servicio, pero la hermana me dio la informacion de un precursor/anciano que muchas veces le toca salir solo. Espero ayudar en lo que puedo.. Pero sin duda es un pueblo bueno, solo me toca agrararle el ritmo. (Vea Photogallery Jardin)

                            -D.V.

One of my great great aunts died yesterday, on my grandmas side, and we went to see her in the funeral home. I dont remember the proper term in spanish for velorio, but basicly they leave the body sitting in a open casket for a full 24 hours, while people come and go to see thier dead loved one. It was a interesting experience. In general, it seems like people have a different mentality towards death here. They understand and accept that death is inevitable. Also, this lady was super elderly, so I think everyone saw it coming. Everyone was just sitting around and talking. You wouldv thought it was a party if it werent for the casket and giant cross in the center of the room. After a while a woman stood up, spoke to the corpse, then started to pray out loud, and everyone would pray along with her. So i stepped outside and taught a girl how to use her Nintendo that her uncle had brought her from the U.S. It probably wasnt the most appropriate thing to do given the circumstances, oops.

As for the food, im enjoying a good portion of it. There are certain meals I have to pray to keep down, but thats my own fault for being picky. Instead of  tortillas, we have arepas. Theyr a bit thicker and have more of a taste to them, a taste that iv grown slighty tired of. Theres a ton of bakerys and restaurants everywhere. To say that theyr on every corner would be an understatement. They just cant get pizza right unfortunately. But you can find american food here as well, its just not as good, and its not very wide spread. The most common food is empanadas, soup,  lots of pastries filled with gauva and cheese and all sorts of great stuff. Rice is present in pretty much every home cooked meal. Even if theres pasta, theyl be rice right next to it. Theyr not very big on fish, thank goodness. Over all, its good stuff.

Theres been a change in plans again, and we will be leaving for Jardin tomorow morning. I already packed, and it was suprisingly easier than how my mom made it sound( I must have done it wrong ) 

                                -D.V.

Supuestamente habia un teremoto por Medellin ayer como a la 1 de la tarde. Mi tia Sor si lo siento porque estaba acostada, pero los demas solo nos dimos cuenta por la noticias. Dicen que va a ver un cambio de clima debido al temblor. 

Llevamos el carro para llegar a la reunion por primero vez. Abuelito no le gusta llevarlo porque es bien estrecho con muchas vueltas. El salon tiene un estacionamento interesante. Voy a tomarle una photo despues de la siguente reunion. Despues de la reunion, los hermanos me dieron mucha atencion y carino. Senti muy comfortable y a gusto. Un hermano me invito a su estudio de familia, a senar, a darle estudio a su hija pequena, a ayudarles con ingles, incluso a acompanarlo al trabajo un dia. 

Fuimos a caminar al parque anoche, cada domingo hacen un show de payasos y el parque se llena bastante ( fotos añadidas a photogallery Itagui). La policia arresto a uno de los borachos que le habia predicado hace unos dias. Fue un clima suave, como siempre, lo difrute.

                                    -D.V.