Visiting Sister Barbarita's Amigas

I started this post last Friday, but the internet was down and I couldn't post it before Sister and I left for Villa de Leyva. We just got back to Tunja tonight so I will try to get another post up tomorrow. Hope you enjoy! :)

Since I've arrived Sister Barbarita has been been wonderful about taking me around to see other schools and meet her friends.

The first one we went to was on Sunday, Jan. 20, to Our Lady of the Rosary School, or Colegio Nuestra Señora del Rosario, in downtown Tunja. As I mentioned in a previous post, the schools aren't in session until Feb. 1 (I think, but not positive), so the teachers and administrators are preparing for the start of the new semester. If I recall correctly from what Julia told me, students go to school year round, with only month long breaks in June or July and this current break from Christmas through January.

I unfortunately don't remember any of the Sisters' names; if I find out I will update. Below are pictures of Sister Barbarita and Sisters from Rosario visiting and then pictures of all the Sisters (I believe) that work at the school. We had just shared coffee and snacks in the dining room in the 2nd picture.

I have no idea what they are saying, LOL!

All of us

The other day, after we visited Paipi, we took a bus to Duitama where is there another Colegio de la Presentacion (same community as the one in Tunja and there are many Presentacion schools throughout Colombia, as well as the one I'm going to in Lima on Feb. 9).

The school in Duitama has 1170 students and has more buildings and land than the one in Tunja with current expansion underway in the preschool/elementary areas.

The Sisters here were very welcoming and made me feel so comfortable and relaxed. We stayed for an hour or so, enjoyed coffee, and went on a tour of the school.

Upon leaving, Sister Maria Selena gave us a gift of a Marie Poussepin card, who founded the congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation and many Catholic schools across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Thank you, Juan and Gladys, for helping me translate as close as we could, since some of the expressions aren't in my Spanish/English dictionary.

Because...
I was sad,
and you made me smile.
I was down,
and you talked with me.
I was sick,
and you relieved me.
I was lost,
and you guided me.
"When you did it to one of the least of my brothers,
you are doing it for Me." (Mt 25,40)
Come into the joy and happiness
of the Lord.
Duitama - January 24 of 2013

Sister Barbarita's amiga, Sister Maria Selena, and us in the courtyard of the school:

After leaving the school, we walked to a nearby mall, although I of course had NO idea where we were going. I listen for "vámanos" and just follow. :) Below is a picture of us in front of new apartment buildings that really stand out as they are taller than anything else around.

Awww, amigas :)

Colegio de la Presentacion & my accomodations

This post will give you an idea about the school and the room I stay in here. Colegio de la Presentacion in Tunja was established over 120 years ago. There are over 50 teachers and around 865 students this year. They have 5 english teachers, one of which is Julia. The school is known for its academic excellence. It's been an honor to stay here and to get to know the Sisters. They have been so welcoming from the first night I arrived and I appreciate their daily efforts in helping me learn Spanish.


Picture of me outside the school

Views of the inner courtyard:

My room exceeds my expectations (I tried not to have any, but I must admit I wasn't sure if there would be shared bathrooms, outhouses!, etc.) and they do an excellent job maintaining the school and living areas. It is so clean, I'm very conscious of any mess I make. It's very comfortable here and I've felt at peace and relaxed from the start.

Here's a picture of my room:

A welcoming gift of flowers and a card from Sister Esperanza:

I'm thrilled I have a desk that seats two in the room so Barbarita and I can work together on our laptops. :)

Oh, and I have my own bathroom just beyond the closet doors shown above! Muy excelente!

Paipa

I'm living day to day with no expectations or understanding of what I'm going to do and it's been wonderful as everyday is a surprise. Yesterday, Sister Barbarita and I took a bus to Paipa (pronounced pie-pah) which is a resort town known for it's thermal pools from an underground lake. It was quite the charade scene trying to get me to understand to bring my swimsuit so I could go swimming. I thought they were telling me I should wear shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt. It wasn't until I understood swimsuit that I got a better idea of what was in store for me. Sister Esperanza let me borrow a small bag to keep a change of clothes and towel. Muchas gracias! Arriving in the Paipa bus terminal where we transfered buses from Tunja to go to the hot springs.

Paipa cathedral in the background.

Arriving at the hot springs.

View of the landscape (paisaje "pah-sigh-heh")

Termel de Paipa piscina (pool)

Relaxing in la piscina

Sister Barbarita talks to everyone and makes friends everywhere she goes. Here though, I believe she ran into a friend that she knew from long ago. I couldn't understand, but maybe we can get to the bottom of this mystery with some help from Guillermo or Julia. I'll update if so. She also rarely stops talking, not even for photographs. :)

After the hot springs, we went to lunch and I experienced barbecued steak known as churrasco. It was awesome and the waiter had to bring out extra sauce for both of us. I have no idea what was in it besides garlic, but it was delicious and I even used it on my potatoes.

I'm definitely not starving or losing weight on this trip!

My new, but long lost amiga, Julia

Sister Barbarita surprised me the other day by picking me up from the Asilo with one of the english teachers at the Colegio De La Presentacion. Her name is Julia and she started teaching at the school in September and was just assigned to teach 7th grade with classes starting again on February 7th. Before teaching here, Julia lived in Denver working as an au pair (nanny) for a family with 3 kids. She went to au pair school in New York for two weeks before going to her house family. Julia didn't speak much english before coming to the US so she can totally relate to what I'm going through here and she's been absolutely wonderful to get to know. The two of us hung out Monday and Tuesday afternoon after her morning meetings for school preparation. She has shown me many historical sites and churches in Tunja. Below are some pictures of our adventures. Please excuse my laziness in not finding the special characters to put in the correct accents. ;)


Julia y Jill en la plaza de Bolivar

Sister Barbarita, Jill, and Julia

In front of the Statue of Bolivar; 200 year old church in the background. Bolivar's army fought the Spanish over 200 years ago and freed Colombia and many other countries from imprisonment, repression, and slavery. There are many statues in honor of him and Bolivia is named after him.

Sister Barbarita had to leave for an evening school meeting, so Julia and I continued with our walk around Tunja. We went in the house of Tunja's founder, which is now a museum. Here is a picture of Julia in the courtyard of the house and me next to a bust of the city founder, Gonzalo Suarez Rendon:

Next, we visited the Cloister of St. Augustine. This building has a very unique history as it started as a convent and church, became a school and university, then a jail (which you can still see the results of), and is now a public library.

Courtyard

Balconies (en espanol - balcon)

Jail Courtyard

Jail Cells

Inside a cell; they are now all used for storage

This tree (árbol) is called an Araucaria; I thought it was really unique looking, but there are many beautiful trees, plants, and flowers here.

When leaving the library, we ran into a friend of Julia's, Francisco, who is also an english teacher at another school. He joined us for dinner and it was great they found very authentic and special food for me to try. Here is dinner Monday night, El tamal boyacense, it was filled with pork, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and other stuff - it was delicious!

Here's the menu of the place we ate at:

It gets fairly cold in the evenings and mornings (high of ~65 F in the afternoon, 55 at 8pm, low of 45F), but nothing compared to the single digits and teens that I hear Michigan is getting right now! Before they took me back to the school (where I'm staying), we stopped for aromatic tea with fruit slices. Here's a local favorite, Papayuela Aromatica té:

The next afternoon, Julia came alone to pick me up from the Asilo and we continued our tour of Tunja. I don't have many pictures since we saw mostly churches and we're not allowed to photograph the inside of the church. There are security guards in each church.



We headed back to Bolivar Square and Julia pointed out the best hotel in Tunja. I had to take a picture of this hotel for my Mom and her AAA advisory role. ;)

And the travel agency next door:

Next, we visited Santa Clara Church and participated in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with many locals. It was really wonderful to experience these prayers that are said all over the world at 3pm, but in another country although same time zone. I was surprised but happy to see how many people arrived at the church to pray at this hour. Religion is extremely important here and images can be found everywhere, even on public buses.

After viewing more churches and a historic park dedicated to soldiers executed during their fight for independence under Bolivar's command, we stopped to quench our thirst with Columbiana soda.

Then we went for a very typical meal in Colombia called Fritanga which was excellent. It's different types of sausages with potatoes - Chorizo (brown), longaniza (red), morcilla (black). My favorite was the longaniza. I was sooo full. Who told me I wouldn't eat much meat here? ;)

During dinner we talked about music and I assured Julia that she wouldn't like the music I listen to, but come to find out she loves 80s and 90s glam rock. She even has a picture of Sebastian Bach displayed on her phone when it powers on! For you non-believers...

How awesome is that? I met my kin in another country. :)

Visiting Asila San Jose for mass and lunch

Update: I learned the names of the other sisters and residents and corrected them below.


The sisters have their daily masses at 5:30am and thankfully I do not have to wake up for that. My day starts around 8am with breakfast. So far it's been bread, cheese, eggs if I want them, and potato soup with tea; Sister Barbarita has bread, cheese, soft-poached egg, and hot chocolate.


The last two mornings, we went to a nearby "house" as they call it, although asilo is translated to asylum. We would think of it more like a nursing home for mentally and physically disabled or older women that do not have family to help take care of them. This place is called Asila San Jose (more pictures from blog post from other volunteers). The buildings are over 100 years old from when it was a convent, but it's been a nursing home for maybe over 10 years (amount of years was lost in translation) and there are around five nuns that live there as well as staff to help run the place. When we arrive, we help get the women into the chapel for the 10am mass. After mass, we help get them situated into the dining room for lunch. Although I can't communicate with them much, they are really wonderful about pointing out directions to me or demonstrating to me what to do and then letting me continue it. Here are some pictures of the place and women that live there:

"Father God Bless Our Benefactors"

Sister Eutimia

I asked for permission to take photos by taking one of the sisters, Sister Edilma, and me to show what I wanted:

Here is the inner courtyard:

Josefina was just wonderful and a HUGE help to me. We laughed so much at not being able to talk or understand.

Some other residents, Flor and then Patricia, that were most helpful and a lot of fun:

After lunch Sister took me on a tour of the place showing me the cow (pictured below if you can find it), garden, and pigs which I didn't get a picture of but they were not what I expected to see when she opened the door!

After the tour, I had lunch with the sisters and caught a short nap watching TV while waiting for Sister Barbarita to pick me up with a surprise which will be the next post. :)