Visit to Popayan

Several weeks ago we had the opportunity to travel to the beautiful little town of Popayan.
We fell in love with the town and the people we met. We stayed at the Hotel Monastario which is located behind a large Catholic Cathedral and at one time was a monastary.


The grounds are breath taking and the temperature was perfect for our wonderful adventure.

I love the archways that surround the hotel.

We were only there for one day but we packed a lot in during our visit. The following morning before we flew back to Bogota, we had a relaxing breakfast on this elegant terrace.

The main plaza in the old section of the city is surrounded by beautiful white buildings and pathways between exquisite garden. Royal and I are standing in front of a very old tree on our way to the mayors office. Far off in the background you can see an ever present statue adorning the plaza.

This is a typical street in the old section of town known for its white buildings. You not only see cars and bikes but in the distance you can see a wagon being pulled by a horse. A very typical scene in Colombia.

The foliage is rich and green and beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures in this plaza because every corner had a new unusual tree or flower.

This photo was taken from the window in the mayors office of the plaza. As I mentioned before, every building is white and with all the green trees it is muy tranquillo.

We had a very productive meeting with the mayor and first lady. In the photo is the district president that traveled with us, the first lady, the mayor and then me and Royal.

Our main purpose for taking the trip was to visit the plant here in Colombia that is capable of producing the nutritious food supplement Atmit which the church supplies to malnourished children particularly in Africa. Colombia is the only other place that Atmit is produced outside of Provo. There is a great need for Atmit in places here in Colombia and we are hoping that the church agrees to another Atmit project here .

One nutrient that is added to the Atmit in Colombia is a grain that is grown here called Quinua. The above picture shows the quinua before it has been ground up and added to the flour.

This photo shows Royal filling a bag of Atmit with the ingredients that are then mixed with water to produce this most nutritious food supplement.

This company also produces a very delicious cookie that contains the nutritious grain. They sent us back to Bogota with about 10 bags of the cookies and I have been very popular at the office ever since. Sadly, I will run out of the cookies next week.

After breakfast the morning we left and before our flight, we walked over to see the beautiful cathedral that used the monestary where we stayed. We really loved our visit to Popayan.

This and That

We recently visited several places in Colombia with a short term specialist to determine where we would have a vision project. At each place we visited, reading glasses and sun glasses were requested. Since we have a big inventory of glasses in our store house, we spent a morning last week boxing up glasses to be sent to Bucaramanga, Barranquilla and Cali Colombia. I am standing there admiring our hard work.

Royal is going over his notes to be sure that all the glasses were equally distributed. These items are stored at a house that is attached to the Ahlambra Stake Center.

Last week we had a two day holiday because of Holy week. Five senior missionary couples decided to take a trip up to the quaint colonial town of Villa de Leyva. On the way, we stopped at this rest stop and watched the young lady with her bucket of dough make arepas which were cooked on the brick stove behind her. We bought some and they were hot and delicious.

Presidente Casablanca and Elder Lunt enjoying their arepas. Also in the photo is Hermana Stull the psychologist for the area who is going home on the 14th of April.

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant. A unique kind of trout is a specialty dish in this area of Colombia so many of us had the trout. Pictured are Elder Stull, the Lunts and Hermana Chalmers mother of Michelle Chalmers of the McLean Stake.

I love this little town with its white buildings, unique roofs and cobblestone streets. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I even had a shop owner escort me two shops down to find some tagua seeds.

Everyplace you go in Colombia seems to be built on hills. This photo shows the missionaries walking up such a hill only on cobblestone streets

Both coming and going you see military strategically placed along the roads. An interesting custom is as you pass one of these military folks, they give you a thumbs up and you return the gesture back to them

One of the things I have become intrigued with here in Colombia is tagua. Above is the tagua pod. It comes from the tagua palm that grows in moist coastal areas. The seed inside the pod is extremely hard and its texture is similar to ivory. The seeds, after harvesting, are allowed to dry for 3 months during which time they become very hard and dense. Then craftsman take the seed and polish it to a beautiful lustre. They can also be dyed brillant colors. Many interesting crafts are made from the seeds.

Above is my collection of polished tagua seeds. You can see that they can be polished to the point where all the brown is eliminated or you can get them in various stages of brown and white. Each seed has a small hole in it where it was attached to the pod.

Beautiful crafts and jewelry are carved from the tagua seed. Above is a nativity made from the seeds.

Pictured above is a bracelet and a necklace I have purchased made out of tagua seed.

Tumaco and Illegal Aliens

Adriana Guiand, on the right, is the Colombian director for the International Relief and Development (IRD) a large US-based organization that has a major humanitarian project which the Church is supporting in Tumaco, a very poor city in south western Colombia near the Ecuadoran border. In Colombia, internally displaced persons (called Desplazados here) -- people driven off their property and out of their homes -- is a big problem. About 10% of the population of Colombia is desplazado. The photo shows a view of the Pacific ocean from a restaurant where we ate lunch. Adriana is talking with one of her Tumaco staff. The shrimp we had was the best we had ever eaten.

Our first stop was at a fish processing plant. The women in the picture above are all desplazados that IRD placed in the plant. They peel shrimp 6 days a week; eight hours a day.

The shrimp is processed; quick frozen and the above picture shows the finished product before it is packaged.

The plant also receives other catches of fish. In this photo, is a boat of fresh fish and the men are about to walk up the slippery steps with their catch.

Our next stop was to see where some of these desplazados live. They have to build these houses above the ground as water comes up every evening at high tide.

Two children that reside in the village. IRD weighs and measures these children when they arrive in Tumaco. As you can see these children are very malnourished.

A woman that lives in the village is explaining to us about the water she gets from the well. They use the water to drink but I am uncertain how clean it is. IRD provides water purification tablets with a grant from the US state department.

The second day of our trip we went to a food distribution held in front of the IRD offices. The photo shows the people that are there for their second months food. IRD provides food for them during the two months it takes the government to process their papers. The food consists of rice beans and cooking oil donated by the Church. It is at the first distribution that these people are given hygiene kits, newborn kits and school kits also donated by the church.

I love this photograph. The children who have come with their mothers to get the donated food are playing with toys that have been donated by the church. Each child gets to take one home.

This photo shows the bags that have been prepared for distribution. Each woman gets enough in her bag for her own family for a month so the size and amounts vary.

IRD tries to make this a happy occasion and always invites a group to perform for the desplazados. These kids are all from displaced families that a foundation supports that teaches music to children of displaced persons in their school. They asked us if we knew President Obama among many other questions. Carolyn always enjoys interacting with the kids.

At the airport as we were leaving Tumaco, it was brought to our attention that we were in the country illegally. Our visas had expired. Not good. This situation was resolved last week as Royal and Carolyn along with another senior couple and two elders flew to Pasto, Colombia, a town two hours from the border. For the next three days, we stood in long lines in Colombia and Ecuador but when we left we were legal again. The photo is of us and Hermana Morgan crossing the border from Colombia to Ecuador.

The elders crossing the border.

A common sight everywhere you go in Colombia is people selling things along the road. This young boy was running down the road selling fruit as we travelled back to Pasto. He is the youngest person I have seen doing this selling.

We passed several of these buses on our trip from the border. Inside the bus is filled with people who crossed the border from Ecuador into Colombia. On top of the bus is all their belongings. I am not sure what the job of the two men were. Perhaps to make sure the stuff didn't fall out.

Vision and Clean Water Projects

This is a photo of Royal visiting with the first lady of the department (state) of the Valle del Cauca (in green blouse) after our meeting to discuss humanitarian projects with her.

After our meeting in Cali we went to lunch where I ordered barbecued chicken. Here in Colombia, they serve your chicken with plastic gloves so you do not need to bother with a knife and a fork.

Dr. Christiansen (we are related through the Merrill line), Patriarch Barbosa of the Cali Stake and Royal at lunch.

Out of order!! This photo was taken at a restaurant in Bucaramanga that the notario took all of us to for dinner on Royals birthday. The young lady sitting in front of the entertainers works in the notarios office and helped us with the NRT when we were there a few months ago. This photo is taken in Bucaramanga in the office of Governor Uribe of the department of Santander. He is standing to the right of Royal. Next to him is Presidente Ardila, the Christiansens and to my left is Presidente Barreno and Henry Mendoza the public affairs person that helped arrange our visits. In the background is the ever present portrait of the Great Liberator, Simon Bolivar.

A photo with the mayor of Bucaramanga at his home. He is standing next to me.

We were greeted on our arrival to Bucaramanga by the two stake presidents on Royals right and Henry Mendoza on my left.
This photo is taken in Barranquilla at a vision clinic. Our friend and driver Cristian Juliao is standing between the very handsome doctor and Royal. The other doctor is head of the clinic and he is standing next to Dr. Christiansen.

Moving right along to Cartagena, you see Royal and me ready to take off on our unforgettable boat ride to Baru.

The boat with the blue trim was our means of travel to Baru.

A house along the inlet to Baru.
A typical street in Baru. Notice the water buckets.
This is the well where the folks come each day to get their water. The water is clean but salty. It's not for drinking but is used to cook, wash clothes and bathe. For drinking they have to wait for a small pond to fill up with rain water or buy clean water that business men transport by boat from Cartagena and sell to the Baru residents.
While Royal walked through the town of Baru to look at the now-empty pond where rain water is collected, I found a shady place to rest. Before long, I had a group of curious children surrounding me laughing at my spanish and examining my camera. The little boy standing in front of me was the most talkative and inquisitive of the group.

As we walked through the streets, we saw this young man either repairing or finishing this chair.
I have seen several iguanas in our travels but this was the closest I came to one. I didn't ask if they bite!!!

We ended our trip with a lovely horse and carriage ride through the old section of Cartagena. The old town was lively and beautiful and the ride was very relaxing. Our friend Cristian is sitting in front of us.