Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta

Recently we took a trip to Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta. Our purpose was to visit several foundations that have been administering the churches food supplement to malnourished children and to visit the site of the vision project we have been working on. The above picture was taken in Cartagena and shows a class of teenage mothers with their babies learning about nutrition and child care.

Royal sampling the Atmit when it is made up as a drink. The teenage mothers prefer the vanilla flavor to the chocolate.

This photo shows some of the teenage mothers who are participating in the program. They are all very grateful for the Atmit they receive and how it is helping them and their babies.

This is a mom who has been through the program and is picking up her supply of Atmit.

We left Cartagena and went to Barranquilla. The coastal area had received a lot of rain. We were on our way to visit a hospital where Atmit is used and the taxi driver could not get through the mud and so we walked a block or so in thick mud which coated our shoes only to find out we were at the wrong hospital. Here Royal and I are standing with Carlos Sanchez, the Public Affairs person for the church in Barranquilla as we made our way back to the cab through the mud.

We were two hours late getting to the hospital. When we arrived, we were overwhelmed at the outpouring of gratitude we received as representatives of the church for the Atmit that these women had received for their malnourished children. They clapped and cheered and shouted, "Atmit, Atmit!" We were amazed that they had sat there for 2 hours in the heat and humidity to express their thanks. Very humbling.

Royal and I with some of the children. The little girl next to me is drinking a glass of Atmit.

So many of the moms wanted to have photos taken of their children alone and with us. It was truly such a memorable moment for us.

A group photo of most of the women and children that had waited to greet us that hot muggy morning.

The next day we put on our vision hat and went to see the hospital in Riojacha, a five hour drive from Barranquilla, where the equipment for the vision project will be donated. It is a new hospital and will service as many as a 100 poor people a day. Eventually they will do surgeries as well. The opthamologist in charge of the foundation is a wonderful, caring doctor. Dr. Luis Escaf and his wife Fanny (the two people to Royals left) both are committed and dedicated to helping the poor and the needy.

We had lunch in Riojacha at the Casa de Mariscos (House of Shellfish) and then went across the street to look at some beautiful handmade bags. These bags are the handiwork of a tribe of indigenous Indians, (the Wayuu) that weave them by hand. They are functional, beautiful. and unique as no bag is like any other bag. Notice the beautiful beach in the background.

Our last stop was in Santa Marta. We were there to do some ground work for a Neo Natal training later this year. Santa Marta is a beautiful little city right on the coast. We were able to attend church there and have a few hours to relax and look at the sea. Here Royal is relaxing after a fine meal of sushi. You can see the sea in the background.

A look at the beach not far from our hotel.

The flowers throughout Colombia are breathtaking. I loved these orchids growing in a pot in the hotel where we stayed in Santa Marta.

Friends in Colombia

Over the past 16 months, we have met many great people whose friendships we treasure. Here are a few of them. Above Royal is with our friends Jorge and Sonya. Sonya is our dentist and she is not only a wonderful dentist but a gracious and good friend. Jorge took us under his wing the day we arrived and has been there to do whatever we needed every day since. We love and adore these two people. They have had a huge impact on our life here in Bogota.

This beautiful family all joined the church a year ago. There are 5 girls, 1 boy and their mom. The two girls on the left are twins that volunteer in PEF in our office. We have adopted these girls and love them so much. When we met the rest of the family in their home a few weeks ago, we fell in love with the rest of them as well. Each of them is a very choice spirit and full of love for each other and everyone they meet.

In this picture is our favorite taxi driver. We met him through another missionary couple here in Bogota. He is kind, helpful, very friendly and in posession of a Book of Mormon. Hopefully, he will read it. Hermana Hacking is on my right and the lady on the far right was the salesperson at the leather store we visited.

Royal and I love young adults. We loved our young adults in Bella Vista and we love these young adults we worked with last June when the USSN Comfort was in Colombia. These are some really great kids. Diana, the only girl, is a really good friend and currently is living in Germany as a nanny.

This is the Rubio family. They have a long history of service in Colombia. Brother Rubio was the first temple president here. They are also friends of the Henningers and stayed with them in D.C. when they were all sealed in the temple. They drive us home from church every Sunday.

Going from left to right, the first four people are the Tobon family. He is the family history expert for all of South America. She is the Relief Society President. The kids both speak perfect english and they have been good friends here in the wad. The tall gentleman is the head of the American School here in Bogota and is returning to the states next month.

This sweet mans name is Francisco. He is in church every Sunday on the front row. He loves the church and is an active participant in Sunday School. He always asks me when I am going to teach him to play the piano.

This sweet woman is busy every Sunday helping anyone and everyone. On any given Sunday she might lead the singing, care for little children, teach a lesson or make sure all the Americans have english manuals. She always greets us with a big hug. We love her and feel blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know her.

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.