Continuing Promise-Colombia

Covenas, Colombia

Day 1 Medical Site 1:

The first day in Colombia began with a premier event-my first military helicopter ride! What an amazing beginning to a new adventure and new country. I had wanted to visit Colombia for quite some time. We gathered our materials and ventured toward the shore on our metal bird. Looking at the water below and the coast not far off, I thought how did I get here? We landed on a Colombian military base off the coast and jumped onto a nice, air conditioned bus-very different from Haiti – and headed to medical site 1.

My volunteer job for the day was to help translate Spanish for the ophthalmologist and her medical team and to help facilitate the pre-screenings for the eye surgeries on the ship. I had such a wonderful time greeting and helping the Colombian patients receive services. Fortunately, I received additional help from several Colombians from Bogota, who volunteered to help translate more advanced Spanish at the site. The team worked throughout the day and visited with around 20 patients. There were a few who met the qualifications for the screenings and were scheduled for surgeries. We wrapped up the day with smiles and loaded the bus to head back to the ship. We caught a landing craft unit (boat) back to the ship and I watched the sunset as the day faded into the sea-loving the unique opportunity, love Colombia.

Day 2 Medical Site 1:

My second day began with a boat ride to shore; we landed on a beautiful beach. I wanted to stay there and hang out under the tiki huts, but also was excited to get to help with the screenings again. As I arrived to the medical site, I was so happy to be in Colombia again. The night before I had created a new system to help keep the patients in order using cardboard numbers. I have to give credit to my friend Casey who helped cut the squares. The system worked great; as the assistants called each patient by their numbers we could keep track of who needed what screening. Each patient had to be screened at three stations; it was fun and dynamic trying to keep everyone in order. The team finished selecting patients for surgery and we ended the day with a nice trip back to the ship on the landing craft unit.

Day 3 Medical Site 1-Give a Kid a Backpack Delivery 1:

Our third day in Colombia started well with a ride to the beach. This time we had to get some help from military to hand carry our backpacks and Loving Hugs stuffed animals to shore. It was fun balancing the boxes on my head while walking through the water. We missed our bus but fortunately were able to catch another bus ride with the Air Force band. The band helped us load and offload our materials. We were ready to get started with the distribution. We set up in the check out area, so that when the children passed by with their parents we were able to give them a backpack or animal depending on their age. The smiles on the children’s faces were wonderful. In the early afternoon, we received notice that there were some school children standing outside by the stage area who might need backpacks. We were told that there were around 40 children total. We decided to take 40 backpacks outside and give them to the children. Janina headed onto the stage to make an announcement to the children about the distribution. Well, soon afterward we had tons of children from everywhere coming to receive a backpack. It started to rain as we moved faster and faster to hand out the backpacks. If the Colombian military was not at the scene, we would have been overwhelmed by children and parents. Surprisingly, the parents were the most unruly, pulling and tugging on our clothes to get our attention. We understood that they just wanted to get additional backpacks for other children not in the area. However, to be fair we decided that the children who were present were the ones who would receive the backpacks.

We continued to hand out backpacks to the children coming through the checkout and toward the end of the day we finished. We had several stuffed animals, which finished not too long after the backpacks. It was interesting to see how many adults were interested in the stuffed animals.

After we finished we went back outside the compound to hear the music that was playing and to see what was going on around the stage area. We received a big surprise as there was dancing and Janina was pulled onto stage while I filmed. It was awesome! Later on we both danced with a Colombian dance troop during their performance, we had a blast.

Day 4 Medical Site 1-Give a Kid a Backpack Delivery 2:

We had some help for our second distribution in Covenas. One of the members of the Navy joined us by helping sort materials and handing them out to the children. We had a great time, she was a natural. The children enjoyed their gifts. We made new friends and had fun taking pictures with all of the Colombian students who were escorting patients as well as our military and the Colombian translators. It was our last day in Covenas. The people were so warm and friendly. Three little boys that were brothers became very special friends of mine. Throughout the last two days we would joke and practice English and Spanish. As I was leaving, they gave me a small wooden table with their names etched on it with a piece of paper saying do not forget us. I could never forget these boys. They were so full of life and kindness. I hope to be able to see them again one day.

Don Gabriel, Colombia

Day 1 Medical Site 3:

Our adventure began with a helicopter ride through the Colombian mountains to a remote medical site a couple of hours off the coast. The ride was beautiful; Colombia has rich green foliage and rolling hills with beautiful farming land in between. We touched down in the far end of a plowed field. The funny thing was that we were hurried off the helicopter; however, we could not run due to the mounds of clay. The helicopter pilots decided to push our supplies off just enough to drop them the rest of the way down. It was a funny sight to watch the materials slide out of the back of the craft. However, some water filtration packages busted in the process. We walked to grab some materials. I grabbed my backpack, our night bag and a case of water. I definitely had my hands full. There were Colombians waving from the fence surrounding the field. I was caught off-guard by what happened next- as I walked with all my gear I stepped into a muddy hole and my shoe was swallowed. I stood in disbelieve at what just happened, my friend Casey said “did you just lose your shoe”, I laughed and said yes. I moved with purpose to get to the camp and help carry our backpacks. Many people joined in to grab our materials. We arrived at Med site 3, which was at a school in Don Gabriel. It was amazing! There were Naval engineers working on buildings, children running around playing soccer, US Air Force Band members getting ready to play, and locals everywhere. There was life everywhere. We finished dropping off our materials and toured the site. I hung out with lots of local adults and children. They pardoned my Spanish, since I am still learning and know I sound funny talking. The day moved on and we waited for the next move. The camp was situated with two rows of while tents facing each other. There was volleyball net in the middle and latrines at the far end-thank goodness. Just kidding Actually, as a side note the United Kingdom-made port-o-johns flushed, who knew! They were pretty amazing if I might say. We learned that we would be dropping off materials the next day and spent more time adjusting to this dynamic environment.

The night could not have been more amazing. Our Air Force Band started off a musical medley. My attention was especially peaked when they played Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious, a favorite. Next, came a Colombian rap trio. I could not understand much but they rocked that reggaeton? probably not spelled right-beat. The last band was my favorite as they played typical music and I learned to dance bianato-probably spelled wrong-for the first time. We danced for two hours, funny thing was not that many people danced-I thought why not right? The night ended and so did my intense dance work out-showers-ha-no showers, just baby wipes baby!

Day 2 Medical Site 3:

We experienced an interesting thunderstorm in the Colombian mountains the night before. Needless to say there was little if any sleep; however, we awoke to a beautiful day for giving out backpacks. We munched on some readymade meals and hung out at the camp. When the time arrived for our distribution, we hopped into a truck with some Colombian marines and we rode out to a remote school which was situated pretty far from the main town-well if you did not have a car. I waved and smiled at all of the marines that protected our way along the curvy, dirt road. We arrived at our school and the kids were already lining up. There were a few donations being distributed, our backpacks and some hygiene kits as well as some additional folders. It was like Christmas. Some Naval engineers jumped in to help us and the distribution went well. We hopped back on the truck and rode back out to the Med site. We were able to take a tour of the nearby town, which was nice. A sweet lady allowed us access into her bamboo made home, it was an art piece.

Once back at the site we distributed stuffed animals, candy, and some bracelets. We decided to let the Colombian marines handout the candy because we were getting grabbed on all sides again-crowd control very important. Everyone received something and was pleased. We said goodbye to our friends and loaded onto a helicopter back to the ship-what a fantastic time with the kids camping!