Rolling With It
I have been blessed to find a home at the Viñedo de
Puntalarga, a beautiful vineyard on a hilltop that has incredible panoramic
views of the Valle del Sol (Valley of the Sun) which is in the Boyacá Region of
Colombia, about 4 hours from northeast of Bogotá. I’m living on a VINEYARD! How cool is that? And even more so, the family that has taken
me in is remarkable.
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| Panoramic of the Valle del Sol |
The Doctor has shared life with sweet Sandra – whom the
Doctor calls Sandrita for over 20 years here at the vineyard. (Observation:
Using dimimuatives is quite common: “Diana” becomes “Dianita” or “Little
Diana”, “copa” becomes “copita” or “little glass” even “momento” becomes
“momentito” or “little moment”.) Sandra
is soft-spoken but uses her words wisely and timely. She is also well-respected by the girls that
work at the vineyard in the tasting room and seems to be a confidant to
many. I look forward to getting to know
her better in the weeks to come.
They are the parents of Marion vid Fiorella (“Marion vine
Flower”). The Doctor often calls her by
her full name. Other times she is just
“Princesa”. Or sometimes she is called
“Princesita Marion vid Fiorella, mi amor” for short. Marion might be the coolest 15-year-old this
side of the Mississippi. There were
hints of this early on but my hunch was confirmed over coffee one day in
Duitama when we started to talk about music.
I thought it might be a good topic of conversation considering she was
wearing a Beatles shirt. Sure
enough. This chick likes Oasis, Pearl
Jam and others that I don’t recall but remember thinking she has great taste
in music. AND, she uses Spotify… the
best app around (in my humble opinion) for music streaming. I have challenged her to the “Top 40
Challenge” (see blogpost “The Joy of Sharing Music”) and anxiously await what she comes up
with.
In addition to this sweet family, I’ve also become friends
with a couple of the girls who work here.
I’ve commented multiple times about the incredible staff they have at the vineyard. There are some seriously
awesome chicas here. So far, I’ve gotten
to know two pretty well.
A few days after arriving, Diana introduced herself in
English and told me she would love to practice with me, a common request. However, she has a little more motivation as
she is studying modern languages at a nearby university. So I practice my Spanish with her and she
corrects me. And vice-versa. Diana has also taken up rock-climbing this
year, something her boyfriend Eduardo has taught her. This Monday (a holiday) she invited me to
join Eduardo and some friends to climb in nearby Gameza. It was a spectacular day and it felt great to
be out on the rock.
http://on.bubb.li/301748aqslg2pmg2kc06ov8
http://on.bubb.li/301748aqslg2pmg2kc06ov8
The routes were
definitely a challenge, including some slight overhangs which I have never
successfully attempted before. Although
“successful” could be defined in different ways, I did manage to make it to the
top of both routes I attempted.
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| It's been over a year since I've climbed! Loved it! |
With
tired arms and aching hands, I was happy to spend the rest of the day watching
some crazy and talented and crazy-talented climbers take to the wall.
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| Admiring the talent |
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| My Climbing Buddy and Language Practice Friend, Diana |
And then there is Laura. I met Laura on a Sunday morning. I had intentions of asking about church recommendations the day before but never did. When Laura arrived, I immediately noted that her phone cover said “YO ❤️ Jesus”. Then she mentioned something about church. I asked if she went to church. She asked if I was a Christian. I said yes. She stuck out her hand to shake mine and said she was too. Laura is one of the fastest Spanish-speakers I have encountered and at first I thought that it might be a tough challenge to overcome. However, somehow, I manage to catch most of what she is saying. And to accompany her mile-a-minute talking is her energy. This girl is finishing up her college degree, works on the weekends, is super involved in her church: teaching Sunday school, participating in a small group and leading another small group – see “Day 5”, and is a major provider for her family. I can barely keep up, but enjoy trying.
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| I've got my soccer jersey. I think that means I'm officially Colombian. |
So those are a few of the key people in my life so far here at the vineyard. But in terms of experiences, the overarching theme seems to be “just roll with it”. Consider the following examples:
Day 0, 7pm: I’m freshly showered (my first hot shower in
over a month!) after the 28-hour journey from Cartagena. I meet the Doctor for the first time. After some basic introductions and niceties,
I ask him what exactly he has in mind for me during my time here at Viñedo de
Puntalarga. He explains that each year
they have a month long wine festival during December and he is
hoping that I can help plan the wine festival.
And maybe I can help some with the marketing of the vineyard. And maybe I could translate the website (www.marquesdepuntalarga.com) into
English. Well, this isn’t quite the
“working with tourists” box I checked on the workaway form, but I like wine and
I like event planning. I think I’ll just
roll with it.
Day 2, 4pm: Gerardo, my fellow party planner, says to me
“Vamos!” (“Let’s go!”) I ask “Where
to?” He says we are going to Sogamoso,
the nearest town about 15 minutes away.
I ask why. He says to meet
someone. Ok. I had not anticipated this mid-afternoon field
trip, right about the time when I was about to “punch the time clock.” Did I miss something? The answer: most likely. My Spanish suffices in almost every situation
and I’ve become an expert on picking up context clues, reading body language to
determine how to respond to an exchange that I may not understand, as well as
carefully watching people’s mouths as they talk to better understand – which
makes talking in a car or on the phone very challenging for me. But still, I know that there are some
important pieces of information that I miss out on. Often times I find myself replaying an
exchange over and over in my head to figure out what I missed and sometimes it
will hit me in the middle of the night or the next day – and I laugh at my
mistake and I’m grateful for the patience of the polite Colombians for the slow
Gringa. (Observation: People are VERY
polite. Everyone responds to other
people with “Si, Señor” or “Si, Señora” and often multiple times in rapid
succession: “Si, Señor. Si, Señor. Si, Señor.”)
Anyway… I get in the car with El Doctor and Gerardo and we go to
Sogamoso to run some errands and then sit down at the Doctor’s favorite
restaurant, Gula y Lujuria, to discuss details of the upcoming festival. We didn’t meet anyone. Just roll with it.
Day 3, 2pm: It’s
another one of those “everyone get in the car quick and go” situations. I think I ask where and why but this is the
last time that I’ll ask this. Again,
it’s the Doctor, Gerardo and Marion.
This time our destination is Duitama, 15 minutes in the opposite
direction of Sogamoso, to run a few errands and enjoy some lunch. (Observation: Lunch is the main meal of the
day. As a result, dinner is either small
or non-existent. Not too worry. I’m quite sure I’ll weigh in a few pounds
more than when I arrived.) We walk into
a restaurant and immediately go to where a hostess counter might be in the US
and instead find an oven where huge hunks of meat have been roasting all
day. The Butcher and the Doctor have an
exchange of which I miss most of. Next
thing I know, the Butcher is cutting off big hunks of meat that could surely
pass for the USDA standards of your daily meat allowance. The Doctor, Gerardo and Marion each choose a
piece. I follow suit and enjoy a
delicious piece of meat that was either pork or lamb. The Doctor nods in approval and we are seated
to enjoy our lunch. I thought what we
just ate could suffice for lunch but I’m taught that this is what is called “degustacion”
or the taste test. You are served a
“sample” size of meat to determine if it is up to your standards before you
decide to enjoy a meal at this particular establishment. Just rolling with it.
Day 5, 4pm: My friend Laura had invited me to attend a small
group of sorts that meets to pray on Monday evenings. At 2pm, Laura tells me to meet at her house
at 4:30 pm. At 3:30 she texts me to tell
me to meet her now but it takes me about a half an hour of texting back and
forth to figure out that she means she is ready to go now and not at 4:30. We meet down the hill from the vineyard
and get a ride with a friend of hers to Duitama. Before the small group, Laura has the apparent
task of selling mushrooms (the kind you buy in the grocery store) produced by
her brother’s girlfriend whom we’ve just gotten a ride with. She hands me a bag of about 8 cartons of
mushrooms and we proceed to walk around to a few different restaurants and
grocery stores she seems to have connections with and in a matter of 15
minutes, the mushrooms are all sold. We
have time to grab a couple of empanadas at her favorite empanada place in town
before meeting up with the small group.
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| Sharing the Love of Jesus with a stray dog on the "quad". I don't usually touch stray dogs but he didn't give me a choice. |
Day 6, 8:30am: This
is the time set each day to join the Doctor and Sandra for breakfast. By the way – food is delicious and often
cooked in the European-style. And the
Doctor is also the Chef. After a couple
of decades spent living in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, he’s mastered the
art of European cooking. And for that I
am very grateful. But there are some occasional
twists. One morning I was served a large
slice of avocado with a large sardine resting where the pit should be and
garnished with diced tomatoes, green onions and well-seasoned with salt, pepper
and olive oil. I’ve never had a
sardine. I’m rolling with it. And it’s delish. But there is no time for fish and avocados
this morning. The Doctor tells me I must
eat quickly as there is a meeting taking place in Duitama about a topic that he
believes I would take some interest in.
No more details are provided. Just
roll with it. I join he and Sandra for a
meeting put on by the Dutch Organization called PUM – or Netherlands Senior
Experts. The meeting consists of a crash
course in effective business and marketing practices. My notes consist of taking pictures on my
phone of the rather informative PowerPoint slides that are presented very
quickly. This is followed by a kind
Dutch man named Cornelius explaining how the Dutch don’t have many natural
resources but they have "know-how" and a bunch of retirees who were bugging their
spouses and had spent too much time on the golf course. These retirees got together to find something
else to do. Result: send retirees with
over 30 years of experience to developing countries, partner with a business in
this developing country to provide “know how” for a particular area of
development that the hopeful entrepreneur may be facing a challenge with. The retiree donates 2 weeks of their time
offering potential solutions for this particular challenge in exchange for a
place to sleep and meals. I’m telling
you… this program is brilliant. Any
retirees from the U.S. (possibly my 5-days retired father?) willing to
replicate or partner with the Dutch?
Check out www.pum.nl. The Dutch
know how to roll.
To be clear, I don’t want to give you the impression that
I’m stressed out by these unexpected events.
Instead, I find myself shaking my head in wonder at how I ended up in
this position. I’ve found a beautiful
setting that reminds me a lot of the Vail Valley in early-September (I’ve named
the Valley of the Sun, the Land of Eternal Fall – as they tell me the seasons
never change). Every person I’ve met has
been kind and wonderful and welcoming.
And again, the Lord continues to provide for me every step of the way,
and in ways that I could never have fathomed or planned myself. I’m thankful to be experiencing what an
incredible adventure it is to walk by faith.
In other words, I’m thankful to be rolling with it.
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| This includes doing laundry the old fashioned way |
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