Bogotá, Colombia

Students Arrive

May 2, our first day in Bogotá. Peter Stucky orients group to the course patterned after the Latin American action/reflection, consciousness-raising programs used throughout Latin America since the 1970s. He asked us to consider what it means for our group that Christ has called us together in Bogotá. Each of us has overcome obstacles that might have prevented our presence. What is in store for us here?

Twelve Goshen students with Peter Stucky (seated left), Janna Bowman (left center), and Andrés Stucky (right). Afternoon bus tour of the city (May 3) into the mountains took us above the poorer south side of the city to the wealthier north side. Bogotá is a beautiful and mostly affluent-looking city. Given that impression, it's difficult to understand where the violence is taking place and what it's about.

More photos: Erin plays guitar on the bus - Four friends in the park

Sunday morning (May 4) students went by pairs to attend half a dozen Mennonite congregations scattered about the city. Rehanna Kheshgi and Charletta Erb took the Transmilenio with Ron Stutzman to Sinai Mennonite Church on the near south side. The Transmilenio is Bogotá's new overground "subway" system patterned after a similar system, one of the world's most successful mass-transit concepts, pioneered in Curitiba, Brazil.

More photos (1, 2)

The Sinai Mennonite Church, where we found several hundred in attendance, is equally impressive. We sang for an hour before communion (standing all the while), followed by an inspiring sermon to which 35 people responded to commit themselves to one of this congregation's many ministries including assistance to the thousands of families displaced by violence and to the ex-members of armed groups who have decided to reintegrate themselves into society. (Pictured on the right is a poster created to celebrate Sinai's relationship to a Canadian sister church.)

Sunday evening Peter and Leti Stucky hosted the Goshen group and their host families for introductions, tamales, and singing both in Spanish and English.

More photos (1, 2, 3, 4)

On Monday (May 5), following Janna's meditation on the Old Testament story of Esther, Paul Stucky, using a Russian doll, helped us think about how our personal identities are constructed of both individual and collective components.

After a 25-minute walk, students arrive each morning for classes at the Teusaquillo Mennonite Center in downtown Bogotá.

Wednesday we visited an Islamic Cultural Center where the local imam gave us his perspective on the U.S. role in the Middle East. (Iman Jualián and Peter are both members of a local ecumenical peace group.) (photos5a).

From the Islamic Center, and after a very quick lunch, we spent our afternoon at the US Embassy with Stuart Tuttle, a State Department Human Rights monitor, and Patricia Mira, a Colombian with a degree in international law who supervises USAID's human rights programs in Colombia. From embassy personnel we learned, among many other things, that Indiana Congressional Representative Mark Souder is well known and well though of in this embassy. As well, the recent hostage assassination (big news here) has fed an on-going debate over the wisdom of military rescue attempts. (Hostage families are pleading that no more rescues be attempted. They favor, instead, the proposed prisoner exchange program.) (no photos permitted at the Embassy)