Life in Bogotá: Armenia, Quindío

The days go by so quickly! These last two weeks, we have been in a city called Armenia, about a seven hour drive from Bogotá (we took the plane, that was nice). Armenia is placed in the smallest region in Colombia - Quindío. It is called the coffee-region - they have a lot of coffee-farms and they are really dependent on their coffee production.

Baby-coffee

In Armenia, the former Hald-student Eliza greeted us, and we were lucky enough to live with her and her family. It was very nice to talk to a Colombian that has experienced the same things that we are experiencing right now - differences in culture and language-barriers. She really helped us with her knowledge and experience from her stay in Norway. We also got the chance to talk a little bit in Norwegian together :) Eliza is in charge of all the work that UCU does in the city, and we joined her in her work.

The first weekend, we participated in a big conference about leadership called Reaxión. Our tasks were to promote UCU, be a part of a workshop and answer questions and talk to people on an UCU-stand. There were great speakers, seminars and people. That was what we enjoyed the most - making friends. People here are so open, helpful, welcoming and caring. We really like that people have time to talk and spend time together with us.

Our UCU-stand at Reaxión

Worship in Reaxión

The second weekend, we were in charge of two workshops about leadership, one for age 10-15, and the next one from age 15-20. We were so lucky to have Eliza as our translator all the time, because with our restricted vocabulary, there was a limit of how much "good stuff" we were able to communicate. During the week, we were also a part of some UCU-meetings, bible groups and even a class of English for Modern Language-students.

Leadership workshop with students

During our stay we also learned more about Quindío and the coffee-culture through visiting The National Coffee Park, participating in coffee-classes and having coffee with people. To our surprise, Mari even (almost) liked the taste of frappuccino, so we are hoping that this is the beginning of her life as a coffee-drinker. We also got a small taste of the nightlife with salsa-dancing and latino-rhythms. We will really miss the place, and also Eliza and the rest of our friends there. Hopefully we will return some day!