.... and other Bucket List trips!
Welcome to Dave and Joyce’s blog. This blog was initially created to capture our Great Loop adventure. However, it has now transformed into our “Bucket List adventures” blog. Many people followed our Great Loop blog and have told us how much they enjoyed it. That somewhat surprised us … and totally pleased us. So we decided to continue the blog with post Great Loop trips … i.e. “Bucket List”. We hope you enjoy our new adventures!
A note about navigating the blog: Since the beginning, the blog was an active journal, updated daily whenever Internet service was available. The latest information is always posted at the top of the blog page to make it easier for viewers to see our daily/weekly progress. However, when viewing it later, the format is a little awkward. For example, to see the pre- Great Loop blog, scroll down to the archive section and click on the last link July 2010 . After the page is displayed scroll down to the bottom and begin viewing by scrolling back to the top. This will give you a better sense of the trip since it is the true times sequence of our travels … we hope this makes sense … Enjoy!
Cell: 317-403-0128
Email: davejoyceajohnson@gmail.com
Today is recreation day with our sponsored boys. We drove to a remote camp on the Caribbean beach. We began the day with mass and then fun in the water.
Above boys present us with certificates of appreciation. We have to tell a cute story on boys and Shirley. They were conspiring with our super-interpreter Kelly, and we knew they were up to something. Kelly was instruction them from a distance and later when Kelly was sitting next to us Shirley whispers in Kelly's ear. Dave started laughing ... hey Shirley, no need to wispier ... I can't understand Spanish. It was cute and what they did was get up each with a phrase in English thanking us ... so touching.
Before leaving the beach, Shirley's dad picked her up ... nice to meet both parents!
Above Joyce with boys and their sister in the Caribbean sea.
Joyce looking at lunch ... fish with head and all. However, like all the food, it was quite good.
Sponsors and their kids boarded a "chiva" for a tour through the historic downtown Cartagena. It was hard to say goodbye to our boys and Kelly ... but alas it was time to leave. Next day we fly home. What a marvelous trip. If anyone has sponsored children, we highly recommend doing this trip ... you won't regret it. And if you children are in Cartagena, we have a great friend and translator we can connect you with:-)
Today we visited more sub projects and went to Mass at St. Teresa Little Flower church. No we didn't fly back to Indianapolis where Dave went to school/church ... they have a Little Flower church in this rural community in Cartagena.
Now we have to tell you about our interpreter, Kelly, who we absolutely fell in love with. This was her first time as an interpreter and was so anxious to do this and get feedback from someone whose native language is English ... well, we will tell you, she was the best interpreter in Columbia. She spoke excellent English and was a joy to be around. Thank you so much Kelly ... love you!
Above is one of the streets we walked to visit homes.
And of course we get entertain again, this time by some much older women ... who could dance like the younger ones ... still had the graceful hip movement! Later, they coaxed some of us to dance with them.
We continue to receive hand made gifts that unfortunately many would not fit in our luggage. But we were so thankful to receive them. Note the face paintings ... some kind of tribal story that we can't remember.
The boys and there mom and sister were able to join us in the afternoon.
The people are so warm and loving. Above we visit a home that is pretty simple (concrete block walls) but the family appears to be very happy with what they have.
This evening we had a nice night out inside a large, city-encompassing wall and fort where we later had a nice dinner.
We arrived late to our Cartagena hotel last night. We were happy to see the view we had in the morning. Nice view of the Caribbean Sea.
We were also happy to meet David and Ja-Deen's sponsored girl, Shirley. Above Joyce, Shirley's mom and Shirley. We really believe that Shirley will be one of the Unbound stars. She wants to be an architect ... and she has the smarts to accomplish it.
Above group picture is the reason we came. Miguel, Joyce, Dave, Alexander and their sister Elvia. The boys really grew a lot in the past 6 years. They are happy boys who like to help others. They certainly looked after us. I couldn't walk down a step without Alexander there holding my arm ... very touching.
In the afternoon, our kids went home and we visited other sub projects. Above little girl was assigned to Dave for a little drawing project. Dave thinks they did pretty good and was totally surprised at how well this little (shy) girl could print.
Today we visited more subprojects and were thoroughly entertained. Above dance instructor got all the kids going.
Above we pose with the star of the show. How cute she is!
Tonight we hop on a plane to Cartagena.
But the little girl above, stoled the show. She was amazing and it is amazing that she didn't throw her hip out of joint. You have to see it to believe it:-)
We would be remiss not to mention the motorcycles ... and the lanes they create for themselves. Yep, the dude next to our bus will squeeze between us and the next lane. Not only that, but they are comfortable cutting in front of the buses and other vehicles. And no body seems to mind ... kind of expected.
Today we visited families attended by Antioquia subproject FCC and FZ. This is a very poor area, higher up in the mountains. However, the children told you they were very happy. Above stands another sponsor, a translator and Joyce.
Lunch was prepared by sponsored families and served at the subproject office. The cooks are reimbursed for the food costs. Dave enjoying the food ... not sure of everything he was eating, but it sure was good! They feed you well ... good for the stomach but not so good for the waistline.
The children are soooo cute ... and disciplined. You just want to pick every one of them up and give them a hug.
In the afternoon we took a cable car to subproject MV where a majority of its inhabitants live in extreme poverty. They actually have after school activities here to keep the children off the streets until 5pm in order to keep them safe and not shot ... scary ... but really safer than parts of Indianapolis.
They are very proud of there cable car system ... skiing any one?
Above Joyce with a cute guy in one of the home visits. Yes, that is a the family pet parrot on Dave's shoulder.
After a long day yesterday in the air and airports we finally arrived in Medellin, Colombia. Today we visited the Antioquia Project Central Office. After a warm welcome the staff shared with us the history of Unbound.
After lunch we went to mass and the sightseeing tour of Medellin. The mass,outside the office in the mall hall, was quite different with colorful, hip swaying dancers. Something about South American women. They learn this hip movement at a early age and they are all good at it.
So, when its time to bring up the gifts the dancers pick some people to help the sway and bring up the gifts. Dave dove for the floor and yep ... Joyce was selected. Of course she didn't mind:-) Fr. Hollowell, what do you think? Maybe we have a new trend going here?
In the evening they took us to a restaurant. The food was a little different, but quite good.