Missionary Gas

Once in the Andes I asked a local for directions and was told "it was just round the corner". I went on my way delighted, past corner and corner, eventually finding the place in a completely different location. The good man didn't really know where it was but thought it was best to tell me what I would like to hear. Northern Europeans are strong on justice and truth and so Latin American unreliability can be difficult to swallow. This week involved me a case of students copying in an exam and is the part of the job I hate. Part of me wants to have a quiet life and say, "If they want to cheat let them". But a teacher who is a soft touch finds himself dreading an increasingly chaotic classroom situation. Olwen in her practical teaching class is battling with small items disappearing. The actual monetary value of a stolen thread bobbin is insignifcant, but the loss of trust it generates is significant. Fashion student Mairianna Campbell from Lewis has arrived. Her ...

The frightening thing about earthquakes is that you don´t know when they are going to stop. The earth trembles like a bouncy castle and walls start to sway. It could be all over in 3 seconds, or it can get stronger and go on until the walls fall on all beneath. So it was that over 500 died and 1500 were injured in Ica, Peru, last Wednesday, and 600 prisoners escaped from jail. If you calculate the number of Christians involved it's equivalent to the entire St Vincent Street congregation being killed and everyone belonging to the Free Church in the Glasgow Presbytery being injured. The first plane with international aid to arrive in Ica came from South America's poorest nation, Bolivia. And this was despite this week's report of the ongoing dispute between Bolivia, Peru and Chile over maritime rights. An earthquake is a common foe that unites the Andean nations. The world's most vulnerable seismatic area is off the coast of Peru, so Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia a...

This weekend has been Medellín's major festival and one of Colombia's most prestigious. It's called the Flower Fair and today thousands line the streets for the main parade of floral art. On Friday Olwen went to see the equivalent of the Cheslea Flower Show and yesterday we watched a parade of several thousand horses with their pasos finos or prancing gait. Many onlookers dress up like cowboys or cowgals. The previous week vintage cars had toured the city and the centre had lines of handcraft stalls. Charges have been dropped from the city´s main tourist attraction, the art and sculpture museum, and the papers reported that no one has been murdered for three days. Colombians are good at fiestas. They´re also good at including God. Yesterday while walking past a worker wheeling a barrow he quite naturally said to us: "May God bless couples". And the young waiter responding to comments about the busy time, commented, "Thanks to God". There is a working ass...

It's been a loooooooooooooong week. Students started back in serious last Tuesday and we're adjusting to that. Olwen's life is taken up with colourful files, bits of materials and students' names. My own is how I'm going to squeeze seven different courses into a 5 day week. The problem is that the more classes you have to teach, the less time you have for preparation, but you really need to do more preparation because you have more classes to teach. The nasty twist is that two "New Preps" are included, which are courses that you haven't taught before - sounded great when you agreed to do them six months ago but now require an awful amount of work. There are three courses to teach in the classroom, but only two each day: Church history, New Testament background and John's writings; then there are three groups doing similar material but by correspondence to validate their previous studies; and there are groups of final years working on their dissert...

It's been another of those strange few days. The national newspaper, El Colombiano reports that life expectancy in our area has suddenly risen by four years owing to the substantial reduction in the murder rate. For the first time for a number of years, homicide is not the main cause of death. People are enjoying this extra span of life in a variety of ways. On Friday Olwen was propositioned by a widower trying to persuade her with his ownership of fields. On Saturday, I administered the Lord´s Supper to a student mission team going for a month into a hazardous part of the country and on the same day, Olwen went to put out the washing and met a man standing on his head. Sunday evening saw the title win for Medellín in the Colombian soccer premiership. We were warned not to go out after the match: 42 car crashes occurred as celebrating fans returned home. Monday was the start of the Seminary's staff meetings. There are now 353 full and part-time students but the institution is...

Yesterday we had our lecturers' day away. Sixteen of us went about 45 minutes from the city to a finca. In Colombia many fincas are small rural houses with one or two fields attached that are particularly popular at weekends. The one we went to was owned by an ex-Rector of the Seminary, Jaime Ortiz, which he has dedicated to the benefit of Christian groups. The day consisted of two parts. In the morning we had Gloria, a psychologist, leading workshops on human emotions and in the afternoon we were free. As I had been put under strict instructions by Olwen to behave myself during the psychology sessions, it was a peaceful morning, apart from four of us being told off for playing soccer when we should have been examining our inner selves and then unfortunately I looked far too happy when doing my presentation on sadness. The afternoon was great: mixed sex soccer, ping-pong, and billiards. I don´t know about the psychology of it, but sport enables you to share with others in ways tha...

Yesterday Barbara received the news every holidaymaker dreads, "Your mother has only a few hours to live". Such a shock is compounded with the difficulty of communicating from South America. Even making a phone call to the UK is a complex process using internet phone cards that may not work. Rearranging flights needs to be done through local friends who know who to contact. And buying a new ticket with a credit card can be straight forward, but as Barbara found out, having your card blocked is common. If you can unravel all that and manage to reach the UK within 48 hours you are doing well extremely well. Holidaying in Europe does not prepare you for a world where people only speak Spanish, tasty foods may possibly be prepared in hepatitis rich water and a speeding motorcyclist will suddenly veer dangerously close if a pretty girl catches his eye or he´s going to snatch your bag. After a few months you develop a street-wiseness that would get you an appointment with a consul...