Walking With the Poor - Notes From the Field

First CFCA mission awareness trip to Colombia

Mission Awareness Trip - Colombia, June 20 to 25, 2005

CFCA has been present on Colombian soil since 1982. Since that time, and in spite of a very challenging reality, CFCA projects in Colombia have offered hope through the testimony of thousands of admirable children, families, youth and aging. You are cordially invited to travel with us through this large and fascinating country.

My personal interest in Colombia

I’m not good on dates, but I believe it was January of 1959 when my mother took me to the old airport in Kansas City for my first experience of flying and my first experience as a missionary teacher with the Christian Brothers in Cartagena, out on the Atlantic coast of Colombia. And I immediately fell in love with the country and its people.

Life went on in God’s loving plan. Two lovely Colombian children entered my family when we legally adopted them, Gina Carolina at 5 months and Luz Miriam at 9 years old. Both are grown and married now. Gina and her husband, Jason, live on the Air-Force base in Washington. Luz Miriam with her husband, Brian, and daughter, Bailey, live in Chicago. In the process of these adoptions, and in the process of establishing the early footings for CFCA in Colombia, deep relationships were forged with these people. What a joy it is to be back in Colombia and to be able to bring a group of CFCA friends along.

A shy little Colombian girl by the name of Florelia Delgado was the very first child to be sponsored in CFCA, by sponsors Bob and Cristina Hentzen. Today, the main CFCA centers are located in Bogota, Medellín (Antioquia & Madre Paula), Quibdo, Cali and Cartagena. I am thrilled to return to Colombia with this, our first group of sponsors on a mission awareness trip. I’m pleased to report that next year’s trip to Colombia is nearly filled as well.

Colombia is a large and beautiful country, with superb mountain ranges, rolling, verdant hills and coastlines on both the Atlantic and Pacific. From what I read, the last census shows a population of around 50 million, with roughly 8 to 10 million in the Bogota area alone. For many years, Colombia has struggled amid an atmosphere of unofficial civil war which involves government authorities, several powerful insurgency groups, drug cartels and paramilitary groups.

Acclimatization—Bogota

Cristina and I are kindly met at the airport rather late at night on June 16. Gloria, Vickie, Patricia and Jamile received us. They inform us right away of the death of coordinator Luz Emilia’s father. His funeral was today. Since it is quite late, the hotel where they had made a reservation for us gave our room to others. By midnight we settle in at “Hotel Plan B”. The following morning finds us in the CFCA Bogota office. As we move about this immense city, I am impressed with the tremendous emphasis on security. Armed guards patrol neighborhoods and checks of personal belongings before entering public buildings are common.

In the afternoon, we have a couple of hours to visit the Cathedral of Salt in Zipaquira. This impressive structure is a complete cathedral carved in a salt mine deep below the earth. Holy Mass is celebrated here each Sunday at noon. We are off now to receive the mission awareness trip participants at the airport.

Sunday, June 19

All sponsors and luggage are accounted for, but it makes for a long day and night. It is quite late before we settle in at the labyrinthine retreat house of St. Peter Claver, located in the northern part of Bogota. We settle in under a beautifully full moon on the high savanna of Cundinamarca. Only one of the sponsors seems to be affected the altitude, but she doesn’t want to miss anything.

Monday, June 20

Our MAT participants are divided into three different traveling groups in order to spend this day visiting CFCA programs in various areas of this savanna around Bogota. The CFCA-Bogota team did a fine job planning this day. Three small groups form so as to visit more sites and families. I end up with the group going out to the rural area of Sopo and Tavio where we witness impressive child- and youth-centered programs. In the family visits, we meet a 17-year-old single mother with three children—the youngest of whom is only eight days old. At about 4 p.m. all of our groups meet up at the CFCA project in Casa Blanca. After dinner, we return to our retreat house where we share stories of the day’s experiences. The Bogota staff vividly describe the realities of the families of sponsored children and youth.

Tuesday, June 21

We have had a very full day in Medellín beginning with a very early start from Bogota. A short and pleasant flight lands us in Medellín where a bus-load of 50 or so enthusiastic sponsored children are on hand to receive us at the Rio Negro Airport. Scholarship students in each town took complete responsibility for helping our sponsors about the airport.

We pile into two rented vans that are just big enough to transport us into town, making for a tight but happy ride. Throughout this trip, careful head counts are taken before each departure. Every sponsored child of our MAT sponsors has been present and accounted for. We have felt quite safe. Along the way, coordinator Transito points out relevant information about the urban areas where sponsored families live and about the realities of life in these situations.

The children and aging at each site we visit ask us,“Did my sponsor come?”, “Are you my sponsor?”, “Do you know my sponsor?”

I always like to answer with a question, “What would you like me to tell your sponsor?”

“Tell them I love them and to come see me.”

In spite of living in very challenging circumstances, the children are very loving. The sponsors say, “I’ve never been so loved”, “I feel like a dignitary with all the attention”, “As we walk through these neighborhoods, the children and mothers watch over us and take care of us.”

Wednesday, June 22

This morning we enjoy the Eucharistic celebration with sponsored children. It’s really moving to see the sponsored children who have been studying to play guitar and other instruments participating so actively and confidently in Holy Mass, in community celebrations and in these activities for the sponsors.

The Llanaditas neighborhood is an “invasion” area high on the rim of Medellín. Hard-working campesino (rural) families, converted into refugees by civil war or its economic aftermath, have no choice but to squat on the rings of misery surrounding the big cities. These areas lack public services of all kinds. Here a mountain has been ripped open for building materials, creating a dangerous cliff, an ugly eyesore and unhealthy air quality. This rough-and-tumble Llanaditas area houses 443 of our sponsored families. Yet a community is truly being formed.

As we walk through, we see that sponsored children have marked their homes with yellow and blue balloons to let the sponsors know where they live. Some have big posters in very folksy Spanish, expressing welcome and appreciation. Many families come out and offer flowers to the sponsors. Little hands guide big hands with songs of peace even amidst the harshness of the land. It almost seems like a statement to the neighborhood warlords that wholesomeness and community are retaking the streets. The challenging terrain is a bit rough for some of our MAT participants, but they express later that the time spent in this neighborhood was a highlight of the day. Countless children took their hands, guided them through their neighborhood and repeated, “Please tell my sponsors I love them. Tell them to please come see me.”

Thursday, June 23

On this early morning, we set out for the airport at 3:30 a.m. in order to continue our journey to projects on the Atlantic coast. The hour climb by car from Medellín to the airport near Rio Negro, drops us of in time for an hour-long flight to Cartagena. Sponsored children, scholars and staff welcome us with the accompaniment of Caribe (Carribean) drums and agile dancers. With the diverse beauty of the people, the suave rhythms and the climate, one sponsor remarks, “I know we’re still in Colombia, but this almost seems like another country.”

For me, our day in San Rafael de la Cruz fills with memories that go back some 43 years. This community was created in the 1960’s and 70’s when one of the worst slums of Cartagena was demolished as a public health hazard. The people were displaced and moved here. I used to teach catechism in that slum known as Chambacu. We began the CFCA sponsorship program in San Rafael in 1983.

Of high impact for me today was an encounter with a smiling, healthy and sportily dressed young man of 21 on the dirt streets of San Rafael.

“Don Roberto, I am Alex.”

Only then did I recall that at two-years-old this same Alex was very sick and on the verge of death. He was one of the first children sponsored from San Rafael. Alex’s sponsors over the years and the presence of CFCA in this community have made all the difference in his life. Alex is now the proud father of two. His mother and so many mothers and grandmothers are so very appreciative of the presence of CFCA in San Rafael de la Cruz.

Friday, June 24

Today we enjoy the gathering of hundreds of children and parents from five CFCA programs which are located in very poor villages and neighborhoods on the outskirts of Cartagena. The highlight of the morning is the cultural presentation by sponsored children who are unable to hear or speak—except with the heart. They did several folkloric dances which were remarkably beautiful. I’m told that they can “feel” the beat in their feet and body.

We enjoy testimonials from mothers and teens, with a depth of feeling that obviously goes all the way to their toes. For sponsors, when tears of emotion mix with abundant sweat, you know you’re in a CFCA project. We then enjoy a lunch gathering of the Cartagena staff and the sponsors. These gatherings give me a chance to do some orientation and formation. Cristina and I then return to the airport for an hour’s flight back to Bogota where it is rainy and cold compared to Cartagena. I breathe a prayer of thanks that the Lord keeps us healthy with all these changes. We will spend the short night in Bogota and fly out early tomorrow morning to Panama and on to Guatemala and then drive immediately to Honduras to receive the second-ever mission awareness group to visit there.

Saturday, June 25

I write now in the van as we travel on the warm and diesel-fumed road toward the Honduran border near the famous shrine of the Cristo Negro in Esquipulas. I just realized that so far today, my little silver thermos has contained a delicious blend of coffees from Colombia, Panama and Guatemala. By tonight, Honduran coffee will be added to the mix. Today the MAT Honduras participants are flying into San Pedro Sula. God willing that there aren’t too many road blocks for repairs, we will arrive in Ocotepeque tonight and receive the sponsors there tomorrow.

I am so very grateful for the presence of Brenda, Carolyn, Pedro, Cristina ,CFCA Colombia Staff, the valiant sponsors and each of you on this historical journey. As always, please receive my heartfelt thanks for your solidarity and prayers.

Bob Hentzen
June 26, 2005