Bogota/ New Year's Eve

A few days after Christmas we boarded a flight for Bogota, Colombia to attend an indigenous cluster leadership meeting.  Part of choosing those dates was our kids all being out of school and free to travel with us. They were looking forward to spending time with the other MK's.  We were excited not only about the meetings but also just getting to spend time with our leadership team and getting to know them better.

 

Our family in the taxi headed to the airport in Guatemala City.

 

 

Cruz on the plane.  We flew direct from Guatemala City to Bogota.  The flight was just a little over three hours.

 

 

Welcome to Bogota

 

 

With the exception of New Year's Day, our days were spent in meetings.  We would start at 8:30 in the morning and go until late in the afternoon. We did a lot of praying, discussing, and planning. It was work, but the fellowship and laughter around the tables made it fun and enjoyable. Here are Cruz and David walking to our mission office one morning. 

 

 

The boys had a week of fun and fellowship with their MK friends. Their week was filled with daily outings to places like a theme park, the movies,  a mall, and a trampoline park. They could not have had a more fun week!!

 

 

 

On New Year's Eve we gathered together for a fun night of celebration.  

 

 

Our family on New Year's Eve

 

We enjoyed some delicious food, watched football, and played several games.  One of those was bingo.  We also did several Minute To Win It style games.  Those were a lot of fun!

 

 

In addition, we played the dirty Santa game.  That provided much laughter for the group!

 

our Indigenous cluster leadership ladies

 

our Indigenous cluster leadership men 

We really could not ask for a better group of people to serve with!

 

 

We did not make it until midnight together.  Around 9:30/10:00 everyone headed in for the night.  Our family stayed up to watch the fireworks at midnight. We could see them in the distance.  

 

To our surprise we could see several local people from our window out and about with suitcases.  We just assumed they were traveling to the airport for early morning flights.  We found out the next morning that it is part of their tradition there in Colombia to walk around the block with a suitcase at midnight on New Year's Eve.  It symbolizes a desire to travel in the new year.  I think I like that tradition.