Christmas 2015

Going slightly back in time, here are some photos from the Jantzi family visit to Bogotá for Christmas; the top three photos are from the Jardín Botánico, one of the best places to go in Bogotá - it's really big, and has an impressive range of flora organized by ecosystem. 

Metal horse sculpture

Nautilus fossil

Bottle-cap mosaic art (still trying to figure out whose portrait that is)

New water bottles! 

Portrait of Valerie in sidewalk chalk, by Aunt Rosanne

Cusco 2016

One of my goals for this year is to blog more and Facebook less. Trying for more depth instead of the glib status updates. So I didn't put up a lot of photos of our January travels; catching up now. 

It's becoming a tradition to take the kids to this rock formation near (in?) Sacsayhuaman. You can see Gabriel in yellow and Valerie in pink and Terry in black climbing up there. It got really cold with the wind but thankfully we didn't get rained on. It's fun to think of all the generations of people who have polished these stones with their backsides. 

My camera started doing weird things while in Albania, it shows most when zooming in but it can make a cool effect too. This is at Pukapukara outside of Cusco. We had a great day that afternoon driving around in the yellow VW bug. Making memories.

The same day, at Tambomachay. Gabriel said it was the best day of his life, jumping from rock to rock up the stream towards the ruins. Valerie got tired of it before he did and climbed up the bank to join me where I was on the walking path. At one point Terry took off his socks and shoes to wade through and carry Gabe across a deep pool, so they were able to go a lot farther.

I was standing above with my heart in my throat picturing falls and concussions and all that, but then I remembered that my very favorite memories of childhood are of doing exactly this - playing in a rocky creek with sun-dappled shade and how much it lifted my spirits. I want my kids to have those kinds of joyful memories too.

My mom made Valerie this beautiful dress! The fabric she used is from things my grandmother had in storage. So it is extra meaningful as well as beautiful. Val was so proud and happy to wear it to church last Sunday.

Rooms. Views.

Starting next weekend, this will (assuming all goes as planned) be the view from our new apartment... all the trees you see there are part of a huge park that is inside the apartment complex - such a great place for the kids to play! 

This is currently the view from our living room window: 

Not nearly as nice... We've lived in this apartment for 3 years now and it's been fine, there are things we've liked and not liked. But moving feels like a good chance to purge things we don't need, and refresh our point of view. Perhaps metaphorically as well as literally.

And this was our view from the top-floor flat we rented in a lovely old villa for two weeks in Albania - we arrived in the midst of the New Year's fireworks celebrations, enjoyed two days of sunshine, and then 10 days of rain. I felt like I could have stared out this window forever.

First Day of School!

Today Valerie started 2nd grade, and Gabe started kindergarden! They are excited about being at the same school together again, and G asked a thousand questions before they went in this morning. They were nervous, too, with all the unknowns ahead of them - who would be in their classes? What would be for lunch? etc.

We're also planning to move to a new apartment next week, so there are a lot of changes happening right now. Things to celebrate.

I'm celebrating the first anniversary of defending my dissertation. Yay!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Terry! 

I realized while writing this post that I really only take pictures of you by accident, when you're in the same frame with one of the kids... but at least I found these two! 

In celebration of this milestone, I found this collection of photos of things that happened the year you were born - Enjoy!

Bug's Birthday

This morning Bug was remembering his birthday a few months ago, which we celebrated "in that place where your mom lives" (as he remembers it), "and all my friend came and I gave them numbers." (One of the games was a raffle).  I realized I never put up photos of the actual party, so here they are! 

Sunday Afternoon

We had a great afternoon yesterday, I was sorry I didn't take the camera along. The kids and I went to the library near Simon Bolivar park, it's a beautiful building with even more beautiful grounds and they love to play outside. It was raining, though, and loads of people took refuge with us indoors, running in with kites held over their heads for umbrellas (August is kite-flying month in Bogotá).

The children's area is equipped with soft sofas and papier-mâché sculptures (trees, knights in armor, etc.) and loads of books. After reading some fun books in Spanish we found a Calvin and Hobbes in English and spent nearly an hour in Calvin's world of imagination.

The rain had stopped, so we bought some snacks to eat outside while watching the fish in the fountain. We ran into a boy from Valerie's school, and his mom! Things like that make a hugantic city seem a little friendlier. Then the kids ran around stomping in puddles and rolling down the wet grassy hills until almost 5:00.

When we got home, Terry had cleaned the whole house and was starting to cook supper. Perfect.

Quiet

Things have been quiet at work, and I've been catching up on some reading - news, mostly, about the ongoing peace talks. I often forget that this country is at war with itself even though our work deals directly with the fallout from that war. I've heard Bogotá described as a "bubble," where it's fairly easy to avoid awareness or consciousness of the conflicts over land and the long legacy of violence that plagues the country. And yet we are surrounded by human misery. My children are keenly aware that there are many people in this city who have no place to sleep but the streets. We walk past them every day. We go to school, to work, to church, we have our routines, our Legos, our date nights. We live here. And I'm still trying to figure out what that means.

The fifth year

In honor of Gabe's birthday, here is a retrospective of his fifth year of life - 12 of my favorite photos from the past 12 months.

At a retreat center in Sogamoso

Not sure what the persona was here but just too cute!

Demonstrating a machine that makes hearts and love for the world

Alter ego!

Sweet and affectionate boy!

Loved the snow! in Harrisonburg, VA

A craft project from school - recycling!

Favorite Christmas present!

at the Children's Museum in Harrisonburg

I'm so happy I don't have to wrestle him into seat belts anymore, he does it himself!

Very interested in learning letters and reading

Pirate captain!

Outlet

Well! I ended up unplugging for much more than a week - more like a month! It was fantastic. And hard to get back into the swing of regular e-mail reading etc. But we're back at the office now, although it's been quite quiet since a lot of people are at MWC Assembly at the moment.

I'll be back over the next half of the month to post more about the delegation that came, our trip to Peru, Gabriel's fifth birthday, and more - meanwhile here are some "sneak peek" photos of all of the above.

10-year anniversary of Sembrandopaz in Sincelejo, Colombia

The community of Pichilín shares their hopes and dreams for sustainable life while remembering lives lost in a massacre ten years ago.

Feria de Huancaro in Cusco, Peru! My sister and nieces in background

Gabriel's fifth birthday and first piñata!

One of our favorite spots - the stone slides at Sacsahuayman above Cusco

Cousin time!

At a retreat center in Bochica, Colombia

Out of Office

I'm off to the Coast with a group from Lombard Mennonite Church, so will be a bit unplugged for the next 7-10 days or so. Be assured that I will be busy, sweating, and slathered with mosquito repellent and sunblock. I'm sad to be leaving the kids again so soon, but I don't have another trip without them until September!

Driving

Besides defending my dissertation and getting the kids' visas renewed, while we were in the US I also got a new driver's license. It was crazy! My old license had expired while we were here in Colombia, but because I was turning 40 I needed an eye exam at the DMV. Well, I figured out much later that I could have had an eye exam here and had it validated somehow, but I thought I had to actually go to the DMV, which is why I couldn't just renew it online. 

So I had to take both the road and written tests again. It was me and a bunch of tiny little nervous teenagers. The written test was nerve-wracking - I had to review a lot and take practice tests online but some of the questions were really hard! Some sounded like trick questions and I would overthink them. Some things I just didn't know. But my muscle memory for actually operating a motor vehicle was fine, so the road test was super easy.

Here are a few random photos of the kids playing at the Children's Museum, but it kind of went with the car/driving theme :-)

Sogamoso

These photos are from about a year ago, in a lovely retreat center called Finca San Pedro (just to be clear, nobody was forced to do yoga against their will). It was high and cold and I had to up my blood pressure meds. The greater part of the group hiked up to a páramo, and Andean tundra, but the kids and I and two other stayed back for a relaxing time exploring the city. 

Part of our team at the time

We are currently planning our July retreat for this year, which made me reminisce about these photos that I never shared last year (my current blog renaissance is holding up fairly well for the moment...!)