Laundry and religious experience

April 13th. We left the Balenario early and made our way into the city of Valledupar to get the laundry done and grocery shop. It’s Semana Santa (Easter Week), many people are on holiday, so driving in the cities is easier. We parked beside a hall like building with a tent canopy set up for some kind of event. It was 7am, and as usual we just locked the kids in the camper box and walked a block to the laundry.

An hour later Tim went to check on the kids to discover that a sweet little old lady had had spotted them alone in the truck and called the police out of worry.

Turns out, the hall-like building was actually a church, and the priest had come out to see what was going on. Tim explained to the officer that the kids were his and they were totally fine. The officer seemed satisfied and left, but now the priest was curious about us.

Meanwhile, I was still finishing up the laundry. By the time I returned to the truck, the covered area was packed with people—dozens of teens included—and there was Tim, surrounded. The priest had even called in a translator. Luis-Daniel, friendly and full of energy, insisted we join them for their Easter celebrations.

Before we knew it, we were swept up in it all. The kids were surrounded by a group of lovely teenagers who bombarded Charley and Jaxon with questions. Then we were invited into the priest’s home to sit at his table and enjoy homemade patacones—twice-fried green bananas topped with salty grated cheese.

Everyone was very friendly and curious about our trip, where we’d come from and how we’d come to be in their town. Pulling out their best Spanish with a little help from google translate the kids managed a great conversation and connected on social media. One lady told me her son was studying at U-Vic on Vancouver Island, was happy to meet us and wished us well.

Blessings

The priest had a warm, magnetic energy radiating kindness. He was genuinely curious about our travels and the life we are living on the road. He blessed us and our journey forward. He spoke with sincerity and grace, even offering to connect us with other parishes along our route, assuring us we’d be welcomed with open arms wherever we went.

Having to pull ourselves away, we said our thank you’s, good byes and rolled on. Which now brings me back full circle to the ‘Accident that didn’t happen’ I posted a week ago. Now I’m all caught up on events since leaving Cartegena.

mirador montegrande

April 14th. We spent the night in the hills about 700m, cool enough to make a difference. Unfortunately we were too tall to fit through the beautiful floral archway, so we camped the night out on the road. Perfectly safe on the side of a steep and busy road servicing a community further up the mountain. In the morning, 6am, we were surrounded by a dozen school kids waiting for their bus. After breakfast and a glorious outdoor cold water shower we rolled back down to the heat to begin a very long day of driving. Our 450km distance was passed doing school work, Jaxon’s G6 English.

balenario tropicana

April 14 &15th. The next two nights were spent at a balenario, river and swimming pool. Kids continued with school work in the mornings and played in the river and pool all afternoon. Tim spent a few hours polishing the rust out of the stainless steel boxes on the truck. We went into town to see a small easter Church parade, before leaving the following day for Bucaramanga.