Two Weeks in Colombia
Tilly (15) recently returned from a two week trip to Colombia with her grandparents. This was my in-laws’ eighth trip to Colombia. My mother-in-law has worked for years for missionaries in Colombia. She was doing this long before I met Chuck. As she and my father-in-law were planning their most recent trip, they decided to invite Tilly to come along.
Here is Tilly’s description of the trip:
I went to Colombia for two weeks with my grandparents and four others. Our project was to teach 32 ladies from a refugee camp how to knit and crochet. We flew out of Vancouver on September 30, and got into Bogota on October 1. We spent the night in Bogota and then spent two days driving from Bogota to Cali. We got to Cali on Thursday night, and we didn’t really do anything on Friday. On Saturday we visited the village where the ladies lived.
There were lots of kids and they loved it when I took their picture and showed it to them, so I have tons of pictures from that day! On Sunday we visited another village. Monday was the first day with the ladies. They came from Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
The first day we laid out all the yarn and needles and samples and let the ladies choose whether they wanted to learn to knit or crochet, and what project they wanted to start. Some of the ladies already knew how to crochet, but the ones that didn’t caught onto knitting and crocheting really fast. It was amazing to see how fast and talented they are. Several of the ladies even finished crocheting hats on the first day!
By Friday, all the wool (we brought four hockey bags stuffed full) was gone, and the ladies had completed lots of projects including hats, scarves, ponchos, and baby sweaters.
On Saturday we went into Popoyan for the day and on Sunday we went shopping for souvenirs. Monday was the last day with the ladies, and we made it into a kind of celebration. We got two cakes and some pop, and had the ladies bring all the things they’d made. We laid them out on three tables, and it was amazing to see what these ladies had made in one week! Some of the guys from the village came too, and they played some music for us.
We left at 2:00 in the afternoon for the airport, and flew back to Bogota. We spent Monday night in Bogota and on Tuesday we left to come home. It was really sad to leave, but it’s good to be home, too.
It was really difficult to pick my favorite photos from the 200+ Tilly edited…but I’ll do my best to try 😉
 
Thank you so much to all of the local women who donated yarn and other knitting supplies. And thank you Sandy and Jean for giving Tilly the best two weeks of her life so far!
An amazing experience. Thank you for sharing!
Wow your children are all so adventurous and outgoing! Looks like an amazing trip & such a fabulous experience.
I know it’s a very different place, but it brings back memories of my short-term trip to Mexico. I enjoyed playing with the children. Language barriers are not nearly big a deal with kids! I am glad Tilly got the opportunity to go!