Platos

It is o’dark hundred and I hear the rain and the birds.  Sometime later, Paul, my host, is in the kitchen making orange juice. I am looking forward to sleeping in.  Later Paul will return and we will go visit a group of people.  This is why I am here, to visit people and see programs that have benefited from the financial offerings of Noah’s Ark.

Just yesterday I left Florida, flying into Columbia where I met Paul, the man with the black beret.  This is how I identified him and we hopped into a taxi.  I have learned since that he and his wife, Carol, both come from a long line of Mennonite missionaries that settled in South America.  So they both grew up in Latin American countries, having a deep connection for the people and places here.

Noah’s Ark grew out of a single financial gift from a friend that was distributed by Paul and Carol to groups and individuals who were struggling to make ends meet.  Today Carol practices medicine at a local clinic and Paul works with local organizations. They have been in Columbia, mostly Bogota, since 1992. 

Upon arrival, Paul and I set out to have lunch at a café near his home.  We ordered platos, a typical dish with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Many Latin countries have something similar.  In Costa Rica it is called casado, meaning marriage.  Our platos began with a simple rice soup.  The plate itself, was certainly heavy on the carbos with beans, lentils, rice, French fries and a salad.  We wanted to substitute the salad for fruit, but they had no fruit so we had platnos, another carbo instead.

It was a lovely meal for $3.75, which included aqua con gas that the waitress purchased from a corner market because the restaurant did not have any.

Paul and I planned my trip for the next few days plotting out the people and locations that I would visit with room for some sight seeing too.  It would be my cultural platos, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.