A Visit With The Bishop

I arrived at the diocesan office about ten minutes late, following a gruelling six and a half mile walk. What makes it gruelling is the high altitude and lack of oxygen.  The Anglican bishop is an amiable and very serious gentleman in his early sixties, very busy and very devoted to his duties and the people in the parish churches.  He seemed very open to some of the thoughts and impressions and concerns that I have about Colombia.  He also introduced me to his assistant, an American priest, Ted, who officiates the English language eucharist in the afternoons.  We spent nearly two hours together talking about a whole range of subjects.  The civil war in this country and its ramifications are an ongoing concern and preoccupation. I would like to spend my month here getting to know them and the people in the church.  They seemed particularly interested in and receptive to my art and also my occupation as a mental health peer support worker and I explained a bit about how the mental health services are structured in Vancouver.  I also expounded at length about some of my involvement with Latin American clients, almost all who came to Canada as refugees traumatized by conflict in their countries and how this has further informed my interest in Latin America, notably Colombia.  The bishop has on his desk a small calendar featuring incredibly beautiful art.  He said the paintings were done by disabled adults who can only paint using their mouths or their feet.  Heres the link: http://www.apbp.com.co/
Pretty amazing art, eh.

I am trying to get in as much time as I can with my artwork while Im here since I know that when I am back in Vancouver I wont have a lot of free time.  Its not always easy here in Bogota since decent cafes to sit in are not always easy to come by but I somehow manage.  I still feel a bit reluctant to do art in the parks as I still dont know the area that well and I dont want to feel too vulnerable, but maybe a bit later Ill try this.  I usually get back to my pension at around six or so and I spend most of the evening there in my room drawing and colouring while listening to Spanish, sometimes English, TV.  Ive been watching Spanish, sometimes English CNN a lot.  Despite their obviously conservative slant at least Im keeping somewhat informed about the world. It seems that the only thing they can blame the poor state of the Venezuelan economy is that its socialist.  But nothing in depth.  Its a favourite punching bag of theirs.  Here is a google image of a bird, Shining Honeycreeper, I just finished drawing:
Isnt he a beauty.  Here is an image of the bird I have just started, Paradise Tanager:


By the way, please excuse the poor punctuation on some of these posts.  I am working out of internet cafes and some of the keyboards are a bit wonky.

Not one single Bogotano who has seen my birds has known that they exist and are native to their own country.  I imagine that having more than one thousand bird species could be part of it, but also because the lack of itnerest many people here appear to have in their own natural splendour, but this is also a bit of a generalization I would think since there are also a lot of people here whom I so far havent met who are very knowledgeable and concerned with the natural environment. I am also aware that many people here work hard and long hours and dont have much time or energy left over to go trekking in the jungle.  A lot of them also like to spend their spare time drinking and partying.  The latino coping mechanism.