Bothered by God in Cazuca

We met a lot people today. Most of the time was focused on Internally Displaced People (IDP) which is good because that is our job. First we had a meeting with Carol Byler of Mencoldes which is the Colombian Mennonite Church’s outreach program. She explained that Mencoldes is involved in things like micro-credit and agricultural development projects. They also work at helping IDPs who come to Bogota in the first month or so, before the governmental social system can kick in to help them. It seems that on paper at least the Colombia has a good social system for IDPs, but one must push hard to make it work.

Carol told us they process about 400 families a year which is a little less than five percent of the IDPs that come to the capital city. In the afternoon we went to the centre where they provide emergency supplies, basic medical and dental care and a bit of job training and life skills to help the families deal with the transition.

Much of the IDP crisis in Colombia has to do with the acquisition of land. Many of the IDPs who come to Bogota are poor rural farmers who have been displaced because someone wants the land that they are farming. The law in Colombia says that if one occupies land for five years, one can gain legal title to it. So armed groups run people off, large land owners occupy the land and plant cash crops like palm oil for export and in a short time they own the land.

In between our two visits to Mencoldes offices, we went to Cazuca, an “informal settlement” that butts up against the south side of Bogotá. Cazuca is one of those places where IDPs go to hide. They cobble together shacks, and eventually as they collect materials they build brick houses with tin roofs.

Those of us who had lived in Africa were reminiscing about informal settlements we had walked around in on that continent. For me, it looked a bit like kwaLink, a place near the Mthatha airport, only with steeper hills.

The reason we went to Cazuca, is because of the IDP connection, but also because there is a Colombian Mennonite Brethren Church there that has an MCC Global Family project. David, the pastor and his wife are an unlikely couple to be there. She is trained as a teacher, and he has worked as a fashion model. After David showed us around the project, we went upstairs in the church building.

As David stood in the unfinished pastor’s apartment in the second floor of the church building, he talked to us about how he came to be here. About six years ago, he was living his “normal” middle class life and he decided for some reason to work in Cazuca. At first, he was afraid to stay there after five o’clock—most Bogota residents would probably be afraid to go there at any time of day. In time it became familiar and now he has grown to love this place and the people here.

Many people cannot understand why he would choose this path, to give up living in a nice neighbourhood with a nice job. He said that God had transformed him and that he has come to love the people here. It seems that the school is also helping to bring some transformation as well. Downstairs from where we were, the worship area would be filled on Sundays with about forty people from around the area, and more than a hundred children. Between the school and the church, they are having an impact on their part of Cazuca and the especially the next generation that is growing there.

Before we went to have lunch with the children, David told us, “When you live in a place like this, God bothers you a lot with the needs of the people.”

Cazuca, David and his talk of “downward mobility” and especially the children I saw in the school there are were probably where I found the most hope today. I think that we all hope the children of today will have a better world, but it seems like the people this church and this school are doing something about this.