exploring the Chocó.

I (Matt) was lucky enough to join an MCC Learning Tour that came from Canada (Abbotsford) whose focus was to visit some of our partners, churches, and workers in a region of Colombia called the Chocó. The Chocó is a region located on the north-west coast of Colombia mostly made up of rain forest.  It is sparsely populated, quite poor and undeveloped, and also apparently the wettest place in the world. I can attest that although it did rain every day we were there, it was the near 100% humidity that was really a kicker. The day I arrived I was waiting in the airport for the rest of my team to arrive, and I was sweating buckets just sitting in the airport doing nothing, indoors in a (slightly) air-conditioned lobby. But that was nothing compared to walking around in the heat of the jungle. From the airport, we took a bus several hours south to the town of Istmina, the site of the very first Mennonite Brethren church in Colombia.

A picture of Istmina from the river. There is one big bridge separating the town in two and a large Catholic church on the hill. This was our main base while visiting the churches and communities in the area that MCC supports and partners with. This is also the end of the line for the road into the vast rain forest of the Chocó. From here on out, it's only boat travel.

A typical small community on the river down from Istmina. The area is prone to flooding, even more so with climate change and illegal mining. One of the things MCC funds and the church pastors work on is disaster relief related to flooding.

Walking up the path from the river to the town of Bebedo, with a traditional hand-carved canoe that is a common site in river-side towns. The town of Bebedo is only accessible by boat and requires several hours of travel on the river. There is not much opportunity for people here, but there is a thriving MB church. Work is hard to come by, so most people are farmers.

These coffee bags can be filled with either rice or rice husks. With the help of MCC, the pastors in the Chocó have developed an agricultural program to help people husk their cultivated rice. Rice can be sold for profit and the husks can be used for fertilizer or animal feed. The pastors also help train and subsidize farmers to move to growing cacoa – the plant used to make chocolate.

This is one of the pastors working in the agricultural project, with the rice-husking machine in the background. There are not many working rice-husking machines in the area, so what this community has is a valuable commodity. The agricultural project charges farmers to use the machine just enough to cover machine maintenance.

The cacao fruit growing on the tree. Bigger and uglier than I thought it would be – but it makes up for it by smelling nice.

The harvested cacao ready to be processed into chocolate. I was told it is a tricky plant to grow, especially in the extreme heat and wet of the Chocó, so specialized training and taking extra care are necessary. A cacao farmer can make an okay living, and a living that is safer and more stable then other crops, so it is an attractive option. The pastors have seen many people switch products, something some armed groups have not been happy about in the past.

One of the pastors preaching in the MB church in Bebedo. Many of the pastors support several different churches in both Istmina and along the river, taking turns spending a couple days in each community. The MBs planted churches all along the river, but the situation with the armed groups eventually made it so that some communities became unreachable. Bebedo is about as far as us foreigners could safely travel, and only with the pastors escorting us. Even then, some people were surprised we made it that far.

A little meeting square in Bebedo. Not much to do around here without electricity, except watch the old coconut tree. It is a simple life out in such communities, but still anything but easy. Luckily, you can take a break on a comfortable concrete bench.

A wall of green, everywhere you look as you travel on the river. Armed groups still operate in the area, despite the recent Colombian peace accords. At some point on the journey, we were told to put the cameras away to prevent us from accidentally taking a picture of something we shouldn’t.

Tons of tuk-tuks, something I haven’t seen much of since Copan Ruinas, Honduras. Here, they call them Choo-choos, which is a much cuter name and makes me hate them a little bit less.

This is a cup of Borojo juice. The Borojo is a brown, squishy fruit that is native to Colombia and can almost exclusively be found in the Chocó. This was the first time I have been able to try it and I was looking forward to it. Although, after all the hype I can say that the taste was slightly underwhelming. Some people say it has a kind of fermented apple taste, but I thought it was more like a floral apple taste. Pretty mild though. Not my favourite, but not bad either.

One last picture flying out from the capital of the Chocó, a city named Quibdo. You can see where the two main rivers meet into one, but as you can see, the waters don't feel like mixing for some reason, creating a cool looking 2-tone effect, and perhaps a metaphor for something.

I was moved by the people and the nature of the Chocó, and I feel lucky to have experienced it firsthand. We got to see a tiny glimpse of life there and it is full of a lot of hope and transformation, but also a lot of hardship and fragility. Places like this remind me of why I love to travel and work in cross-cultural ministry where you get to see incredible places and meet inspiring people hiding in every corner of the globe.