Americas

I grew up for my early years in a place called Lomalinda, in the rolling plains of the Meta province in central Colombia. Google Maps image at 3 degrees, 18', 17.17" North 73 degrees, 21' 43.65" West.

Lomalinda means "beautiful hill" in Spanish, and the name fit.

The land was donated to the government for the use of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) by a Colombian army officer who owned the ranch land in that area. Settled in 1964 by a group of a dozen or so SIL workers including my parents, Lomalinda grew to a population of around 300 during the height of its use. It served as the center of operations for SIL in Colombia for thirty years, a time in which much was accomplished to analyze the languages of the indigenous peoples of that country.