Last weekend we went to a friend's house to show him how to make lasagna the "american" way. He and his family were all impressed with clayton's cooking skills. And as if they weren't impressed enough, we sang karaoke after dinner and clayt blew them away with his heartfelt rendition of "My Way." Here are some pictures from the fun.
.... the US Embassy sends you an email like this:
U.S. EMBASSY
BOGOTA
WARDEN MESSAGE
March 20, 2009
The United States Embassy is sending this Warden Message to remind
American citizens traveling to or residing in Colombia that Bogota and
other parts of the country remain a high threat environment for
terrorism and crime. This month is the first anniversary of what the
FARC is calling "Black March", which marks the deaths of three senior
FARC leaders in March 2008. While the Embassy possesses no information
concerning specific and credible threats against Americans in Colombia,
Americans traveling or residing here are strongly encouraged to continue
to exercise caution and remain vigilant.
American citizens and U.S. interests remain targets for terrorists and
criminal elements. All U.S. citizens are encouraged to exercise
caution. All official and personal travel outside of Bogota by Embassy
personnel is subject to review. In addition, the Embassy advises all
American personnel to avoid areas where foreigners are known to
congregate. Throughout Colombia, Embassy personnel are prohibited from
taking mass transit (e.g., public and private buses, metros, etc.) and
frequenting outside cafes and street-side exterior dining areas. The
Embassy strongly advises all Americans to refrain from using mass
transit as well.
U.S. citizens in Colombia should be proactive in taking security
precautions. They should vary their travel routes and the times of
their arrivals and departures, and remain aware of their surroundings.
U.S. citizens in Colombia should avoid large public gatherings or
demonstrations.
For the latest security information, Americans traveling abroad should
regularly monitor the Department's Internet web site at
http://travel.state.gov
Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts can be found. Up to
date information on security can also be obtained by calling
1-888-407-4747 toll free in the United States, or, for callers outside
the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.
These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time,
Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). American citizens
traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the
appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department's travel
registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov
In case of an emergency, please contact the Consular Section at the
Embassy in Bogota, Carrera 45, # 24B-27, Bogota, D.C., Colombia.
Emergency telephone contact may be made 24 hours a day at (571)
315-0811.
One of the things that makes living here so nice is the people we meet. So, here are a few photos of our friends and us, enjoying good times together!
Here I am with some of my co-workers from the Colombo Americano. Andres, Me, Alejandro, and Carla (the boys are Colombian, and Carla is from Taiwan, and happens to live right next door to us!)
Here are Juan and Clayt, moving our game of RISK, so we can eat the delicious dinner his mom cooked for us. We were at his apartment for the night to meet his mother, who was visiting from Bogota.
Here are Ximena and I, at a nightclub called LuLu's. Ximena is also a volunteer at the Defensoria with Clayton, they work on a lot of projects together. She is the one who invited us for the Calbagata, and to celebrate New Year's with her family.
Me and Alejandro, a co-worker from the Colombo, who has the best English i have ever heard from someone who has never been to the States!
Clayton with his co-workers, the Defensor - Andres, and Ximena, out for a night interview that just turned into a night of fun.
Clayton and Juan - apparently Juan did or said something very funny! Colombians have great senses of humor, it's nice to be around people who always make you laugh!
We have finally figured out the secret to uploading pictures successfully! So, hopefully that means we will be posting more regularly again.
About a month ago I started a volunteer job at an orphanage called Casita de Belen. It houses about 40 young orphans (children who are left on the doorstep, some as young as 7 days old, and other children who are removed from their families because of abuse). During the day they also have a school program for children from very poor families. The children are there for the school day, get lunch and snacks, and after-school care until their parents can pick them up. The place is swarming with children. I go on fridays, my day off from my regular job, and help with the babies, play with the kids, and teach 2 hours of English lessons. The kids are so warm, so loving, so eager to hug you. It's been a great experience so far. So, I was telling my one class of students (at my regular job at Colombo) about my experience, and they were interested in helping. So, they came with me twice, to help with giving lessons to the kids, and to visit with the little ones. I think it was a nice experience for my students and the kids as well.
Here's one of my students, Natalia, with one of the little ones.
Me with a little guy who liked to touch my face!
Snack time!
This little one wanted to be held a LOT, cried whenever we put her down, which is of course understandable, and sad.
Another shot of snack time.
Reviewing the english names for animals with the grade 3 students.
My student Diego with his group, playing a memory game i made for the kids.
Then, this past weekend, we were invited to go to the "finca" of the family who founded Casita de Belen. A finca is like a summer house, outside the city where people go to spend the day on the weekends. This finca was pretty impressive, with a large main house, 3 smaller cabins for staff and etc., and a stable for 17 pure-bred horses, seen below.
Here we are in the front yard, enjoying the rare opportunity to have our photo taken together!
Here I am in front of the house, enjoying the view. There were beuatiful flowers everywhere you looked, and an amazing view of the mountains.
Here we are horseriding! The horses were tall and strong, and a little willful, which made it a little scary for me... but we enjoyed it nonetheless, and had good company too, as the people we were riding with have been riding horses for over 13 years!
Some of the beautiful flowers around the house.
There were 3 baby horses born within the last month, and this was one of them!
Another picture of the vast array of flowers around the grounds.
And, lastly, a current event that wasn't so fun. About 11 days ago I was walking past clayton in the kitchen, and hit my foot against his heel in passing. Hurt pretty bad but we thought it was probably just bruised. 9 days later when it still hadn't improved much, I finally went to the doctor to get x-rays. They confirmed I had broken it, and ordered me to stay at home off my feet for 8 days. So, no going to work for me this week! Unfortunately, I didn't help it heal much in those 9 days before going to the doctor - i thought it would just get better, and was trying a little tough love, trying to do things like normal - going running twice, and even out for a night of salsa dancing... apparently not the best thing to do for a broken toe...
So, here i am at home self-medicating with ice on my foot and a glass of wine!
We have spent the last 4 christmases and New Year's in 4 different countries: USA, Mongolia, China and now Colombia. This year the holidays were pretty low-key for us. Christmas and New Year's here are holidays centered around the family and a few traditions.
So for Christmas Eve we went downstairs to visit with our landlord and her extended family. They all sat around having drinks and a few small snacks until almost midnight. Traditionally, here they don't eat christmas dinner until midnight, and then open gifts afterwards. Dinner was delicious, turkey, salad, and a few other side dishes, and then some dessert. After dinner presents were opened. It was certainly different from home. Only 2 or 3 gifts at the most for the kids, and some of the adults got gifts, others didn't. It was very low key, but everyone was happy and enjoying themselves.
After dinner, but before opening gifts, they pulled out this little book of - i don't know exactly - songs or prayers or chants, about the birth of jesus. They also pulled out some maracas, to shake while they took turns reading verses, singing, and chanting prayers. Even clayt and I got a chance to read aloud for the group (in spanish!).
For New Year's, we went to the house of a girl who works with clayton at the Defensoria del Pueblo. There was a very large group of her extended family there for the celebration, maybe over 50 people. Again it was a late night celebration, with dinner after the countdown at midnight. At about one minute to midnight, everyone gathered into a big circle, and counted down to midnight. At the strke of 12, everyone cheered and shouted "feliz ano nuevo!" Then, all 50+ people proceeded to circulate and hug and kiss each and every one of each other! It was a lot of love! After all the hugs and kisses (the most I have ever gotten in one day i think, besides our wedding day) everyone sat down to a big dinner, dessert, and more drinks. I think the biggest difference was that it was all family - here New Year's is all about family, not a night for going to the bars with your friends, like we tend to do back home.
A few days after New Year's a friend invited us to join her with her family for an annual tradition, called a Cabalgata. This is a horse riding trip that starts in the afternoon, lasts about 5 hours, and ends with a big dinner. Their extended family is fairly large, so there were about 40 of us altogether. Important detail - while on the horses, everyone drinks a lot of aguardiente, the local liquor of choice, made from sugar cane. So, by the end of the trip, lots of people are drunk on horses, riding through the forest in the pitch black. Luckily the horses knew the way well, because we couldn't see 2 feet in front of us at some points! We went across rivers, up and down steep embankments, and 3 people fell off horses. Clayton was one of those people, although he claims he jumped over the horse... He went to get on the horse, and sort of fell over the other side, into the mud. Everyone was very amused.
Unfortunately, uploading photos to this blog has been difficult from here, which is why it's taken so long to post this. So, we're going to try something new. Below is a link to the related photos on my facebook page. Just cut and paste the address into the address window, and you should be able to see all the pictures there:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55136&id=587007983&l=28b0e
Then a few days afterwards, we were invited to go to a place called calima lake with our landlord and her family for a few days. We would call it a "misdventure" of sorts, which I think Clayton may write a specific post for in a few days. So, here are some photos of New Year's and Calima Lake as well:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56498&id=587007983&l=43cf9
please let us know if there is any trouble seeing the pictures.
Are you familiar with this bird? It is the Tropical Screech Owl. Don't worry, I wasn't either until last week, when I ran afoul (get it?) of him. Let me tell you the harrowing story:
Most Saturdays I play racquetball with a guy who takes spanish lessons from me. He is an eye surgeon, and lives in a pretty swank pad in the North of Cali. There is a racquetball court there and he gives me a weekly beating (usually I start with a 10-0 lead, then lose 13-15). I am not too proud to take a beating, so it works.
Anyway, as we got ready to take the court last week after a 2-week absence, we noticed some dirt and bird feces near the door. Hmmm... this should have raised some suspicions, but, as I don't ride around in a van solving mysteries with my dog, I didn't get any sort of feeling. I just waltzed onto the court to clear more debris. Then I noticed something sitting at the far end of the court. At first I thought it was a piece of wood or something. My mind was really cranking trying to figure out what this thing was. You see, owls and racquetball courts don't go together in my universe of discourse, and my brain was struggling to catch up. Then, as it became clearer, I realized I was closer than I wanted to be to this wild animal, and stumbled back a bit, drawing nervous laughter from my companion.
Back out the door we went. We needed to formulate a plan. What would McGuyver do. First, inventory. We had racquetball equipment, a bag, two extra shirts, a small towel, and a long, weathered piece of wood that was leaning against the outside wall.
Plan 1: Roll racquetballs at the owl to scare it. It should then fly away. This plan was based on the false premise that owls are scared of racquetballs. I thought they would be, like any form of technology above owl-level would be frightening. I was wrong. This is science. This is why we do it. So, we proceded to roll racquetballs at the owl. A few misses, then a direct hit. We laughed. The owl hissed at the ball. Its mouth, when open, was huge. It was like half its head opened up. This drew more laughter and conscious positioning toward the door for escape routes. The last ball drew a kind of beak strike from the owl. This plan failed. Back to the drawing board.
Plan 2: Scare the owl away with a display of power using our racquets. The premise here was that, although unintimidated by our superior technology, the bird would fly away in the face of our sheer physical superiority, mental acuity (using tools), and loud voices. I took two racquets: one to flail around menacingly and another to cover my face with in case of owl attack.
So, we stomped and yelled and flailed. The owl hissed and put its wings out to show us its physical presence. I must admit, I was a little intimidated. More than once our display of power was interrupted by the owl doing something unexpected (turning to face us, for example), which drew jumps and unmanly screams. This is especially funny given the macho culture down here. Plan 2 failed. Like Wile E. Coyote, back to the drawing board.
Plan 3: We can obviously get really close to this thing (we were within 2 feet of it at one point). Let's give it a tap and see it fly off. Show it we mean business. And here let me tell you a brief and related story. The whole time I was really the one out front. The Dr. was a little farther behind me. He kept telling me "it can't see you in the daytime, it is kind of blind in daylight" Then the thing proceeded to look RIGHT at me and hiss. I question the veracity of his hypothesis. If it can see well at night, shouldn't it be able to see in the day?
But back to plan 3... So I crept close to the god-aweful, evil looking bird. It was not moving. It was staring me down with its wings out. For a size estimate, I'd say the bird was about the size of an american football. Maybe a little bigger. But with its wings out, it looked at least the size of a basketball. Now would you want a basketball full of wings and talons and beaks flying at your face? So I got within 2 feet again (damned racquetball rackets are short!), and I gently nudged the bird while protecting my face with the other racket. The bird flew up, we panicked and ran back, the bird came back down about 3 feet from where it had been. I turned to look at the Dr., as we both felt the adrenalin surge. While my back was turned, the bird flew up again, scaring the crap out of me.
OK, we've got movement. I decided to be a bit more bold. Have you ever tucked the edge of a tennis racket under a ball on the court floor, then whipped it up quickly, propelling the ball into the air and across the court? Well, it seemed to me that the same principle applied. So, overcoming my fear (kind of), I touched the bird with my racket. It hissed and looked really angry. It would have been angrier if it knew what was coming next. I whipped the bird into the air, and it travelled about 12 feet, then settled back to the ground. Don't worry. I didn't hit it, I merely shoved it. Or shoveled it, or something. It didn't fall. It flew back down.
Emboldened by my success, the Dr. got the large piece of wood (maybe 5 feet long), and used it like a hockey stick to nudge the angry and rumpled bird further toward the door. Again, he took no slapshots, but kind of pushed the reluctant and petulant bird toward the exit. We both took turns moving the bird until it was near then door. I had to get closer than I would have liked to in order to position it in front of the door. Then, triumphantly, I shut the door, pushing it outside. No feathers were lost, and the whole process took about 20 minutes.
relieved, I opened the door to our stuff. But like some horror movie, where the antagonist can never quit be killed, the owl was still there, right outside the door! That scared the hell out of me. I slammed the door shut, and cursed at the bird, calling him stupid and worse. The Dr. however, had an insight. The owl was not stupid. We were the only people who used the court. We hadn't played in about 2 weeks, so the bird had flown in the open window and set up a nice, roomy home. He was fighting against eviction. He didn't want to leave. Evidenced by the amount of bird droppings, he was used to this place.
So, in one last effort, I cracked the door, and nudged the bird again with my racket and it was off, flying high over the apartment complex and away. That was the last straw and the owl decided to find a new place...
or retreated to his hide-out to plot his revenge.
Today is a little bit surreal. I am walking down The Sexta, a thick vein of bars and salsa clubs and sketchy dark corners that runs through our neighborhood, down to the main grocery store. The street is covered with flour. Everywhere are people with hoses, looking a little hungover and pissed, cleaning everything (kind of how I picture the other Keebler Elves who weren't in the commercials). All the tables, all railings, even all the morning-after garbage is covered with flour. I just passed a man having a friendly conversation while balancing a mounted ox head on a park bench. My glasses are halfway across town, hanging on someone's Christmas tree (an idea I knew would probably turn out badly, but that I pressed on with anyways). And I know all of these disparate events are somehow related... to... America de Cali, winner of the Mustang Cup - Championship of Colombian club soccer.
So here in Cali December is like Summer vacation. School is out for a month, and there are tons of events leading up to and during Christmas. One of the big things here now is the festival of lights. There are lighted decorations up all over the city, but primarily along the river. These are no ordinary christmas lights, they are fairly intricate and show scenes typical to this city. We walked about checking it all out on 2 separate nights, as did the entire rest of the city - it was so crowded! Anyways, here are some photos of the highlights:
Here is me and Luc Estella, under some of the lights, and a little girl came up to see aureliano just as clayt snapped the picture.
He is Clayton hamming it up with one of the light figures.
These last 2 pictures are from the teacher's picnic the Colombo had this past weekend. As you can see, it was a good time!
