Colombia - Week 5

Hmmm...what happened this week?

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!  It's rained daily.  Typically it's been dry but cloudy in the mornings and then rain in the afternoons.  Twice this week Dane arrived home quite wet.  One evening we went out grocery shopping a couple of blocks away and arrived back home dripping wet.  My goal this weekend was to buy umbrellas.  I've met my goal and have already been thankful for the purchase on two separate occasions.  We read that October was one of the wettest months in Colombia, but in our Colombian experience it has been November.

Monday and Tuesday were the typical in person school days and Wednesday-Friday was virtual school at home.  Afternoons saw lots more indoor playtime due to the rain.  Remember the lack of toys I mentioned in the last post?  Well, a very lovely family, that had just arrived back in Bogota and was sorting through their toys offered us their collection of big Legos.  Hallelujah!  When the kids saw them for the first time they all really truly squealed with delight.  It has given the kids hours of fun this week.  They may have caused a few fights too, but well worth it!

Friday:  Despite the very wet week, we didn't have water on Friday.  The water to the entire building was shut off to do some maintenance.  It was scheduled from 8am to 4pm, but when we woke up at 6 it was already off.  I wasn't quite prepared for that.  But our amazing neighbors let us borrow a couple of large jugs of water and saved the day.

Then, the kids had their first (and probably last) sleepover while here.  They (meaning Elise) had a very detailed schedule made out that had the kids staying awake until 2am.  Thankfully, everything on the agenda didn't happen or else happened faster than the allotted time she gave it and the kids were all in bed by 10:30pm!  But with a movie, s'mores and storytime they had a fun evening and were up again raring to go at 6:15am.

Saturday:  We took the gang of 5 kids to hike the mountain near our house.  because of the excessive rain during the week it was a very different hike than the first time.  Slippery and muddy, but still fun.  I left Dane on the top of the mountain with all five kids because I had to go meet someone to run an errand.  On my way home I prayed that no one would get injured as they played on the mountain and climbed back down.  Well, God answered.  I learned later that Naomi was climbing the big tree and fell out.  She fell about 8 feet and landed in such a way that only resulted in a couple of bruises.  If she had fallen on the other side of the tree it would have been a 15 foot drop.  Thank you, God.

Dane got out to explore some on his own.  He went downtown and explored the Candelaria district and Bolivar Plaza.  Pictures not currently available!

Saturday evening we had some friends over to play games after the kids went to bed.  

Sunday: We all slept in a bit!  We woke up to beautiful bright blue skies with white clouds.  It seemed so wonderful after the gray, cloudy, rainy week.  That weather lasted about half the day and then the clouds rolled in.  We found a new grocery store near our house that was described to us as kind of like Aldi.  In the states we love Aldi, so we were happy to find it.  We stocked up on some pantry items.  Church at home again.  Please pray that we can find an in-person, Spanish-speaking church that allows children.

Two new foods this week.  

Curuba.  Translates into banana passionfruit.  

The inside was slimy with lots of seeds and an interesting looking shell after everything was eaten out.  We just scooped it out and ate it.  It was a bit sour.  I learned later that it is good to make a sort of smoothie with it by adding some milk and sugar and straining out the seeds.  We'll try that next time.  We all liked it, but I definitely prefer the pitaya.

We had heard about this delicious chocolate bread at a nearby bakery.  I saw it but thought it looked more like a Christmas breakfast sort of treat.  I couldn't resist it any longer and bought a loaf for the sleepover breakfast.  All I can say is yum and probably lots of calories!  Here's a peek into the bag!

An addendum to the post.  Dane and Justus went on a walk.  They found a pirate ship tree (per Justus) and a merry go round that works!