Colombia - Week 3

 Monday: We all got up and out the door and on the bus and to the school!  If felt like a big accomplishment.  Justus is getting very interested in soccar (futbol).  It's a favorite pastime and serious sport in Colombia.  He played with a couple of boys from the apartment complex after school.  Dane and I went grocery shopping.  

This week we tried some sort of little cookie made from yuca.  It was sweet and had the consistency of something between a crisp cookie and a meringue.  We've met some friends in the apartments.  An American/Colombian couple and one is an ex-ECA staff member.  They have three kids 1, 3, and 5.  Same as ours were three years ago!  They have been so welcoming and are so happy to answer our questions, explain cultural tidbits, etc.  

Tuesday: School at ECA.  The school lunches at ECA are pretty amazing.  It's basically a three course meal with soup, the main dish, some sort of fruit and dessert served with fresh juice.  There are always leftovers and I pack them up and that usually ends up being an extra meal for us.  I haven't had anything I don't like.  I'm not sure how the kids are going to return to their typical school lunches!

Wednesday:  School at home

Thursday: School at home

Friday: School at home

Saturday:  Dane's birthday!  He spent the first half of the day at a government office getting his Colombian ID (cedula).  Woohoo!  While he was gone the kids worked on some decorations for his birthday.  We borrowed some tennis equipment, reserved the tennis court in our complex, and played tennis.  The kids and I went out and got him some special birthday treats.  And then we had his favorite for dinner.  Pizza and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.  The only birthday picture I got of Dane was when we were playing a game.  

Our friends let us borrow some costumes, so I pulled those out as a surprise for the kids later in the afternoon.  We went to a couple of shops to pick up some items and the shop owners were giving out candy.  So the kids got to have some Halloween fun too.  And yes, that is Dane standing behind them, doing dishes on his birthday. 

Sunday:  We headed out around 8 am or so to tackle Monserrate, a mountain in downtown Bogota.  It was quite a climb with the kids.  There were some tears and frustration and they had to be encouraged to keep going (or carried in Naomi's case).  No tears from Justus though.  He was fine with it all and said he wanted to do it again the next day!  The hike is along a stone path/staircase.  At certain spots along the way up there are vendors selling food and souvenirs.  We thought there was just a church to see when we got to the top, but it was quite a bit more than that.  Shops and restaurants, more hiking around the site, etc.  We spent several hours exploring and then another hour or more waiting in line to take the train back down the mountain.  We weren't sure the kids would survive the hike down, but we probably could have made it down in the time we spent waiting for the train.  They call the train the funicular.  

Elise pointing to the church at the top of the mountain a couple of few hours before we actually made it!

As soon as we got to the top we located a peaceful place to sit down and have a snack.  Then we explored!

A clear day would have given quite a different perspective and view, but the cloudy day had it's own beauty too.  

We didn't get home until 5pm and had decided not to go to a gathering of some of the teachers.  But then they told me they had gotten a cake for Dane's birthday, so we went!  I'm glad we did.

Colombia - Week 2

This week we have decided to fully take advantage of the bakery that it right outside our apartment gate.  A dozen freshly baked delicious wheat rolls are less than a dollar.  There are bakeries all over the place and they are a common daily stop for local folks.  I will never feel the need to bake while living here.  Baking at high altitudes is more complicated anyway!  When the kids complain about some aspect of life here, we tell them to remember something they are thankful for.  The bakery is on the "thankful for" list.

Monday and Tuesday: First days of in person school for the kids since last March (first time ever for Naomi)!  Woohoo!  Elise doesn't start with her class until November 3rd, but she does her virtual school in the library with a cohort of other elementary staff kids.  I'm helping out in the library to monitor the kids (I'm trying to use the time to study Spanish too).  Here's the view out of one of the library windows.

We all love being at school.  We are taking the city bus to and from school.  The kids get done with school at noon, then we eat lunch together as a family.  After lunch the kids usually play for a little while and then I head home with them while Dane stays for the remainder of the day.

Wednesday: School at home for everyone.  The school wasn't open for the day because some demonstrations were happening.  Grocery shopping in the afternoon.  Dane is interested in trying out the snacks that we've never seen before so we got a guava wafer snack this week.  

Thursday and Friday:  School at home with the kids.  Dane went to the school to teach on Thursday and then participate on Friday, which is a day for the middle and high schoolers to come to the school for a "social" day.  The kids and I stayed at home in order for the internet to get worked on as well.  I don't really understand how the internet works.  Our current service is apparently being transferred to another ECA family and then we are getting a new service.  Not sure why they don't just set up new service at the other apartment.  They came Thursday, but couldn't complete the hookup, so said it would be completed the following day.  The didn't show up Friday and we were a bit stir crazy by the time Friday afternoon rolled around so got outside and burned off some energy.

Saturday:  We attempted to find a hike that Elise's teacher told us about.  We went the wrong way.  East instead of west.  It ended up being more of an urban hike, which was not what we were expecting.  We hiked up the side of the mountain and had some beautiful views.  Here are some of the pictures from our expedition.  First, a view of the side of the mountain that we were on.  We were up in the middle of all those buildings somewhere.  Dane took this picture to accentuate how development seems to work here.  Everything is really densely populated and urban and then, bam! there is nothing...maybe some cows or in the case of this picture, woods.

Now, some pictures of our "urban"hike.

Sunday:  It was an active day for Dane.  First he went on a 40 kilometer bike ride with a couple of co-workers.  That would be roughly 25 miles.  I was impressed!  The ride was on one of the main highways going north out of the city.  A busy road on a typical day, but on Sundays bikers take to the streets and take up one of the lanes.  Dane said that there were hundreds and maybe even thousands of bikers.

The afternoon was spent with several staff and friends from the school at a soccer (futbol) field playing ultimate frisbee.  Isn't the backdrop beautiful!?  We both played, but Dane put much more energy into playing than I did.  It's pretty exhausting running up and down a big field at over 8,500 ft in altitude!  Needless to say, Dane was pretty tuckered out by the end of the day.

A couple of random pictures.  The school's student council puts out a challenge each week.  This week the challenge was to carve a picture or pattern into a fruit or vegetable.  Justus took the challenge!

And you'll find Elise doing lots of this...

Colombia - Week 1

Warning: I'm using this space as a virtual journal for our time in Colombia, so a lot of words!

We made it to Colombia with such ease!  God provided us with a place to get our COVID test that was reliable and quick.  That was our biggest hurdle to being able to leave and get into Colombia.  

We were a bit apprehensive about the international travel with the kids.  Dane is registered to go through TSA pre-check (the security line where you don't have to take off any shoes, belts, jackets, or take anything out of your carryon bags).  For some reason he has had issues in the past with airlines letting him use his TSA pre-check status.  This time, it was printed on his ticket and on all three kids tickets.  They took all the carry-ons and breezed through security, while I went through regular security unencumbered with anything except myself.  So easy!

The pilots on both of our flights took the kids into the cockpit and on one plane even let Elise push a button to do some sort of check they have to do before takeoff.  Gran packed surprise goody bags for the kids for the plane ride.  They were thrilled and it kept them busy for both flights.

We were warmly welcomed by Erika, the ECA (El Camino Acadamy) HR department (she juggles a lot!).  She stayed with us for several hours helping us get settled in.  Then later in the evening the guard (we live in a gated apartment complex.  I know, fancy!) called our apartment and said several things I couldn't understand until I heard "abre la puerta".  Open the door.  Oh! ok! I opened our apartment door and a mom from ECA had brought us a big bag of household items and food!  So kind and welcoming!

Monday:  Settled into the house and explored the neighborhood.  We're less than a block away from a huge western style mall.  I have gone in a couple of times to get money and go the the dollar store (!), but my preference for groceries and other items is going to the shops that are all over the neighborhood.  We are at the northern periphery of the city and it feels urban in a very nice way.  Clean, LOTS of parks, people out walking their dogs and shopping, etc.  The kids got their first taste of Colombian street food.  Obleas.  Wafers with arequipa (kind of like caramel cream) in between!

Tuesday: We went into ECA for a staff retreat.  The kids and I mostly played outside and luxuriously read as much as we wanted in the school library.  We didn't bring any books, so the librarian kindly loaded us up with a big bag of books.  We met several people in person that we have only seen on a screen or communicated with via email.

Wednesday:  The internet was not yet hooked up at our apartment, so the kids and I met up with someone from the school and she showed us how to navigate the bus system.  Which is the main source of public transit here and a pretty extensive system.  We went in and used the schools internet for the day while Dane used a cell phone hotspot to teach from home.

Thursday:  School at home.  Dane was very hungry.  I'm still figuring out food, shopping and cooking!

Friday: School at home, dinner with some ECA friends that live nearby.  They have two daughters and our kids were the first ones they've played with since COVID measures started here.  Bogota was in pretty strict lockdown where kids weren't even allowed to go outside.  EVERYONE wears a mask here.

Saturday: We went on our first adventure into central Bogota.  We weren't exactly sure where we were going and went through some very interesting parts of town.  Not beautiful, but interesting.  The city seems to have their businesses clustered.  We got off the bus in the motorcycle area.  Hundreds of motorcycles!  Street after street of motorcycles.  We passed through several more areas and the kids definitely saw poverty like they haven't seen it before in their lives.  Elise was feeling distressed and then we came upon this beautiful, old cathedral and went inside.  It was old and in need of repair, but beautiful.  I think we all needed to see that beauty after seeing some of the harder things.

We ended with finally finding what we initially set off to find.  Plaza Bolivar, the main plaza in Bogota.  It was cordoned off and guarded by police because of some demonstrations that were planned.  Oh well!  We'll be back.  We wandered some of the more touristy streets of Bogota before heading home.  Dane described central Bogota as being pretty raw.  Not a city that people typically would choose to come to for tourism, but very interesting.

Sunday: church at home, rest time, family time, and grocery shopping.

Let me know if you want to see our apartment and I can send you a PDF that Dane put together that shows the apartment and complex where we live.  It's a lot of pictures so I don't want to post them all on here.

Pictures

Still no camera, but here are some from the past few months.  Oldest to newest.

Elise

Justus

Naomi

With Eli and Gibson

With The James Family and Joseph

This is my last picture of her with her hair.  Last week she and Justus decided that she needed a haircut.  Picture of her new Pixie cut coming soon.

Superman, a bat and and Egyptian princess

A picture update

Here are a few pictures from the past few months.  I've been without a camera lately.  The two handsome young men in the picture below dropped my camera outside right after we took that picture of them.  I found it 3 days later after it had rained.  It was still semi-functioning.  Enough for me to find the evidence that these two were the ones that dropped it:)  Then our house got broken into and the broken camera was stolen anyway.

These two like to get into trouble!

Naomi!

The three munchkins

The amazing James family

These three enjoyed getting a picture on the cannon

Gibson and Elise didn't like it so much

The whole Thanksgiving crew.  We missed James and his family

Most recent family picture
It's hard to get one of those with a husband and daughter who don't like getting their picture taken!

Post Thanksgiving meal hike

A kiss for making it to the top

Dad was our hiking guide

We went to a gingerbread house making party and had fun making this yummy house

We had a legitimate Christmas tree this year!

Not Walking!

She was walking until....

Look familiar?

The last two pictures are when Elise was 14 months old after breaking her leg.  These girls like to break their legs!  Naomi gets her long cast off on Tuesday (less than 3 weeks).  Then she has to wear a boot for a couple of weeks which will allow her to take a bath!

And then I'll leave you with some pictures of Justus and Elise at my friends' wedding.

cute

silly

Aunt Alicia is silly too!