Round Two

If calling this post 'Round Two' sounds a bit pugnacious, it's because getting back here has been just that.  Not only did I 'lose' my blog, but every effort to get back to it failed because the search engine always switched to spanish, and when I finally solved that problem, the site would not accept my password and would not let me change it!

But, fnally - here I am - it's 8:15 in the evening as I begin, and it's cooled down to 90 degrees now - should hit the  mid-70's sometime during the night.  I'm so grateful for an air-conditioned bedroom. 

Life has settled into a very comfortable, if slightly boring, routine here.  I've switched my spinning classes from evenings to mornings, so start my day by walking to my 6:30 am spinning class.  Giradot is very different at this time of day - very little traffic, the streets have just been swept and cleaned, and there's usually a fresh breeze.  Speaking of traffic, I have a new appreciation of the need for so many 250cc - 500cc motorcycles.  Not only are many people quite poor here, but there are few safe places to park cars in town during the working day and/or in neighborhoods over night.  I would never have thought of these small cycles as family transportation, but it's a frequent sight to see them going down the road with dad driving, mom on the back holding a baby off to one side, and an older child smooshed between the parents.  Back to the daily routine - after spinning, I come back home for a shower, tutor a little girl in english for an hour or so, have a late breakfast, then head off to the library (to read, work on spanish, etc.) for 4-ish hours.  I think it's the only building (other than banks) with ac in this area.  Late in the afternoon there's time for a few errands, then "cena" (the light evening meal), after which I meet with Ingrid, a young woman I met who wants to improve her english, so we're trading tutoring:  I help her for an hour, then she works with me for an hour.  And that's about it...slightly boring.

But of course there just has to be a fly in the ointment. And for me, once again, that's bugs - or more specifically bug bites.  None of those awful ants time, but every night, I was getting 4 - 8 bites from something and they itched like crazy for days.  Of course no one else here gets bitten - just me.  We tried home remedies - they even had the dog treated for fleas - with no luck. In desperation, I soaked my silk underwear (a present from Todd & Renee I'd brought for when I'll be in the mountains) in permethrin, and tried sleeping covered from head to toe (in this weather!) - plus socks - in my 'poison pj's'.  It cut down the bites, but I ended up having to see a doctor, who prescribed a (very spendy) repellent for what, as it turns out, is an almost microscopic mosquito. So small they go though any fabric.  I surely wish I knew what it is about my blood chemistry that's so irresistible to bugs...

The food in this area is so different from Ecuador and Peru.  Bland is an understatement:  virtually no spices and few herbs. But fresh, with fresh juice to accompany every meal.  Lunch - the main meal - is served sometime between 12:30 and 2:00 and is a 3 or 4 course affair:  salad; soup; fish, meat, or chicken; rice or potatoes; and fresh juice. "Tipicos" include patacones (fried green plantains that are absolutely addicting), pan de yucca (also addicting - a bread made from yucca flour;  they're best fresh - all the local bakeries make them twice a day), arripas (a type of thick corn tortilla), and avena (a chilled and sweetened oats-based drink that's very rich and memorable).  The family I stay with has a cook who's outstanding - I don't think I've had the same main dish twice.  One day she made an amazing fruit salad unlike anything I've ever tasted:   lulo fruit in a sweet/tart fruit aspic - wow!!  I had to take a picture.  And then I decided to include this picture of a fish dinner we had at a reserva ecologica named Santafe.

This is a shot of the mountains on the way to Ibague.  The entire area is ringed by beautiful mountains - the view is never the same twice, because of the mists. 

Below are a couple pictures of the "inside" of the house I'm in.  It's hard to describe, but some rooms have ceilings, and others don't - they're just open to the sky.  When it rains, some rooms/parts of rooms get watered - it's pretty neat! 

A picture of Lolita - a wonderful little girl...

And a picture of Angie, the little girl I'm tutoring in English - she loves to use my little netbook to practice her alphabet and spelling - and I've figured how to access some Sesame Street videogames or her.  They're too juvenile, though...sure wish we had book stores here.

Some of you may wonder "how's the spanish coming"?  Slowly.  Very slowly...there just are no resources here - and trying to learn by 'talking' to people just doesn't work.  They can't understand much of what I'm trying to say, and I sure can't understand their rapid local cadence.  In addition to Ingrid, I've met another woman - she's also a teacher - and I'll start working with her on Saturday. other.  But the total time will be under 8 hours a week.

A note to Merry Jo, Kendall and Heather:  Practice the 'usted/ustedes' forms and forget using "tu", at least if you plan to come to Colombia!  Here, 'tu' is reserved for the only the very closest personal and family relationships.  One of my 'tutors' told me that even for best friends of many years, it's still 'usted'!

Last week I got so fed up with the few really hot weather shirts I brought that I ventured out shopping.  Major disappointment - only one store carried anything even remotely in my size - the women here are so petite. I ended up in the men's department to get a t-shirt for sprinning.  But - the good news is that there's a strong cottage industry of seamstresses and incredible fabric stores - sort of like we had back home 10 - 15 years ago.  So I bought some fabric, and am having 3 blouses made @ $9 each.  The process is interesting - no patterns are used.  The seamstress hands you a bunch of magazines and you show her blouses or features of blouses you like, then he takes your measurements and tells you when to come back for a fitting - generally 4-5 days.  So on Thursday I'll find out if the process works...

This has gotten quite way too long - and without substantial content - likely to bore even my most dedicated friends...mea culpa!  Hopefully next time I'll have more interesting things to talk about.  Love to all -
Beau/Karen/Mom

With apologies to those who may get this twice...I'm testing the 'automatic notification' feed.  If you got it twice, please let me know...thanks for your patience with my learning curve!

Introduction

This first commentary will be repetitive for those of you who got my email last week.  But -compulsive me - I'm going to start at the beginning:  January 12, 2011.  

Things got off to a rocky start in Detroit, but, in spite of the best efforts of an overly zealous counter agent in Detroit, I was finally allowed to board.   The agent had first decided that I was not an "American National", even though she didn't know what an American National is.  Nor did any of the supervisors on duty that morning.  A call to someone off-site cleared it up for her (I still don't know the definition) and she was off to the next hurdle:  because my flights in and out of Bogota are 4 months apart and we from the US can stay in Colombia only 3 months, she said it was not legal for her to let me go. And my explanations that I was staying in Colombia only 2 months, then traveling elsewhere until time to fly back, were irrelevant because I couldn't produce any booked travel tickets or itineraries to prove it.  Finally, an unidentified off-site official gave me the green light - with just minutes to spare. Fortunately, customs in Bogota had no concerns.

Unbelieveably, today is Friday, January 21 - day 10 of this venture! 

I've included a few pictures of Giradot, Colombia - my temporary home town - swiped from their website. (Giradot is pronounced "here-a-doe").  They don't convey the reality of this place, but I haven't been out with my camera yet, in part because I'm living smack-dab downtown and the only thing I could take pictures of are the throngs of traffic and crowded store fronts.   Giradot is far from the small bucolic village I had envsioned - the population is 450,000 people!  It's very hot - temperatures so far have been in the high 80's, with substantial humidity.  The mountains around the town are pretty impressive, but the town itself is quite flat, and very green with acacia trees in abundance everywhere.

Giradot spreads out from the Rio Magdalena - see picture.  One would not voluntarily enter this water.  I don't know yet what the source of pollution is, but it's major.  To the right of the bridge is Giradot's sister city, Flandes.  I've been told not to go there because it's dangerous. 

This last picture begins to convey a bit of the flavor of Giradot.  It's a poor city,

and the downtown seems always teeming with people and motorcycles.  Especially motorcycles - I swear every citizen must own one.  The problem with the traffic is that although there are a few traffic lights, about 95% of the streets have no stop signs, so it's chaos!


So far it's not clear exactly what I'll be doing, but we had a really promising meeting last week with a local social worker who's also involved with the local school.  It's looking like I'll be assisting the high school English teacher in the mornings, then having two small groups of high school students to or three afternoons a week, to give them an opportunity to practice conversing with a native-English speaking person.  The ability to speak English is highly valued here, but none of the English teachers here are native to the English language, so even their best students have terrible accents and speak poorly.  In this entire town, there's no ESL program - I'm sure a person could set up shop and make a fair income if they wanted to.  Which I don't - it's just too hot here.

One story and I'll call this quits.  The first full day that I was here in Giradot, their maid/cook asked me - in Spanish - if i liked soup and of course I said yes.  Then she ran a list of ingredients past me, and I thought I had understood all of them and kept saying yes, yes.  But when the soup came, it was clear that I had missed one very important ingredient, big time.  The soup had garbanza beans, some veggies...with pieces of meat that were clearly not muscle-based, and I knew I was in deep doo-doo.  I tried the beans/veggies part - fabulous - then tried really hard to chew the "meat" but just could not - it was way too grisly.  Got most of it down by swallowing pieces whole.  Later learned it was stomach soup.  I refused to ask from what animal...some things are better left alone!

More Later...