Week 2 in Bogota Draws to a Close

So it's hard to imagine that we've only been in Bogota for 2 weeks. I guess that's because we left home back in Boise about 5 weeks ago and have basically been traveling for over a month, spending our first 3 weeks in Florida. Then we only spent 3 days in Bogota before hoping the bus north to Paipa. Spending 3 days there and then back to Bogota for a busy weekend.

I guess all that activity makes it okay that this week we really didn't do much. Monday was a Colombian holiday and while nobody could tell us why it was a holiday they did have the Ciclovia open which is awesome. (If you haven't already you have to check out this video on Ciclovia, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELa5CHsUepo.) On Monday I was able to use the Ciclovia routes to check out Parque Simón Bolívar which is Bogota's version of New York City's central park. This park is awesome. We all went there on Tuesday and enjoyed about 5 different large playgrounds but decided we'll come back some other day to kayak around the lake or enjoy a concert.

Other than that we laid pretty low this week. The boys took turns getting sick, first Javi and then Jojo so we were required to stay home a lot. I finally got around to hooking up the Wii only to discover that we had left our controllers and all but 2 games somewhere back in Boise. So we're having a lot of fun playing Big Brain Academy over and over again.

We setup my wireless router at our neighbor Senora Teresa's house. She's been an awesome help to us and we now have access to our email without walking down to one of the many internet cafe's in our neighborhood. The connection can be a little bit sketchy but it'll work for now and I've been able to get a couple of photo albums up on Facebook.

I'm loving Bogota but sometimes you really miss the comfort and routine of home. Not to mention the comfort of a warm house, the insulation in the houses here is nonexistent and 48F is a little chilly inside even for me. We're still in vacation mode and living out of suitcases. Nayibe had to get on me the other day for wearing the same shirt 2 days in a row, or was it 3. It wasn't that I was trying to be dirty I just didn't want to unpack. Suitcases can get a little old after a while but it's all part of the ride and it'll be worth it all in the end.

Jojo is a chatter box now and will start picking up Spanish like a champ in another week or two but for now even though everybody tells us not to speak English in the taxi's Jojo just won't keep quite, "Daddy, we go up now. Daddy, we go down now. Daddy, we been there! See Daddy, that where my balloon at! Yes Daddy! Yes! We go Jojo's house now? Yes! My balloon pop go boom. Yes Daddy!" Then he pauses to breathe and I say, "Si, Jojo"

Javier has impressed me with the confidence he's gained over the last two weeks. He's hanging right in there with the boys in the neighborhood and always trying out new Spanish phrases. And like the typical big brother always reminding Jojo, "Don't speak English in the taxi" to which Jojo responds, "No JAVA!" At least he's trying.

My favorite things about the trip so far?

• One morning this week we ran out of juice and arepas for breakfast and at 7:30a.m. I walked around the corner and bought both for the equivalent of $2 USD at a little neighborhood shop. I love neighborhood shops.
  
• I love the fact that I'm not working as much and have been able to help teach Javi school. We've started really simple multiplication and covered the comparison and contrasts used by the author of Proverbs. (Do you realize how tricky teaching Proverbs word for word to a 7year old can be? Proverbs 5:19 anyone?)
• We have a small park right across the street and whenever I come back from a run the boys have to go running with me. We usually make one lap around the park before doing 5 pullups and then playing on the swings. It's great!

Anyway, enough for today. It's late and if I want to enjoy Ciclovia before church I'm going to need to get up early.