So when's the last time your house was without water?

So, this happened to us today and in a 'good' neighborhood in Cali.  About 3:00 or 4:00 this afternoon some signal went off and everybody in the house started filling up containers with water. Apparently going without water is a common enough occurrence here that people are prepared for the occasion.

When Jojo promptly indicated that he had to go #2 later tonight I was reminded of my early years at Nana's house where you had to fill up the commode with a bucket of water  before commencing to "flush it down". I guess the more things change the more they stay the same, huh.

It was also another reminder that no matter how glitzy the shopping malls are, how accessible gringo style food is, or how much you can spend on clothes Colombia is still a third world country and presents it's own unique set of challenges.

Our lunches in Cali

So just so you know I wasn't making up that part about trying not to gain 20 pounds here in Cali. Here's a picture of our lunch from yesterday.  They make something like this for us everyday and it's awesome.

Yes there's rice everyday and yes that is fresh squeezed lemonade in the background.

"We're all American"

One of the things I learned on my first weekend in Colombia was that although those of us living in the United States like to call ourselves American's others lay claim to the title as well.  At our first church service they welcomed some missionaries from the States then added this little tongue and cheek statement about the missions team,

"They like to call themselves our American brothers but we like to call them our gringo brothers. Because you know, we're all American."

I had honestly never thought of it before but they were right.

Hanging out in Cali

So, we've been in Cali now for almost 5 days. Wow, I can't believe it's been that long since I've been online! Anyways, it's been pretty busy since we arrived last Friday. Highlights of the trip so far include:

• A very short plane ride of 1 hour instead of a 10 hour bus ride.
• An afternoon spent in La Forteleza with one half of Nayibe's family. Javier and Jojo had a blast playing with their cousins. We had some slamming homemade soup (I told you Cali would be all about soup!) We also watched a lot of kids march up and down the street in devil costumes with really big drums dancing and asking for money, I think you payed them to go away! Suprisingly the boys actually liked it. Javi actually wants to buy a drum. I'll upload some video and pictures later.
• We went to a Nazarene Church down here with our friend Diego. Let me tell you Mom and Dad it's nothing like the one you attend back home. But it was awesome to see that they have about 5 services each Sunday with several hundred people each.
• This Monday was another one of those Colombian Holiday's and Tio Memo took us to a club with a swimming pool up in the Farallones de Cali on the Rio Pance. The water was cold and the sky was overcast but we had a lot of fun.

All of Nayibe's family really goes out of the way to make us feel at home here and show us the city. The only real challenge we have is not gaining 20 extra pounds during our stay. The food is incredible and plentiful, it just keeps coming.

Of course, the reason we're in Cali this week is because Nayibe's grandmother Rosalba has been very sick. She was able to come home last Saturday but was taken back to the hospital again last night. It's been really tough on their family especially Nayibe's aunt Nancy who lives with her grandparents. You're prayers for her and their family are greatly appreciated. We actually staying at Rosalba's house during this visit so that we can help out, well so Nayibe can help out my job is basically to coral the kids when Nayibe is needed.

Anyway, that's the Cali update for now. We're doing well and enjoying the warmer weather... oh and the boys are enjoying Spanish cartoons this week too.

And We're Off... again.

So after managing to spend almost 2 weeks straight in Bogota we've gotten the itch to get back on the rode and for the next two weeks will we trade in the cool, dizzying heights of Bogota for the hot, steamy, salsa driven nights of Cali, the self proclaimed salsa capital of the world.

But wait before you start getting the image of us dancing the night away under an equatorial moon let me interrupt by reminding you that all of Nayibe's immediate family in Colombia lives in Cali. Furthermore we will be staying at her grandparents house. So lets all just replace those rather festive images with homemade soup, rice and to bed by 10:00 p.m.  

Some of you may remember that Cali was the location of last years flip flop zip line and paragliding incidents but I expect a more mellow trip this time, although you never know in Cali.  We are going to try to have a 'Gringo Style Dia de Gracias" or Gringo Thanksgiving since we will be in Cali over the holiday.  I'm pretty sure the whole pilgrim thing will be lost on them but I'm kinda looking forward to the opportunity to butcher my own live turkey. And it gives us an excuse to get a bunch of the family together and party which is always exciting.

Nayibe attended her first woman's bible study at our church here in Bogota today and then helped make some signs for the church to use this weekend. I think it went pretty well although I was  safe hiding upstairs working on getting some donated laptops ready for a language and Internet cafe the church is setting up as part of a community outreach project.

It took a while but Jojo had fun playing with his new friend Matilde, Jorge and Ginny's little girl.  Funny story, I was over at their house yesterday by myself working on the computers and when Matilde saw me she said, "Jojo!"  and now every time she sees me she says, "Jojo!" and her mom says, "Yes, Jojo's papi." which I think is what Matilde means anyway but it's still cute.

Warning: next post may include some 'Salsa'

Notes from Mami...

I wanted to start the post by saying, 'Really, it's only been two weeks since we've been in Bogota'!!  Don't get me wrong it's been fun, but please do not think it's always been easy.  As I wrote a friend earlier today...I'm beginning to realize (once again) that just because it's God's Will doesn't mean it's going to be without trials.  There are so many things we are accustomed to back home.  Here are some examples:  I have a washer but no dryer (which means we wear clothes more often and it takes a day or two to dry so we have to plan ahead), in order to start the stove I have to turn on the gas (which is located outside and turn it off once I am done), no microwave (enough said, right moms?!), no heater so we wear layers of clothes), when we are walking down the street we are constantly watching over our shoulder to see who is around us (oh yes and I turn my ring in order for it to just look like a band), and keep the boys VERY close because there are no vehicles that stop, even when it saids 'PARE', oh yes and washing everyone's underwear daily...those are just some examples. 

This evening we went to Jorge & Ginny's house (our missionary friends).  Andrew worked on fixing some laptops, while I was outside with the kids and Ginny.  By 6pm everyone was outside playing games (taking turns with a bouncy ball or frisbee) and yes we had a time of fellowship over bread and hot chocolate.  I am AMAZED with how easily pleased these children are!  And though we have lots of toys in storage right now, our boys are perfectly fine with a couple of cars, sidewalk chalk and a ball, and their new friends.  They LOVE the time they get to play with the neighborhood kids (some who are orphans, others have parents but work all night so they sleep during the day, and some children truly are just left to wander).

We took a some new cars with us and also had a little bag with some of the boys cars.  Before we left Javi and I walked over to the boys....you should of seen these boys faces, they lit up (yes, over one little car).  I was so glad Javier was there with me and helped them pick out which one they wanted.  They kissed me in the cheek, hugged me and said 'Dios te Bendiga por pensar en nosotros' (translation:  God Bless You for thinking about us)...of course, I cried!  They also thanked Javi (he extended his hand to say bye) then next thing he knew they gave him a big hug said thanks and Chao Javi!  As we were walking back, Javi looked up at me and said, 'Mom you were right, it does feel good to give stuff away and not hold on to it'.  I hugged him :)  Ohhh...it's so sweet to see them 'get it'...it made all the little inconveniences seem like non-sense (and it is!). 

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.

Second Breakfast & Chocolate with Cheese

One of the things I've found in Colombia is that they love to feed you. In fact the day we left Paipa last week we bought some food for breakfast in the morning so that we could get an early start just to be served the following once we arrived at our host's house.

The food was awesome but I told Nayibe that I felt like a hobbit having 'second breakfast' all the time. Guess I'm going to have to run another lap around the park.

Javier loved it though because they had what has come to be his favorite meal of this trip Colombian cheese, hot chocolate and bread.

And yes... like a real Colombian Javier put the cheese in the hot chocolate.

Colombia Week 1 Recap

Well we've completed our first week in Colombia and to quote my lovely wife, "We've only been here a week! Feels like 7 years."  We've done a lot since arriving in Bogota on Saturday Oct. 25, 2008.

My most pleasant surprise has been how easy and comfortable we've felt getting around the city. We've ended up mostly traveling by taxi. Since there  are four of us shorter rides are actually cheaper in a taxi than on the bus. A half hour ride from our place to the north of the city only costs about $5-7 depending on the day (Sunday's and holiday's are a bit more).  We've used the TransMilenio (Bogota's subway style bus system) a couple of times and we'll probably use it a lot more if we end up getting an apartment closer to a station. Currently we're about a mile away and that's a decent walk with the kids. While we've tried the regular street buses, or busettas as they're called, they're a little crazy and after Javier almost forgot to get off with us last time I think we'll stick to a less chaotic means of transportation.

Paipa

We've ended up splitting our first week between Bogota and a little village 3 hours north called Paipa.  Paipa is known for it's thermal hot springs which we took advantage of.  It was also our first chance to take an intercity bus trip, or floata. I thought taxi drivers in Colombia were crazy but bus drivers take the cake in the crazy department.  Paipa was great and we plan to add a couple of more posts on our trip there later.

Church

We attended our friends church in the northern part of the city again this week and we're really liking it. The ministry in the neighborhood around the church that our friends Jorge and Ginny are doing is really awesome and we're hoping to be able to find a place closer to their neighborhood so we can be more available to help. There are a lot of boys around Javi's age in the neighborhood and our boys have a blast every time we're able to visit and they learn a lot of Spanish.

What's Next for FamiliaHanson?

Right now we're still staying in the house in central Bogota getting to know the city and enjoying our amuerzo ejecutiva (that's an executive lunch at the local restaurants. Usually soup, meat, rice, salad or potatoes and fresh fruit juice of some kind.  It usually costs about $3.00 USD. Two plates feeds our whole family). We did some apartment hunting this week. Nayibe's family friend Conseulo is coming to see us this week which should be a great help with the boys and with the house. 

We just heard today that Nayibe's grandmother in Cali was taken to the hospital this week so it looks like we may move our Cali trip up to next week to go see her.  We're in the process of finding the best way to get there plane, bus, etc. So the travels and adventure continues.

Cerro de Monserrate

On our first Monday in Bogota we traveled to the top of Cerro de Monserrate.  Monserrateis a Bogota land mark  and is known for its statue of Senor Caido or Fallen Christ which dates back to the 1650's. At 3160m high Monserrateoffers an awesome vantage point and there are excellent views of all both the central, northern and southern parts of the city.

There are three was to get to the top of Monserrate walk, funicular railway or teleferico (cable car).  The cable car only operates on the weekend and walking from 8,600 ft to 10,000+ ft in elevation with a two year on my shoulders didn't sound like much fun so we took the railway.  While the railway does go straight up the mountain I don't think it was quite the roller coaster ride that Jojo and Javier were hoping for when they stepped into the car although they were pretty excited about the tunnel.

As expected the view from the top was incredible. Even on an overcast day like we had you could still take in the whole city. We've traveled to the more upscale northern part of the city already but I was amazed to see how far the city stretch out to the south of the valley and up the southern mountains. Much of which, to my understanding, is basically slums.

Unlike many of these tourist type 'churches' that I've visited before they still conduct daily mass at Monserrate. They even had one scheduled while we were there, about 10:00 a.m. Luckily we got into the building and took some pictures before the priest came out with his acoustic guitar... which I thought was a little out of place.

Beside the view and the church the flowers and sculptures were pretty neat. If you start from the exit of the railway you can walk path with statues every 20 feet or so depicting the Passion of Christ.  Adding to the statues were some amazing flowers and gardens making.

On the lighter side Jojo didn't care much for the altitude and I had to carry him on my shoulders for the whole trip, that is of course when he didn't want to jump off of the rocks and statues. We also saw a lot of people who were running up the trail to the top of Monserrate so maybe we'll have to try that one of theses days when we can get a  baby sitter for the boys... I'm not running up that mountain with Jojo on my shoulders.

Enjoy the pictures.

 

Slim Jim Pizza

As promised here's the picture of the Slim Jim pizza... viva America! ... and Colombia too.