Wow! Where did the past two weeks go? Our time is FLYING and we have
so many things yet to accomplish. Monday comes around and before we know
it, it's Friday. Our daily activities are becoming more and more
routine as we get organized and I can only remember what to write about
if I jot down some notes as I go along.
Monday.
Let’s talk about dogs. Colombians love their dogs. As we were waiting
for our taxi to arrive this morning, we saw the “dog walker”. We have
seen him several times before, but this time my camera was handy and I
managed to get a picture. We commonly see other dog walkers in various
parts of the city doing the same thing. So there must be lots of willing
clients. And we see NO cats. Ever. Feivel Mousekewitz should have come
to Colombia.
 |
| The Dog Walker |
Tuesday. As I have mentioned before, there are a lot of taxis in
Bogota (maybe 50,000 official and 10,000 unregistered). There are mostly
very small with lots of miles on them - think 350,00 to 400,000. This morning we had a very rough
ride in one with more miles than normal. It didn’t feel like there was
much between you and the road. We were near our destination when we
noticed something in the road ahead. Did I mention that the streets of
Bogota are also full of potholes? As we stopped for a light next to the
object in the road, we noticed that someone had tried to lessen the
jarring by stuffing a mattress in the hole. We wondered aloud how long
that would last.
 |
| The Average Taxi |
 |
| Taxi Fight |
 |
| License and Fare Chart on the Back of Every Passenter Seat | | |
|
|
 |
| Yes, That is a Mattress |
Mike had a sorrowful afternoon, as his computer finally gave up its
pixels and died. Last night he had a premonition (it had been
overheating) and decide to download all of his files onto an external
hard drive JUST IN CASE. Was he ever glad he did that. Tender mercies. Once the monitor
went, it would have been difficult and a time-consuming effort to
recover them. Whew, dodged a bullet. So we left for home early and headed to
technology row on Carrerra 14 between Calle 70 and 80. There you can
find hundreds of small businesses engaged in all facets of technology.
It is an amazing place. As we mentioned in a prior post, they even
recycle computers at sidewalk booths. Fortunately, the intense
competition drives prices down to near-U.S. levels. Unfortunately, we
had failed to realize that 98% of the computers sold in Colombia come
with Latin keyboards. Mike did not want an ~ over his n’s. Five hours
and three near-sales later, he finally found what he wanted and we then
went through the agonizingly slow process that comes with buying anything of
high value. We were tired and ready for sleep when we finally slumped into
bed. Now he has to learn Windows 8!
 |
| Is There a Spirit World For Laptops? |
Wednesday. The taxi interiors here are always decorated with
various religious artifacts or other personal items. It is fun to see
each day what each driver has used to personalize his ride. They also
sometimes push the driver’s seat way back so it almost touches the back
seat. We have a personalized ritual of our own. We always get in the
taxi from the back passenger door. I get in first and slide to the left.
Then Mike gets in and puts his backpack between us - so I have to deal
with the driver’s seat. The driver always puts the front passenger seat
leaning forward, so Mike gets the most room (still very little). While
Mike gives the directions, I note the license plate number and driver's name in
my iPhone (the list is growing and we have only had one repeat driver).
We always note if the driver does the Catholic “cross” at the cemetery
(there IS a correlation between this and the number of Catholic icons in
the taxi interior). I always pay at the end and we always exit from our
corresponding side doors. While I search for the correct bills, Mike
manages to practically fall out into the street as he extracts himself
from the back seat. Then he usually opens the other door for me on the
driver’s side. We always close the doors very softy - for some reason
they are very sensitive about that.
 |
| Adorned Taxi |
Thursday. When we cleaned up the office last month, we found MANY
keys of various sizes in drawers and almost everywhere you could
imagine. One of our volunteers spent several hours today trying them in the locks
one by one. We found exactly TWO
that opened something.
 |
| The Unknown Keys |
Friday, the 14th, we enjoyed another stay at our beloved Bogotá
J.W. Marriott Hotel down the street. The occasion was Valentine’s Day.
Shortly after arriving in the room, we heard a knock at our door. It was
the hotel delivering a long-stemmed red rose to all their guests for
“El Dia de Amor”. At the time of this writing, twelve days later, the
rose looks as beautiful as it did that day. Fresh flowers here are
REALLY fresh, since they come from fields right outside the city
(many of the flowers sold in the U.S. also come from Colombia). In the restaurant, we
enjoyed a lovely buffet served up for the American
holiday that has gone mundial. Since the locals never eat before 6:00 p.m.,
we had the place to ourselves. They had a “cazuela bar” where you could
pick the seafood you wanted in your soup. That was a first. We ate too
much.
 |
| Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! |
 |
| The Marriott Restaurant |
 |
| The Dessert Bar |
 |
| The Chef Takes Us for a Tour |
 |
| Valentine's Day Salute |
Saturday. We actually got a late check-out time of 4:00 p.m., so
we spent 24 delightful hours in hotel heaven. The shower is much better
than ours, with pressure and plenty of water, so we kept taking showers!
The room was so well insulated that none of the usual street noise
entered. I guess this is why we slept until 9:45 a.m.! It was a
beautiful balmy evening in Bogota (balmy for here anyway) and Mike went
out on our deck and got some interesting pictures of the night clouds
reflecting the light of the city. As we looked down, we saw the recyclers
hard at work going through the garbage across the street. They know the
garbage pickup schedules and strip the cans and sacks of anything that
can be exchanged for cash.
 |
| The Recyclers |
 |
| Night Clouds |
Sunday.A quiet Sabbath day spent in our home ward.
We both took long naps in an attempt to recover our energy for the long
week ahead.
One of my more embarrassing moments is all I remember from
Monday,
the 17th. Hermana Amaya came into our office in the afternoon and
offered us some sort of sweet treat. The little sugared goodies looked
just like cinnamon donut holes (they were actually something made from
the tamarind fruit and tasted nothing like donuts or sugar). I felt a
sugar rush just looking at them, so I graciously took one and popped it
into my mouth. As my teeth came together, I knew I had made a grave
error. I should have remembered my Latin American dessert rule -"if it
looks delicious, DON'T eat it!" Mike was watching me out of the corner
of his eye, as he had already chewed into his and knew how I would
react. I waited for Hermana Amaya to leave the office so I could empty
my mouth, but she began chatting with Mike. I held the thing in my mouth
as long as I could stand it trying not to let my saliva churn. When I felt
the gag reflex starting to kick in, all I could think of were the words
from Revelations 3:16, "I will spew thee out of my mouth." I took a
piece of paper and quietly prepared to spit the thing out. Just as I
did, Hermana A. turned around to say something and caught me in the act.
Whoops! Luckily, she laughed, but I felt so bad! (Four days later she
brought in a "ball" for us to eat which appeared to be a
delicious-looking spherical, deep-fried donut three inches in diameter.
When she mentioned it was filled with cheese, I hesitated. Remember the
great cheese hunt from previous posts? Most Latin cheese really makes me
gag, but she stood in front of my desk eagerly waiting for me to take a
bite. I did and faked a convincing, "Yummm!" Luckily for me, she left
the office and I repeated the paper spit. Keeping the thing on my desk, I
slowly cut bites from it so it appeared that I was eating it. Instead
each bite went covertly into the bathroom and disappeared with a flush.
 |
| Mike Eating the Cheese Ball |
Tuesday. Mike had the great idea to buy some squid and slice it
up and deep fry it. The only problem was what to coat it with. After
choosing between the whole octopus and the squid wings (we bought the
wings), he decided to cook the pieces in pancake batter. To make a long
story short, that recipe is not going in the keeper file.
 |
| Hmmm.....Octopus or Squid Wings? |
Wednesday, the 19th, our phone finally got programmed to make
long distance calls and Mike called his mother and I called my sister,
Marianne, to wish her a Happy Birthday. Marianne and Scott are building a second home
in Heber, UT, so she was there keeping tabs on the progress. It will be
so fun to have them there, because it is only about 40 minutes from
Mike's mom's house in Morgan, where we visit often. I had my next to
the last hair appointment. It was time, as Mike had commented several
days earlier, "Boy, you are really getting gray." Maybe he thought I
hadn't noticed even though I look at myself in the mirror every morning.
It will be nice to get back the soft fingers of my beloved hairdresser,
Tara, who makes shampooing a relaxing massage instead of a
hair-pulling, torture technique. Mike had a nice nap during the process
and he woke up to a younger-looking wife.
Thursday,
was the first day of our long-awaited Open House for the Centro de
Autosuficiencia. We have been cleaning, painting, dejunking, grouting,
replacing broken furniture, cleaning floors and windows, and working
hard for six weeks to get ready for the event. Mike bought yellow daisies that adorned the reception area as a finishing touch and the
place looked great.
 |
| The Open House |
Friday. Since all our CAS/PEF missionaries worked until 7:00 p.m.
for the Open House, I volunteered to provide almuerzo (lunch), which is
the
main meal for the day. Our apartment has a crock pot, so I decided to
make Taco Soup. It would be easy to transport by taxi, since could cook the meat beforehand and then take all the rest of the
ingredients in their cans. It was a good idea and things were going
according to plan until I discovered that I left the meat at home in the
refrigerator. Everyone was so busy with our Open House guests, that I
didn't want ask anyone to go back home with me. Feeling brave, so I took a
taxi home and back all by myself. This meant I had to communicate the
address and directions in Spanish, asking the driver to wait while I ran
up to the 6th floor and grabbed what I needed. I apparently succeeded,
as he was waiting for me when I came back down. The taxi driver and I
actually engaged in conversation most of the way back to the office and
he was very sweet, complementing me on my Spanish. Mike apparently was
beginning to get worried at about the 30-minute mark, so he had Pilar
call to see where I was. At that point, I was within five minutes of the
office, so all was good.
 |
| KR Serving Lunch |
 |
| Our Elaborate Open House Refreshments |
Several times on the daily ride home, we have passed an interesting
small business venture - the "Rim Man." (our moniker). This entrepreneur
has made a business of collecting hubcaps that pop off wheels. With
all the potholes on the streets, it happens ALOT! He pulls his large
cart along the road attaching the hubcaps one by one to his cart. By the
end of each day, he has accumulated a decorative stack about six-feet
high. I assume he takes them home, cleans them, and then resells them,
probably to the original owners!
Saturday
afternoon, a neatly dressed young woman entered the office and I
welcomed her to the Open House. Hermana Amaya took her on a little
tour, then showed her into our office. The day before, this woman's
husband walked out, leaving her with five children (ages 13 years down
to 3) and an impending apartment eviction. She shared that she had come
today because she couldn't cry in front of her children and then the
tears began to flow. Mike gently talked with her about her options and
reminded her that she belonged to a church that would never abandon her. They discussed the necessity of finding a job now to at least
provide food for her family. He advised her to talk with her bishop
tomorrow so a plan could be made to help get her through the immediate
crisis. So many people have such difficult challenges (we see them
daily) and we must all be willing to help when and where we can. We
definitely are our brother's keeper.
It was an enjoyable three days of explaining to members, the general public and church
leaders what we have to offer them. They were of all types - church
leaders coming to see what tools are available to help their members,
people looking for work, others hoping to start their own businesses,
and students interested in the Perpetual Education Fund . We have a list
of 15 persons for the Auto-Empleo (self-employment) workshop and about
20 have signed up for the Taller de Planificacion para el Excito
(Planning for Success). Mike and I will teach the latter workshop, which
is required for all PEF students. When we announce the actual dates and
times, we expect to have a flood of people sign up, since lots of new
people will be excited to begin the program. Changes in the PEF program
(one being the former age limit of 30 years is now gone) will result in
many more applicants, so we expect to be very busy. The people over
thirty are very excited for the opportunity to further their education.
We also learned today that we may be heading over to Medellin and
Barranquilla to train new CAS/PEF missionaries and volunteers in those
offices. Looking at the calendar, we will be running to the very end of
our time here.
 |
| Open House Guests |
 |
| Mike Hard at Work |
 |
| Late Saturday Evening |
Our taxi ride home from the office took an unusual turn. We left about 7:00 p.m. and five minutes into the ride, the taxista pulled off the road to look at his tire, which he discovered was losing air. Night had descended and the roads were dark. He drove a ways further, until he found a tire shop open. When I say "tire shop", think a little hole-in-the-wall space with stacks of tires out front on the sidewalk and a few hubcaps and rims hanging on the walls. The driver asked the employees if they had some air, but they had turned their compressor off for the day. He drove another half a block, crossing over three lanes of traffic and turned left onto a one-way street, stopping at another similar tire shop (remember from previous posts that all the stores selling the same things congregate in the same area). This place gave him a no go also, but suggested going to the place we just left or one across the main road we had just turned from. Backing up the one-way street, the driver then proceeded to continue backing around the corner onto the main road from which we just turned left. He was intent on crossing to the other side of the road in order to turn right, while we sat hostage in the back seat of this little taxi going diagonally backwards across three lanes of traffic. I kept telling Mike we should get out and catch another taxi, but he didn't think the neighborhood was the kind where two gringos should stand on a street corner in the dark of night trying to catch a taxi. The funny thing was that our driver never said a word to us during the entire ordeal - never asked if he could get another taxi for us or never apologized for the inconvenience - not one word. He finally found a shop that offered to help him change the tire. As the very small car rose into the air with us in it, Mike and I sat looking at each and smiled, shaking our heads. We finally made it home an hour later and he casually took our money as if nothing had happened.
Sunday's are always happy days, as we get to be with our ward family. It really felt like family today when one little five-year-old threw her arms around me and said, "Grandma!" I melted, picked her up and gave her a big hug, and closed my eyes for a moment to imagine it was one of our grandchildren. Mike walked back to the family's bench a few minutes later to say hi and the little one said, "It's Grandpa and he's a big grandpa!" After church, we kept getting hugs and loves from the other children in the family (they are Americans and the father works in the American Embassy). They have finally dropped the word "fake" from our title, so now we are just "Grandpa" and "Grandma". A young couple from the U.S. visited our ward today. When I asked what brought them to Colombia, they shared that they came to volunteer at an orphanage to celebrate their fifteenth wedding anniversary. "It sounded like more fun than laying on a beach somewhere." Wow! Thank you, kind people!
