Another Day at the Compound

Not too much to report today. I feel bad that we seem to keep hanging out in the compound, but this weather makes it hard to plan anything. We awoke with no concrete plans (still wanting to go up Monseratte) but Traci really wanted to get a jump on packing for Caragena. It was a fairly nice morning so after a couple of hours of that we decided to just go shopping for the kids. And, as per usual, it started raining soon after we got out. We are normally pretty hardy people but with two little kids fighting various illnesses, we didn’t want to be out in mess for too long. I think we got to visit one store which I believe is called Ganga Kids or something like that. And, no, they don’t sell tie-dye t-shirts and “smoking accessories.” It’s kind of like a smaller Babies-R-Us and a very nice store.

Today was the holiday Corpus Christie and Bogota again closed down some lanes on streets for the first part of the day (along with banks, government offices and courts). I think I mentioned this before but on Sundays they close down the streets and encourage people to ride bikes, run or go for walks. They did it again on this holiday. This works out well for us because it is much easier to push a stroller on the streets than it is on the sidewalks. It is also a little easier to cross streets. Nevertheless, the rain cut everything short and we weren't out too long.

I also want to add what a blessing it was for me that we purchased that little umbrella stroller last night. It might have been a little more expensive than what we would have paid in the States, but my back thinks it was worth it.

Lunch was a fried fish which none of the kids were too wild about. Traci didn’t eat much either and I ate most of my fish just to be polite. While we sometimes enjoy fish, this was pretty “fishy” tasting if you know what I mean. And we didn’t have any tarter sauce to drown out the taste. At least the heads were cut off. I heard a story about a dinner where fish were served with the head on and the guy asked that his be sent back so the head could be cut off. I’m kind of like that too. I don’t mind eating meat, but I don’t want it looking at me.

Maria is still fighting some sort of stomach malady and the ladies here made another concoction to help “solidify” he stomach. This one was a little different. Not as much too it and it seemed to be mostly rice and lime juice. She drank most of it, but refused to throw back the last swallow. It kind of worked. Things are getting better but she still isn’t 100%.

While Maria and Andres took a nap in he afternoon, the weather cleared again and Traci and I went out with Luke to try and continue our shopping adventure. The poor guy is starting to get home sick and was craving onion rings – or something fried and really bad for you. We checked out a couple restaurants and finally settled on a Mexican place called Todos Tacos. We just got some nachos and guacamole. It was pretty good, particularly the guac, and I think spending a little alone time with both mom and dad helped Luke a bit. He seemed much more his old self. He hasn’t said much, but I am sure he is anxious to go home.

As far as shopping goes, we still haven't purchased anything. Luke has his eye on a soccer ball and Traci really wants to get Maria some new earrings. She had a cute pairs when we got her but lost the back to one and it got a little bent in my pocket. It seems that all of the little girls here have their ears pierced from the time they are babies. All of the little girl babies in the compound and that I have seen have pierced ears. We'll probably buy a little in Cartagena and rush around to get stuff when we get back to Bogota.

There is a bit of sibling rivalry growing between Luke and Maria. She demands quite a bit of attention from me, and now Traci too. However, I would say this is a pretty normal thing. I’ve heard of kids getting jealous when a new baby comes into the house and I don’t see this as much different. He acts out at times to get attention, but hasn’t been too bad.

Maria is into this new “game” where she will pout every time we tell her “no” or order her to do something. And it isn’t just pouting with the bottom lip stuck out like Andres. She will break down into a full blown cry. Unfortunately for her, she picked a bad time to start this. Traci and I are just too tired to succumb to the “aw poor me” tactic. So, we just lay her down and let her cry it out. She is also exaggerating every bump or bang to the extreme (Bill Laimbeer style). Again, we tell her she is fine and let her work herself out of her pout. For instance, tonight when I had her and Andres in bed and was reading El Rey Leon (the Lion King), they were getting a little out of control and I told them “no mas.” She started pouting and I told them I was done reading. She immediately perked up and said she was okay. Faker!!! I expect this to last at least until we get home – but I also expect to be too tired to fall for it.

Luke, Traci and I took us a little longer to get back than we thought it might and I was worried that the kids would be scared if they awoke and found us not there (abandonment issues). One of the nice things about El Refugio is that if you want/need to leave for a brief period, the ladies working here will kind of keep any eye on the kids. When we finally arrived back at the compound, Maria was awake and greeted us at the door. She wasn’t sad or anything. Andres was still sleeping and didn’t even know we were gone.

Before dinner, our friend, Cathy, had all of the kids doing yoga downstairs. It was fun to watch and the kids loved it. I don’t know if she teaches that, but she should. Luke, Maria and Andres all participated – although Andres really just kind of sat next to Cathy and watched.

Dinner was fried plantain, and a rice dish with chicken and sausage (which looked suspiciously similar to hotdogs, but was good none the less). Of course, the kids all got “sausage” in their meals and papi only got one. I guess that is a feeling I should get used to also. I don’t think the fried plantain is going to catch on in the Jensen household. Luke and Traci didn’t care for it much and while I ate it, I won’t be craving it when we get home (plus, I don’t know if I have seen many plantain at the Hen House or Farmer Jack - but I have never looked either). We got mandarin oranges for desert which, naturally, were very good and the M&A devoured them. I think Luke has had enough of the local cuisine and he doesn't get nearly as excited for fruit for desert.

It may sound like I have been eating well, and I have, but somehow I have managed to lose weight (which everyone said to expect when I get here). This morning I even gained a new belt notch that I’ve never used before. Another month or two here and I’ll be as skinny as I was when I got married. I think some of it has to do with all of the walking but some also has to do with the fact that we are probably just eating a little better (and none of those Midwestern portions you get when you go out to each in KC). Traci and I were just talking today that there are no overweight people in Colombia. When we were at the mall the other day, we each noticed one overweight person (different people – she noticed a man and I noticed a woman).

And this was pretty much our day. Traci started packing for Cartagena not long after we woke up this morning and this process and of continued throughout the day. That is kind of where we are different. At the earliest, I probably would have started packing around 9:00 p.m. this evening. In fact, she and the kids were pretty much packed by then and I started packing my suitcase at that time. Carmen has assured us that we will be coming back to El Refugio when we return and is allowing us to place a couple bags in storage. This is a big relief because, while other places might be just as nice, we feel like we have friends here.

One last story: The family from Spain (that I earlier thought was from Italy) have been sinning this “Pincho” song to their new daughter at dinner time. All of the kids love it, particularly Maria. So, again in a broken combination of English and Spanish, they agreed to email me the song which is on my computer now. I don’t know if music is able to be posted on the blog. If it is, I will try to post it separately. Maria sings it all of the time and “Pincho, pincho” is now engrained in my head. I just thought I would share that will all of you. So I hope I can upload it.

Answer to question: Traci reminded me that someone asked about how difficult it was to take Luke out of school Well, he is only going to miss about a week and a couple of days. But what better education could he get at this age than spending a few weeks in another country? He has learned some new Spanish words (besides “po po” and “chi chi”), seen different cultures and tasted new foods. From what I understand his class has also been keeping an eye on this blog and his teacher e-mailed the other day with some questions which we answered with a couple photos. So in the end, I think he will benefit greatly from this experience.


Traci had to have a picture of this calililly because it was so big. So, I made her get into the picture to give it some perspective. As you can see, it is almost as big as her head. And this was just outside of someone's house.


While hiding out in the Ganga Kids or Baby Ganga store, I noticed that the rain didn't seem to bother most of the Colombian people that were out and about. I guess you just get used to this sort of thing and deal with it.


Luke and Maria doing a litle yoga. I forgot to mention that Luke also discovered the magic of the iPod last night. He watched a movie on it before bed (Invincible). Today he listend to music and really seems to like the headphones we snagged from our Delta flight over here. I guess I know what he will be begging for for Christmas.


This is Maria apparently doing some sort of yoga tongue exercise. Hopefully this will help her geting those missing syllables into her words.


More Yoga. Next to Luke and Maria is David, Cathy's oldest son. He was adopted from Colombia when he was a baby and is 5 now. He's a pretty nice boy and plays with Luke a lot. On the far right is Natalie who is 9 years old. She will be leaving for Spain with her mom while we are in Cartagena.


One of he street performers doing his schtick in front of traffic during a red light. I was kind of trying to be sneaky while taking this picture for fear that they would want me to pay for taking a picture.


This is a little out of focus for some reason, but it is Maria and Andres watching Beauty & the Beast. Just a couple of really cute faces.


Despite the earlier out of focus picture, we are pretty happy with our new camera. This and the following pitures were taken in our room with all of the lights turned off. This is Luke playing his Nintendo DS in bed. We let him stay up a little later because he is older. He also got a bag of popcorn because he didn't really like his dinner.


Here's little Andres sleeping in the crib. Those blankets should stay on for about 5-10 more minutes before they are kicked to the corner.


And this is what happens when you go from one to three kids. Actually, I bought a botle of wine on our first day here thinking Traci and I might have a mini celebration of some kind after we got the kids. We have been too busy/tired to drink it before tonight. Tonight we brought it out at dinner, but only because we didn't want it to go to waste. I did buy a 6-pack of Aguila beer (Sp? I am sure the Kitts will correct me if I misspelled) which wasn't too bad. But that was gone a couple days ago.



And it was a good night for the Detroit teams. I got to watch the Pistons again on ESPN Espanol, but still cannot find the Red Wings anywhere (and it is kind of hard at the moment to slip out to a sports bar). Sports channels are a little strange down here. In the middle of the afternoon, I can probably find 3-4 soccer games on TV. Luke and I were trying to find something to watch this afternoon and also found bowling. How bored do you have to be to watch bowling? Ask me when we are on our 3rd week in Colombia and i might be able to tell you.

We have been told there is internet access in our hotel in Cartagena. So, hopefully, our next post will be tomorrow night from there. If you don't see a post tomorrow, don't worry. We probably haven't found out how to get online. If you don't see a post for a couple days, someone please call the emabassy and our Congressman.