Reina informed me last night there
wouldn’t be any garbage pickup today and sure enough there isn’t any garbage out
on the curb this morning. I guess today
is one of their many Monday holidays. According to my copy of Culture Smart - Colombia the Essential Guide to Customs & Culture:
“The Colombian calendar is full of days off work, a combination of both
religious and national holidays. Urban
residents celebrate their days off in a low key way with family and friends… There
are so many public holidays in Colombia that it seems like every Monday is a
day off work. Many of these today are regarded as simply days of rest rather
than specific religious holidays.” Reina
reminded me that many Colombians work on Saturday so Monday gives them a much
needed extra day of rest.
I forgot to mention one important
point from yesterday. Dilan told his mother that he and Laura were robbed the
night before. They were in the El Poblado commune (a rich area) and at
knifepoint were relieved of their money and cameras. Laura lost her pay from the last 15 days of
work. They were only able to get back
home after Laura called her parents and they picked them up in their car.
I told Reina about the pepper spray
I brought with me and she gave me permission to tell Dilan about it. It’s small enough that you can carry it unnoticed
when you are walking in an area where you might feel threatened. I’m going to take it with me next time we
take a lot of money out of an ATM.
I emailed CitiBank and asked them to
add a space before Int201 in my address.
Added my address and telephone
number to the US government’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). Now they know where to contact me in case of
an emergency.
About 1pm we took a bus
downtown. We stopped at a kiosk and
Reina had copies made of her and Dilan’s Id (Cedula). We then went to some governmental office and
waited in line (seated) for her turn to talk to somebody. After about 45 minutes in a stuffy, hot room
she got her turn. After a few minutes we
went up 1 floor where, thank God, at least it was fairly cool. After about 5 minutes we were sent back to
the same room. After another 5 minutes
we were done and took a hot, stuffy bus back home.
Actually we stopped at Exito first and
I called John Escobar and invited him and his American friend Tommy Cornish to
our March 9th housewarming party.
Reina hasn’t given me a time as yet so all I could tell him was sometime
in the evening. Then we stopped in Exito
and picked up a couple loaves of bread and a small package of crackers for 7mil.
On the way out we splurged and she
bought a long roll of candy that looked like beef jerky and a large chunk of
coconut for about 2mil from an outside vendor.
You’re supposed to take a bite of the hard candy and then a bite of the
coconut and chew them together. It was
interesting at least.
Regarding
police cars
Police
cars here have the flashing red and blue lights but I haven’t heard any
siren. And nobody seems to try to get
out of their way; they just sit in traffic jams like any other car. (So what’s the reason for the lights?)
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