Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

Went downtown and picked up another 150,000 pesos.  Running really low on money now.

Took a bus downtown to Exito and picked up a few things.

Went to her house for lunch.  Soup, something that seemed like a potato pancake, a piece of crispy fish (pretty tasty), rice and mango juice with a piece of spice cake for dessert.

Reina has a small sofa and a chair, Dilan’s mattress, a large 4-piece stereo, several small end tables, a bulky television and bags of miscellaneous items to take to the apartment.  The driver was supposed to be there at 12:30, then 2:30.  I think he finally showed up about 3:30.  (I had heard about Colombiana Tiempo where your guests who you invited to your house at 7pm don’t show up until 8:30pm but this is the first time I’ve experienced it.  The meetings we’ve had have been pretty much on time and the refrigerator was delivered on time.)  It was amazing how he fit all that stuff in his small car.  The mattress and sofa went on top of the car. I had the television in my lap.  Almost everything else went in the trunk.  After about 5 minutes it started to mist and he stopped and picked up another man (Jesus, the bed man from Monday).  They put a tarp over the sofa and mattress and tucked in the ends.  At the apartment, after unloading everything, I stayed at the apartment and started cleaning windows; first with paint thinner where there was glue from the “Arrienda” (For Rent) signs and then with the Colombia version of Windex and newspapers.

Reina went to cousin Angela’s to pick up her small breakfast size table and 5 chairs she had stored there.  So finally, we’ll have some minimal furniture.  At least we won’t have to stand anymore to eat.

After they came back and unloaded everything the driver left and Jesus stayed and basically re-stained the dining room table, cleaned the glass table top, installed a light fixture on the balcony and our “rigid metal clothesline” that goes in the laundry room, fixed a broken telephone table, put up the 2 pictures from my step-sister, and fixed a broken light switch from the master bathroom.  All for only 60,000 pesos (about $35).  He joined us for dinner.  Reina made soup, rice with chicken and mango juice to drink.  BTW, my iPad came in handy as I used the flashlight app while he was working on the balcony in the dark.

The apartment is starting to look more livable now.