Monday, April 29th, 2013

Today’s my 100^th day in Medellin, Colombia!

2 more days and I should have some money in my checking account!

I was able to make a final cup of coffee with what’s left in my jar of instant coffee by scraping out what I could and then pouring some hot water into the jar and finally into my mug.

8am An SUV pulls up and a man gets out and opens all the utility boxes in the driveway.  He is wearing a uniform with EPM stenciled on it.  I think he is checking the electric and/or gas meters.  

Utility boxes in our driveway/sidewalk.

These same utility boxes are in the sidewalks outside almost every home and business.  They can be found both downtown and in the neighborhoods.  But the covers on many of them are broken leaving a large hole almost a foot wide by about a foot and a half long and a foot deep.  Some of them have large rocks tossed into them in an attempt to at least block the large hole.  So pedestrians have to constantly be looking down so they don’t step into one.  (With the litigious nature of the US one incident and accompanying lawsuit and they would all be fixed quickly.)

8:25 a truck pulls up across the street and they deliver 6 rolls of a light blue material.

9AM Reina gave me 800 pesos (45 cents) and sent me to a local store to buy a couple of carrots and 1 pasta de magui (? Paste).  (I took my last 50 peso coin with me just in case.)  On the way I was surprised to see 9 men and 3 women actually playing a basketball game on the basketball court.  I gave the man at the store the note Reina had given me and he gave me 3 good sized carrots and a small cube that said Caldo de Gallina on it which I later translated to “chicken broth” so I guess it was like a bouillon cube.  And it cost me exactly 800 pesos.  Reina told me she would be able to get 5 or 6 carrots for the same price in her neighborhood.

Angel’s learned a new trick.  His mouth is large enough and strong enough that he can now pick up his small rubber balls.  Now when I play keep away with him with my feet he catches up to the ball and then carries it away and hides under the sofa so I can’t get it.  He is also starting to learn how to play fetch.  I’ll throw his little squeaky plastic dinosaur and he’ll run after it and bring it back to me on the balcony.

I asked for, and Reina gave me, her Cedula number – 43 555 159 – which I will use at Exito for her to acquire extra points.  

11:30 My brother emailed me he had put $40 into my Citibank account.  I checked and I see it in my account.  Now we can go buy some food this afternoon.

Lunch was simple: chicken and rice with chicken soup and nothing (but water) to drink. 

I was lying on the sofa and one foot brushed the big toenail on the other and it darned near swiveled off.  Remember the one that turned black and blue on day#3 from my new gym shoes?  Something like that had happened years before (ran over it with a vacuum cleaner) and it took at least a year for a new one to grow out.  There isn’t much left holding it on now.  I don’t like the idea of pulling it all the way off myself; guess I’ll let it slough off naturally.  That should happen soon enough.  I remember when I was reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, Cheryl Strayed mentioned she lost 6 of her 10 toenails from all her hiking.  lol.

We went down to Viva and I took out 70mil from the ATM machine.  Because it would allow me to take out as little as 10mil, it’s now obvious to me the amount it allows you to take out (minimum & maximum) is based on how much you have in your account.  I withdrew 50mil and then another 20mil for my limit.  I still have 39,021.14 pesos left just in case CitiBank fines me $10 this month for being under the minimum average daily balance.

We then paid Exito a visit and bought milk, chicken, eggs, arepas, COFFEE, sausage, cheese, saltine crackers, and more bouillon cubes.

I’m watching my favorite all time movie – Shawshank Redemption – on Netflix on my iPad.  I was very surprised it was free.  

5pm Dylan came in.  He says the old Dell computer I gave him doesn’t work anymore.  The screen appears to be shot.  Maybe he should have used it just for school, as intended, instead of always playing music and goofing around with Youtube!

Reina and I gave Angel a “bath” using something we had gotten earlier from the vet at the pet store.  It’s similar to talcum powder - you just rub into his fur to give him sort of a dry cleaning.