Wednesday, May 24, 2017

I only got up once during the night although I was awakened twice by car horns and once by some people talking outside our window.  I finally was awakened at 7:15 by the worst case of squealing brakes I’ve heard in Medellin so I got up.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, this morning Teresa declared that she believes the rainy season is over.

I see that my attempt(s) to donate $5 to Colombia Reports using Paypal not only worked but it went through twice.  We’ll see if one of them fall off.  I’m not too concerned as it’s only and additional $5.

I left the apt for the 10:30 US Embassy meeting.  I had 3 options to get there: 

1. Metro bus to metro to estacion Parque Berrio, taxi or walk a few blocks to meeting. 

2. Envigado bus to downtown Medellin to Avenida Oriental and get off a few blocks from the meeting.  

3. Take a taxi directly.

I chose the latter to make sure I was there on time.  I often do that the first time I go somewhere new.

I walked to downtown Envigado where I showed the driver the address of Colombo Americano in downtown Medellin.  We bantered back and forth a few times and I finally understood he wasn’t familiar with the building but he would ask when we got close to the intersection.

We moved pretty quickly until we crossed San Juan (Calle 44) and were about 8 blocks away when traffic slowed to a crawl.  I was carefully watching the cross streets and counting the addresses when ½ a block away he makes a right turn and asks another taxi driver for directions.  What, he doesn’t know how to read addresses?  Of course the other driver pointed back the way we came.  We were now sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and not moving so I paid the driver the 18,000 pesos, got out and walked back to the corner, across the street and ½ a block further I was at the right building. 

I asked the security guard for the theater and was told 3^rd floor.  I walked up the stairs and found a sign that said Theater 1.  I went inside, it was crowded, and I was guided to the mezzanine where I got the last seat.  I was 15 minutes early and was so happy I was able to get a seat.  It looked like the theater sat about 300 people and soon there were a few more people standing downstairs in the back.  I started getting nervous because they all looked more Colombian than American.  Is it possible the meeting is in a different theater?

The meeting started at 10:35 and a woman sat on the stage at her laptop controlling the slides that were put on the screen.  She made a short introduction in Spanish.  Uh-oh.  Why is this in Spanish?  She introduced another woman, they put up the first slide and it was in Spanish also.  She started talking in Spanish and I was thinking about leaving.  A man standing in the aisles below asked her something and she switched to English and thereafter, even though all the slides were in Spanish, she spoke in Spanish and then in English.

What I learned that was new:

1) There are approximately 10,000 Social Security recipients in Colombia.  Now, that doesn’t mean they are all retired gringos.  Judging by the audience I would say most of them are Colombians who put in their minimum 10 years working in the US and are, or soon will be, eligible to receive SS.

2) You only need to submit the biannual Proof of Life form (SSA-7161 or SSA-7162) if your address is outside the US.  Since mine is in Miami I shouldn’t have to fool around with that any longer.

Almost everything she talked about was in regards to Social Security and Medicare.

She gave us some long URL address – https://co.usembassy.gov/es/u-s-citizen-services-es/social-security/es/fbu-contact-form/es/ but I don’t remember what it’s for.  I just tried using it and it didn’t work so obviously I got something wrong.  (For security reasons Teresa didn’t want me to bring my phone but I saw other people taking photos of the slides; not a bad idea.)

Just before the end of the meeting a man came around to each row and handed out small pieces of paper with something written in Spanish.  Later, per Google Translate I found it said:

Department of Social Security Federal Benefits.

The assistance of the Social Security Office is exclusively by email: Sjregion@ssa.gov.

When writing should include your name, 2 phones, last 4 digits of your social security, country from where you write and brief description of your application.

Please avoid duplicate entries and DO NOT respond to the automatic response you receive when writing to us. We will respond to your request within approximately fifteen (15) business days.

At the bottom of the piece of paper was written co.usembassy.gov.

The meeting ended at noon, 30 minutes later than scheduled.  A lot of people hung around to get a free Proof of Life form to fill out and turn in right away.  I took the opportunity to escape.  Outside I quickly, and surprisingly, hailed a taxi.  I asked to be taken to the metro.  Traffic was very slow and because of one way streets he took me down to estacion Prado.

I caught a metro train and got off at estacion Industriales.  I walked past the 2 large Grupo Bancolombia buildings to Mercado del Rio.  I had a burger, fries and Pepsi from Juicy Lucy for 27,800 (about $9.50).

Back at the station I caught a train back to Envigado, bought a kilo of strawberries for 12,000 pesos, caught a Metro bus to the park and was back by 2:15.

I changed clothes, drank a fresh strawberry juice and headed to the gym.  I did all 18 exercises in 2 hours 10 minutes.  I left about 5:05 and on the way back I saw a lot of men playing chess in the park.  Maybe this is more of a late afternoon thing here.  I’ll have to check that out next week.

The intersection where our street meets Avenida Poblado looks like it’s just about ready for the new pavement to be laid.  Then hopefully the workers will move on to another part of the road.

MT came over and the ladies worked on their needle point and watched some TV while I did some more Rosetta Stone lessons.

T-shirt of the day: Internet was down, so I thought I’d come outside today.