Aug 2023--Settling In and an Earthquake!

Where to start?  After eating at Crepes and Waffles with us, Leo had to leave and fly back to the USA literally 2 hours after getting the keys to the apartment.  So me and the kids were on our own in Colombia.  We didn't really know what to do with ourselves that first week, I was nervous going places on my own, and so we cleaned and put things away, and then the kids read A TON and did origami and we played cards.  

This was at the mall's theater right by our house.

Beds our up.  That took like 5 minutes.

We also brought a water purifier because last time we were in Colombia for a long time, we ended up with Giardia, and I didn't want that again.  

Totes doubled as bedside tables.  

I had a hard time figuring out our stove, because as you can see no temps exist anymore on the surface to mark the temperature.  After watching the temp on my digital thermometer one day, I decided it didn't really matter because the temperature inside fluctuated so much.  So now I just try to smell when the food is cooked.

Also the gas range is fun because only two burners will work at the same time.  Joy.

Also, I was FREEZING to death at night on my little kylmit air mattress. BURR....

Boys making their own entertainment.

We did find a couple nearby parks.  

We went to the parks A LOT.  

 Poinsettia trees outside our chapel.  I never realized they grew that big!

And my favorite part of our street.  Hibiscus are everywhere, roses, hydrageneas, irises, geraniums as tall as my waist, bougainvillea, calla lilies, etc. It's gorgeous!!! My other favorite things include: MOUNTAINS!! I love seeing the mountains again. Different from Wyoming. But gorgeous and so close. Also just seeing things I normally would never see, like a truck full of bananas, or all the street vendors, or all the purebred dogs--seriously no poodle crosses here and every other person on the sidewalk has a dog. I've seen cocker spaniels, huskies, a Leonberger, Aussies, Great Danes, a Bernese Mountain Dog, an English bulldog, tons of little yippy dogs, etc I've never seen so many different breeds in my life. But they all look straight out of the pages of my sister's dog breed encyclopedia book. 

I love the orange, pink and red flowers.  

The kids were really bored and again, making their own entertainment.  I had bought wool blankets as their only bedding besides their pillows and little compact sleeping bag liners which were now their "sheets".  I was on a Kylmit air mattress with my wool blanket and I was FREEZING to death at night.  I ended up buying a comforter set at the grocery store to have another blanket and then I was okay.  The kids said they weren't that cold.  But eventually, I bought another blanket for Nicolas (who just stopped using his wool one despite him saying he was oh so cold).  And by the time we'd been here a year, I'd bought another blanket for all the kids.

We thought this was hilarious. I love the random, bad English translation shirts.

And another one. 

Another day, another park.   My boys may have broken that merry-go-round a few months later, and then it was removed from the park.  So sad.  They loved that thing--a little too much.  

The girls decorated their walls with origami.  Isabel and Sebas both read all of the Wingfeather saga and I ended up buying more books from Amazon.  They ship to Colombia--that was the best discovery ever!!

I liked the cat hanging out at the ferreteria. 

Also this is so Usaquen/Colombia!!  Mercedes car towing a four wheeler.  😂😂😂😂

This is the yard of the townhouses we live in. 

Park day yet again.  

We couldn't really go far without Leo. I mean I could've hired an uber, but I didn't know really where's safe or not outside the bubble of Usaquen (the neighborhood we live in). BUT there's tons of parks within a couple blocks. Our favorite is literally around the corner. I bought a soccer ball for the kids and usually other kids join them. Funniest thing, there was a family we met from the UK and Jubal ran up with the kids and told me, "Look Mom, I met a kid who speaks English!" And the little boy promptly added, "I speak a little United States too!!"

The first time Leo made it back we went and bought a refrigerator.  It was really hard trying to make meals and feed the kids with no fridge.  We basically were living on oatmeal.  We were also eating while sitting on the floor.  Good times.  Leo and I also bought a used washer and dryer.  Another necessity.   At least I think so.  It leaks.  It was also under warranty, so they came and "fixed" it. It still leaks, but not as bad.  We don't have a swamp anymore.  

The lovely flower shops near our house.

And the view from the mall near our house. 

We went to eat there, because yeah, it was hard to think of meals to make them with no left overs or fridge. 

That's from the window of the mall.

I found us a table on mercadolibre and Leo's aunt and uncle picked it up for us.  Yeah!! No more sitting on the floor!!  The day they brought it, there was an earthquake!!!! Seriously, wild!!!!!  Then there was a major aftershock too.  I didn't realize what was happening at first.  But yeah, it was 6.3 earthquake with a 5.7 aftershock.  I added a video about it below. 

From Facebook--

There's multiple grocery stores and little shops near us. One of the things I packed with us was an old granny shopping cart to drag behind me. So so glad I did that!! It's so random trying to debate what to buy based on what will fit in my little cart and reusable shopping bags. And I tend to overstuff and I've already had two reusable shopping bags break on me on the way home. No bueno. But I've kind of stocked my pantry now so I don't feel quite as desperate about what to make for dinner. I still need Leo to go with me to one of the carnicerias to figure out cuts of meat sometime. And Sebas eats constantly so it's hard to keep up. He's basically turned into a hobbit and between every meal eats another bowl of cold oatmeal with milk and sugar. And then again before he goes to bed. 

I bought some buckets at the store to wash our fruits and vegetables in with bleach--the sink is kind of weird shaped and I didn't have a good plug, so I felt that this was easier.

This is a preschool we pass on the way to church.  The rolls of barbed wire on top of a preschool always seems so incongruous to me.  

And at our church building.  I think this was at a youth activity.  Our ward is AWESOME by the way. There's only 4 other YW, but more YM. The primary is super small too, but they've been so welcoming and kind!  Which speaking of church, we picked where we lived based on walking distance to the chapel and the safety of the area only to find out that we're one street over from not only NOT being in that ward, but NOT even in that stake! Our actual ward chapel would be an hour's drive away in traffic.  Thankfully the bishop spoke to the stake president who spoke with the other stake president and they decided to just let us keep going to Los Cedros Barrio.

Real meals on a table!!!  Miracles never cease!!!

The next week when Leo was home again, we bought a couch together.  It has ended up being the most uncomfortable thing in the world.  Who knew?  I also harassed Leo to let me buy more furniture. He didn't want to, but it ended being for the best that we did.  But that wasn't delivered till later.  Anyway, those first two weeks were kind of just surreal to be honest, and we were just making do as best we could.  

Aww Jubal. The other reason I worried about trying to take the kids places. He did not like Bogota (he's the only kid to say that btw) because he doesn't like his "freedom" (his word not mine) being taken away by things like: staying where I can see him, walking to places in a group, and not crossing the street without the rest of us. It's a hard knock life.

Sebas was trying to fight the flood to get to his bathroom.  

I think we terrify the other parents because of stuff like this.

When it rains hard, it's deafening in our house.