From Pereira, With Love!

So, we began a post last night from here in Pereira, although one thing led to another and got too late.

Dave and I left Bogota yesterday afternoon around 2 p.m. and arrived in Pereira just an hour later. The flight was uneventful and had gorgeous views of the Andes as we passed over them and began our descent into Pereira...rolling, lush hills, and palm trees, even at 5,000 plus feet!

Hector, our lawyer, and his wife as well as Maricio, our translator, and his girlfriend all met us at the airport for a fun reception. After getting acquainted, we piled into a taxi with Hector following us in his car. Our stay for the next two weeks or so will be at El Cortijo here in Pereira...and I can't say enough of how wonderful this place is! The staff is very gracious, friendly, and so very helpful!

We have had such a great time even with the language challenge...it is apparent that Dave's spanish is coming back very quickly...he is speaking with more ease and speed as our time continues here! I am so proud of him for continuing to plunge forward even when he does not have the words for what he is trying to say...and it is apparent that everyone he has talked with so far has been genuinely intersted in helping him to polish those skills! I, on the other hand, have been slower in adjusting to using my small amount of spanish skills...I have found that it has become a cross of spanish and english...spanglish, as a dear friend, Charlene, would say. I think that my primary mode of language in the first couple of days has been charades and looking to Dave as a language crutch. My goal in the next coming days, outside of meeting and caring for Jonatan with Dave, is to challenge myself to use more of the Spanish I know...to not be such a perfectionist (if I can't get it perfect, then don't use it sort of mentality)and give myself grace to mess up...knowing full well that the folks around me are so very intersted in helping us.

I wanted to share a couple of brief sort of memories that we have had so far. The first is regarding the coffee. I love drinking my mochas at home...but let me tell you, the espresso/coffee is nothing like the coffee here! The flavor is here is very rich and bold...and the coffee is served much stronger than we would typically drink in the states, unless, of course, you are a hard core trucker or night shift person that doubles up on your doses! I told Dave, after my first sip, that I can now officially say that I have grown hair on my chest! LOL (laugh out loud, for those who do not know what this is.) I know that this is not customary or very polite to have a lady say, but, honestly, I couldn't think of a better expression to describe just how wonderful and rich the coffee is here...and, besides, this is an expression that I often heard uncles share in referring to coffee while growing up. So, all you Fulmers who are reading this, count that remark as a tribute to good ol' family times!

Another pretty funny experience happened last night...which just so happened to be quite a cultural and language challenge. After retiring to our room for the evening (and I must say our dinner was absolutely amazing...stir friend rice with shrimp, chicken, green beans, cucumbers, and so much more...with freshly baked bread, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed juice, and that oh so wonderful coffee!) At any rate, I went into the bathroom to wash my face and get into bed clothes...turned on the hot water and proceeded to wait for it to get warm. Well, while waiting I noticed I was feeling water splash on my legs, so being the good plumber that I am (right!) I turned off the water and looked under the sink to see what the problem was...well, no water was coming out of the pipes...too weird...and no more water was splashing, but there was a puddle on the ground. So, I cleaned up the water and turned the faucet back on...and, once again, the splashing occurred...so, this time, I looked while the water was on and found the water flowing down the wall from the knobs that are mounted on the wall just above the sink...so, I, once again turned it off, but found that the water was still running and the puddle was slowly getting bigger...I called Dave in, and there proceeded a crazy absolutely hysterical line of events in trying to communicate with our hosts...at one point, I grabbed our laptop and went to an online translation site, typed frantically what I wanted to say, but in English, and had the program translate it to Spanish...this was such an amazing discovery in the midst of confusion! It helped so much! At one point, though, Betty, one of the women who work here, looked at me and said that the plumbing was a problem...just a matter of fact statement while she was trying to sort out what to do...so in my good-natured, joking way, I proceeded to say, "Que? Soy Problema?" (What? I am the problem?) (while smiling, of course) Dave was pretty traumatized by this, although Betty seemed to figure out that I was merely joking and we continued in our work to try and fix the problem. All told, a plumber had to come late last night and fix the situation. Rosaria, the woman who owns El Cortijo, came by and graciously asked if we would like to move to a new room, although we decided that we wanted to stay in a room that had so much character...it just seems to fit with us and the recent events of our own lives at home! (LOL)

I am posting a few pictures here to show what our home-away-from-home is like. We hope you enjoy them. We truly are doing well and are enjoying ourselves. In less than 24 hours, we will meet our dear Jonatan, and can hardly wait! Today will include a trip to Hector's office to sign some paperwork, a trip to find an ATM, and also an excursion to do some last-minute shopping for diapers and such for tomorrow's big day! Perhaps we will post some more tonight; we will just have to see...and as a side not for Andrea and Troy, who are awaiting their referral through Pereira with another agency...El Cortijo rocks! We couldn't imagine better accomodations and staff! The area is so very beautiful and we are looking forward to traveling the area to get to know more of Pereira and the area our son has been growing up in!

Part of the yard area at El Cortijo...a cabana/patio, of sorts:


A view of one of the common/living areas:


The pool:


Another part of the yard:


The Dining Room:


Soon to come: pics of our son, us as a family, our room, the surrounding area, and friends we meet along the way!