The other week we were making dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday, and I stopped at Palo Quemao (the market) on my way to pick up the produce. I bought 8 pounds of potatoes, 7 pounds of tomatoes, and some garlic and then headed to where they sell herbs to buy basil. I got a little bit lost, wandered around a bit, found my basil, paid, and left. As I was headed across the parking lot, I heard someone rather urgently calling, "Mona! Mona!" (It's the word for blonde here- I hear it a lot, and usually ignore it.) The urgency in the voice made me turn around and I saw the vendor from the first stand I was at. "You forgot your tomatoes!" he told me. I was so grateful that they actually came looking for me. Our gnocchi with spaghetti sauce would have been a failure without tomatoes.
One weekend walking downtown with friends, two costumed interpreters stopped us to share the history of 2 historic buildings. We chatted for awhile afterwards as they shared about the organization they were involved in and asked us what we were doing in Bogotá. When I told them about Luz y Vida, the costumed Simon Bolivar gave me his business card. He runs an organization that connects magicians, clowns, jugglers and such with organizations working with children and the elderly to donate their talents for events. I emailed him this week and he says he'll help us organize an event at Luz y Vida for the kids.
After work last week, I stopped to talk to the man who runs the snack shop just up the street from me. He's a Jehovah's witness, and we always have some interesting theological discussions. I told him all about the book I had just finished reading, The Spirit of the Rainforest, and its interesting perspective on spirituality. He offered me a hot pan de bono con bocadillo (a soft bread with a sweet guava filling) while we were chatting and sent me home with a little bag of bite sized cookies.
After talking to him, I ran across the street to the hardware store because I needed some twine to hang my really awesome new wall hanging. The shopkeeper there always asks me about English classes, and I always tell him I'm too tired to think about starting a class, but I'll let him know if anyone I know starts one. I asked for 3 meters of twine, and then asked what I owed him. "Cómo se dice gratis en inglés?" (How do you say free in English) he asked me. "Free" he told me with a smile, after I helped him with the pronunciation.
Not really newsworthy moments, but they are part of the reality of life here. Well I do see way more of the dark side of life living where I do than when I was in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, there are so many beautiful things as well.
2 comments:
That's beautiful. Thank you Annie! (You're making me homesick :-).
Thanks for putting these scenes into writing, for sharing the good moments, for making our Colombia a little more real (and even reminding me that it exists, because sometimes I forget)!
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