December 17, 2009

Jessica, left front...the novena.....

laundry room and main bathroom

Juni is napping, so I've taken over for awhile.....she's a real computer hog and sometimes she doesn't interpret correctly, so I'll be telling our story for the next few days. Hope you don't mind. It's the pits if you do.

This was a Thursday, and we'd been in Colombia for four days now. The men were finishing up the laundry room which was wonderful, as poor Rosalba was doing our laundry, her laundry, and that of the four workers. They worked, by the way, from Sunday to Friday night and went home to Riofrio for the short weekend. Jose was divorced but had a girlfriend and a 17 year old son, and the other three young men were married. They stayed at Al's for the week, sleeping in a tent or the third bedroom, eating at Chucho's, and getting clean clothes from Rosalba. They would leave for town after dinner on Friday night, hoof it to the first available jeep that would take them to Selonica, catch a bus to Riofrio, and arrive home...oh...tenish. They would then make the trip back Sunday morning. Their goal was to complete the work by Christmas Eve...and they did. The house isn't yet done, but the work set out for them was. Next year, when there are more funds saved for the rest of the work, they'll come back.

So.....the big bathroom was finished and we had our first showers in it. The water pressure wasn't great for it was gravity fed from a stream above the house that, through a pipe inserted into it, emptied into a cement cistern, and then was piped into the house. This bathroom had that little water heater attached to the shower, so it was warm. Otherwise, everything is done in cold water....and I mean to tell you, it is cold!!

Today we had to make a trip to Riofrio to go to a Novena at the twin's school in Tulua. Soooo, we went down to Chucho's and loaded his jeep......huge bag of coffee beans and a box of plantains on the top, garbage bags tied to the front to be dropped off at the dump along the way, David in the front with Chucho, and Al, Charlie, Rosalba, Sarita and all of our bags in the back. Halfway down, we had to stop at Al's sister-in-law's house because Sarita had to use the bathroom. Al's brother had passed away from cancer two years ago, but his wife received his pension so was able to take care of their two children. She was very nice and understanding as to my need...and I did learn to take a roll of toilet paper with me wherever I went so that I didn't have to use anyone else's...that was just the polite thing to do.....and a little while later, we were in Riofrio.

We had an early supper of empanados ( a dough circle, with meat and cabbabe inside, folded over and pinched closed, then boiled), which Alaida had made at her home in the afternoon and brought over to warm up in the microwave. After supper, we were off for the half hour drive to Tulua. The girls' school is an old convent, so it is huge with a very large courtyard in the middle, and two stories of classrooms in the square around it. Novenas are the story of the birth of Christ, and they are done every night in one place or another for nine days before Christmas. The girls were all dressed as angels, and the boys in all black clothes, as the novena was a story, songfest, and light show all rolled into one. When it was over, there were fireworks and treats and we were all home and in bed by 10 PM. The girls, however, went to a party afterwards, so Chucho and Rosalba went back to pick them up at 1 AM when they were ready to come home. Nothing is too good or too much for the grandchildren!!

Just a note here, that between coming and going today, we met over ten of Alberto's cousins. They are all over the place...big Catholic families with many children......the generation of his parents is all gone now, so it's just all the cousins left, and there are a boatload of them.