Today I am having trouble thinking of anything exciting to write about. I mean, as far as travel goes we really only moved about 500 metres down the street to our new place. But it feels like we have turned over a new leaf. We have a lot more space even though this new place is a little apartment. But it is all in the comparison. As I write Rudy is lying on the couch and I am perched on a stool at the island and there is wide spacious bedroom and large floor to ceiling windows that look out at an old church in a square, the mountains on the edge of the city as well as a construction site.
Today was a day to meet more Canadians. After we had settled into our new place we decided to go and pick up foodstuffs at a grocery store. While we waited in line at the cashier, we chatted with two women (one from Kitchener, and her sister from North Carolina). The North Carolina woman is the first American that we have encountered and she and her sister both were born in Santa Marta, Columbia, so perhaps they don’t even count as Canadian or American. They were back in Santa Marta to celebrate their mother’s 92nd birthday. They were so excited to hear that we were very much enjoying their much-beloved country.
At coffee this morning we met a friendly Jehovah’s Witness woman from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She was very lovely and did not exactly fit the stereotype of a JW. She was one of those people who so easily can move from one subject to another and share loads of information about her life and travels. At the same time she could not resist inserting loads of JW information into the talk. She consistently baited us to ask questions about the meaning of life, etc. But, to be fair, we all speak about what has meaning for us and perhaps even proselytize about our exercise programs, political views, and spiritual and emotional understandings, so I can give her that. However, at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder whether we counted as two house calls or one in her ‘witnessing quota’ for the day.
Then in the evening, as we were catching a bite to eat, we chatted with a Canadian/Columbian woman and her Canadian husband and friends who were waiting for their food at the table next to us. They too had a very interesting story and it was a great conversation to wile away some of the evening.
And so you might ask, how much have we learned about Colombian culture so far on this trip? Well, not too much so far. We are just visitors here and our Spanish language skills are minimal, so we really sit back and watch it all swirl around us and enjoy whatever part of the ride we can take in.