Wally World!

We went to Colombia’s version of Walmart today! (Papaw is going to be jealous.) As we were warned, Johan came with the clothes on his back and none other. We brought a few things from home – but didn’t think about socks. We picked up some socks and new sandals for Johan as well as a few snacks, a few Colombian beers (gotta try it) and a bouncy ball. There is not much to do in Ibague so we have to get creative. The bouncy ball is great for the park. There are 3 parks nearby which I’m sure would entertain a 4 or 5 year old for an hour. Johan? 10 minutes. The ball is perfect for shooting hoops and playing a little keep-it-in-the-air type game. Or shall we say keep-it-in-the-air and out of the canal? Guess where ours landed? Yup – the water. Johan tried his best to grab it before it went in but without success. Luckily he and his papa worked together by running upstream with one on one bank and the other on the other side to trap the ball. It was true teamwork.

Our second trip out this afternoon was to have some paperwork notarized. Tom will be leaving before Johan and me so he had to sign a Power of Attorney letting me take Johan out of the country. Our hostess, Patricia, has all the contacts in town (a good friend to have!). Everywhere we go they all know her by name. At the Colombian ‘Walmart’ they brought out a chair just for her while she checked out. At the notary they greeted her by name and the owner/notary came out of his office to hug her and say hello.

We taught Johan to play Kings in the Corner card game today as well as a word search puzzle. He blew right through the word search. I think he enjoyed the new challenge.

We’re working on our Spanish as he is working on his English. I noticed in his report cards from school that he has had some English classes the last few years. He’s also pulling out a few more of his English words than he did last year (telling time, greetings in English, etc.). While we are anxious for him to learn English since it will be such a major part of the transition, we also know it’s probably not the best time to push it. We repeat some words in Spanish/English (or at least the ones we know) and we are encouraging him when he uses his English – but other than that I think we’re going to limit the lessons to name, address and phone – some basics.

I still haven't quite figured out how to put pictures into the text - so I'm posting them separately. I may set up an album at another site and link it here so we can share more pictures.

Carrie