Cinco De Mayo

Well things were pretty calm on the streets in our section of Bogota today. I expected lots of people, music and parties, but everything is closed and the streets are empty. It’s rainy so maybe everyone is just inside, but I expected the city to look much different. I imagine downtown is different.

So this morning we decided to take the girls to get their hair fixed at the same place I had taken the boys last week. As soon as we walked in it seemed they were fighting for who got to do Emilee’s hair, they just love the redheads. The girls looked at some pics to decide just how they wanted their hair done. They also asked if the girls wanted their hair cut and Emi said no but Jessica said she wanted her bangs cut. We double checked to be sure we all were understanding right and sure enough she wanted them cut. I was kind of glad. As they started to do Jessica’s hair they told me she had lice. We noticed she had been scratching but she doesn’t rinse her hair well so we thought it was the shampoo. I had checked her head a few times looking for the white eggs, but never saw anything. Apparently it’s not too bad, but she has started with lice. They were still willing to do her hair, which I was surprised. As soon as we left we went to the drug store to buy some treatments. I bought enough for all of us. Lice is so common here so every drug store has treatment kits that are very potent and you only need to apply it once. We came back and told the staff at Zuetana so they could be aware and change our sheets and pillows etc. We are waiting until tonight to treat our heads, we hated to take the girls hair down so soon after just having it done. Aunt Jeanie treated the girls to the hair adventure. It was only about 12 for each of them, not bad at all.




The sparkles are glitter not lice...smile



We came back and Tia Jeanie played puzzles with Joaquin and Nate while Jessica and Emilee played on the computer before we ate lunch. Lunch was pretty good and so was dinner last night. Jeanie made a comment that so far so good as far as the food goes here at Zuetana. Nate’s told her “You just have beginner’s luck!”



It’s sprinkled off and on all morning so we grabbed some umbrellas and took off to make a few stops and get out of the house for a bit. Any little bit out helps to break up the long afternoons here. So we stopped at the Juan Valdez shop just around the corner, but it was closed, I didn’t even think about the possibility of Juan Valdez being closed. Then we walked down to Maku and it too was closed. Shucks! We definitely didn’t want to go back to the casa yet so we decided to walk to a different Juan Valdez to see if it was open. Luckily it was, so we got a few drinks and looked around the shop to kill some time. We then took the long way home just to stay out and get some fresh air. Almost everything was closed so there wasn’t much else to do. Plus they cleaned the carpets in the main house at Zuetana so we had to keep the kids in out all afternoon. It’s tough to keep the kids in our casa for any length of time, so when we got back we put a movie in. to help pacify them.



We saw a lady who had built herself a shelter on her cart out of cardboard, and a little boy begging for money as well as a family outside of a store with her kids begging, as well as the garbage pickers. It breaks your heart, especially to know that Jessica and Joaquin came from that very situation. Every time I see kids on the streets I envision Jessica and Joaquin at a young age doing the same thing, it kills me.

Poor Jeanie has had to deal with the rainy weather here. It’s been more rainy the last few days than it has been our whole trip. She’s been a good sport, she’s just glad to be here with the kids and I, but I want her to be able to experience some of the life and culture here.

Jessica has been great for the last 3 days, no being ugly, no fussing, no whining. So she earned her DS and has had fun figuring it out.

I am sending this post early because tonight is going to be hectic treating everyone’s heads before they get a shower and trying to visit everyone on the webcams.

Love to all of you! Pray we get the birth certificates back tmw so we can get things going and get home!!! Today marks day 25.


These were balloons on sticks that Joaquin put together to make weights. So here he is lifting his balloon weights.