I sat around a table this weekend with two Colombian families and my two Canadian sidekicks.  We ate chicharrones, frijoles, and patacones as we carried on comfortable conversation and tried not to choke while we giggled over the drama a ten year old can conjure up. I’m back in the city today, alone in my […]

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There are things about Colombia that have had to grow on me and things that I’m only just figuring out and things that I have a feeling will haunt me forever and I’m grateful for them all. Something in particular that seems to inhabit all of the above listed categories are phrases that I hear […]

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Day 3 We were warned that today would be the toughest day of the hike, so we got up early to hide from some of the jungle heat and to make our way to the City before lunch. The walking was precarious and more than once my feet slipped on rocks that weren’t meant to […]

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Below are entries from my journal.  The rest to follow.  I promise. Day 1, end Dear Jesus, Please help me not to do bodily harm to my friend, Jill.  This torture is all her fault.  Amen. Got up early, met the crew and guide.  Jill and I volunteered to ride los motos to the pueblo […]

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My familia adoptiva called on Saturday morning and invited me for a day out with them.  They’re lovely and easy to be around and had a plan for us to go to an area just outside of the city that was “a little known treasure” that I needed to see. They picked me up just […]

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Sundays in Manizales are my favorite, I’ve decided. I woke up early this morning and went for a wander along the Avenida just like everyone else in town.  The street was closed for bicycles and joggers and roller blades and for a few short hours the screeching brakes of buses didn’t rip savagely through the […]

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Getting to school is no easy task. A bus picks the teachers up early every morning and takes us down the mountain, through the valley, up the other side and to the little red schoolhouse.  I generally fire up the ole ipod and zone out for the trip.  Well, zone out while simultaneously trying desperately […]

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I love music, especially the live kind.  So, when two fifth graders that are in a rock band asked me to come see them play, I couldn’t say no. The truth is, those kids brought the house down and when they played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” I nearly lost it.  They were hysterical and fanflippin’tastic, […]

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There’s a bakery up the street from where I live that’s called La Suiza.  It has shiny metal chairs and good lighting and all of the pastries have fancy swirls of color in their centers.  It’s always crowded with people talking about writing and politics and art and I heard a rumor that the owner […]

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It’s late afternoon and I’m sitting in my apartment alone.  The morning sun has given way to an afternoon rain and like the Manizales soil, my heart is heavy. Two weeks ago we received more rain in one night than we usually get in the entire month of November.  By the time dawn broke the […]

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