At 2:30, we were interviewed by Mabel Lara, an apparently relatively famous news personality here in Colombia. She does a weekend news program and is quite well known. (See this link from youtube for more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KPbnoUw-w) She wanted to do a segment on Kidsave's programs in Colombia, and as we are here adopting, she interviewed us as part of the story. Because we didn't really know who she was, it was actually quite fun as she was very friendly and outgoing and charming to us and to the girls. Had it been Katie Couric, I think I would have been more nervous!! She is from the Valle del Cauca on the Pacific Coast, which is the same region the girls' parents were from before they moved to Bogota where the children were born. As you can imagine the girls were pretty impressed with that!
Here are some pics of the interviews (all in Spanish, by the way!), our playtime on the swings that we staged for the camera, and a final pic with Mabel.
After she left we had some down time and the girls both got into playing on the computers. They love the PBS kids website, and are learning quite a bit of English with the games and videos.
Around 5:00, Laura organized a contest of "Rana" (frog) -- a sort of toss game where you throw rings at the game box and try to earn points by landing the rings in different holes. The girls played with Salome, the little girls adopted from Naiba. Fer won the first round, and Wendy the second. Probably the most dramatic moment of the game occurred when Wendy threw the ring so hard it went over the roof and into the street, where it hit one car and rolled under another (we were told by a driver outside who was waiting and who fortunately was not hit by the ring).
After the Rana contest, we all went over to the park for a little while. The girls brought their skates and did some skating and also played with Salome and Tomas. After we came back, we had dinner and then the girls took showers (we are making the change to night-time showers after this morning's herding-cats shower time which was the proverbial straw for Mami!), Maya and Miguel for a change, and then to bed!
I am feeling very much at loose ends waiting -- I am ready to go home!! Though I know that feeling stuck in an alien environment will definitely help me build compassion for the girls, who have had to adjust to so many changes with more to come when we get back, it is still hard. One thing I really really miss is cooking my own food the way I like it -- while the food here is very good, it's just not what I'm used to eating. Again, I know the girls will face exactly that but again, it's hard.
Interesting exchanges today: the girls were talking with Salome at dinner about plane travel. Salome was telling them about the flight from Naiba to Bogota which was probably in rather a small plane, and they were telling her about the riches that await for a trans-oceanic flight, from soda to TV to your own blanket and pillow. At the end of dinner, Fer asked me "Nos vamos manana?" (Are we leaving tomorrow?) and seemed disappointed when I said we are leaving soon but we don't know exactly when. She asked me again when they were getting ready for bed when we are leaving. This is the first time I've heard her seem to be looking forward to the prospect.
No comments:
Post a Comment