You'd almost think they'd name Bogota "The Windy City" if you lived in our apartment. Not many a day passes that you don't hear the doors rattling, if not slamming when the gusts blow through the building.

Since we are trying to be frugal, we haven't decided on an official drying system for our laundry yet. Some nylon string stretched from the curtain rod to the door handle and a few hangers are sufficient for most loads.

I'd also hung a few things from the kitchen window until yesterday.  Just as I was about to retrieve my dish towel, a gust blew it free and it floated down the center opening of our apartment building. It landed on the plastic roofing piece of one of the 2nd floor homes that aren't yet inhabited. 

I had pretty much given up on getting it back.  However, leave it to ingenious kids to come up with a challenge and meet it.  The Blairs were over for lunch this afternoon, and Bethany suggested that one could snag the lost towel with a hook and some string. When we were finished eating, I gave her some nylon string, a safety pin and a wrench(for weight). After some clunking and scraping, Caylie came in waving my bandana (which had also fallen) like a soldier returning from an easy victory. A few times the "fish bit" but got loose. Bethany did catch 2 of my 3 pieces of laundry, but the dish towel waits for the next time they visit.

Some contacts that we met at church introduced us to Books & Books.

Joel is pleased to find out that they have a lot of paperback Penguin editions of literature in English in addition to the language textbooks.

Well, we've been in Bogota for a week as of today. This morning, Enrique was slated to preach at the church that we had visited on our first trip to Colombia a few months ago, so he and his wife, Mercy, gave us a ride. Some of the people in the church stay spend the afternoon there, so that they don't have to pay for two bus fares. Because I wasn't sure if Enrique and Mercy were planning to share what they were bringing, I packed pineapple, rice &  beans for us as well as half an avocado, two tiny bananas and two pieces of bocadillo.  Mercy bought a pollo combo that included boiled potatoes, plantain and arepas. This picture shows three of the church ladies that shared the chicken...as well as dessert.  Their names are Cecilia, Rosa, and Gloria.  Although I didn't understand most of the words, I could guess the meanings by the context.  Gloria suggested that Joel contact her daughter(?) about possible employment. Apparently right now is the time that schools are hiring for the next school year.

In the evening, we went to a sister church closer (I think) to our neighborhood. They don't have another sermon in the evening service. Actually, they began with a lot of singing, then a Bible study from the book of Judges. The pastor went through a worksheet that had ten questions about Samson.

While we were there, we were introduced to a lot of the people. Two of the boys may become future students. Another TESL/TEFL teacher from Australia (Taryn) isn't going to be able to keep teaching them, so their parents asked Enrique and Mercy how much we would want to be paid. We will see what we will see.

Monday we (or at least Joel)plan to start hunting for jobs.