When I was ready to buy tickets, the weather forecast on WeatherWX.com showed rain and colder every day for the the two weeks that the forecast extends. The following morning I got up and paid for breakfast. Breakfast is worth way more than that because I could learn. The first morning they told me about hail they had had before I came and had never seen hail before. Then I noticed a hummingbird like I’d never seen before. I was surprising that they had never seen one like it and and it just came for the first time the day I arrived so he was a special treat for all of us. He’s still hanging around, but you have to faster than Jesse James with the camera to catch him. I even tried the sneak approach and slow movements but he must have crazy fast-moving eyes with acute eyesight. I researched and learned they have been only recently been discovered and called the Monserrate Hummingbird, and normally people go there to see them miles away in the mountains. I informed them what it was, courtesy of Google Translate of course. Their hummingbirds are lot bigger than the ones where I live. They are shaped like normal birds. I’m thankful for the weather. They said they don’t expect weather anything like this this time of year so the doom-and-gloom weather forecast never materialized. This enables me to run every morning and night. I’m living under the departure of the airport so every 1 1/2 minutes or so I’m under climb thrust, but what annoys me is there is male peacock or rooster living around here somewhere and if I see him while I’m running I’m going to invite him to dinner.
For the holiday it just so happened that the guest house owner’s son studying for his PHD in Engineering Houston came to stay for 3 days and did a lot of translating between the owners and I. They went walking and came back and said they arranged for someone to interpret for me. We talked and she said that she would interpret for me to get the paperwork I needed and would go with me to Bienestar Familiar and the orphanages. Now I learn she is taking time off from work to help me and her boss is onboard. I could not get a hold of the people I wanted to at the orphanages. People said wait, they will get back. After two days of that I decided to go. What I learned is the staff are on holiday and the kids dispersed to families. They seem to have a custom like the Israelites had at the end of each year. Some heads of the organizations weren’t even in the country. At one orphanage I was talking with the only person there, trying to use Google Translate and not going well when the interpreter just happened to call and interpreted. She set up a WhatsApp video call between me and Mariela who was in Boston for her daughters baby. I learned from her how things don’t get back to normal there until the 15th or 16th. However, she gave me name and number of her Bienstar Familar contact, AND an organization that she felt I could learn the most from. The information got messed up, but there was enough to determine what she meant to say. It by a girl from the states on a visit in 1988 who saw what I saw, and stayed. She worked in churches and started the home in 1993. She just returned from the states and will with to me. Mariela had read me like a book and knew I would want something Christ-centered like hers and with experience with both US and Colombian paperwork with no language barrier to talk to. I went to the next orphanage where I had worked several times before and the doors were locked with a note that they would be back on the 22nd. I paid the extra for flex tickets. A lot hinges on what I can learn from the girl from the states of where the return date goes. That would be more valuable to me than who I had planned to learn from and who I had worked with in the past. If the interpreter makes good on the Bienestar Familiar paperwork and I get to spend quality time with the girl from the states, I will have what I came for administratively, and the fix I need seeing orphan kids being cared for. The people here want me to stay because they like working with me on it. However, getting all of the tax stuff done early, fixing what needs fixing, and filling out and comply with Bienestar Fmailiar requirements, starting the 501(c3) process on the US, would be more efficient to get things going faster. It’s good to know I have the people and support here to come back to springboard from. Don’t let this paint me as dynamic. I have no idea what I’m doing and had nothing to do with these pieces falling together. I just showed up. You can pray that when hit by the attackers and life that I do not get discouraged and lose energy for a calling I’ve had many signs for. De ahora en adelante necesito aprender español, al menos lo suficiente para entender la esencia de la conversación.
God directing me to be where I am to the people around me has been and incredible help, something no hotel could have given me. Again, I’m grateful that the weather remains very unseasonable.
Other: Pulling out my phone and currency converter every time I see a price is unworkable, so decided to see if it was possible to come up with an simple, instant shortcut. I noted that since the exchange ratio to the dollar is between .00025 and .00026, I could move the decimal 3 places to the left on the price, and divide by 4. Even at .00026 I’d only be a penny low per thousand. Debit or credit on the phone is what you want. It’s the only way to get the official exchange rate. You will still need some cash for things such as pay for room and board if you don’t stay at a hotel, if you flag a taxi and don’t use UBER, etc. Debit/Credit cards on your phone are safer than physical ones, and you need a phone with either dual SIMs or a SIM and eSIM, LONG battery life because you will use it much much more than normal, and a cheap, wide-open backpack to carry what you buy and a battery bank in case your phone runs dry because it is your navigation, credit cards, and your ability to call UBER and receive confirmation texts to get home. Take the battery ratings with a grain of salt and pay attention to user experiences. To stay TSA legal everywhere make sure it is 2700ma or less or any combination of power banks. It MUST be on a carry-on, not checked bags. The best providers with the cheapest plans only offers SIM for non-residents, not eSIM.