additional pics/memories

We have been home a few days now, and starting to hammer out some type of routine. The weather is vastly different then what we experienced in Colombia. I feel like my first cold is coming on. Ruben is doing great. He is a real Ham, when it comes to being around people, especially girls. I might have to start calling him "pork chop", instead of pequeno hombre "little man". Tenley's class at school has been following the blog and pictures and Tenley had a "show and tell" day. We brought Ruben in and the kids loved it (so did Ruben). Kids just tell it how it is. We answered a bunch of questions at the end. The first question was "how long did Ruben play around the toilets". The picture I posted in Cartagena with the budee (sp) really caught their eyes.
A few things I might have forgot to mention, that I thought were interesting points about our trip.
1. If you go anywhere in Colombia, you might want to make sure you have some toilet tissue or tissue handy. Colombia's sewer system is not what we Americans are used to. Generally speaking, you roll up your tissue or toilet paper and put it in the garbage (not the toilet). Also, some public facilities will charge you to use the bathroom. Just by chance at the bus station, I had some spare change in my pocket. They willingly let me in, but there was a girl at the exit and wanted me to pay 700 Colombian pesos to leave.
2. Population: I asked our interpreter's about the populations of cities we were in during our stay. Monteria had a population of around 600,000 . Cartagena was somewhere between 1-2 million, and Bogota has roughly 9,000,000 people. That is almost 7-8 times as many people as live in all of Montana.
3. Traffic, seems to be my favorite adventure topic in Colombia. Colombians drive on the right side of the road. However, they often drive on the left, middle and all directions as well. A majority of the taxi's we were in had their gas meter on "E", empty. I finally asked, and at one point a taxi went to a gas station. The taxi's often times use natural gas and it is piped in to under the front end of the car. Apparantly, it is quite a bit cheaper and those little cars can go a long ways.
4. Food, generally another favorite topic of mine. As mentioned prior, "Mexican" food that we are use to in America is hard to find in Colombia. I did not once see a Taco Bell. Eggs, empandas, fruit, soups, bbq meats, and of course Coffee are very popular in Colombia.
4. Construction. except in the very large cities. You generally don't find the large technical equipment that we are use to in America. In Monteria, the roads were taken out and replaced, mostly by hand and a lot of tears and sweat. That is one job, I would not want to do. TOO HOT. However, the work hours are a bit better. They start early, often before 7am and work till 11:30, then have a "siesta" time until 2:00 and work until 6:00 or 6:30.
5. The people. even though the language is often fast and difficult to understand. If you make an honest effort at trying spanish, they make a honest effort to try and figure out what you are saying. In general, Colombians are very warm and affectionate. It was very common once somebody enters the room to greet and kiss everyone on each side of the cheek as you hug them. I would strongly recommend for anyone adopting, to try and learn some basic spanish. I had rosetta stone I and II edition. This was more then adaquate to get me by. Adult education spanish I class's are also a great refresher.
Well, that is my top 5 for the day. I will start cutting back on blogs, and just do updates time to time with of course new pictures. Our adoption travels were a great experience and we have many memories to look back on with Ruben. Someday, he will probably like to go back for a visit to his homeland, and if possible, we would love to take him. (in the winter here in Montana of course).