the u.s. embassy likes to waste my time...

It feels like a while since I have written. It actually feels like a while since I have been here at El Refugio. I have spent the better part of two days sitting and waiting at the U.S. Embassy for the approval of three traveling visas for the kids. Everything was going fine yesterday up until after we paid. Then, after waiting longer than normal (according to our helper) we were summoned up to the window only to be told that we had not been approved for three kids, only two. Apparantly our paperwork had some sort of malfunction somewhere along the way. So we were told to go home, to come back this morning to see what was going on. So that is what we did. We made phone calls, we sat and waited, we fretted. Today I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't sleep anymore. I laid awake for quite some time until it was time for all to get up. I was picked up at about 8:30 and made it to the embassy around 9:15. We waited for almost three hours to hear word that we should just come back at 2:00. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. So we went back to El Refugio, where I was met by another worker at 2:30. We again went to the embassy and waited until 4:45, when I was called to the window to be given the news that it didn't look good at this moment, that we would not be issued the visas. My heart dropped. I turned away and tried to avoid any eye contact, as I was mad/sad/etc. So as I was explaining this to my contact, I was called again, and to my surprise was given the visas! We checked over them to make sure that they were okay, and they were, so I called Janine and told her to start packing. The ride home was joyous, I was very happy, excited to finally have clearance to go home. As Janine was letting me know her packing plan we got a call from the embassy: do not travel tomorrow...you do not have clearance. I wanted to puke. I was so mad, so sick. Hadn't they just given me the visas to travel 25 minutes before?!? It turns out that we are waiting for CIS in SLC to fix the problem. Apparently there is only one person in all of CIS/SLC who can work on it and she has been sick for two days. So maybe we are stuck. We will gamble tomorrow, packing our stuff, getting ready, hoping to hear word that we are cleared at 8:00 AM. If so, we are off running to get to the airport and get through all the security nonsense before our flight at 10:30. If not, we change our tickets again, and wait. We have no idea right now, what is going on. It is ridiculous that we are stuck because of one paper with one problem that can only be rectified by one person who happens to be sick. The embassy has all our other paperwork that has approved us for three kids. Our contact here cannot understand how we could get this far, even getting the paperwork cleared to pick up three kids, without it being caught before. I am somewher stuck between irritability, helplessness, and anger, very frustrated with the system that jerks people around. We'll see what happens.

So that is what is going on. Otherwise, things are good. The kids have been enjoying the backyard here, as well as playing with the other kids. There have been a few crying fits, but for the most part I am very pleased with how the kids have interacted and acted within these sometimes crowded confines. The meals are not too big and are not filling for me, but they have been edible. I especially enjoyed the lasagna the other night, and the soups have been good, just not enough of it. The people here are mostly French speaking, but we have managed to communicate on a rudimentary level. We have all warmed up to each other a bit, which is always helped along by kids playing with each other. Like I said, our kids have done well interacting with everyone.

Bogota itself is big. Over eight million people. It can take a while to travel anywhere, especially during the morning commute, and there are some wild drivers out there. It is a bustling city, for sure, with lots of construction and lots of places to shop. It seems that the economy is pretty good. One thing that is interesting is that people sell cell phone minutes on the street. It was explained to me that the people cannot find jobs, so they buy humongous cel phone plans for cheap and then sell the minutes for maybe 100 pesos over what they paid. So any long distance calls are cheaper this way rather than by one's own phone. Interesting.
Josiah: lots of good graffiti down here...it would be easy to spend hours looking at it all, as we pass so much on the way to the embassy.
The weather is cool. It never really feels hot, and has topped out at around 71 since we have been here. The nights can be really cool, but we are not out at night so the kids have not reacted to it at all. I actually enjoy this city, as little of it as I have seen, and might get a chance to see more. It reminds me of Philly in the amount of land that it covers, just no cheese steaks.

I am really hoping that we leave tomorrow, although I do not believe we will. If not, we will make the best of it and hopefully enjoy the rest of our stay. My anticipation to come home has waned, only because of the ambiguity of any plans of a return date. It seems almost arbitrary at this point, but hopefully it will be soon. The last two days have been particularly stressful, and at this point I am resigned to the fact that whatever happens happens. Like I said, we will see.

Anyhow, I hope you are all doing well. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I see that most of you are faithfully checking in to see updates, so here you go. If we are here tomorrow, I will write again.
wanting to eat good pizza and watch hockey,
S.