Melgar and Lunch at Almira's

Church in Melgar

Sunday began as an overcast day. We had breakfast at the hotel then took a walk to town. We were almost to the center when it began to rain. We stepped into a fruit/ice cream/coffee shop and ordered drinks. We were directly across from church where people were gathering for service. As we sat there waiting for the rain to stop and enjoying our drinks we people watched and listened to the service. One song they played was Battlehymn of the Republic which surprised us all.

Downtown Melgar

Lunch at Almira's

Visiting with Almira

Once the rain subsided we strolled a little more, bought a deck of cards (in case it rained more) and headed back to the hotel. There we took a taxi to Almira's for lunch. Lunch was a chicken broth soup with potatoes, yucca, carrots and egg yolk with a side of rice and chicken. Served with pineapple juice. It was a very Colombian meal and very delicous.

We then sat around talking about odds & ends with Johan translating. We had a good laugh over the differences in language. They did not understand why we cannot roll our 'r's'. We gringos practiced for them and they laughed & laughed. They asked about the weather, Johan's school and our family at home. They didn't understand that we have siblings, cousins, etc. but that most don't live very close to us and we don't see them very often. They wanted to know when we were coming back, if it was expensive to travel to the U.S. and what jobs paid well in America. They thought all Americans were tall and light skinned. Johan told them many are short - some with dark skin. Obviously what they know of Americans is what the TV has shown them. We invited them to visit us in the U.S.

It was a nice visit. We decided to walk back to town - which was a short distance. Johan showed us the areas he would play, explained some of the games they played and showed us the shortcut to town - although we opted to go the long way since one of the areas of the shortcut was tight to squeeze through.

Once back at the hotel we spent a little time at the pool relaxing then prepared for our visit with Blanca, the foster mother who Johan was with first and longest.