Okay, rest of story...

Hola,

Okay, to finish where I left off before dinner... so we made it into Bogota and we went to Betty´s Place. She was so friendly, but to put it kindly, the place needed some serious updating. I was very unhappy about staying, but Jim insisted. After we were given some lunch, Helena (our coordinator) picked us up and we went to the doctor. He said Belicia was fine, but his concern for her eye was that she has a parasite or virus that is very common in Putumayo. He said that they find many times that if treated, the eye goes back to normal. The last doctor that came to the hotel seemed to think she may have a stomach parasite. We are going to have her checked when we get home because on the way to the US Embassy, she got sick in Helená´s car and then she got sick again tonight just before dinner. The doctor yesterday wrote down the names of the parasite and virus that she could have. He said that the US doctors can easily check her and treat her.

I´m not even going to go into all of the details of what I didn´t like about our accomadations, but I do think Jim changed his mind about going somewhere else in the middle of the night. It was cold last night and there was no heat, so we asked for a little space heater. We turned it on and closed the door most of the way. I was getting a headache and after about an hour in bed I began to smell a horrific odor... it smelled like septic!!! Jim got up and tried to figure out what was going on and I took some Advil... my head was killing me. There was nothing we could do because Betty does not reside there and the one housekeeper that lives there, doesn´t speak or understand English. We had an absolutely miserable night, to say the least. I told Jim in the morning, we need to go somewhere else. He called Helena around 7:45 a.m. telling her we needed some place else for tonight. She called a lot of the big hotels and they had no rooms. She did call her favorite, as she calls it, petite hotel, The Halifax, and they did have one room available. She picked us up at 8:30 to go to the US Embassy, but let us stop and look at the hotel first. Belicia had just gotten sick three (3) blocks before we arrived. Since she signaled to me that she was going to get sick, I was able to put a couple of jackets in her lap. When we arrived, the lady came out immediately and helped with Belicia. She had her staff take her shirt and the jackets, they kept them here to clean. The hotel representative gave her a clean shirt to wear to the Embassy... very nice people. Anyway, this place is so much nicer!!! Jim called Betty and told her what was going on and she completely understood and apologized several times. Bogota had a horrible rain storm come through the night before we arrived and what happened was the water had seeped into our rooms. We didn´t notice the odor at first because they had our patio doors opened when we arrived. Anyway, after the Embassy, we went back to pack up our belongings (very little had been taken out) and Helena had a guide, named Jorge, meet us to pick up our luggage. When we returned, the girls room began smelling really bad too. Betty had professionals waiting for us to leave so they could get in and get everything taken care of. She felt so bad that she did not charge us for the stay.

We came over here to The Halifax and got situated and then Jorge walked us down to Avianc´s office. They had wanted to charge us $600 in penalties for changing our tickets, plus almost $400 in airfare rate differences. What a blessing... Jorge used to work with the lady in the office and they were good friends!!! She was VERY nice to us. It took about an hour, but she was able to waive all of the fees and lower our rate difference down to $37... thank you Lord!!!! It was also a blessing to find out that our tickets included the departure taxes for Jim, Bethany, and myself.... another $150.

Well, we are settled into a nice place and are preparing to turn in for our last night in Colombia... finally, we are coming home. Jorge´s wife is going to pick us up at 9:30 a.m. for a little sight seeing and then I have to go back to the Embassy at 3:30 p.m. to pick up Belicia´s Visa. It was strange today walking into the Embassy, seeing hundreds of people trying to apply for their Visas, we walk in, go to a special window for US Citizens, they wait on us immediately, and we´re in and out in 1 1-2 hours. You kind of feel bad for all of those who having been waiting, and will continue to wait, for hours.

I´m not sure if I´ll get a chance to blog tomorrow before we head to the airport (8:00 p.m.), so if not, I am MORE than excited about seeing most of you Friday night. Belicia is excited beyond belief. She keeps saying, ¨Bye bye Bogota, hello United States¨ She is sooooo excited about her fiesta, too.

FYI, once we get home, I will only blog once or twice for Belicia´s sake. I want to download this entire blog for her life book and I want to close with the first few days in her new home. When I get home, there is NO WAY I´ll have time to keep this up. Thanks again to all of you that have sent comments over the last several weeks and to all of you that have prayed for us during this journey. THANK YOU!!

God bless and Chao,
Kathy