Back to Business in Ibagué/ One week is a very short time.

Well, I am back in Ibagué after a glorious getaway in Bogotá, and back to work as well... I took a bus Friday afternoon from Bogotá and arrived in my home away from home early in the evening. I came back to the apartment, showered, cooked myself a quick veggie stir fry and then headed out with Anthony (from Barranquilla) and two of his friends here in Ibagué to the shopping center, where they ate dinner and I milked my jalepeño-burned finger (as in dipped in milk).

Anthony & me

New friends: Anthony, Ellien, & Raul

From the shopping center we went into the center of town to a bohemian bar owned by a woman who works at the Center for the Formation of Peace, the org that fights child labor and works with street children here. We met Jennifer & some other employees of the center there, and resumed the new obsession that my Colombian friends have with Kings Cup. Unfortunately, the night was cut short with some bad news from Barranquilla, and Anthony and his friends Erik & Jose Luis left, leaving us all a bit somber.

Anthony & Jennifer

Kings evidence... Me, Jose Luis, & Erik

we traded - my headband & his hat... I think the flowers really suit him ;)

Yesterday we had another soccer game with the future A Ganar participants, with the morning spent in Zone 1 and the afternoon session in Zone 2 cancelled due to heavy downpour.

Last night there was a party in my apartment complex to celebrate Amor y Amistad (Love & Friendship), the Colombian equivalent of Valentines Day, with the festivities lasting a month instead of a day. Yikes. There was a live band, lots of sexy dancing, and lots of aguardiente (the anis-tinted sugar cane alcohol made in Ibagué). I stayed for a bit, blushed more than a bit - mostly a result of people giving me a hard time that I wouldn't dance, and then went home and slept 10 hours to make up for all of the sleep I had lost in Bogotá thanks to Kings.

Next Monday is October 11, and it is the day that we must begin our program with the first training sessions. Between now and then, there is an Everest of tasks that still need to be done, and Ferney & I are both novice climbers in the field of development projects, so we will see how it all turns out. Yikes.