Cumple

My 24th cake (that is a lie. I know I didn't have one in TZ. And I think I didn't have one last year either.)

Well, after one of the worst fevers I have ever had, I woke up 24. Last night I was supposed to go to the Tolima game against a team from Argentina. It was the second of two games in the quarterfinal round! I decided against going at 6:30, which proved to be rather brilliant foresight. My fever spiked, I shivered in my 32º sleeping back, and tears streamed from my eyes for no reason. Those tears felt like boiling water - not sure whether that was because they were in fact hot, or because my skin was so hot that whatever it touched felt hot? I showered in cold water (all that is available here) despite the shivers, and then slept through the night. This morning I felt unrested & we went to the doctor instead of work. 

For some reason in Colombia, the idea of lines doesn't apply. When Jorge & I walk into a bank, he cuts the 15-20 people that had been waiting and goes straight to the teller, even when that teller is already helping someone (INVASION OF PRIVACY, NO?) When I was at the conference in Bogota, I was in line to get my certificate, and a man cut me, then looked back with a sheepish grin and said "how embarrassing, are you alright with me cutting you?" Strange. This morning was no exception. We walked into a fancy pants hospital in town, straight through the packed waiting room of the ER, and into the room of a doctor that Amalia is friends with. I didn't have to pay for the visit? There was a child screaming bloody murder in the room next door. I wondered but did NOT want to know what happened to him or her. 

I came back home, slept some more, ate a HUGE lunch of ajiaco, which is one of my favorite soups, and then slept some more. I slept slept slept, and worked a minute or two in between, holding the "strategic plan meeting" that I had schedule for today over skype rather than in person. 

All in all, a rather sad birthday. Aside from the cake! Yum! And of course, an outpouring of love on facebook. Technology.... it makes things so easy.

Me, taking a break from sleeping all day to eat cake :) thanks Amalia! I even got a song from Amalia, Armando, and the woman who was cutting Armando's hair at the dining room table!