First Day Out and on Our Own!

Today was a light day of activities.  We decided to “venture out” to the Americanized mall that is about 3 blocks from our temporary apartment. We put Elleazah in her stroller and started walking. We quickly realized that the sidewalks here are not very stroller friendly let alone handicap/ wheelchair friendly. Many of the curbs can be 8- 12 inches high at the cross walk. I didn’t realize that I had taken such a simple thing as sloped sidewalks for granted while taking a walk with Elleazah around a neighborhood in the States.

Another thing I quickly realized was that strollers draw attention, not because strollers are rare, but because everyone is curious as to what is INSIDE the stroller. We received so many Uhhhh’s and Ahhhh’s, especially once she had fallen asleep.  As we were waiting to cross a street, for a car to make the turn, the driver nearly came to a complete stop to look into the stroller to see Elleazah.  Then the driver looked up at us and continued on her way! Wow. We had to chuckle at the attention a stroller/ baby can draw.   

While we were in the mall, it quickly became apparent that malls are not just for shopping, but for watching soccer games. Colombia was playing Peru and there were many TVs hanging from the ceiling, scattered throughout the mall with several couches lined up. The couches were always full and often had a couple rows of people standing behind the seated prospectors. Even by the food court, they had set up a hug screen and projecting the game on the screen. They set up an area for people to sit on the floor and watch the game. There were at least a hundred people in this section alone, many of whom were dressed in the yellow Colombian jersey. We didn’t need to sit and watch the game to know how Colombia was doing, someone who is blind could have been following the game based on the cheers and the Ohhh’s.

We also browsed a grocery store, I did some price comparisons from what I remembered from the states. A bag of baby wipes in the states I was able to buy a bag of 75 wipes for $1.50-$2.00, depending on the brand. Here, a bag of 100 wipes, costs just over $5.00. Wow! I am glad a friend from church invited me over one afternoon and we made a bundle of cloth wipes. Detergent (Tide) here costs about $7 for a bottle that is for 24 loads of laundry. Yeow! Lastly, I was excited to see my favorite fast food restaurant in the mall- a Subway. For my favorite sandwich, it costs $5 for a 6inch sub… twice the price from the States where it is a $5 footlong sub. Sad, I will probably have to wait until we return to the States to get a sandwich from there.  Even at the Burger King, a whopper value meal was over $7.  But, on the other side of things, you can buy potatoes for about $.25-$.75/ lb. depending on the type of potato because there are about 40 different types of potatoes here in Colombia. Bread rolls are about 25-35 cents. Broccoli, yellow squash and carrots were about 70 cents per pound.  Needless to say, we will be eating the fresh fruits and veggies. So, there you have it. Our first day out with many observations, though it was the first set of observations, I’m sure it will not be the last.