Spanish is Coming Back and "Why We Fight"

Aysha had a good day today. She went swimming in the afternoon with Mom and then out to the park in the evening. We live about a 20 minute walk from a playground. There were two other teachers from the school with kids around Aysha’s age amidst the tens of kids running around. It was b-u-s-y. Parents just sat around and kids were on the loose. Aysha went over and grabbed a beach ball out of another stroller and when I tried to give it back the mom and grandma sent me to give it back to Aysha.

Aysha’s Spanish is coming back too. She has started beckoning us to follow her. Instead of walk over and grab a finger to have us do her bidding, she holds out her hand palm-up and motions to us with all her fingers. At the same time, she says “veng,” which is Spanish for “come.” Also, Karla was telling me about Gabriel (one of the kids at the playground), and how his mother was telling Karla that whenever something falls, he says the Spanish equivalent of “uh-oh.” Well, as soon as the word (which I can’t remember) was out of Karla’s mouth, Aysha said it too.

Her English is developing as well. She is pointing to the family members now and identifying us, “Dada, Mama, Aysha.” Facial features are another fun-to-identify set of words she uses.

Aysha is still carrying her baby around with her everywhere. When I was giving her a horsey-ride, she hopped down in the middle and plopped baby on me. “Mooooore.” After about three seconds of baby’s ride, it was Aysha’s turn again, but she did share a bit.

Here are a couple of Karla's photos of Aysha sporting one of Claudina’s many marvelous hair styles. Every day when we get home she has done something different with Aysha’s hair. Claudina says that Aysha just sits calmly while she puts them in, but Aysha just wiggles and squirms for us.

Last night we watched a very well made documentary called Why We Fight. It goes back to a speech Dwight Eisenhower gave as he left the presidency. In it he warned Americans to be weary of the power of the defense industry. The movie then goes on to examine how the defense industry has encouraged war to support its business. It’s nothing new about the current war, but it does give a slightly different interpretation. Wars are not fought for ideas or the necessity of having a wrong to right, but to maximize the benefit to the victors. Well worth your time.

The Missing Piece

I noticed this week that there is an important piece of information missing from our blog. Karla is pregnant and we are expecting another baby in January. We didn't post it on the blog sooner to be able to tell people in person over the summer. Then by the time we got back to Colombia and started posting again, it was old news and never occurred to me to post here until now.

We saw the first of the two doctors that have been recommended to us. The first doctor did and ultrasound and gave the baby an clean bill of health. He thinks that the baby will be born around January 15th, but Karla isn't convinced. She is sticking to her prediction of the end of January. We get the second doctor's opinion on the 31st.

Last week we bought our tickets home for the Christmas vacation. The school has given us the last week of school-the exam period-off. We leave here the 10th of December and fly overnight to Calgary. We fly to Saskatoon on the 18th and then back to Cartagena on the 29th. As long as the second doctor's estimated due date is close to Karla's, our travel plans should be fine. If not, we may need to see a doctor in Canada before the return flight to get medical clearance. We are checking with the insurance agent about the possibility of delivering the baby in Canada. (as a backup plan only- grandparents, don't get your hopes up)

Karla and Aysha are having their morning nap. Karla had a girls' night last night and I went out with the boys for poker night. We' re all a little tired today. And Aysha's up again.

The Sandal Queen

Aysha is the sandal queen. She has fallen in love with her sandals. Usually, before we leave for school in the morning, she finds them and brings them to someone for help putting them on. She wears them all day around the house and cries at night when we take them off her to go to bed.

It's Sunday morning: nap time for Mom and Aysha. Yesterday we went out to the islands with the school. It's the big integration activity. It involves drinking beer and sitting by or in the ocean. For anyone who came to Cartagena and braved the trip out to the islands with us, this trip reminded me why we took you. In August, when we first went out, the water is smooth and the boat roars out to the islands. It's an easy trip when the seas are calm. Unfortunately, in the winter when visitors are here, the seas get all excited and bumpy.








Aysha and Erin kayaking.

















Alba and Julian's noodle battle.







We all had fun, but I am still sore from going tubing.

The latest chapter of Made in America has been describing some of the myth making around the creation of the US. Is was actually a problem filled process whose result instill few hopes of success. Aside from the key figures being drunks, womanizers, avoiders of baths, and all around failures, the founding fathers rarely agreed with one another. The Constitution was widely regarded as too full of compromises to be useful and it was only hoped it would last a few years until something better could replace it. When George Washington was sworn in as President, most of the members of the House and Senate didn't bother to show up. It was a month before enough members of the House arrived to establish quorum and more than that before the Senate could operate.

Now is it pure ignorance of history that lead the US to believe it could set up an effective government in Iraq? Or does the ignorance simple make people's expectations of what kind of government can be imposed hopelessly optimistic? I have been critical of the slow progress of the government forming in Iraq. Maybe it's actually going well. It would seem that the idea that no deal is better than a bad deal is not correct. Who's to say what a bad deal is.

Well, it's time to head down to the pool. Until the next nap...

Shaun of the Dead and Made in America

It's 9:30 here and Karla's been asleep for two hours. She and Aysha went down about the same time. Aysha is still off her bottle - three whole days now. When she asks for her tete (tay-tay - her bottle), we offer leche (lay-chay - milk) in a sippy cup. She is drinking less, but eating considerably more.

Karla has two appointments to see the doctor - one on the 31st to see the probable doctor, and another on the 22nd to see another recommended doctor. Those were the first times the doctors had available to see her. We have talked to the school, who are going to let us off a week early to come home. As soon as we know when Karla is officially due, then we can book tickets for Christmas and start to make plans. We'll keep you posted.

Since nights like tonight are becoming a regular occurrence, I have been left with time in the evening to occupy myself. I finished watching Shaun of the Dead tonight, a comedy about a slacker thirty something that tries to save himself and his friends from a zombie horde. The movie doesn't live up to its clever name, but it did have manage to slowly catch my interest. At the end of the first 45 minutes (when I took an overnight break), I wasn't excited about watching the second half. By the end of the film, as Shaun and his girlfriend rally for one more attempt to escape, I have to admit, I felt sorry for their poor, doomed, soon-to-be-eaten-by-zombie characters.

After I've soaked up a bit of culture, I've been reading Made in America, Bill Bryson's history of the American version of English. So far it hasn't been as good as the first couple chapters of his book The Mother Tongue, a history of the English language, which I managed to start this summer. So far the Puritans have just arrived and are busy getting rid of words like slobberchops (a messy eater) and simplifying other words by forming new words out of combinations of others. So chilblains was replaced by frostbite and counterpaine by bedspread.

Ten o'clock has rolled around and it's time for this little camper to hit the hay.

A Cliche and a half

"22,524 posts matching long-time-no-blog"

I was going to start this with the title "Long time, no blog". However seeing as 22,524 people have already used my clever twist on an old saying, I won't.

We're back in Colombia and tomorrow we start our first full week back at school. We had students for three days last week.

Over the summer, we were too busy going to weddings, a folk festival, and visiting family to keep up with our blogging responsibilities. Here are a few photos of the summer:

Aysha and two of her great- grand- parents

Aysha at the park with Grandpa and Jenna

On a hike at Island Lake Lodge

At the playground

Frisbee time!

Canada Day fireworks over Fernie

Aysha and Auntie Lianne at the wedding.

A Germaine family photo

We had a difficult trip back to Colombia. Our 6am flight to Toronto (that we got up at 3:30 to catch) was cancelled. After an hour of exploring, the agent managed to find us an alternate route through Houston that would get us to Cartagena on time. Once in Houston, we had a couple hours to kill before the airline, Continental, hit us up for $40 each for airport taxes that we hadn't paid with our original ticket. In the end they let us go without paying the taxes. But we did get stuck in the very back row where the seats don't recline for the five hour flight.

When we got to Bogota, we arrived late and were immediately told that we would miss our connection - that last flight to Cartagena that day. When we got down to the Avianca desk, they told us that since it was a long weekend, all the flights were full until Sunday (2 days later).

Air Canada was our saviour, although a slow one. It took them more than two hours to work it all out, but they got us on a flight on Saturday and put us up in a hotel until then. It was 1am by the time we got to the hotel. Whew!

The day we had in Bogota was a blessing is disguise - although we missed a day of work when we could have begun getting our plans together, we were forced to take a day to do nothing and relax.

Friday we did make time to go up to Monserrate, a church perched on top of one of the mountains that surround Bogota. Here are a couple shots from there.

Karla and Aysha in the chapel

I had no idea they came in any other variety!

On Saturday, we did get back to Cartagena and had some time to unpack and settle in. Aysha was excited to be back home and ran around for the first day rediscovering all the stuff she had almost forgotten about.

Aysha saved her protest about having to sleep alone in her room until the night before the students arrived when she cried from 11:30 until 3:00. We did try the usual calming technique of going in and sitting beside her, but she just didn't want to be in her crib. In the end, we left her to cry. After a little while we heard the familiar rattle of chupo, her soother, falling on the floor. We got it for her a couple times. Then as soon as Karla got back into bed from another retrieval trip, we heard rattle and "“Uh-oh". The little devil had figured out a way that she could make us come in to see her. After that, it stayed on the floor. By morning, her pillow, baby and blanket had also made it to the floor.

The next night, the crying lasted about 30 minutes. It only lasted 5 minutes the night after that. Now she's slept through the night twice.

Aysha was happy to see her friends again. Claudina and her granddaughter, Maria Claudia, have been welcome visitors, as has Julian, the son of other teachers. Aysha hasn't been as warm towards the other teachers - I guess we know who's really important to little Miss Playtime.

Aysha went for a playdate tonight with Julian while I did a bit of treadmilling and found time to finish off this post. They're late getting back so I guess they are having fun over there.

There's lots more to say, but there's not enough time tonight to get it all down. There have been more visits to the website since we got back so I thought I had better put up something before you all give up.

Travelogue Warehouse

Your one stop shop for our travel experiences
Egypt during Pregnancy (November 2004)
Tuscany by Tandem Bike (June 2003)
Thailand (March 2003)
Cambodia (December 2003 to January 2004)
Sri Lanka (December 2002 to January 2003)

One More Week (not that we're counting)

In one week it will all be over and we'll be ready to come back to Canada. It, as always, is busy at the end of the year and blogging and photo posting gets put on the back burner.

It's Friday night and Karla is in the bedroom correcting tests, Aysha is sleeping and I am feeling confident enough in my ability to do all the things on my to do list to put up a post.

Aysha is letting us know what she wants (and doesn't want) more and more. Little crying fits and temper tantrum are becoming more freuqent, but she is still fairly easy to distract. She has discovered that piggy-backs from dad are an entertaining and efficient way to get around. If she can catch me crouched down, she pats me on the shoulder from behind and says "uh" (that means up). There are often tears when the piggy backs run out.

One morning this week we had been sitting together in the living room when I went in to get something (probably coffee) when she came into the kitchen. She pointed to her mouth, which is the I'm hungry sign. Then she pointed to the cupboard where we keep the cereal and made a little uh-uh-uhh sound. That is her version of her parents' Urh-ur-Urh-ur-Urhhhh sound, which is much more baby firendly than the more traditional Cock-a-doodle-doo variation.

So there Aysha is, pointing at the cupboard and crowing like a little rooster learning to welcome the day. What does she want? Eggs? Eggs don't come from roosters, they come from chickens. What she wants is corn flakes. Corn flakes come from roosters, or at least from boxes with roosters on them.

Karla is starting to feel a bit better, but is still coughing like a chain smoker. She says that she is starting to feel like she is overcoming the illness though. Aysha is fine.

I may get the bags out this weekend and begin to put a few things together.

Study Guide for Grandparents, Aunt and Uncles

Well, summer is almost here and it's time for all you you in Maple Leaf Land to start brushing up on some new communication skills you will be needing this summer.

An Introduction to Ayshaese
Aysha speaks in a combination of English and Spanish words, along with a few signs.

Agua (ah-wah)- usually, water, although it is also used for other liquids (coffee, juice and sometimes milk)

Aysha (Ay-yuh) - Aysha, after no, the words she hears second most frequently

Ball (ba) - ball

Banana (nana) - either means I want to eat a banana, there is a banana, or that is where we keep the bananas (which is often difficult to differnetiate from the first meaning)

Bath (ba) - Usually, I want to take a bath, sometimes, there is the bath.

Book (buh) - accompanied by the sign made by opening your hands like a book - means I want to read a book, or I want you to give me a book so I can play with it, or this kids' book is no fun anymore, give that big one that you've got.

Chupo (Tu-toe) - soother, this one she says two ways: normally when she is asking for her chupo, or called out when she is looking for it and wants it to come home like a little lost dog

Done (duh) - accompanied by the sign, made by swinging arms from the centre outwards (like a baseball umpire making a call of safe. This means I've had enough of this and possibly, I want something else. (see ja)

Eye (aye) - this means, "I'm going to poke you in the eye for fun and you're going to pretend that you like it."

Horse (no word) - sign is made by clicking tongue and bouncing hands as if they were holding the reins.

Hungry (no word) - she points to her mouth with one finger - later in the day, more can also mean hungry

Ja (ya) - Spanish for done, used interchangably with English, depending on mood.

More (Moe) - accompanied by the sign, pointing at the palm of one hand with the index finger of the other - usually means more to eat or drink, but can also be a request (ie. demand) to do something again.

No (no) - no

Ow (ow) - that hurts - the sign should by to touch your two index fingers together, but she can only point with her right hand so far, so she ends up pointing at the palm (like more) for ow

Po-po (poe-poe) - poop, as in I have poop in my diaper - sometimes also used to describe wet diapers

Rana (nana) - frog, as in there is a frog - sometimes accompanied by the sign made by poking your tongue out and down

Shoes (soo) - these are shoes (Aysha likes shoes)

Sleeping (no word) - rests her head on a hand, used to say "I am sleepy"

Sucio (tu-toe) - dirty, mostly just repeated after mom, dad or Claudina

Tete (teh-tay) - bottle, as in, there is one, or more frequently, I want one

Uh-oh (uh-oh) - something fell

Up (uh) - it looks more fun up there

Vaca (dada) - cow

Wow-wow (wah-wah) - dog, can mean I see a dog (either in person or on television) or I hear a dog. Generalized to be any four legged animal.

and last but not least, Mama and Dada - definitions not necessary

"Moderate Danger" is Sleeping

Aysha, aka "Moderate Danger," is down for her morning nap, and I must admit that I am tempted to join her. But Lianne has been awaiting a new post, so I will manage without. Lianne gave Aysha the middle name "Moderate Danger" last Christmas. The girl likes adventure, but only to a point. Now that she's walking, whenever we leave the apartment and step into the evevator, Aysha very carefully negotiates the small gap between the landing and the elevator floor. In fact, she holds onto the side of the elevator with both arms while very slowing stepping over the gap. That the gap is only about a centimeter wide doesn't matter - falling down it is a potential risk!

We haven't been doing much picture taking recently, but have instead been playing with the video camera. There is some footage from last weekend at Coco Lisa resort, and Jamie has been experimenting with time lapses (or film that is sped up). He first did a series of sunsets, and has been now working on a few other themes.

School is BUSY. We are down to the last three weeks, and the grading is piling up. I have a new set of essays to grade as well as a Social Studies test that I gave on Thursday. And there are final exams to write (and untimately grade), books to return to the library, classrooms to clean, remedial packages to put together (for those students who look like they are not going to make the year), and year end field trips to plan. Thank God we decided not to change apartments, so at least the only packing we'll be doing is for summer vacation!

My sense of being overwhelmed at work has been compounded by illness. Aysha was sick for four days this week, and shortly after I became sick too. I blame it on the two year old next door who plays with Aysha on a regular basis. Aysha had a low grade fever, coughing, and a runny nose. I've just had an incredibly sore throat which resulted in me losing my voice by the end of my last class yesterday. Today my throat still feels really raw, but my voice is slowly coming back.

Alright, I've run out of news to tell, and that nap is calling me. If Aysha continues sleeping long enough, I might even get to some of my grading!

Goodbye Sarah and Zavion

On Tuesday evening, Karla organized to have a few people over to say goodbye to Sarah and her son Zavion, who left Catagena on Wednesday. During the festivities, Kristina decided to do a little organizing of her own and talked her mom into giving Aysha and Julian a bath. Here are the photos of the event. Kristina and Copeland, her mom, are coming back today for a little recreational babysitting with Aysha.

Digital music at home gets easier

I try to limit my technological posts to things that I think are really cool, and this might just be one. Napster, who came to fame for being shut down as one of the first file sharing services, is now offering free music online (sort of). After Napster was shut down by the courts, its name was bought up and last year it reopened as an online music store. You could still download music from Napster, but now you had to pay for it. Enough history.

Now comes the cool part. Napster will now let you listen to every song in their collections up to five times for free. To listen to it the sixth time, you need to pay a monthly membership fee (if you pay the monthly fee, you can listen to whatever you want, as many times as you want). They have a collection of 2 million songs. If each was 3 minutes long, and you listened to music 24 hours a day, it would take just over 57 years to use up the free songs. Then you'd have to make up a new name and sign up again. Or, discriminating listener that you are, if you only listened to 1% of the songs, it would still take you a year of listening 3 hours a day to hear all the songs just once.

So, I usually look at the Calgary Folk Festival site to see who's going to play at the upcoming festival. Sometimes, I see a name and think, "Oh good, I like that person." Other times, I read about some "alt country sensation" and shrug. Never heard of 'em. This is where Napster comes in. Of the 12 leaked artists, they offer music by 10 of them (missing a Manitoba bluegrass band and a Louisiana Cajun band). So now I can listen to the bands that I will get to see in the summer - just a few songs to find out a bit more about who I'd like to see and who I can stand to miss.

My Turn

Jamie is on babywatching duty, so now it's my turn. While I agree with much of Jamie's review of The Constant Gardener, I'm not dismissing it as complete Hollywood garb. What I liked about it, apart from the interesting sequencing of events, was the honest glimpse it gave of African life - the impoverished towns, the terror of village raids by armed men on horseback, the comparatively decadent lifestyle of westerner diplomats, and the feeling of utter helplessness in the face of extreme poverty and corruption. I also liked the cinematography - in the beginning the camera did nearly all the work telling the story, allowing the audience to form their own conclusions, but later the film felt the need to make sure the audience had arrived at the "correct" conclusions by having the characters verbalize these directly. That is really my only complaint about the film.

I'm also enjoying Aysha's growing ability to communicate. Yesterday I taught her the froggie sign (we are working on baby sign language). When she picked up a leather box Ryan had given me from Jamaica that had a frog on the top, I reached for a couple other frogs we had in the apartment (a wooden fridge magnet, and a plastic toy frog from a cereal box). Instinctively I knew that in that moment, if I found these other frogs and make the frog sign, (tongue darting in and out), that Aysha would learn the sign. And she did! It was so exciting! Almost everyday she learns something new.

Today is free museum day. The last Sunday of each month there is no charge to visit any museum in town. Hence, today we are going to check out the Navel Museum. It's an excuse to get out of the apartment early in the morning and go for a walk in the old town. Yesterday I joined another teacher at 7:30 am for a walk all around Bocagrande and Castillogrande. It took us between two and a half and three hours. I don't usually walk around Castillogrande, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful and quiet the beaches were early on a Saturday morning. It's nice to know this city still holds a few surprises. I'll have to take Jamie for a walk there one morning!

Alright, the museum...

Sunday Morning

Aysha went to be early last night, thanks to not having an afternoon nap, and we watched "The Constant Gardener" with Sarah, a high school English teachers who is getting ready to leave.

I enjoyed the movie. It reminded me of "Memento" in that the way it was told was the movie's hook. I didn't find "The Constant Gardener" as appealing though. "Memento" is about a man with no long term memory. The movies begins with the last scene and then presents the rest of the scenes in reverse order back to the beginning. Like the main character, you are forced to try to understand the characters and circumstances without knowing how you got there. Each scene provides more insight on the scenes you've already watched and forces you to readjust your idea of what has happened and what each character is after. "The Constant Gardener" begins in the middle of the action, when the main character's wife is killed. Then you go back to the beginning to learn the circumstances around the death and are made to feel the suspicions and confusion of the husband. The second half of the movie provides the scraps of information that let you slowly discard false assumptions and follow the main character's discoveries about who his wife was and why she met her end. "The Constant Gardener"'s story is adapted from a John LeCarre novel and is typical of a Hollywood movie; a passionate activist faces off against a huge corporation motivated by greed that is up to no good. The movie has a good cast who give strong performances. It's worth a watch, but is nothing magnificent.

Aysha is copying more and more of wthat she sees. She started making the sign for frog yesterday and even tries to make the words. Most of her words are not distinct yet. The Spanish word for frog is "rana", which comes out as "nana", which is her word for banana. Or "vaca" (Spanish for cow) sounds almost the same a "papa" most of the time. She is letting us know more and more what she wants - she points, nods and shakes her head for yes and no, and uses a few signs and words too. When we've figured out that she wants something to eat or drink, she stands watching us get it ready and all the while make an unusual combination of laughing and crying that comes out in little bursts that make her sound like a little maniac. There is no doubt that she has moved into the communicative phase.

Karla is in the blogging on-deck area. She has been watching Aysha while I wrote this with the deal that she and I will change roles. Aysha... where are you?

Fun with Aysha

Fun with Aysha

Watch the video

Aysha plays in Cartagena, accompanied by "Good Vibrations" courtesy of The Beach Boys. I used Windows Movie Maker instead of the software that came with the camera because it let me use a few more effects.

Aysha is using more and more langauge everyday now. She is starting to copy sounds that we make. She has copied a few animal sounds from her books for a while now. She roars and makes the sound of an elephant trumpeting (sort of). This weekend, she started saying "uh-oh" when something fell. She started saying "bye-bye" (instead of just "bye") and "more". She says mom and papa quite a bit too.

Enjoy the video.

My Two Bits

Jamie did a great job posting to the web so quickly after our trip, but I thought I would add my two bits. Some of the Aysha photos posted were ones I took, even though Jamie posted them to his flickr account. I told him I was annoyed that many members of the family think that he is the photographer, when picture taking is my hobby as well! I have to admit that these days I end up doing more childcare duty, and Jamie more of the picture taking.

It has been hard getting back to work. The holiday was great - better than I had expected. Aysha really enjoyed the stimulation of being in a different place and around other people. I think she also liked having both her parents with her the entire week without either of them distracted (not giving her the attention she would like) due to school work. I've looking forward to being that relaxed during the summer.

We are now in the home stretch of school - only seven teaching weeks left. I know the time will slip by more quickly than I want it to, as I still have a lot that I want to teach and do with my classes. I'm already thinking that I'm going to miss this group of kids. They are really a strong group academically and in terms of creativity, which makes project work a lot more fun. Right now they are working on scripts for a talk show, where each of the members in a group of six are leaders of the past (people who lead Latin America toward independence). They just finished a project where they made children's books on the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas, which they are going to present to a grade two class later this week. The books were beautifully done. In English we just concluded a novel study, and so I am now focusing this week and next on how to organize a short essay. And there are too many things that I would like to teach that I simply won't have time for.

Well, that's my two bits. My goal is to add my voice a little more often to this blog.