Finally, Some Photos!

Today I slept in and lazed around for a good part of the day. I was able to chat online with Matthew, who just arrived in Germany. Then I decided to explore the neighborhood a little. I stopped in to check mass times at the church that's about a block from my apartment and then walked for about 20 minutes along one of the main roads. I stumbled upon a store that looked like a Target or Wal-mart and decided to stop in and get some tape, because I haven't been able to find any in the little markets near my apartment. This 'quick' trip turned into a rather lengthy one, because the store was packed. Apparently everyone does their shopping there on Saturday evenings. When I finally made it out of there, it was dark. I ended up getting a little lost on the way back because none of the streets here are very straight. At one point I was so turned around that when I looked up at where I thought the mountains should be (they are east of the city), they were in exactly the opposite place! Luckily, though I knew the address of my building, and after about half an hour of walking around blocks (and at some points going in circles) I finally found my apartment! All those Hail Marys paid off!

Thursday night, Katie and AnaCecilia came over to my apartment. Katie made miso soup while AnaCe and I picked up some beer and chips. It was like a little housewarming!

Friday was nothing special. After I got back from Gilete, I did my laundry in the sink. "Why?" you may ask. Well, because 1. I have no idea where the nearest laundromat is, and 2. I figured that it's way cheaper anyways.

Okay, finally I'm going to post some photos! This will just be a random assortment from the past 2 weeks. I wish I could just walk around all the time with my camera out, but Guadalupe said it's not particularly safe to do that, so I don't have nearly as many photos as I would like. Anyways, this is only the first installment of photos. I have at least 3 more sets, though, and the next ones should be either more timely or more related to each other.



This is the hotel room I was in for the first week. It had a very clean, modern design. I practiced my Spanish with the employees, but most of them knew enough English as well, so communication was not a problem.









This is a view from my hotel window looking east. You can see the mountains in the background.










This is a very cool device. It's called a Walk Aid. The two wires going under the band are attached to electrodes. The device has a inclinometer, so when it gets to a certain angle when the patient is walking, the electrodes send a shock to the underlying muscles, which helps to lift the foot and make the step easier and more natural. There's another part that connects to this so Katie can test out a few different angles and then all the data is uploaded to a computer and analyzed for the best scenario. It was fascinating to watch the whole process.




This is part of the shop, where the various stages of the manufacturing process take place. John is in the middle working on a positive mold of a leg. Guadalupe is on the right. In the foreground is the mold I did of John's patient.









Here is AnaCecilia cutting velcro for an orthotic. She's one of Katie's roommates and is actually younger than I am. She speaks a little bit of English, so she and I talk a lot and usually can figure out how to communicate almost anything between English and Spanish.









These flowers were just growing in someone's yard. The plant life here is really beautiful because the weather pretty much stays the same all year.








On the way to the conference one day, we saw this white pickup with armed soldiers just driving through the city. Also of note in this photo: the rosary hanging from the cab's rearview mirror (the country is mostly Catholic), the line of cabs on the right (they're everywhere), the Nemo toy on the dash, and the Smiley face stress ball hiding on the dash shelf (just because). This photo is like an I-Spy!







Here's another armed soldier, just chillin' on a corner somewhere. Today I was walking around and and nearly ran into 4 soldiers, all also carrying guns. It's a bit unnerving the first few times you see them.








This is a photo of one of the army training bases in Bogotá with the mountains in the background. In case you couldn't tell, I love seeing the mountains every day. :)











There's a lot of graffiti in the city. Again, there are the mountains. So beautiful! You'd never guess
I'm from the flatlands of North Dakota...










Yes, this is yet another picture of the mountains, but the brown-red parts on the left half of the mountain are a bunch of houses. I'm not sure if it's part of the city or a village on the outskirts, but it's really pretty, especially at night when it lights up the sky.