Divercity

Okay, we made it back from the kid's center called "Divercity." It was really quite amazing. Divercity is a huge kid's "city", where children get to interact in over 60 different activities. All the activities involve either spending "money" or earning "money". Interestingly, the spending activities usually cost three thousand "divis", while the earning activities usually paid two thousand "divis". So I think the lesson there is that you have to work more than you get to play. Every single activity required a significant waiting period before the children could participate because they observed a strict ratio of children to adults per activity. So there was always a line outside each activity with a clock counting down the wait time for each line. Oh, and did I mention that adults were not allowed to stand in any of the lines or participate in any of the activities? We weren't even allowed into the activity rooms, but we could watch everything through huge windows. So kids could get a driver's license; drive a car; put out fires; make yogurt, pasta, and chocolate; have their faces painted; sing with a rock band; go to the bank and open an account; shop in the grocery store; ride in a firetruck, ambulance, or bus; make jewelry; "work" on cars; etc., etc. Like I said, it was really amazing. We got there at 9 in the morning and left after 2pm. And we didn't even do half of the activities!

There was a very strict security system for the children. We had to use our passports to enter, and everyone had to have a non-removable bracelet (only the security staff could take them off of us) with a readable device on it for tracking purposes. In other words, whenever a person entered a new "station" or area of the "city", they had to pass their bracelet past a device that recorded where they were. That way, if we lost track of our child they could immediately tell us what activity she was currently involved in. And if our older daughters wanted to leave Divercity to wander the mall, Geof had to appear personally to give his permission to let them leave. The staff would then remove Annalisa's and Rebecca's bracelets and place them on Geof's arms. (I should have gotten a picture of Geof with multiple bulky bracelets on his arms. )Then in order for them to reenter, Geof had to be paged and appear again to approve their reentry. I tried leaving with them at one point and was told that the "head of our group" had to give his permission. So even though I am their mother, I couldn't leave with them unless Geof showed up to "free" us! Hey, at least our kid sure wasn't going to disappear in there!! It was like trying to get onto the military base! Quite impressive!

This amazing place was in a huge mall, so Annalisa and Rebecca wandered the mall for two hours of that time, getting up their courage to use the little bit of Spanish they know. They did great. Now we are back at our "home away from home", just hanging out until dinnertime.

Tomorrow is Geof's birthday and guess what we get to do? We are going to a professional soccer game in Bogota!! And since soccer is Geof's favorite sport, it will be a very special memory for him to have actually gone to a game here in Colombia on his birthday. We have to take our taxi driver with us, as it is very difficult to find a driver after the game is over. So we will pay for his ticket to the game as well as pay him for his time while he is at the game. But it will be fine. This particular driver is very nice (although he doesn't speak English) and it will be helpful to have someone who can help us navigate at the game.

On Monday Geof has a flight to Neiva at 5:40 in the morning, with a return flight at 2:30. Pray that all goes well and there are no hitches to this trip. We have to be sure he has every document with him that he might need, as he will not be able to just run back to the hotel if there is something else the judge requires.

Blessings to you all.