Back in Bogota

Sofia and I arrived in Bogota yesterday and have spent the last day and a half doing business here and visiting family, most especially baby Sara, the newest addition to the family, and Sofias first cousin. Sara was born five weeks premature and is barely over four pounds. Like all premies, shes struggling, but I can tell she has the fighter spirit and in the long run she will be ok.
We drove around Bogota today and I was marveling at home at home I feel here, after so many trips. This is a holiday weekend, so Pico Y Placa has been discontinued in Bogota for three days. Pico Y Placa is the name in Colombia for the rules governing when you can drive your car in Bogota, the capital. Bogota, like LA in the US, is in a bowl, high up in the Andes and with millions of inhabitants has developed quite a smog problem. I remember my first visit to Colombia in 1999 when I blew my nose and it all came out black. Depending on the numbers on your liscene plate, you can only drive 1 or 2 days a week, in an attempt to encourage mass transportation. About three years ago the Bogotanians built a massive inner city transit system, the first organized one ever called Transmilienio which is an above ground bus system that connects all points in the city. Everyone rides it and now when I blow my nose it is a lot cleaner. In just two short years they turned their smog problem around and believe me I notice it! Bogota is a great, huge city, everything is available. Sofia was noticing the many homeless in Bogota today, mostly men who sleep on the streets, sidewalks, and make homeless people on the streets of NYC look like they have it pretty good. Of course, no one who is homeless does, but the poverty is so much starker here, harder to not notice. Sofia and I talked about that today, and I shared with her that when I got tomorrow to Barranquilla that I am going to be with the church that is working to stand in the void, trying to help. Colombia is a country of constrasts. My friend Sue came here about a month ago on a delagation with the PPF and she said, I dont think I saw the Colombia you talk about Shannan. I know she didn{t, I have seen that Colombia too, Juan{s family lived in an insulated way for the most part. The contrasts here are overwhelming, but the beauty is as always, intense.