Here’s a fun post for you. These are a few adjustments we’ve had to make here in Colombia having to do with daily life. This list is definitely not conclusive, but they are just some things we’ve found interesting and had to learn. 🙂

“¡Mira las monitas!” (Look at the little monkeys!)

At The Store

• Fruit is dirt cheap. Just be sure to wash off the dirt.
• Eggs are not sold nor stored in the refrigerated section but on a room temperature shelf.
• Milk is not sold in jugs but in bags, also on the non-refrigerated shelf.
• Cheese is used everywhere, but any type of yellow cheese is rare and expensive, that is if you can find any! (aka “Goodbye, Cheddar”)
• Mountain Dew and Red Bull both are sometimes available, and are less than a dollar for what costs $2-4 in the States.
• “Ragu” pasta sauce is imported and costs about $6 per jar.
• Bottled carbonated water is as common as uncarbonated water.
• Today we saw a tin of cookies (the same brand Aubrie used to buy for her Grandpa for Christmas at the Dollar Tree) for about $9.50 US.
• We won’t be eating those cookies.

At Home

• Hot water heaters are available, but not common. When we asked a real estate agent about this, he asked if the local water was too cold for us. We mentioned that we enjoy a warm/hot shower if we can get it, he gave us a serious look and asked, “But won’t that make you sick?” 🙂
• Tile instead of carpet, bars on windows instead of screens, and open windows instead of air conditioning (The AC isn’t too much of a problem since it stays moderately warm).
• Many friendly Colombian neighbors love to play music loudly at night. Salsa, Reggaeton, Mariachi… oh yeah.
• Rent is a bit cheaper than the US, but buying a house or property is much more expensive!

Around Town

• Traffic signals, lines, and signs are merely suggestions and often ignored.
• On a 3 lane road, many times there will be 4 small cars and a couple of motorcycles squeezed in between each car. True story.
• For a city of 2 million, I’ve only seen 1 small wreck in the week we’ve been here. Not sure how that’s possible as I’ve seen how people drive here. Lol…
• Seat belts are almost never used. Just hold on for your lives!
• Many people have multiple cell phones. In fact, there are over 49 million active cell phones and Colombia’s population is only 47 million.
• On many street corners there are people who carry 50-100 new-release movies with copies of the cover and a burned DVD in a plastic bag, selling them for 1-2 dollars each. Yes, pirated. Right next to the cops. They don’t sell many in stores. I wonder why…
• Public restrooms are between 25 cents and a dollar to use, toilet paper is rationed, and most public toilets do not have seats.
• People that are strangers will often stop what they’re doing for hours to help you. I find this unique and refreshing, even coming from the Southern US! 
• As I mentioned in my last post, our little blonde haired girls are referred to as “Monitas” or, little monkeys. There aren’t many foreigners, even in our big city, so they get lots of attention!
• Colombians are very proud of their heritage and superiority in society (what people group isn’t?!). I had a taxi driver preach to me for 1/2 hour last night about how terrible each other Latin American county is, and how Colombia and its people, of course, is supreme in all things. I just smiled and said how much I liked Colombia. 😀 Inside I thought how great it would be if this man got the same passion for Christ and his glory… what a difference he could make!

Just because some people do certain things differently, doesn’t make them weird. Actually, it makes us weird, because we are prone to do things differently than them, in their own land. We try to have a student’s eye, watching and learning how people do things. We try to have a servant’s heart, helping and lifting up instead of expecting to be served. We try to have the Savior’s mind, who left it all, came to a different land, and gave his all for us so that we could be with Him.

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Let us all have the eyes of a student, the heart of a servant and the mind of our Savior!

Feel free to share, comment, or add to any of this. God bless!