Week 25: Starting to Get Organized

We checked off the Coffee Valley - one of Colombia's famous attractions. We took a tour of a coffee farm and learned about the production process. It turns out that the coffee we are used to drinking is inferior and tasteless, high-quality coffee feels much thinner, less bitter, and fruity... I still prefer strong and bitter. We went to the largest amusement park in Colombia, I overcame my fear of heights and got on a roller coaster with the kids - I screamed like a child the whole ride and then they forced me to go for a second round. What wouldn’t you do for the kids... We wrapped up with hot springs in the middle of nature, near a stunning waterfall, and then returned home. We came back from the recovery trip, and it's hard to say we actually recovered... In a moment, the roles reversed - Mati and Michael are wandering around smiling while we have long faces. Michael surprised me with his developed sense of cynicism, laughed at me, and told me this week: I understand it's hard for you, but stop being addicted to the blues, you need to see this as an opportunity... He's right, we need to make the most of the time left, but it seemed this week that the world is trying to tell me something

At first, it was the car - for the past six months we've been worried about breaking down in some hole, but the car always did its job. On this week's trip, it broke down remarkably, first making a noise like a spring that grew louder. We elegantly ignored it and turned up the music... Then the car wouldn’t start, we jump-started it with cables and continued, then finally a flat tire - 6 hours from home, in the middle of the forest, on a bumpy dirt path half an hour from the nearest town. In each of these cases, the first local we asked for help in broken Spanish was quick to jump in and rescue us from our trouble

After that was the workshop - I realized I needed to hurry with chess if I wanted to finish before we leave. I wrote to the owner of the workshop that I want to come every day this week since I’m leaving soon. She didn’t reply for several hours and then added me to a new WhatsApp group with all 150 students of the workshop. There she wrote that her father, who established the workshop and had worked there for the last 30 years, passed away. I met him about a month ago; he had just had a stroke and probably wanted to feel the workshop for one last time - he went around among the students, made comments in broken speech, fixed a few machines, and left. I spoke a little with his son, whom I had met the first day I arrived at the workshop; he specially came when his father had the stroke and now came again for the funeral. He now lives with his wife in Hawaii. He told me a bit about life there, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

Finally, running - after I had recently reduced the number of runs due to pain in the Achilles tendon of my right leg. I decided to ignore the pain and go out for a run to release energy. I went out with Toto, and after less than a kilometer, the annoying neighbor's dog bit me on my right calf. Not some random scrape - a bite! A small and annoying dog. It turns out this is not wrong. A barking dog does bite. I was so surprised that I didn’t have a chance to kick him... I returned home bleeding, defeated, and in pain

Beyond the disappointment, the humiliation, and the sadness of the early departure, I'm sorry that the kids are leaving just before they pull away from their victim mentality, just before they leave with a success experience. It’s very noticeable among all three that they are incredibly close to a turning point. Michael is even willing to admit it - the only one who openly says he will miss his friends and his teacher. This week he won the elementary school basketball championship with his class. He was the leading player and scored more points in the final match than the entire opposing team. The class decided to give Michael the trophy to take home to Israel. Mati admits he regrets not having time to learn Spanish, and that he’s really close to it, already understands a lot from conversations. There have already been two times when he explained to me in hindsight what the vendor said; he was surprised that I didn’t understand, and he did. He also said he was happy we came here because it made him appreciate Israel and his home. After only complaining about school in Israel and asking to leave, now he talks about staying for high school. Ofri has just managed to pronounce the Spanish rolling r which sounds a bit like