Monday 9th - Fiesta

Today, Fiesta doesn't mean a party! It also means a Bank Holiday (in English-speak), Epiphany. A few days ago, Christmas Day in Russia and also Ukraine where I will be at the end of the month. And Día de los Reys in Spain.

I walked to Plaza Victoria, got rather bored because almost everywhere was closed. Had a coffee and bought some food in the supermarket. Nini texted me in the morning when I was in the cathedral to wish me a pleasant journey which I took to mean bye-bye because I don't actually travel till tomorrow evening. I spent a lot of time yesterday discussing with Omaira how I could help them buy a house, maybe with a mortage of 16k euros. A basic house of concrete blocks and a steel roof would be around 70 milones here (23k euros). We came to an agreement more or less but I knew that it would not be acceptable to Nini - so a non-starter. (We fell out earlier about it when we were waiting to delivery presents to the children before Christmas). In any case I promised nothing because I had to take professional advice. There were many snags - crazy idea.

Why was I in the cathedral? I will explain. Estephanie has a disease which is not curable, it requires repeating visits to hospital for operations. I had an idea to find a healer here to help her. Or in the absence of that I would try it myself. I have studied under Matthew Manning in the UK and I sent an email to him to ask if he had any contacts in Colombia but his PA replied to say no. Yesterday, Sunday, she was running and jumping around when I went to visit Omaira at home. My fingers were tingling and I so wanted her to be still so that I could put my hands on her. But I had to be content with absent healing and holding her hand as part of a game from time to time. The concept of healing by touch is rather alien to my friends here I guess and I was concerned not to alarm her mother. So, I was not able to do anything. Incidentally, the paranoia in the UK about touching children does not exist here, neither in Spain. It wasn't about that. I think Luisa would have been alarmed if I attempted healing on the little girl, in fact I asked her permission at one stage. So I was in the cathedral praying for her. I believe amazing things can happen. I don't like to use the word "miracle" because it suggests something very rare and special. Something that makes saints in the Roman Catholic Church. It is more mundane than that. It can happen. And I don't call it "faith healing", it doesn't require faith. It requires the will of the person to get better. Strange as it seems, not always the case. But obviously not applicable in the case of a 3 year old girl. I have a phrase stuck in my mind, I think it is not mine originally, "Make sure before you die, you do something amazing."

Today was rather like one of those grey November Sundays in the UK when I got rather depressed and drank too much. I drink far less alcohol here than I do back in Spain but today was an exception. Don't worry, we are only talking about half a bottle of wine with an egg and bacon sandwich and a strange liquor called Amarillo (yellow). I don't like the taste very much so I didn't drink too much of that anyway. I bought it in the supermarket because I liked the appearance of the bottle and the yellow liquid.

But this afternoon I had absolutely no idea what to do, so I spent it at home. Alejandra has 'flu but she said that we could meet tomorrow morning for a coffee. That will be nice. And then in the evening I go home - a flight to Bogotá at 5.30pm and then around 9pm, to Barcelona. This is my last night in Pereira. Tomorrow I will be sleeping above the Atlantic!

Some people push themselves to physical limits. For pleasure. For some odd reason, I push myself to emotional limits!