Yesterday morning we went to the baptism of the baby of my wife's nineteen year old niece. We are the "padrinos" of the child. Later in the afternoon all the family gathered at my wife's mothers house to have cake and ice cream and an "asado" (bbq) . It suddenly struck me as pretty amusing that my wife's sister, mother of above mentioned niece, who is in her late thirties is a grandmother. That makes my mother-in-law who recently turned 55 and is several years younger than me, a great grandmother. Her mother is in her early seventies and is now a great great grandmother. How many families do you know with a living great great grandmother?! Also at the gathering was said niece's father and uncle both of whom are bodyguards and errand men for the Orejuela brothers, two of the biggest narcotraficantes in Colombia. The "errands" include watching over their many properties which include businesses, farms, country estates and the Cali soccer team. It happens that I'm interested in buying a country place in an area called Dapa. To my dismay the uncle who presumably knows told me the area I am interested in is a poor choice as being well up in the mountain the guerrilla have easy access and their custom is to charge property owners a "vacuna" or vaccination fee to be left alone. In the case of a gringo (my case) kidnapping could be more likely the order of the day. Here's the country house
City living isn't much better. In three months there have been five robbery attacks within view of my front door. The latest was yesterday when a neighbor lady getting out of her car was attacked by five guys who pulled up behind her. The (unarmed) street watchman or "vigilante" started to go to her aid but one of them put a pistol to his head and told him "you move, you die". We had left our house just five minutes earlier and in fact spotted a suspicious car with five guys inside and took down the plate number. It turned out to be them. Hopefully the police will do something with the plate number.
As I write it has just occurred to me that I am now the godfather of a child whose grandfather is deeply involved in the Colombian drug tradeÂ…oh geez!!!
