Day 16 - One step forward, two steps back

We haven't heard from our lawyer or our translator for a whole week now. But today we found out why: A family member has just died. (Our lawyer and our translator are mother and daughter.) It wasn't unexpected, but they still need time to grieve and to arrange the funeral.

Luckily for us, our documents had already been sent to the court when this happened, so it should not affect the course of our court case. We just aren't kept frequently informed about the progress.

Today Ulf went to the drugstore in the nearest hospital to buy suppositories with paracetamol (or acetaminophen) to use as painkillers for the child when he gets an earache (for instance on the plane) or other kinds of pain that either we can't take away or he is unable to tell us about. The man behind the counter sold Ulf a long strip of what looked like Durex condoms, which he claimed was Dolex suppositories for children. But once back at the hotel, we discovered that they were neither suppositories nor for children! They were regular paracetamol tablets for adults.

So Ulf went back to the hospital, and being rather annoyed he held up a tablet and said (much more loudly than necessary) to the salesman, who bore a name tag with "Jose" on it:
Jose, esto no es un supositorio!
Of course, everyone in the store turned to look.

The salesman, who spoke only Spanish (like everyone else we have met here, including everyone in the hotel staff), looked a little self-conscious when he explained that in Colombia, suppositories are used only for hemmorhoids, never as pain killers (which surely was BS), but he admitted that he had given us the wrong type of tablets and that these were too strong for a 3-year-old. In the end we got both a pack of children's tablets and a painkiller syrup, so we're sure our boy will be fine without the suppository.

By the way, we have finally decided on a name for our son. When we speak Norwegian to him, he will be Jakob from now on!

Today Jakob has been testing our patience. He has been ill-tempered and moody most of the day, always contradicting his parents and doing the opposite of what we've been telling him. All day he has been pestering the other guests and touching things he knows he is not allowed to handle, and when we pick him up, he screams, bites and pinches us.

But apparently this is not uncommon behavior for a three-year-old. (Thank you, Lillian, for reassuring us of this today!)

The Australian family, who seem very nice, got their four children (ages 5, 7, 9, and 10) today. They make such a beautiful family! They were all more than willing to play with Jakob this afternoon, which he enjoyed a lot. (But at supper he was again as obnoxious as ever.) We're glad that not all the other children in the hotel are babies, so although there are still none at Jakob's age, he can play with the bigger children until they grow tired of him!