Jewish Vegetarians Spend Shabbat in Colombia

Now that our case is sitting before a judge and we are waiting for the finalization of Mason’s adoption, we are essentially on vacation in Medellin with nothing to do but to enjoy the time together. The hotel, although quite nice, is getting real old real fast so we decided to venture out for a day of 5-year-old fun in Medellin. Basically that meant that Gloria drove us to this huge mall so that Mia could enjoy the in-house ferris wheel and super slides. We sampled some pretty awesome food court grub and marveled at how low the prices were on items we still can’t really afford (hey, adoption is PRICEY!).

Mia had a giant, chocolate chip and whipped cream covered waffle and Mason enjoyed a bottle and a jar of “Guyava” fruit mixed with baby oatmeal. Oy vey, this kid can eat! You’ve never seen anything like it. He is truly a bottomless pit, and as many of you know there is NOTHING that makes a Jewish mother happier than a baby who eats, eats, eats! Mason was born with malnutrition, weighing less than 5 lbs. At six months he is already 15 lbs and gaining. While I’m sure he won’t be a basketball player, it gives me great nachas to see him eating so much at each sitting.

People noticed Mia and Mason at the mall, and I can’t even count the number of 50-something South American women who commented “Que Linda!” or “Una familia perfecta!” The problem is that after five years of hearing how cute Mia is from strangers, I’ve grown accustomed to my usual retort, “Thanks, I made her”. I caught myself just in time and kept my traditional response to myself. I mean, what am I supposed to say about Mason? “Thanks, I bought him?” Not quite appropriate.

After our adventure, both kids were exhausted and we schlepped a sleeping Mia and a content Mason back to the hotel to prepare for our first Shabbat as a family of four. Today was not only our first Shabbat together, it was also Fanny’s birthday. (Fanny is our Colombian friend and babysitter who we are lucky enough to have traveling with us). While Josh gave Mason his bath, I called downstairs to ask for candles and wine (we had already purchased a Challah-looking loaf of bread). The conversation went something like this.

ME: Buenas noches, Senior. Habla Ingles?
HOTEL GUY: No.
ME: (Deep breath) OK….por favor, neccesitamos dos cosas en nuestro quarto. El primero es un botella de vino rojo.
HOTEL GUY: ….Vino tinto
ME: ….Lo Siento. Vino Tinto….
HOTEL GUY: Si.
ME: Y la otra es dos candles. Perdon, yo no se la palabra en Espanol. Sabe que es candles?
HOTEL GUY: No.
ME: (Shouting off into the room) Fanny, how do you say Candles in Spanish? Fanny? Honey,where’s Fanny?
HOTEL GUY: Alo?
ME: Si, si….lo siento….Candles es como cuando es su cumpleanos y usted lo usa para un fuego…
HOTEL GUY: Ah, velas
ME: Si, velas. Por favor, neccesitamos dos velas.
HOTEL GUY: Es su cumpleanos?
ME: Um, no….Es porque nosotros son Judeos y esta noche es el Sabath y nosotros usamos los
velas y vino para la celebration del Sabath….
HOTEL GUY: Momentito…. (I hear him speaking to someone in the room) Ellos son Judeos y
quieren velas. ....Si, ellos son Judeos. Judeos. Las Judeos estan en la cuarta 244 y
quieren velas…..Velas….

In case you didn’t understand that Spanish Seinfeld moment, the last part was the hotel guy saying to someone else in the room, “The Jews in room 244 want candles.” Absolutely priceless….well, not really priceless, more like 11,000 pesos (which is about $5 US), because moments later a bell man came to our door with three choices of velas for our Shabbat celebration. We got to choose between a pack of sparklers, a box of birthday cake candles and a set of six miniature tapers that burn Crayola-colored flames. Obviously, we went for choice C, and our newly multi-colored family had a multi-colored Shabbat.

Being a vegetarian family is challenging any time we travel outside of New York, but in Colombia it is practically impossible. This is a meat-eating, bull-fighting, puppy-in-a-pet-store-selling city and they are not set up for a family of PETA supporters. I brought a case of Mia’s favorite Horizon Organic Chocolate Milk and a box of her Barilla Protein Pasta from home (a $50 decision since it was those items that tipped our bags over the 50lb limit, thank you American Airlines), but for Josh and I it was difficult to find any food at all, let alone protein.

I wanted to make tonight special for Fanny since she was spending her birthday with us, so I asked at the hotel if there were any vegetarian restaurants in Medellin and we were told that yes, there was a wonderful place called Herbario just five minutes from the hotel. We packed up our whole show….two kids, one diaper bag, one five-year-old activity, a baby, a stroller and Fanny….and got into a cab. We were taken to a fabulous looking restaurant with absolutely no customers and even fewer vegetarian options. I mean, not a one! Thank you SO much front desk for the tip! Maybe when we said “Comida Vegetariana” they thought we meant “Comida SIN vegetables”.

Medellin is such a strange city. It is incredible to me that a place with such extreme poverty could also have a huge shopping mall, a hotel like the one we are staying in and a beautiful (albeit empty) restaurant like the carnivorous Herbario. Here I was getting frustrated about a wasted cab ride to a fancy restaurant, while just 45 minutes away, in a rustic village near the airport, my son’s birth mother was quite possibly living without electricity or clean water. It is easy to get distracted by the nicer parts of Medellin. It lulls you into a false sense of security. Meanwhile, we hold on to the kids tight whenever we are out of the hotel, knowing that as Americans we are obvious targets for kidnapping and theft.

We returned to the hotel, having decided that adventure time was over and the safest and easiest thing to do was to have yet another dinner in the hotel restaurant. At this point it was almost an hour past Mason’s meal time and the kid didn’t complain at all. He just sat there in his car seat, gazing up at us with those incredible, black eyes, content and chilled out and totally unaware of all the travel minutia that was stressing his Mommy out. It was as though he kept saying to me, “I’M YOURS NOW.” Having such a vivid and constant reminder of the real purpose of our journey helped us not to let the little challenges of foreign travel get too far under our skin.

I brought Mia’s pasta and a can of garbanzo beans down to the restaurant and our waiter Guillermo took them back into the kitchen to make Mia her favorite (and only) dinner. Mason devoured a bowl of Colombian sopa (vegetable soup) mixed with baby cereal and half a mashed banana followed by a bottle of formula. Josh, Fanny and I sucked down the most incredible vegetarian paella and wondered why we ever felt the need to eat elsewhere. Guillermo brought out a birthday cake for Fanny and Mason’s eyes popped out of his head in surprised delight when Josh gave him his first taste of whipped cream.

All in all, it was a wonderful first Shabbat as an adoptive family. I feel a sense of responsibility now that I am making Mason Jewish. It was different with Mia…she was born Jewish. But with Mason, I am making this choice for him and I want to make sure that he has a real Jewish home, family and community to surround him. And tonight….colored candles, crazy cab rides and whipped cream included….I think he did.

***Disclaimer: My Spanish is horrible, and I don't know how to do the accento or anything on my computer's keyboard.