How do you say 'snookered' in Spanish?

There are a lot of things to be cautious about in Bogota; the drinking water, fake police who will rob you, being kidnapped by a taxi driver, crossing the street as a pedestrian, etc. and we, in this overly-cautious state, approached Harry's learning ability with kid gloves. In an attempt to establish a learning routine, we wrote some lessons for Harry. We were told that "he loves math!" so Rachel wrote out some simple equations, and I wangled him to sit and show me his skills.  He shut down like Portland in a snow storm. I asked him 'what is 4 plus 4" and he managed to scribble (reluctantly) a line that looked like a sun-baked worm. We freaked (internally). This set off a series of discussions between Rachel and I about 'does he have ADHD? ADD? Dyslexia??' along with trying to schedule counseling back home, holding him back in school, and on and on. Needless to say, the lesson ended. The next day, I got him to 'learn' 5 new words in English and we played a game that involved some learning (tricky!) but he pouted for a good 20 minutes before I could coaxe him in to this. But then a discovery. We have never been accused of being the best detectives, despite watching Dexter and other shows that let us string together clues, but we (finally) decided to look in his backpack that he brought with him from the orphanage. I know, I know, why did we wait so long? I offer no reasonable explanation. In it we found SEVERAL school books of his with pages and pages of completed assignments, both in English and Spanish! There was math, cursive, spelling, drawings, grammar....We knew we had been horswaggled by a 7 year old! The little brat was fully capable of writing and already knew several words in English. He was just sandbagging so he didn't have to do his lessons. If he only knew about the therapy and counseling we were  planning for him to get him to learn! We spoke to Manuela the following day (on a trip to the US Embassy, more on that later) and asked her if she thought he was testing us. She giggled out loud and suggested we try again. So we tried again. This time he wrote his name three times, perfectly legible, completed simple math and wrote letters in script. and was happy to do it! no pouting! It was 30 minutes of bliss, not only because he does not have the severe learning problems we created, but because we were on to his schemes and feel prepared (insert chuckle here) for more tests. Harry does not yet realize that he is being adopted by two extremely stubborn parents.

Yesterday, we set out with Manuela for "short trip" to the notary. While we were out, Manuela decided after conferring with our Colombian lawyer that we all needed to go to the US Embassy. It seems that yet again, we need to get fingerprinted to make sure there are no problems with our paperwork that has been submitted to the Colombian family court. For those who have heard us complaining before, sorry, but to catch up others following the blog, we have been fingerprinted by 1) the state of NY, 2) the Rochester police department, 3) Homeland security in Buffalo (TWICE). Now, the US Embassy will do it again, Monday at 9am. Of course, we had five hours of waiting at the embassy to figure this out. Brian is extremely tempted to break the law now because CLEARLY there are no records of his fingerprints anywhere between the U.S and Colombia. It will be the perfect crime!

Also, a huge light at the end of the tunnel that is our tortured waiting period in Colombia- Harry's doctor is going to write a letter to the family court saying that because of Harry's medical condition, he cannot wait for weeks for the family court to process his adoption. If the court listens, Harry and Brian might be coming home together and our family will only be split for two weeks, instead of four. Rachel has already calculated the savings in money, how to change our airline tickets and when Harry could make appointments in the US for his new doctor, his school assessment and meeting his new US social worker. Did i mention that Rachel has already packed her bags in anticipation?

The only picture I took lately was of a run-down, thatch covered 'internet cafe' outside the Embassy, and I was run-down by a guard while taking it, so it didn't turn out well. But, we are off on an adventure today (the bus! where you never really know where you're going and that is peppered with unschedule stops and unplanned routes; should be fun) to another museum, so we will have more soon. -B&R