Shannon Costello

The paths of Columbia were a bit crowded during our bike ride yesterday.

One family of non-native English speakers was a bit startled as we came whizzing out of a tunnel. They scrambled off the path and one of the smaller children said, “Sorry!” in heavily-accented English. I had thanked them in Spanish (a guess, I know) and so my first reaction was to wish they had responded in Spanish. But then I realized we were both reaching out, me and that tiny little girl.

Later on we encountered two pre-teen girls squabbling on the path. The one with her back to us was throwing water on the other, who screamed as the liquid hit her and shouted at her friend to get out of our way. “I’m sorry,” she said to us, but her words were really directed at her companion, her tone the tone of a mother who wants the outsider to know that she is very disgusted with her child’s behavior.