Baradero

Tonight I had supper with Horacio and Silvia, a couple that I mentioned previously that hope to move to the urban slum of Baradero. They have been going there with the Libertador church for a few years to do relief work. There is a feeding center for children on the weekends (they can eat at school during the week). They are also working on growing a church there that had 7 people and now has 25. They are very excited to move there full-time, because they want to really get to know the people and facilitate lasting changes. Also, the difficulty going there only on the weekends is that most of the men are drunk by mid-day on Saturday, all the way through Sunday night. So the main activities are with the women and children.

Lasting change, true transformation is the hope we have for the people of Baradero. One of Silvia's friends there was a woman who was working as a prostitute but had received some microenterprise training through Horacio and Silvia. She started to sell churros (a type of doughnut), but it was difficult for the community to accept that she had changed her business. Within the last two months she has gone back to drug use and prostitution. Please pray.

We are going to Baradero tomorrow (Friday) through Sunday. Please pray that we will meet people who are motivated for change and that we will understand what the next steps are to be. Please pray that hope will come to this community.

Milk

Fun fact: the milk cartons here are amazing. Milk is sold in different ways here than the US (and different from what I remember in Europe) -- a bag of milk lasts unopened in the refrigerator for two weeks and a vacuum-packed container of milk lasts unopened unrefrigerated for a few months, both expiring within 2 - 3 days once opened. The most fascinating thing is the information on the bag or carton: the exact bacterial content, for one. It states that there are fewer than 50,000 bacteria/ml 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Then there is a table of a sample week and the quantity of bacteria each day.There is also a vaccination schedule for the cows:

Getting to know things

Well, I'm continuing to get to know things better here. A dear friend of Annie's, and a lovely woman, called me just now to tell me she just connected the answering service for my phone, so I'll be able to get messages.

This morning Margarita came to clean the apartment. That's right. Included in the rent is a cleaning every other week, which is marvelous because if you've ever traveled you know that every country uses such different systems to clean! Also, although it sounds like a huge luxury in the US, most of the missionaries I have known have help with the cleaning. Margarita helped me with other things, too: stains on clothing that I was about to give up on, removal of a zipper so that I can take it to the sewing shop to buy a new one (and a colleague of hers will repair for $1), etc. She is also a beautiful sister, and we had a great spiritual talk as well.

I finally took a siesta, but I was pushed to it from not feeling well. This evening I get to have supper with Silvia and Horacio, the couple that will be moving to the slum Baradero. I plan to go there with them for the weekend as well, and so I wanted to rest up.

Stay tuned because I've taken some pictures of the apartment that I will post soon!

La Celula

I haven't been blogging much because too much has been happening! I have lots of great things to say, though, but I won't do so tonight since it's already almost 1 am. You'll see why at the bottom.

Today I got together with Sara, a woman that I met here in September. I met her because decades ago she worked in Kenya and got to know Stan, the founder of the CHE program, who was also working in Kenya at the time. She's been interested in CHE ever since. Stan came down here in September to teach the urban version of CHE, she connected with him, and so she and I met. Confused yet?

Anyway, Sara's husband works with the US Embassy, and she is the first non-Argentine I've hung out with here. I find I have to make that clear not only because a lot of missionaries seem to work with Americans or other non-nationals a lot, but also because a lot of people here have American-sounding names! She showed me how the local train system works, and it turns out that it is perfect for my neighborhood -- there is a station six blocks from my apartment, and the end of the line is downtown Buenos Aires. It was pretty hot so we went to the end of the line, she pointed me in the direction of some famous sites, walked through a park, and essentially just got back on the train.

Guess where we ate lunch? Chinatown! I didn't know there was such a thing here. Excellent.

Tonight I went to my friends' (Bill and Annie) cell group, which is what they call the community groups or house groups at the Libertador church. I will be affiliated with the Libertador church as this is the church sending the couple full-time to the slum of Baradero, where the church has been working for years. This group knows my supervisor, and when she is in town they pray over her. Guess what? They said they will do the same for me.

They had me speak a little about why I am here and my journey, then they laid hands on me and prayed for me. They all offered to help me with anything that I should need. I am just amazed at this path that is laid out for me.

So, why is it 1 am? The celula finished at 11:00, and tonight they met at a location much further away. So, I got home after midnight. They didn't seem to shocked at the time -- have I mentioned that things are later here? :-)

Jet lag

I made it to Argentina! Everything went very well with the travel and with my new apartment. I will have more later,hopefully tomorrow -- excuse is below.

I've never gotten jet lag before. I've always said it was because my sleep schedule was so variable, easily varying by four hours even when I'm not traveling. However, the last three weeks in the States I went to bed at two or three am (seven am-ish Argentine time). Not enough to set a pattern, you say? Well, except for the first night of utter exhaustion, I've not been able to go to sleep before two or three am Argentine time. I'm not taking a siesta yet (again, except for the first day of utter exhaustion) , so it can't be that. We'll see tonight, I'm fading fast!

Fun fact: kitchen timers are not frequently used in Argentina. I have asked around and I've been told that people look at their watches or use 3-minute hourglasses. How do people remember? Are they not multitasking? Are they just used to it?

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I love this photo of Rachael laughing so hard she's covered her mouth! That picture and the following pictures are from a great game night in Minnesota a few weeks ago.

Peter and Kelly -- we met at their house. Peter had dinner with us and came at the end to finish out the games with us, not very usual since it's typically just the ladies, but very nice.

Joy laughing -- looking like her name would indicate.

A more staid view of Joy and Rachael.

I went to a great undergraduate school, Macalester College. Twelve percent of the students were international students, and the social climate was fascinating. In fact, The Princeton Review just named Macalester the school most accepting of its gay community.

Lots of people from Macalester seem to go off to work for NGOs. A recent grad was profiled after working for a year with the International Rescue Committee in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is an very international person herself, being Cambodian but born and raised in France. She wrote of her experience: "The government still relies on NGOs to do the work. I wonder whether they understand that the responsibility should eventually fall on them, rather than on the NGOs, to pay the teachers, build the roads, and rehabilitate the facilities. Is our work here truly helpful, or are we creating a dependency situation in which the government no longer feels responsible for its people?"

Stay tuned to this blog to read about "help without handouts, food without food lines, life without humiliation" (taken from the LifeWind International website, www.lifewind.org).

Very good day

My last day in Minnesota was so much fun (a week ago Sunday). I had coffee with my dear friend Mark, who drove in from Chicago (in part) because it was my last weekend in the upper Midwest. Here we are the day before, going on a walk with my family:
Then I had breakfast with Libby, her two children Gibbie and Ezra, and our friend Pat. Here they are looking like a zany take on American Gothic:
After a lovely Epiphany service and bunches of socializing, Mark, Paul and Libby got to talk. I love it when my friends from different eras of my life get to know each other. We talked about community, since Mark is involved with Mennonites in Chicago and Paul and Libby live in an intentional community in the inner city of St. Paul. They also prayed for me -- very nice.

I then went to pick up Jenny and her youngest daughter Kate at the airport. We went to a tea shop for a couple of hours. (This photo is from the night before.)
After dropping Jenny and Kate at the airport I stopped by Teri's and she and her daughter and I went out for Thai food. Here's Teri that day with her dog Dexter.
Then I stopped by Libby's folks' house for some singing and more praying. Here are Libby's parents, Doug and Myra, whom I've know longer than I've known Libby -- they had Mark and me over for lunch after church in about 1990, as part of a take-pity-on-poor-college-students outreach!
After that I went up to J and Cassie's to drop something off. Sadly, I have no pictures of them since all of the ones taken at their house are on Cassie's camera. J called out his boys to pray over me. They have been reading a lot about missionaries lately. J prayed, and then their oldest boy, Patrick (12?) prayed that I might know the wisdom of God and trust God. Wes (7?) prayed that I would not get sick while taking care of people ("She's a doctor, right, Dad?") and that God would help the sick people to not die and for people to become healthy. Ike (5) said that he did not know what to pray. His Dad said to just pray from the heart. He prayed that many people would become Christians through me.

Then I drove back to my aunt's and packed while we she and I talked. A good end to a good three weeks.

Bad Day?

This is how I felt a lot of today. (This photo is of Paul and his youngest son, Ezra, from my penultimate night in Minnesota.)

Well, today was to be spent running errands. After working late and then a sleepless night (that darn sinusitis, didn't get antibiotics yet) I got a late start to the day and woke up just in time to leave for an appointment. Thankfully I grabbed a liter of water and some fruit for the road. The day consisted of:

• Contact lens appointment
• Dropped a box at Goodwill
• Picked up a couple of things at the mall
• I think I got a traffic ticket! I've never gotten a ticket before, since I don't speed. However, as soon as my nose hit the intersection on a left turn the arrow turned yellow, then the car in front of me slowed, the arrow turned red, and the flash of a photo bulb went off. Arrgghh. I didn't do anything wrong! I can't contest it since I'll be out of the country. Also, I was driving my pastor's car! Yikes!
• Try to pray and let it go.
  
• Downtown for an "apostille" on my visa documents. No go! Yet again (time #3) the documents are notarized incorrectly. Please note that it is a 2-hour round trip to the Secretary of State's office.
  
• Try to pray and let it go.
  
• Didn't want to stop for lunch/coffee since I was about to hit rush hour, so I headed back southeast to the furthest Target for an ISB cable for my printer (thank you, Nadia, for noticing that I needed one).
• Finally! Drank another liter of water and got an espresso and biscotti at the Target Starbucks on a gift card from my friend Erin. Sat down in the cafe and felt lots better!
• Walgreen's for antibiotics
• Chase Bank -- the notary I've stalked for months has today off.
• Phew! After 7 hours I'm home in time for a short walk in the gorgeous Arizona winter, then off to dinner with a lovely family from my church.
  

Very deep moral to the story: I was praying and singing and asking for a thankful attitude throughout the day. I started to get worried that I will not be able to handle the frustrations and difficulties on the mission field if I couldn't deal with a few things going wrong. However, I discovered that if I have a bad start to the day, then get hungry, thirsty, caffeine-deprived, sick, and need to "use the facilities" in addition to having lots of things go wrong, once I take care of the physical issues my attitude miraculously gets better! (I'm no rocket scientist.)

Lists

My friend Teri with her beautiful new daughter Hazel. I'm so glad I got to meet her in person! We got to see each other on and off while I was up in Minnesota.

Ah, lists, lists, lists! Today, among other things, I did the following:

• Went to the notary a third time for corrections on documents for my visa.
• Worked some more on my expense reports for reimbursements for work expenses. Tricky, very tricky!
• Opened the four weeks of mail that had accumulated at Nadia's. That drastically increased my to-do pile!
• Paid the last gas and water bills for my house which sold last month.
• Discovered that I actually haven't ever received the yellow fever vaccine (suggested for some parts of Argentina that I will go to). Also discovered it will be a $75 office visit plus an $85 vaccine -- I'm checking to see if this will be cheaper to get in Argentina!
  
• Prescribed myself antibiotics for an upper respiratory tract infection I've now had for over four weeks. Balked at the $69 price tag and called a friend to see if she's got samples.
• Registered with the American Embassy in Argentina.
  

Some exciting things that I've accomplished lately:

• Got the address and telephone number for the fully furnished apartment I will sublet for the first few months in Buenos Aires. This apartment is owned by the brother-in-law of a woman I worked with at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1994! Serendipity! There are even sheets and towels in this apartment. I am so blessed to have this opportunity, since apartments for rent in Argentina do not usually come with any appliances -- that would have been tricky to figure out after just arriving in the country.
• I'm mostly done transferring my car to my father. I'm still waiting for the paperwork from the bank so that I can get the title.

Tomorrow I plan to:

• Go back to the Secretary of State for Arizona to get an "apostille" on my visa documents. I've been there once before, and also mailed documents there before. Let's see if the third time works!
• Last contact lens exam -- I've got the el-cheapo America's Best plan, and figure I might as well get one last free exam.
• Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.
  

This is my friend Jenny and her daughter Grace. Grace was trying to smile for the camera in this one!


Here's Grace with her little sister Kate, playing at the Black Sheep coffee shop in St. Paul. They came up from Michigan my last weekend in Minnesota. I'm so grateful Jenny has a brother in Minneapolis, which was the perfect excuse (my perspective) to come up to see me!


Here's Kate in the car with me on the way to the airport. We are being silly while her Mom is out of the car buying supper for the flight home.

Itinerary

This is a photo taken on my brother-in-law's birthday. The dish on the left was described as "Sesame Flatbread: Big, Yeast-raised, Gorgeous Replacement for Rice."

Phew! I've just been working on learning the process of accounting at this new job. I'm making progress, but it's all very new for me.

Quick note on my itinerary for the near future:

• Friday, January 11 I go back to Arizona
• Thursday, January 24 I leave for Argentina!
  

Lots of people have asked about how long I plan to stay in Argentina. The answer is that I don't know. I have thought about doing this type of work for over a decade, and really hope that this is what I will do for the long-term, say the next 20 or 30 years. That said, my faith leads me to be flexible, following the blowing of the Spirit! I have said it before, but my life has never been boring! :)

I actually have a ticket to come back to the US in April for a conference in Miami. It's a meeting of all of LifeWind's people who are in Latin America. I'm so glad this will be happening so soon after I start. I have already gotten to meet several people involved in Latin America at the trainings I attended in September in Buenos Aires.

I will also need to come back for continuing medical education to keep up my US medical license. This will likely be every two years, possibly every three, and will be to different cities.

Stuff and Family

We had a great New Year's Day: our family friend Aldine, my cousin Paul and his wife Erica came over for a Belgian waffle brunch with my Aunt Char, Uncle Jim, and my cousin Nicole. Here we are playing a killer game of Uno.

My Aunt Char agreed to store my things for a time. A lot of people have asked what I've kept. I've talked to a lot of people who've gone to the mission field, and everyone does things differently. I decided to save all my photo albums, meaningful books (including the medical ones), letters (several boxes-worth!), and some miscellaneous breakable things (wine glasses, trinkets, Christmas ornaments given to me by my Mom). The breakable things take up a lot of space with all of the packing material. So, below is a picture of essentially all of my things, one-box deep:
Paul and Erica live in Wisconsin now, with her two horses and two others that she boards. The temperature was -1 (-18 C), but of course the horses must be fed!

This trip to Minnesota was great. I had three weeks where I worked full-time but still managed to see lots of people, relax with family, get outdoors, and eat Thai food and Neapolitan pizza. I was also encouraged by stories of and from other missionaries, hearing that it takes everyone a lot of work to leave the country. That was very validating for me: I've spent three solid months (plus most of my evenings last spring and summer) on this venture, and I've got a little ways to go. I'm getting better at working while trusting that things will get done, and that this isn't my venture alone.

Birthday Celebration

Brunch with my friend Cherie, her husband Chris, and their growing boys Ian and Simon. They remembered it was my birthday and made me a cake, in addition to quiche and coffee cake. Yummy!

Cherie and I took a walk and came back to find the boys sledding in the front yard. They invited us to join them -- here's Cherie with her boys:

And here am I, ending gracefully!

In the evening, Paul and Libby came over with their sons Gibbie and Ezra. Here we are rocking out with my Uncle Jim.
Libby made me a cake with 9 eggs! It was incredibly rich and delicious.

I got some help blowing it out!

My friend Pat came over later in the evening, but I didn't get a picture. He, my two cousins, my Aunt Char and I rung in the New Year very quietly. This picture is from a few days earlier, when we had breakfast at the Neighborhood Cafe. I've known Pat since he was going into 8th grade! He's got a blog now, www.theoutdoorcat.blogspot.com

Missed Blogging

I said "goodbye" to all of this yesterday, leaving Minnesota, family, and ice skating behind.

Well, I've not been blogging for a bit, but hopefully tomorrow I'll catch up! The past three weeks I've only had dial-up, so that made blogging painful. Yesterday I achieved a fast internet connection again, but spent the day traveling to Berkeley, California, and getting information off of my crashing computer to place on my brand-new laptop. I also finally got Microsoft Office (free, from my mission agency!) and installed it.

Today I've gotten lots of correspondence done (both snail mail and e-mail), and hope to begin working on learning my new expense account system. Very fun!

Today we celebrated my brother-in-law Gregor's birthday. We had cake and fruit for breakfast (!), hung around, and went out to a very cool local hardware store. The owners were super-knowledgeable, and Gregor got items on his list and I got an adapter and several plug converters. Electronics items are very expensive in Argentina. Gregor found out why: there is a 50% customs duty on all electronics. When I was down there I saw a stereo comparable to my $35 CD/tape/radio for over $100. Sadly, international shipping no longer exists, and all items must be sent via air mail (much more expensive). It's still worthwhile to send my cheap-o radio and my printer. I'm also bringing my electric toothbrush (tee-hee!), which is very lightweight and does not often require plugging in. I may eventually have my DVD player sent. I didn't often watch movies, and I will be able to see them on my computer.

Fun pictures coming soon!