Northeastern Ohio

Well, I took advantage of being so “close” in Miami and popped up to Cleveland to speak with a few churches and see my parents. I was able to speak at John Knox Presbyterian Church’s service, meet on two occasions with people from their missions committee and also go to a church potluck (yum!) and presentation that their Nicaraguan missionaries gave. I also had coffee with one of the members of Bay Village Presbyterian’s missions committee and spoke at the missions committee meeting, in addition to introducing myself at my stepmom’s Bible study and getting to sit in on it twice.

It turned out to be a very good visit. I was able to see my parents – one and a half Austen movies with my Mom, Jeopardy with my Dad and Stepmom, and lots of walks in the unusually beautiful spring weather with all of the above. I ran lots of errands, worked out the rest of my itinerary, and stayed in touch with several teams in Argentina.

Very fun – I’m writing this while at my Mom’s choir practice, and they just interrupted rehearsal to sing Happy Birthday to one of the choir members who happens to have been my high school calculus teacher. Have you ever heard a choir sing that song? I don’t know about any other choir, but this one sung a very rousing and dramatic version!!

I haven’t lived in Northeastern Ohio for 20 years. I didn’t really enjoy growing up here, in large part because I was pretty socially incompetent at the time. This trip has been interesting because while at the “missions table” in between services at my Mom’s church a woman came up to me and said, “Betsy?” (Yes, that is indeed the nickname I was given as a child.) It turns out it was someone I hadn’t known all that well in high school, but I’d really respected her. Another day here I met the church secretary, and it turns out she used to lead the Brownie troupe I was in.

I remember going to Vacation Bible School at John Knox as a child, and then I went to Bay Pres from late elementary school through high school. I also remember being called in to the associate pastor’s office with my father after I’d been rude for the umpteenth time during Sunday School. I was a really angry child. It seems incredible to me that God continued to pursue me through all of that, and then really used my experiences to lead me to the pursuit of God.

Latin American Regional Council

At the Latin American Regional Council I interpreted for several speakers from Spanish to English, something I’ve discovered I really enjoy. While listening to the speaker from Samaritan’s Purse do an incredible job interpreting for himself I learned some subtleties – for example, local in Spanish is often best translated as grass roots, something which I hadn’t thought of at first.

However, I thought I had good posture, which these photos clearly refute! Here I am interpreting for my supervisor and for the head of Compassion International in the Dominican Republic, Kleber Lora.

Here I am talking about the exciting goings-on in Argentina – there’s a photo of Horacio and Silvia in my PowerPoint.

Rosario

The weekend before flying to Miami I went to Rosario, the third-largest city in Argentina. It’s a convenient four-hour bus ride away from downtown Buenos Aires, and is a city I am considering moving to due to its location.

I got more opportunities for public speaking in Spanish, speaking for a half-hour at the young-adult group’s meeting on Friday night and more briefly at the church service on Saturday night.

One of the many aspects I really enjoy in this job is that I stay with host families wherever I go. In Rosario I was hosted by my supervisor’s sister and her family who were very gracious, even when I shocked them by dramatically slipping on their stairs and taking quite a tumble.

I also love that a lot of my job involves meeting with people. Here I am meeting with Ayelén, a young woman who came to our urban training in September.

And here we are meeting for breakfast in a delightful location along the Paraná River.

Here’s the group we went there with, some really lovely women from the church:

Fun fact: I’m now seeing that church service times are highly variable. The church I know in Cordoba meets Sunday mornings and evenings, with the evening service being far more popular. In Buenos Aires the church I go to meets on Sunday morning only. In Salta, the pastor of the church in Burela has service there Sunday night, but then attends the even later Sunday night service in the town in which he lives. In Rosario the church meets both Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but the message is different at both services, so some people go to both!

Latin American Regional Council

The women...

The men -- this was their most serious photo!

The regional council of LifeWind's Latin American missionaries was last week in Miami, Florida. Turns out that's easier and a lot cheaper for most of us to get to, despite the higher hotel cost. It was great to meet people whose pictures I've seen, and also really inspiring to meet people who have been doing this kind of work for years and have facilitated a lot of individual and community change.

Tania and Jose Luis from Venezuela, Sandy and Bibiana (my supervisor) from Canada and Argentina.

It was an interesting group, as it was composed of Haitians, a Costa Rican, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, a Nicaraguan, Argentines, Brazilians, a Canadian, and only four "sets" of Americans (our International Coordinator, me, a pediatrician who's in Mexico, and a couple in Costa Rica). The first two days of the conference we had guests from organizations with which we work, like Samaritan's Purse, Compassion International (from Canada and the Dominican Republic), Medical Ambassadors Canada, International Justice Mission, and an American who works exclusively with CHE in Panama with FocusBuilders International. I think that mix is wonderful, as it shows that LifeWind isn't "all talk" with it's goal of building up national leaders and not creating dependency.

Solaina from Compassion in the Dominican Republic, Jody, an American pediatrician in Mexico, Hugo and Myriam from Guatemala (he's the Central American Regional Coordinator)

Travel

Yet another stunning scene in Villa Giardino, Cordoba Province.

Wow, has this been a month of travel! I leave tomorrow morning for a weekend in Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina. I will be checking out possibilities for a program there and hanging out with Ayelen, a young woman that came to our training last September.

On Monday evening I leave for the Latin American Regional Council in Miami, Florida. In addition to LifeWind's staff from Latin America and the Caribbean there will be people from the different NGOs with which we work. I'm looking forward to it! However, I still don't have my return flight booked, through a series of circumstances. I am still considering going to the Cleveland, Ohio area afterwards to speak with some churches, but the opportunities there are still not concrete.

Today I met with some Brazilians that have started a project in an urban area called Berisso, which is 40 km from Buenos Aires. Yet again, I've met a group of people who have great ideas and are working in a barrio with a desire to do sustainable, holistic work but lack structure. We've already set a date for a Vision Seminar with them! The vision seminar is the first step towards starting a CHE program. It is usually a three-hour seminar with people from various local groups, NGOs, and churches who are interested in or already working in the surrounding area. Out of this vision seminar will hopefully develop a group who will take the Training of Training course (TOT).

Silvia (from Baradero) and Nora (from the Libertador Church who also goes to Baradero to volunteer) and I met at the downtown train station. We each came from three different train lines and then took the subway for our meeting with the group working in Berisso. It was my first time on the subway here. I really think I need the excuse of some visitors in order to do some serious scoping of the city!

Recently I've written a lot about my challenges. One of the things I've really enjoyed about this new job has been the slower pace. Because I travel so much, I have a lot of time to reflect. In addition, because Buenos Aires is so large even a trip within the city can take all day. For example, I was gone for six hours for a 2 1/2 hour meeting. This may not sound like fun to you, but one of my on-going struggles has been trying to squeeze too much into my day. I had already improved drastically from the mid-90s, when every possible minute had a meeting, class, volunteer activity, or one of my two or three jobs penciled in, but I still was not living the way I desired. Here I find it's just impossible to do too much, so I just can't! (Of course, as I write this it's 11:45 pm and my internet connection just started working, so I really could send those expense reports now....)

Traffic and Food

At the downtown Buenos Aires bus terminal there are 75 gates for buses, and they move in and out of there at an incredible rate: my friend Bill says it's 300 per hour! The buses arrive about five minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, and a range of 10 gates is listed on the bus ticket so you can wait in the approximate area of arrival. The bus company and its destination city and departure time are announced at their arrival by loudspeaker. I then walk to the bus, double-check with the bus driver that it's the right one (since on my first trip I checked in my luggage to two incorrect buses before finding the right one!), check in my luggage with a 50 centavo or one peso tip, then show my ticket to the driver and board the bus.

Check out the Good Airs website's March 31 entry, and click on the "can't" and "drive" links to read more about traffic concerns in Argentina -- and when you follow the "drive" link also click on "said it" for even more information (or just follow the links I've provided here). And please pray for my frequent travels! I think I'm safer in a bus than in a car, but accidents still abound as you can see in the photos and articles.

Here's a picture of lunch on Sunday at the conference in Cordoba. It was an interesting mix of soup, pasta, a piece of ham with half an egg on top, and fruit. Speaking of soup, I don't think I've ever mentioned that they often put either oatmeal and cream of wheat into broth for "soup." They're both surprisingly good!
Fun fact: Argentines speak about the "four meals of the day," not "three." They are as follows:

1. Breakfast, upon arising -- 7:30 to 8:30-ish. Coffee with milk or mate and something bread-y to eat. If you're out somewhere (a coffee shop or a conference), you get croissants or other pastries.
2. Lunch -- 1 pm or 2 pm. This is either meat or pasta, one or two side salads, and bread. When at home I've been having pasta with one or two side salads. They eat a lot of thinly sliced cabbage with vinegar and oil. I add grated carrot, and then might have another "salad" which is just sliced tomatoes with salt.
• The traditional activities which follow lunch are dish-washing and a siesta.
  
3. Tea -- 4 pm or 5 pm. Tea (mate or black tea or mate cocido) or coffee with some kind of breaded item, often crackers with jam or dulce de leche.
• Many people go back to work after the siesta and tea.
  
4. Supper -- 9 or 10 pm or later if you're eating out. This tends to be just like lunch. However, if at a get-together with friends you will often have empanadas, which are small baked meat pastries.
   

Conference

Above are the famous "sierras," or low mountains, of the province of Cordoba. Beautiful!

We sang lots of songs this weekend. Above is Victor, a youth from Paraguay who was familiar with one of the songs and showed us a mime that he does to it in his church. Behind him are Eduardo and his wife Leticia. They both work with Centro Kairos.

Below are the lyrics to the song Victor had movements for (my translation):

In order for a flower to be born, the seed goes into the ground,
It grows with sun, rain, to a plant, to a flower.
That's how our life goes, trying for happiness,
Which is gained with sweat, effort, faith, and courage.

Chorus:
I dare to fight and to live, I dare to sing and to laugh,
I dare to dream of a better world, to make with my hands a world of love.
I dare to confront in truth, I dare to stand up,
I dare to go with justice looking for peace.

One has to live with courage and confront reality,
In order to see the sun, and the night will be left behind,
By faith in God and having the sure knowledge
That when doubt comes God will be my strength.

Above is another "Derbyshire-like" scene. We only had a 20-minute break on Saturday, so I quickly ran up to the top of the hill to see the stunning view one last time.

Cordoba

Last weekend I was at a conference put on by a local foundation, Centro Kairos. They share a lot of LifeWind's vision, including holistic work and utilizing youth as trainers. This conference was about children and adolescents and how to include them in the work of the church and community.
This picture is from a short walk I took on Saturday morning -- click on it to enlarge and see the horses. Beautiful! The weather was cool and rainy. It's the first time I've been outside of Cordoba city -- this conference was in a small town a few hours northwest of the city, Villa Giardino.

There weren't many difficulties on the road, despite the ongoing farmers' strike. They are protesting an 9% increase in tax on grain exports, and are blocking all trucks with produce or meat or grains from going to cities across the entire country. A few days ago they decided to let dairy products through. Throughout the night we were stopped several times: there were fires burning on the sides of the roads to let us know to stop, then the bus waited in line if there was traffic, we saw a few hundred farmers and their families on the sides of the highway and in the median, then the bus driver exchanged some friendly conversation with the farmer in charge and we moved on. There's supposedly no meat in the stores and in some areas there are produce shortages -- I've been planning to get to a store for the day and a half I've been back but haven't yet (making do with the cabbage and carrots I have at home) so I don't have the personal take on it yet. Thankfully there is still no violence.

On Friday afternoon we had some time for a walk before the conference began. Here I am with some wildflowers.
Above are the two women with whom I walked, Carmen and Alicia. Alicia is from the province of Buenos Aires, and over the past few years has developed a feeding center for children which is now able to provide food daily. They also do tutoring, and are looking to become even more holistic and sustainable. They would like to provide training that would help the people not rely so much on the food that is provided. We discussed ways LifeWind might be able to provide training.

Once of the themes was dance, and how this can be a great way to involve children from violent and broken homes to positive touch and physical use of their bodies. We learned a few dances as well -- very fun!

And last but not least, here's a view from the top of the hill we walked to on Friday. It reminded me of a scene in a certain movie that I'm not obsessed with where the heroine first sees the countryside of Derbyshire:

Fun facts

This picture is as we were leaving Baradero last week. Very pretty. Horacio and Silvia and I completed our very exciting task of report-writing and had a nice time of fellowship.

Fun facts:

1. Like in many countries, stoves here do not have pilot lights. So, I turn on the gas and then light the stove (or oven, but let's get serious, I haven't used the oven yet) with a match.
2. Easter Monday is a holiday here. We had this in Italy, too, when I was an exchange student, so I looked up the reason since nobody claims that anything historically happened on this day. It turns out that in the past people had over a week off, from Good Friday through the next week. That was shortened to a four-day weekend. In Italy it is celebrated by picnics. I climbed Mount Vesuvius on Easter Monday in 1989!
3. Most stores here still close for the siesta, from 1 pm-ish to 4 pm. Most stores are closed all day on Sundays, and in smaller towns and cities like Baradero they are closed on Saturday afternoons as well. In addition, since many are family-owned and exclusively employ family members, when the family goes on vacation the entire store is closed. The laundromat I now use was closed the two weeks after I arrived for the family's summer vacation.