More presents

My friend Erin quoted C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity last week: "Comfort is one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth -- only soft soap and wishful thinking to being with and, in the end, despair."

I've been really blessed this week. I don't think that's necessarily because I was looking for truth, but there it is. On Saturday I met a couple from the U.S., Steve and Beth. They were here with their young daughter for a medical conference. Steve is an internist with a masters in public health and Beth owns a fair trade business. Steve has been to a Training of Trainers (TOT1) and is really excited about the CHE vision. You know when you meet people and you really share a similar vision and hope, how exciting that is?

Last night I got together with them again along with their friend Amy, a linguist who works with Wycliffe in Peru. More fun! They treated us to an excellent steak dinner.

I've been reading Jesus' words more lately, and love these verses that Dr. Luke recorded (chapter 12): Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Now I'm really new at this "missionary" thing. Sometimes I'm hesitant to talk about its blessings because of that. I've been reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline recently (thanks, Matt!) and he says that we tend to talk too much because we self-justify rather than trusting God to take care of our reputation. Sometimes I am also too silent about God's blessings, out of not wanting to be accused of being naive, but I think that's also wrong. So, enough justifying, here goes!

I sold a bunch of my possessions last year -- not nearly all, as my Aunt Char will tell you who has boxes in her basement. I'm also really starting to learn, with great examples from my contemporary sister-missionaries, to be more generous with what I have. And while sometimes scary, it's mostly really really fun. I also appreciate what I have, which is another great gift. I still have my CDs (thanks again to my sister Lorena for putting them into well-organized books for easy traveling), and so am listening to Brahms' cello sonatas right now. I not only was able to bring everything I needed with me, but I'm currently in a really well-furnished apartment. One of my church's community groups sent me a gift certificate for books, so I have some great ones here. I even received a bunch of fun things from the American couple as they were leaving town: fun US foods (oatmeal, almonds, Trader Joe's rice dishes) and their guide to Buenos Aires. It feels like Christmas all the time!

Here's my "drive-by" the Casa Rosada in March

I've only seen the Casa Rosada (like the White House) once since my arrival, and that was just a drive-by. It was either too hot or I was too tired or not wanting to go alone on my days off, and so really haven't seen anything in this apparently gorgeous city. Well, more gifts today! I had to go downtown for steps in my visa process:

1. Leave before 7 am (still dark here!) to pick up "lack of Argentine criminal paperwork" by deadline of 9:30, (and I've experienced that between 8 and 9 it can be physically impossible to squeeze onto the train).
2. Copier at immigrations center doesn't open until "9 or 9:30, more like 9:30," so I go back to the train station to copy the "I am innocent" paper.
3. Return to the immigrations center for my first attempt at turning in my paperwork, most of which is wrong. The church papers have to be sent to the Ministry of Religion first, the translations with apostille that I had done in the US are invalid when requesting a visa from in-country. Thankfully, my FBI paperwork from the US is not expired, which I had thought it might be.
   
4. Got directions to the translation center -- back to station to get a bus.
5. Bus I was directed to isn't exactly right, but will take me close by and the driver is very helpful. Plus (present!) we go by the Casa Rosada and other beautiful downtown buildings.
6. Translation center only certifies the translation once it's done, and has a 4-inch thick binder with names of translators I have to call -- no directions, and a lot of the phone numbers are wrong. However, a Colombian woman is also looking, and she knows the city well and finds us a translator next door.
7. Go next door and pay for translation of two documents, to be picked up in a few weeks.
8. See subway stop nearby and take that (with one transfer) back to train station and then home.
9. Accomplish a few errands on the way home -- I finally have rubber boots for my work in the Delta!

Another drive-by the Casa Rosada, also in March. Although this isn't the greatest photo, you can see some of how alive the Plaza de Mayo is. It was even more colorful today since Argentine's national day was two days ago, celebrating the beginning of their independence from Spain.

Missionaries

Perspective: As you've probably heard on the news, Africans that have gone to South Africa fleeing war and poverty in their home countries are being attacked and dozens have been killed. On NPR I heard a woman from Zimbabwe, who is working in South Africa as a street vendor with her blind mother. She said, "To sleep outside, no problem, because we've got blankets. But they must to stop to beat us and kill us."

"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin." -- Charles Darwin

One of the "presents" I brought back with me from my trip to the US (I'd had it in storage) was the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Here's one of the prayers for missionaries:

Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant N. to be a light in the world: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I really like that one, since it prays for all of us that have seen a glimmer of God's light to shine out for God's glory, not just the "missionary." I've been listening to some sermons from my friend's church, Bethany Community. In this one (March 9, 2008 -- and watch out, somehow my Firefox closes the first time I try to access each sermon, then works the second time), the pastor is talking about seeing ourselves as in a love relationship, rather than as free moral agents. He notes how freeing it is, to see ourselves as caretakers of a vineyard, as those who see themselves as existing to make God's kingdom visible.


Alejandro and Silvia, standing by the new front door of the church in Baradero. Alejandro has been spending his nights and weekends making this door. Since the church was originally a car repair shop, the front door was gigantic (including all the white paneling you see and more) and with great difficulty slid to the side to be opened. Now the church has a door that opens to the street, rather than only access through the feeding center. The door will soon have a curtain (Alejandro just finished welding the rod you see there). This picture was taken at our Wednesday night prayer meeting last week, and I can also say that hopefully the door will have a glass window soon since it's chilly! Silvia, along with her husband Horacio, have been going to Baradero every Wednesday night and weekend for over a year while working during the week in Buenos Aires. They are now moving there next week as full-time missionaries!

Washington Post

Laura, crossing the creek in el Delta

Kevin, on the other side of the creek from me, playing by himself

My name is in the Washington Post, for good and for bad. They ran a series of articles on the health care provided in immigration detention centers for which I was interviewed. I'm quoted in the May 11 article. The next day they published the story of a patient of mine who (this was reported) has been in the correctional system for years and some psychiatric issues, which are both facts which should lead one to verify her claims before publishing them. There were a lot of misleading statements published along with outright untruths. On Saturday the 17th they published an edited version of a letter I wrote to them.

Generally speaking, it's really disconcerting to see a major paper publish inflammatory, non-researched statements as facts. Personally speaking, it's really sad to see how she characterized one of our last conversations. I had appointments with her weekly and then did chart reviews and spent a lot of time with her nurse practitioner taking care of her case after she moved to our other facility (where I was also the only physician). I don't remember seeing her on the tarmac, but if I was riding a Cushman (as she journals) then I was likely on my way to an emergency since I didn't usually ride that unless I was in a hurry. Also, I couldn't have had a real conversation with her out on the tarmac since men and women could not move past each other outside, and I would not have been allowed to hold up traffic of the entire detention center to do that.

I worked really hard there, and treated my patients with dignity. I even, along with the help of my fabulous administrator, changed the clinic culture to one that was simultaneously more streamlined, gave better care, and offered more respectful intervention. Sigh.

You want to know something beautiful? A good friend of mine wrote the following in response to my above post, "As I must remind myself, we are not judged by this world, but by the one who loves us and has justified us, and he is so pleased with us." So beautiful, and so true.

Realization: I've been using my inhaler daily these past few weeks, and was getting worried that my asthma was worsening. However, I've been sort of out of touch with the news, and hadn't heard that the volcanic ash from the recent eruption in Chile had actually reached Buenos Aires. That explains it! Here's a National Geographic site with photos. Please pray for the farmers who have lost their livestock.

El Delta

Kevin and his older friend (name?) singing "Happy Birthday."

Today I went to the Delta again. I looked at my schedule book and it's been three months since I've been out there, with all the travel I've been doing elsewhere. I had asked Monica and Daniel, the couple in charge of the Saturday trips, what I could bring. They decided that I should plan to teach something. Not wanting to steal a lesson from our CHE program (we still don't have trainers for this area yet), I prepared something on David and Goliath, including a game we did back when I was a youth pastor. We also talked a little bit about hygiene.

The group was smaller than usual -- 20 or so kids weren't there, for different reasons. One family that has 9 children didn't come because the mother is now working on Saturdays and she doesn't want the children to leave the house while she's gone. The church/feeding center is just across the creek from her house (visible from there). So that the kids don't cook without their mom (good, since that's dangerous) but also don't go hungry, Monica has asked if one of the girls can come to the church to pick up food.

Vanina and Mariela in El Delta. Vanina was really into cuddling today.

When I first arrived today I starting tutoring a girl at math. She'd been given a crazy assignment -- here's an example:

4 + 8 - {[3 - 4 + (- 2 - 5) + 14] - [6 + (8 + 3 - 12)] + 4 - 10} + {8 - 17 + [(- 6 + 2) - 5] - 12} + 4

Now, I ask you, what's that point of that? Way too long and confusing. Even if it weren't confusing, Alejandra didn't have the slightest understanding of negative numbers. The simple sum of "- 2 - 3" threw her completely off. She tried to do most of the counting on her fingers.

I haven't written much about schools here. I don't know a lot yet except that I keep hearing, "They're a disaster." Now, Argentines criticize their own country freely, so I take this comment with a grain of salt. I recently heard, "God made a beautiful and varied country, Argentina. Then He went and filled it with Argentines." The self-critiquing of Argentina is so pronounced that in church I have heard pastors suggest that people speak to bless their country, not curse it.

What does any of the above have to do with my job? Well, I'm mostly just getting to know Monica and Daniel and the folks that live in the Delta, along with the other volunteers that come out. We have a "vision seminar" planned for the first week of July, and from there we are hoping that many will attend the next Training of Trainers (TOT) and begin a CHE program there. Pastor Daniel attended our urban TOT in September, and is really motivated.

Anyway, that's all for today -- I'm exhausted from running around with kids all day!

Shakabuku

Street scene in my San Isidro neighborhood.

So, I was walking down the street, passport and dollars in hand (not literally, the dollars were in my pocket and the passport in my purse) to the bank to pay my rent. It was a lovely, unseasonably warm fall day, and I was enjoying people-watching on the way there. As I crossed the street to the bank, a man called out of his car, "Do you know where Chacabuco Street is?" It just so happened that I had passed said Chacabuco a block earlier, and noticed it because upon seeing the sign I thought of Grosse Pointe Blank. You remember the scene:

Debi: You know what you need?
Marty: What?
Debi: Shakabuku.
Marty: You wanna tell me what that means?
Debi: It's a swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever.
Marty: Oh, that'd be good. I think.

So I was smiling to myself about that. I gave the man directions and was pretty excited to have known something useful, when I got up to the bank door and it was closed. Monday through Friday 1000 - 1500. It was 1530. I'd always come earlier, and just hadn't noticed. Oh, well, at least I got in over 4000 steps (Erin gave me a pedometer). Also, taking a different way home, I found a store that sells yogurt without sugar or artificial sweetener. Yes!

These are my friend John's feet. While I was looking for the first picture, I found this one. I left my camera at his house after visiting him and his wife Niki back in January. During the 5 minutes it took Teri and me to drive back to their house he took this photo, along with pictures of his light switches and his (clothed) tush.

Stuff

My goddaughter Grace telling a story.

Not to be outdown, her sister Kate followed suit.

I was reading my friend's pastor's blog today and he's got a link to a great video, "The Story of Stuff". Some of the information was a little simplistic, but it's done in an entertaining and non-angry way. As a Christian (I mean me, I don't know anything about her spiritual life), obviously the stewardship of the earth is really important, but she also mentions the human exploitation inherent in our current system, which is to me the main issue. I really like the way she explained why a radio doesn't really cost the $4.99 we pay for it. She also discusses planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence, which I also think are critical.

Two of the interesting facts she mentions is that in the past 30 years the US house size has doubled, and our household trash has doubled. I think about these things a lot now that I'm out of the country. My apartment looks about the same size as my last house, about 900 square feet. It's considered gigantic here, even for several people to live in.

Fun related fact: when I went to buy envelopes at a tiny paper and office supply store, I was asked if I wanted to buy just one envelope or the pack of 10! (Office Max sells boxes of 100.) Now granted, efficiency may not be the name of the game here.

In other news, we had to take a detour on our way out to Baradero on Wednesday evening. We were told by the traffic guy that it was due to picketers, which wasn't surprising since the farm crisis continues. However, we found out later it was due to a truck losing its entire load of lemons, apparently 44,000 pounds! Thankfully no one was hurt. See these reporters' blog for details, and click on the links for photos and a video where you can see the lemons falling and a guy running out of the way into oncoming traffic. The discussion on the news then turned to the ever-increasing prices on produce, which is talked about daily due to both the farm crisis and now its relationship with the global food crisis. Argentine reporters and commentators repeatedly compare Argentina's non-response to the global crisis (continue the focus on raising taxes on exports) to Brazil's response (increase exports and donations to starving nations).

Here's the whole family, Ken, Jenny, Kate, and Grace. I got to pop up to see them in Michigan for a few hours thanks to a vehicle loaned to me by my Dad and Bev while I was in Cleveland.

Return to Argentina

I got back “home” to Argentina today! I had two options for getting home: $13 shuttle to the center of the city, walk to the train station, 45-minute train, six-block walk over rough sidewalks with three suitcases (I picked up an extra suitcase and several things in the US and filled my carry-on, it felt like Christmas when I was unpacking!) and a bum arm from my fall four weeks ago. My second option was a $40 cab ride directly home. When thinking about these options on the plane, I was thinking a mix of dollars and pesos – after being here awhile, one starts thinking in pesos, so that a 10-peso phone card feels more expensive than the $3 it is. I think that this is good, because I live with much more economy, and much more like the Argentines with whom I work and live. So I had remembered the shuttle as being “expensive” and the taxi as “ridiculously expensive,” which it is in pesos, but not in dollars.

Anyway, the bum arm and my current thinking in dollars after three and a half weeks in the States helped me decide for the taxi, and I had a very interesting talk with the driver. We started talking about the work I do, and he asked, “Who pays for that?” I explained that we work with volunteers, with some expenses paid by churches, and some of us are full-time and live on “offerings” (that’s sort of how you say it here in non-church speak). He couldn’t believe it! We talked about a lot of things, and he kept going back to, “I like living crazily, but that’s really crazy!” or, “I have faith in God, but that is a kind of faith I’ve never thought about,” or, “To live like that in 2008!”

We also discussed the recent environmental issues in Buenos Aires – you may have heard on the news that some farmers had set crops on fire, supposedly to burn off the top layer of vegetation and not for political purposes. However, it got out of hand, and the city and much of the province was shrouded in smoke last week. Check out this article and these NASA images. Highways were closed off and on and there were a lot of traffic accidents. The taxi driver says my neighborhood was really bad, and indeed the scent reminded me of a campfire when I entered my apartment!

It felt like home coming back, which is funny because I got drippy-sad after being dropped off at the Phoenix airport, which also felt like home. I lugged my suitcases up to my beautiful, if chilly (63 degrees, and I haven’t figured out how to turn the heat on yet) apartment, went to the corner grocery store, the corner vegetable store, and the local bakery. Then it was time for a long nap! I just got back from a walk in the beautiful autumn weather, with the smell of changing leaves all around. It’s now completely dark and it’s not even 7 pm.

Some of the things that make Phoenix feel like home are my friends: Chrissy, Valerie, and Nadia...

...Rachelle and Kianna...
...and Erin (with me)!