Holidays

Nora and Gaby, sisters-in-law, waiting with the treats prepared for midnight on Christmas Eve.

This year I got to experience the holidays in Argentina. Both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are celebrated pretty similarly here: a late supper followed by a toast at midnight accompanied by nuts, dried fruit, and nougat (from the Spanish and Italian heritage). Then firecrackers! On Christmas Eve they give out gifts after the midnight toast. The Protestants don't have Christmas Eve church services, and my friends tell me that even the Catholics don't go very much anymore -- the traditional midnight mass was moved to earlier in the evening supposedly due both to people wanting to be home with family and the danger of being out on the streets (there is a lot of drinking associated with Christmas Eve).

I spent Christmas Eve at my friend Nora's mother's house. Remember, it's summer here -- here we are sitting outside to stay cool, waiting for midnight. The people in the foreground are Hugo and Nora, then Nora's mother.

Here is our champagne toast at midnight:
And fireworks in the neighborhood, all accompanied by cumbia music.
I spent New Year's Eve with my friends' Annie and Bill and their extended family. Here is Charly preparing the barbecued lamb with his father -- an entire lamb, mind you!
Here are Bill and Annie. Annie's got her cell phone at the ready -- both Christmas and New Year's it's "tradition" to send everyone greetings by way of text messages. Bill makes the best cabbage salad, somehow managing to slice it super-fine. So whenever he's not traveling the cabbage salad is his job!

Group Dynamics

Beautiful Buenos Aires as seen from a few miles from my apartment.

Recently I met a couple who founded a ministry to people incarcerated in prisons and mental hospitals -- and there is a lot to do! Apparently in Argentina kids can stay with their Moms in prison until they are four years old, but it is a very violent place and the Moms often do not know how to parent, having had poor role models themselves. The HIV rate is 20-40% (depending on the study) in prisons, very different from the rate in the general population, which the CIA World Factbook puts at less than one percent. They showed me a heartbreaking video of the conditions in the psychiatric hospital.

In December our Baradero team had a mini-retreat where we discussed how to work together as a group. One of the techniques we used was the SWOT technique: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Very helpful for individuals and groups!

Here's part of our group in Baradero -- they look enthralled at whatever I'm saying, don't they?

Here's what they need -- triple tea from Bolivia -- anise, coca leaves, and chamomile.

Speaking of group dynamics and personalities, I took a test on a friend's blog and it categorized me:

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Spiritual Organized Tree Hugger

Here's the back of the Baradero bus station where I wait to go back to Buenos Aires.