Misiones Province

A few weeks ago I took a trip up to the northeastern province of Misiones. My friends Sara and Eva went to see the famous Iguazu Falls while I got together with a new contact, Ricardo. He is friends with a couple that I work with in Baradero (Buenos Aires Province) since they lived in Misiones for a time. The above picture was taken at a political meeting that I accompanied Ricardo to, a few miles from his home. Elections are coming up next week and a local politician gathered the people from the village seeking their votes.

This photo was obviously taken from inside the car. I love it when people appreciate where they're from, and this was certainly the case here. They said, "Take out your camera, as soon as we go over this hill you have to take a picture!" Pine trees aren't native to the area but in the past few decades have become a popular crop.

Above is the car we hitched a ride on to get to Ricardo's home. Isn't the red dirt beautiful?

A delicious meal with Emilia and Ricardo: chicken with manioc (cassava) and a salad. Emilia apologized that the chicken was so small. You see, it wasn't ready yet for the slaughter but it taunted one of their dogs and got into a fight with it. She tried to save it but it was too far gone, so it became our lunch.

Proof that I got some work done: a meeting isn't complete without sharing mate. We discussed the local area and the possibilities of training Ricardo's contacts with the CHE materials. There is a lot of poverty in the area, although the trick with CHE is that the projects undertaken are the ones the villagers decide on, not the trainers. For example, Ricardo thinks it's bad that everyone has latrines, not flush toilets. He thinks that everyone is satisfied with the latrines, and that's a bad thing. Of course I say the issue isn't the type of toilet, but whether or not hand-washing is done afterwards!

Ricardo and Emilia's grandson showing me the beautiful eggs from their chickens. See the green ones?
Time to head back to the city. How to get there without a car? Wait on the side of the road and hitch. Thankfully a neighbor came along. Tricky thing is that the back of the truck was filled with cow parts, grapefruits, etc.

This is a picture of a chainsaw, grapefruit, and a covered-up cow's head with its horn sticking into my sandal. It was kind of crowded in that truck.

But I still enjoyed the view!

And the company!

Fun facts:

• In Argentina, instead of saying, "every two weeks" one says, "every 15 days."
• A favorite verse for Argentines to quote is the first half of Psalm 92:12: The righteous will flourish like a palm tree. I'd never noticed that one before, is it used here because they actually have palm trees? Why don't we use this one more in California and Arizona, then?

Blessings

Eva and Sara hanging out at the Rio de la Plata looking at downtown Buenos Aires.

It was such a blessing to have my friends Sara and Eva come for a visit! I have been friends with Sara for 20 years, and became close friends with Eva 16 years ago after we became roommates. In addition to the amazing-ness of laughing and crying and talking about everything under the sun, they also really blessed me in practical ways. Sara brought a router with her and I was able to get wireless, therefore moving out of my dark, depressing hallway into the sunny living room! I've been planning on this move for six months now, and really love it!


Now granted, the only heater is in the dark, depressing hallway, and today it is 61 degrees (16 C) both inside and outside of my apartment, but I have a scarf and a blanket and sunshine!

Eva set up an incredibly helpful Excel spreadsheet which will allow me to track all expenses, both those where I receive advances and those I submit expense reports for. This week's work will be to work on the five months of back expenses....

Here I am walking with my soccer buddy Ezequiel, with Sara looking back at Eva the photographer. Not only were Sara and Eva game enough to play Ezequiel at soccer (three on one) but we also walked down to the San Isidro Sunday market with him.

Sara noticed this brand of burger, yum!

Vacation

Sara and Eva, good friends of mine since college, were visiting the past few weeks and I took some time off. I managed to get in some ministry, too, but I'll post those photos later. We went to a tango show with a friend of mine and her uncle, who's a big tango aficionado. Dinner was at 10:30 pm and the show started just past midnight. Here is a bit of an Argentine folk dance, the zamba:



Another traditional Argentine "dance" is done with the Argentine version of the lasso. When roping cows, Argentines used ropes twisted together with stones on the end, which twist around the cow's head. In this type of performance the ropes are separated.

Here are Eva and I drinking coffee and watching outdoor tango.

Here are Sara and Eva toasting each other on the bus ride to the Misiones province. It was a pretty swanky bus and they are enjoying a pre-supper whiskey!

Here is Patricia, the sister of some good friends of mine in Buenos Aires. She was an incredibly gracious host to us during our stay in Misiones. Here she is showing us the mines in Wanda.

Here are Sara and Eva next to the semi-precious stones.

Our first night there Patricia had a ministry activity, so we stayed home and played the piano. The next day Eva and Sara went to see the stunning Iguazu Falls while I went to meet new ministry contacts (more about that soon, including pictures of me and lots of cow parts sharing a ride). On Sunday we played and sang hymns with Patricia since her church shares a pastor with other congregations and there was no church the Sunday we were there.

Baradero trip

Yesterday morning I got up, went for an early run (I just have to throw that in here, I never go on early morning runs and I'm so excited!), and hopped on the train to go downtown. I walked to the bus terminal where I met Nora, a member of the Baradero team. We had a great 2 1/2-hour ride to Baradero as we caught up on her family, my trip, and the lessons we'll be doing at our next La Plata training -- I think she's slowly warming up to the idea of facilitating a lesson, stay tuned.

We arrived in Baradero and went right to the church which they're now opening for prayer on Wednesdays from 7 am to 2 pm. The sign above is outside the church at these times, it reads: In this place we pray for Baradero. Bring us your request, today we're praying for you. While we were there a local pizza shop owner that Horacio and Silvia know stopped in with his sister-in-law. Shortly thereafter it was time to close up. After 2 pm everyone is siesta-ing in this town. :-)

The rest of yesterday and today were spent meeting and praying together and visiting with people. This morning Horacio and Silvia had a meeting with town organizers where, to make a long story short, it looks like they will finally be given permission to present the program No more violence in the school system. Woo-hoo!

Nora came back to Buenos Aires last night since it was her son's birthday today. As I came back by myself tonight I read the two newspapers I'd bought yesterday on the way to the bus station. El Clarín, for me, is an exercise in attempting to understand Argentine politics. There are so many different terms bandied about that I think it will take me years to even begin to get it. Then I read Il Corriere della Sera to brush up on my Italian. The first several pages dealt with a presidential divorce scandal and the reaction of the Vatican. Not something I would expect in Italy. An interesting juxtaposition was the story on the apparently new frostiness in the relationship between the Ayatollah Khomeini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and how that will likely affect the president's political career.

Return to Buenos Aires

One of my last views of San Francisco (off to the right and covered in fog): on our way to Lorena and Gregor's friend Patrick's to play a game before going to the airport.

I got back to Buenos Aires a week ago Friday after six weeks in the States. I want to tell you about my return:

Killer flight, 26 hours from first take-off to last landing, two nights in a row on planes! Yuck! I still don't sleep on planes, and they actually repeated a movie that wasn't worth watching the first time. But I did buy some Peruvian chocolate (see last posting).

Friday:
Got home, watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords (that Lorena and Gregor gave me) and went to bed at 8:30 am.

Woke up to a phone call from Silvia and Horacio (Baradero team). We chatted about the next day's training in La Plata that they were going to help me with. I reviewed what I'd prepared for the next day and found that I had no more work to do on it!

Went for a run and felt so good after the first round that I went again for a total of 6.6 miles, a new record for me (by far!).

Got back to more phone calls from my friends Nora (also on the Baradero team and helping out at the next day's training) and Monica.

Opened my fridge and found the food that Margarita, the woman who cleans my place fortnightly, had prepared. Pears, plums, carrots (some grated already), lettuce (already washed), tomatoes, and milanesas (breaded meat). What a huge blessing!

Saturday:
Took the train to meet Horacio and Silvia who were driving Nora and me to the La Plata training. We shared mate on the drive as we discussed last-minute plans for the day.

Excellent training in La Plata. All of the participants had completed or at least started the assignments from the last session which were to start spiritual maps of their target communities and do a seed project to help out in the neighborhood. Wow!

Here are the participants looking at the collection of resources in our group. The different colors of post-it represent 1) what we like to do with our hands, 2) what we can teach others, 3) what we're passionate about, 4) what we would like to learn if it were available in our neighborhood, and 5) neighborhood groups we are part of. This is an exercise to help them begin to focus on the resources of their communities (Asset-Based Community Development) rather than on what is lacking.

Leading the group in singing, "Build your house on the Rock."

All in all an excellent return to my new home. I felt mimada (cared for, pampered), missed, and I had an excellent team helping with the training, and really lively, active participants at the training.

Three wonderful women: Silvia, Monica, and Nora.

Autumn

Today is a lovely, warm autumn day in Buenos Aires. Above is the view from my front window right now: you can see that the leaves are falling off the trees and piling up on my balcony.

I had a fun day navigating the trains and buses of Buenos Aires today (three hours total). A married couple, both young physicians, had found out about our ministry from a website. We've been e-mailing on and off and today I went to their church in Mataderos (part of Buenos Aires) to see their program with neighborhood kids. We talked informally over mate about their program and the CHE tools while the kids had a snack and a music class. Then I presented the CHE model to the ten adult volunteers.

The bus trip back was equally beautiful. Although I passed through some poor neighborhoods I also saw lots of lovely plazas, and the sunshine and changing leaves were lovely.

Next week I'm hoping to write about the rest of my US trip as well as my return to Argentina. Stay tuned!

Randomness:

• On a chocolate bar bought at the Lima airport: One tablet of Extreme Sublime recharges your energy after a soccer game or a vigorous half-hour of running.
• The soap I just unwrapped says: for luminous sensation and envied skin.
  

I haven't been posting recently due to my travels, and now due to internet connection issues combined with jetlag and feeling slightly overwhelmed with work. I hope to start updating this blog in the next few days, so check back!