Christmas and wells

Statue of General San Martin, "The Eternal Grandfather," in downtown Buenos Aires, seen on a tour yesterday.

I recently saw a great video about Advent and Christmas on my friend's pastor's blog. It makes some great points about relationships and crazy Christmas spending. I do feel compelled to make one observation, though, and that's about how much it would cost to supply the world with drinking water. I wonder if that takes into account getting community ownership of the wells? Not just training, which if it is head knowledge only is pretty useless. And not wells placed in locations which are too dangerous to get to, or too far away for children to go with heavy containers (not uncommon errors in well placement by outsiders) since then no one will use the well. I have some friends in Ghana who work with the CHE model as I do, and they wrote in one of their newsletters about the importance of taking the time to build relationships and allowing initiative to come from the communities:

"...there ha[ve] been a lot of clean water projects and funding that has come from outsiders. Locally, one project, implemented by the Peace Corps, dug a 400 foot deep well and provided a good pump. Then, the next day, after they left, someone stole the battery. Still to this day, it has never been used. Another project, funded by the American government, dug a well and, then, gave the property to the village leader. The next day, he built a wall around it and locked it. He now only allows his family and close friends to use the well."

Back to the season: Christmas in Argentina so far seems to be a quieter affair than in the States. There are Christmas decorations being sold in lots of stores, though, and a lot of "end of the year" activities are tied in with Christmas since this is also the start of summer and lots of things slow down after the holiday.

This was our tour guide yesterday. I loved how she was dressed -- reminds me of going "Italian" in Only You.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday -- being with family and remembering the gifts God has given us throughout the year, without the daily news reports of how the economy is doing based on spending patterns. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, not least of which is that being asked to state what I'm thankful for helped me to get over my most recent pity party! :-)

The above picture shows something I am incredibly grateful for. Silvia and Nora are two of my team members in Baradero and have become good friends. In this photo Nora and I have just arrived from Buenos Aires and we were greeted with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (the day before the actual holiday). Silvia had downloaded recipes online -- she couldn't find any turkeys and doesn't have an oven, but she stuffed and cooked an entire chicken (for the first time) in the church oven. She even looked up traditional decorations online and you can see how pretty she made the table. We ended up having ice cream for dessert, a concession to the high-90s temperatures!


In the above picture is my cell group from church. I whined the week before about the holidays coming up and they immediately offered to come over for Thanksgiving supper and to bring most of the food since I would be traveling that day. Ask and you shall receive.... They said they were going to bring Argentine food and then surprised me with a turkey! They only American dessert they knew how to make was cheesecake which was incredibly satisfying on yet another hot and humid day.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Back Home!

My beautiful mother, relaxing on our last day in Nicaragua!

Well, it was an incredible six and a half weeks:

• Nicaraguan internship, learning lots and experiencing wonderful fellowship with my colleagues from around Latin America
• Joining John Knox's short-term missions group in Nicaragua, and truly experiencing their (spoken by Pastor Tom and attributed to Nicky Gumbel) philosophy of the proper order of how to do church: BELONG, BELIEVE, BEHAVE. A beautiful community of people.
  
• School of evangelism in the Argentine province of Neuquen, where I got to not only lead workshops but participate in ministry after one of the plenary sessions, what a privilege!
• Driving back to Buenos Aires with Bill and Annie and stopping overnight at their daughter's dairy farm in La Pampa. What a delightful family! Two of their youngest children came out to talk to me while I was doing my devotional, and little Guillermo said, "God is with us all the time. And when we cry, God cries."

Milking cows on the dairy farm.

While Virginia was looking for something in the freezer she pulled out a pig. Luis and Matias decided to pose with it for me. Seeing that I was amazed at a whole pig in a deep freeze, she then pulled out an entire calf...

More craziness from the deep freeze: several fowl frozen together, and a fish stuck to the back! Here showing it off are Guillermo, Paola, and Luis.

I got home on Monday night. At first I thought I was just exhausted, and slept most of the day on Tuesday. Then Wednesday. Then I realized I was sick. Sigh.

Today I'm a bit better but daunted by my to-do pile, six weeks of only partially answering e-mails, and my infant organizational system which requires maturing/work before I throw things into it. Frustrated and a bit depressed, a song was brought to mind that I looked up on YouTube: This is Your Life -- Today is all you've got now...this is your life, are you who you want to be? Today, my desk and my e-mails are my service to God. One step at a time.

Sunset and rainstorm in La Pampa

More Nicaragua

Pre-script: This will be my last posting until mid-November, when I'll be back in Argentina and will have regular internet access.

Last week we held a school screening at a local Managua school. They have some kids who are part of the Compassion International program, and the school principal is supportive of CHE. I wrote about this a few postings back, so I won’t go into much detail here.

Here I am interviewing two brothers and their mom (she’s just out of the picture).

Only 59 of the 100 children who’d submitted lab samples were able to make it due to the intense rains. The day of the screening was smack in the middle of a 30-hour non-stop rain-a-thon.

The rains had stopped by the following day and we had a great turn-out for the parents’ meeting. We shared our discoveries first with the whole group, and then individually with the parents. More than a third of the children who’d submitted lab samples had Giardia. We didn’t see any ascaris (an intestinal worm) and aren’t sure if that’s because the lab wasn’t looking for it correctly or if the de-worming campaigns in the area are working. Twenty-seven percent of the children showed signs of chronic malnutrition, and 76% had cavities. We’re hoping that the meeting will serve as a catalyst for a vital CHE program to develop.

Here I am with Shaily, a girl I’d examined the previous day.

And here I am at one of the cyber locations, trying to catch up on the news.

Life at the retreat center

Flor and Dina show us a method the committees can use to determine project feasibility.

Zoila is showing us her group’s “Problem Tree.” We later changed them to “Solution Tree” by working at the root problems.

Here I am with Jody, a pediatrician living in Mexico, and her co-worker Raquel in a “mototaxi”.

Here’s a group pic!

More about Boaco

Here’s our host, Doña Lidia, showing off her kitchen. She and her daughters put really long sticks and logs into the wood-fired stove and as they became coals they progressively pushed them further inside the stove.

In the evening there was a big rain storm (have I mentioned it’s the rainy season?) and with the corrugated metal roof we were yelling to have conversations. I learned that Lidia became a Christian two years ago. She is learning how to weave purses and embroider through “The Master’s Workshop,” volunteers with a prison ministry, and is taking theological classes. She has become a key advocate for health in her village. Her husband is a coffee-grower.

Country living has its challenges, such as climbing the slope behind the house in the mud and rain to the latrine. Oh, and remember to side-step the chickens and goats! Morning started at 4:45 as the family started grinding corn and making the day’s tortillas. Here’s Cristina grinding the corn:

The next day we went to the nearby village of San Juan to give two lessons to the newly formed committee.

The man on the left is part of the Catholic Commission in San Juan, and the woman on the right is the school teacher whose classroom we were in. They are both committee members.

Committee members (and some children, of course) leaving the school after the training, on what seems more like a riverbed than a path!

Gorgeous scenery on the drive back to the retreat center. Unfortunately it started raining and our comfy ride (on a yellow school bus) became incredibly hot as we had to close the windows.

Nicaragua updates

Just over a week ago I traveled with a team to the “department” of Boaco. In the picture below you can see the ever-present yellow school buses -- yes, they are from the US, and sometimes the writing of the former school district is not painted over. They are used as city buses, and for just five cordobas (25 cents) they’ll take you where you want to go.

The city of Boaco, capital of the eponymous (?) department. You can also see a fruit stand and a cool-looking roof with tall weeds growing on it.

Jacob and Adolfo are patiently waiting. Can you read Jacob’s shirt?

We went to the village of San Juan Buenaventura the first day, and one of my first sites at the house where community meetings are held was this very contented pig:

Completely unaware that he is Christmas dinner….

I facilitated a lesson on the uplifting topic of “sadness” for some of the APECS (the perinatal CHEs) and a few committee members.

Here are two budding young actors doing a dramatization about grief. The two kids next to me are neighbors that dropped in.

Sulma, one of my Argentine team-members, gave a lesson on development. Here she is eating the huge supper that our host provided:

Barbecued pork, gallo pinto (rice and beans), cheese curds, cabbage salad, and tortillas.

Nicaragua

Hello from Nicaragua! I’ve completed nearly two weeks of my four-week internship here in a retreat center near the city of Mateare. It’s been really tricky to get to internet cafes since we’re several miles from town and it’s not the safest to travel around here as foreigners, and then once there the electricity isn’t guaranteed….

We are in class all day Monday – Thursday then on Friday and Saturday go to villages for practical experience and to get to know the communities. Last week I went to the department (they’re not states or provinces here, but “departments”) of Boaco and stayed overnight with a family in a small village. I bought a lovely woven purse there – the women with the CHE program have started working with an NGO which teaches them weaving and embroidery alongside spiritual lessons. Once the quality improves to international standards the NGO, “The Master’s Workshop,” will help them to find a market.

This coming weekend I will be part of a team helping with a “school screening.” We will be checking heights and weights on 100 children in an inner city community in Managua and comparing that data to global averages to assess for chronic malnutrition (I printed the WHO charts before coming). The kids have already given blood and stool samples to check for anemia and parasites. There are six of us assigned to this team and we’re hoping to tally the results on Friday and present them to the parents on Saturday. We’ll give the results individually to the parents and then ask them as a group what they would like to do help improve their children’s health.

The group I’m with is super-fun! We are:

• Jacob and Raquel, a Mexican couple who love to teach us games (usually after supper)
• Three of my co-workers from Argentina, trying to survive without fruit after lunch or coffee after supper
• Daniel and Zoila, a Venezuelan couple and their young daughter who are used to traveling with their own hammocks when they visit villages
• Flor, Dalkis, and Hiram, three Dominicans who have taught us that among Spanish-speaking countries words can have very different meanings (the word for “milestone” or “mile marker” in Spanish only means a specific shape of, um, feces in the Dominican Republic, for example!)
• Adolfo, a Honduran who is an agronomist by training and knows a lot about growing coffee
• Mandy, an American woman who’s spending this year living in Mexico and learning about CHE. I’ve really enjoyed talking with her about cultural things and life as an ex-pat.

Nicaragua

Hair-cutting and styling lessons in Baradero this week. You can see that the church is decorated for spring!

Nobody brought a guinea pig, so I'm letting Mayra try her very first haircut on me.

In less than 24 hours I'm heading to Nicaragua for a four-week internship put on by my mission agency. We will also get to spend two to three days per week applying what we learn in small villages which have more advanced programs than we have here in Argentina. If I remember correctly, the participants are coming from the following countries: five of us from Argentina plus Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. I think I'm the only American participant, although the name of the woman coming from El Salvador seems "northern," and the trainer for the Children's CHE portion will an American pediatrician coming from Mexico. I think that's really wonderful since it shows that our programs really are "home-grown" and by definition more sustainable.

After the training I will spend a week with John Knox Presbyterian Church's short-term team in northern Nicaragua. I think I will mostly be interpreting for them for such fun activities as Vacation Bible School and prison ministry. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the church members more in depth, and am also excited because my mother's coming on her first mission trip!

I return from Nicaragua and leave the very next day for Neuquen, a province in western Argentina. I've been invited to give a day of workshops at an evangelism conference for local pastors. The conference is put on by pastors from that province and is sponsored by the Billy Graham Association, which leads to big numbers -- over 400 people are expected. While there are, I think, four of us leading workshops at a time, this potentially places 100 people in my workshop which will be a challenge for our participatory style!

Alejandrina's husband and son came to watch the group -- he's checking out a perfume catalog from one of the participants' new home business. :-)

Happy first day of Spring!

This post will be brief as it's after 1 am already and there's been some lack of sleep in my life for over a week now. I've been traveling in Cordoba and Baradero and then the Delta, and I've got some great pictures I hope to post soon.

Tonight I'll just write about today. Ezekiel is an 11-year-old boy who came to an children's event at church a few weeks ago and has been enthusiastically coming to church ever since. I met him that first Sunday since he rode to church with Bill and Annie and me. This Sunday we rode to church together again and then after Sunday School went out to Maximo Paz, a campground, to celebrate the first day of Spring. This is a big event here and is also called "Students' Day." There were about 3000 young people at the campground. Bill and Annie had lots to do, so I hung around with Ezekiel. He eventually found a group of people who would let him join their soccer game, and I'm no expert but think he's really good. In one of our conversations he was explaining the school system, and mentioned that after high school there's college but he wasn't going to go. I asked him why and he said that he was going to be the goalie for River (one of the top two Buenos Aires rival soccer teams)! :-)

He asked me to photograph him while he played, and at the end of the day asked if I would print some of the photos and be sure to include one of myself (make me cry!). The Sinatra tune, "I fall in love too easily" is going through my head, but I have just met so many adorable kids here. Ezekiel is living with his great-aunt and some cousins. I don't know what the rest of his family situation is like, but I do know that he is a precious child of God and I had a wonderful time playing "Auntie" today.

Call

Boys in the Delta hamming it up for the stranger's camera (when Anne, the Canadian, was visiting with my supervisor)

I started my last blog with a quote from "The Office," since that's sort of how I was feeling before my supervisor's visit. Thankfully, she re-directed me to being aware of my sense of call and knowing who I really serve (not a mission board or a church or a supervisor, but the Creator of all things, slightly different focus).

I've been having some emotional and spiritual "good times" lately -- you know, those times that are like mini-deaths in that they require more release and giving up and sacrifice and death to personal dreams but which are really excellent because they take us closer and closer to seeing what is really real and worth living and dying for. I've been in Philippians 3 and 4 and Ezequiel 16 and Hebrews 12: 1 - 24 and Revelation 1 - 3. I've also been listening to some Alanis Morissette songs, and particularly enjoy "Head over Feet," "All I Really Want," "Everything,"(warning, there's a swear word in it) and "Thank U." (These links take you to the lyrics, the videos/music are all on YouTube.)

So, besides super-deep spiritual reasons, why am I here? It's a change in profession (again), geography (again) and friendships (again), but here's someone I've fallen for:

The other day in the Delta there was a boy, Jose (not his real name), who was really sweet during our Bible story, but the other kids said he couldn't write yet (he showed me a paper of his that had mock letters on it). Then later he was ornery, sitting alone at lunch and using an orange as a ball. He didn't respond to me telling him to stop with the orange, and Daniel went to talk with him, but he still was just ornery.

His mother was helping out in the kitchen that day and was really helpful, cleaned the kitchen of the feeding center amazingly well. Later on over mate tea Monica tells me that she doesn't know which came first -- Jose's learning disability or his mistreatment at home. She says that his mother once tied him to a tree outside and left him in the rain.

It's just incredible what these kids go through, and what the parents probably went through before them. God, shine your light here!

Visitors

"Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it's not like this compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised." Michael Scott from The Office (but actually swiped from Gabe VanD's Facebook profile).

My supervisor was in Argentina for the past week, which was great. I learned a lot from her and have more ideas and understanding and increased vision for what to do the next several months. I was also really just encouraged by her presence, her passion, and 20+ years doing similar work, primarily in Haiti, then the Dominican Republic and now also in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil among others.

I'm off to Baradero - Cordoba - Baradero this afternoon. Baradero is 100 miles from here (3 hours for me) and it's on the way to Cordoba. I'm starting to go to Baradero weekly to accompany the team there. In Cordoba I'll be attending and speaking at a missions conference in addition to leading a workshop with some young people on planning "seed projects."

So, I don't have much time so I'll just write some random thoughts:

• Spring in Buenos Aires means that no longer to I get to enjoy seeing the little neckerchiefs worn by the very Latino men here. Very sad.
• Speaking of Latino men, the other day I was called "doll" and "beautiful." The first time was when I walking through the downtown central train station at 6:00 am and a man with a cigarette between his lips and his arms full with a mate gourd and thermos said (in Spanish), "Hey, doll." Can you picture it? The second was at the fruit and vegetable stand I go to. You can't pick the produce by yourself most places here, and one of the guys there always says, "'Bye, beautiful," after he helps me. :-)
• Argentina's a late night kind of place. I knew this, but it was still surprising to see how empty (almost completely) the train was going downtown at 5:15 am on a weekday. Once I got downtown and was outside the train station there were plenty of people. It was still dark, but some of the vendors had fires going in cans or coals in grocery carts which they used to heat up the bread products they sell. And everyone was carrying a mate gourd and thermos. Horacio tells me that poorer people drink a lot of mate here. They add sugar to it which, along with the caffeine, takes away some hunger pains.
• And, speaking of night time, the picture above is from the finale of a tango show I went to with my visitors on Saturday night. It started after 10 pm and finished about 1:20 am. Shortly after 2 am we were on a main street in my neighborhood where there were people walking, waiting for buses, and hanging out.
  

Spring has sprung!

Going out to the Delta on Saturday it was obvious that spring is here -- the weeping willows have beautiful light green leaves coming out and there are more flowering plants and trees than before. Winter was still relatively green here, though -- the hibiscus and bougainvillea stayed flowering and the eucalyptus trees keep their leaves.
An ideal moment in the Delta -- the older kids helping the younger ones. The latest youngster to come to the feeding center is little Alex, 20 months old. Of course, ideally they would actually be eating this lunch at home with their families, so we've got a ways to go to see lasting development rather than relief projects here.

Little Kevin (no longer the "baby" at the feeding center) and Erica, with whom I put together some puzzles.

This is Anne, who went to high school with my supervisor's husband back in Nova Scotia! She stayed with me this past week and took the photos of the kids you see above. She's off traveling for awhile but will be back this week.

That Begs the Question

Retiro, the bustling downtown Buenos Aires train station

A few months ago I read that Jesus said, "Give to everyone who begs from you." I hadn't remembered seeing that before, and now that I live in a huge metropolis and have people begging from me daily it seems relevant, so I looked it up. There it is, in Luke chapter 6, tucked away in a very familiar passage about loving your enemies and turning the other cheek.

So, how do I do this? And what do I give? I can't say that Jesus didn't understand my situation -- it's clear from the Bible that he encountered lots of beggars, and it's also clear that some people back then spent all their money on alcohol (one reason why giving money seems wrong in most situations). In Acts 3 Peter and John meet a man who begs for a living since his legs don't work. They say that they don't have any money, but do have something they can give him -- and they pray for him to be healed, which he is.

Well, I do always have some money in my purse, so I can't exactly say that, and I don't think that God is going to use me to heal everyone I meet on the street. So again, what does this mean? I was talking with my friend Paul about this yesterday. He lives in an intentional community in a poor neighborhood in St. Paul, and along with his wife Libby has tried several different approaches. He said that Peter and John gave the man in Acts 3 what he really needed.

Here are the different scenarios I regularly encounter:

• On the sidewalk in a busy shopping district a few blocks from my apartment is a woman with no legs, seated with her hand out, saying to all who pass, "Help me, please."
• On the sidewalk a few blocks up from first woman I frequently encounter another woman who says, "Help me, please, buy something that I have." The first time I passed by I bought a small box of bandaids, but a few days later I didn't need anything that she had, so what should I do? She wasn't just selling things, she was saying, "Help me."
• On the city train, in addition to the vendors and the musicians, there are people who give a speech about their family's dire straits and ask for money or give to all the passengers a slip of paper regarding their needs (the latter happens more frequently if they are deaf or blind), occasionally accompanied by a picture of a saint, then they pass through the car a second time collecting the slip of paper and donations.

I think that I should probably try to engage the first two women in conversation, and I think that I haven't done so out of not wanting to look foolish, both to them and to the people around me. After all, the first woman is frequently chatting with the blind man five feet up from her (he sells things and doesn't ask for money) and doesn't seem to want to engage in conversation. Also, what would I say to them? But if I walk by without saying anything or giving anything I'm not doing what Jesus said to do.

If someone specifically asks me for something, then I have the opportunity to purchase it for them and possibly enter into relationship with them, but in the third situation described above they are people who are busily "working" the train and also don't seem to want to be interrupted. I could travel with granola bars or sausages or something to offer to them, I suppose? In Minnesota I used to keep granola bars and juice in my car to give to the guys who held up signs at traffic lights saying they were hungry.

Two situations I encountered yesterday, one where I mostly liked my response and one where I didn't:

• A woman outside the supermarket yesterday asked for help. I asked what she wanted and she said that she needed a chicken. I offered to buy her one and she said that they were cheaper in her neighborhood if I would just give her the money. I said, "I don't give out money, but I'm happy to buy you a chicken." We went back and forth a couple of times, and I ended up buying her a chicken. When I came out of the supermarket she was talking with someone else and there didn't seem to be the opportunity to really have a conversation with her. She said, "God bless you," and I just said, "May God bless you too, ma'am."
• As I was out running errands yesterday a man that was standing on the sidewalk started to talk to me. I believe he was starting to tell me the story of his woes, but before he started talking to me he checked me out, head to toe. That's not uncommon in this Latin country, but I felt somewhat indignant and justified in ignoring him and walking by with my "city face" on. I started to tell God that he hadn't come to earth in female form and so hadn't had to work with that, but then I realized that Jesus, since he frequently hung out with prostitutes, was surely looked at lewdly but didn't focus on himself -- he saw the image of God, albeit tarnished, in the people around him.

Above are Gaby and Nora, with me and Luisa below, when we got together at Gaby's two weeks ago to make "sorrentinos" (like large tortellini) as a fundraiser for the Orlando's to go to the Nicaraguan internship. The filling we're using in these photos is Swiss chard and ricotta with a touch of goose liver for that special something extra.

Fliers

When we're not busy playing with kids, we're intensely planning things -- here's Nora serving as the "cebadora," the one who serves mate to keep us going as we plan a vision seminar for the Libertador Church.

And here I am, hard at work under the "winter" sun.

Here are Alejandro and Marisa (she's from Baradero, they've both taken the first two steps of our training and are actively involved in the community) along with Nora and Gaby at our latest planning meeting in Baradero.

In my last post I wrote about a conversation I had with one of the kids in a neighborhood we're working in. Several people responded to that and I'll try to include other similar stories. However, I'm still trying to figure out how and what I can respectfully share about other people's lives since the issues they're dealing with are pretty personal.

Fun fact: I don't have a mail box, so everything comes under my door. Lots of fliers come, too, advertising local shops. This week there was a run on spiritual advertising. Slipped under my door two days ago was a newsletter from the local Catholic parish. Inside there was a pamphlet advertising the "Miraculous Medallion." It said, "Do you need a favor/grace? Pray to Maria for it!" It went on to offer a book about it complete with the bronze medallion for only U$S 5, with phrases such as, "This medallion has already helped many people. It can help you, too!" and "The Mother of God said, 'Everyone who wears on his neck this medallion will receive great favors.'" Underlined was written, "The Miraculous Medallion is a powerful shield against the designs and attacks of the demon. Father Gabriel Amorth, the most famous exorcist in Italy, declares that it's 'a good protection against the devil to wear the Miraculous Medallion.'"

Yesterday there was a flier advertising the ancient art of reading coffee grounds (I thought it was supposed to be tea leaves). For a small fee someone will read coffee grounds for me and give me "the answers and the sense of direction you need." In a free paper I got on the train last week there was an article about the big festival to celebrate Saint Cayetano, the patron saint of bread and work. There was a line 12 blocks long to get into the sanctuary where he is celebrated.

One of the latest sermons I've listened to on-line is about Genesis 11 and 12. Richard Dahlstrom notes that in Samaria, where Abraham lived before he heard God and left for an unknown land, the culture was polytheistic and worshiped the “three Ps”: power, provision, and protection. Dahlstrom notes that those three Ps are still idols in the church today, but don’t have anything to do with real Judeo-Christian faith. He discusses a Simpson’s episode of Protestants vs Catholics where Bart converts to Catholicism which leads to a pastor and a priest playing, “My God can kick your God’s butt,” and contrasts this with the inspiring lives of people who left comfort to follow God and love people: Henri Nouwen, Martin Luther King, Paul Brand.

God’s call to Abraham in Genesis 12 “is a movement from many gods to one, and a movement away from self-preservation to service…. Our obedience to revelation will result in us being a blessing.” Which paradigm will we follow? If we really trust God for our provision and protection we can pour out our lives for others.

Family Life

Silvia with some kids in Baradero after toys were handed out to celebrate Children's Day.

Having conversations in the areas I work can be challenging. Family relationships are very complicated, with many men having multiple families and kids moving around a lot. Still, family is a very talked-about subject in this culture since most kids spend a lot of time with their families and have lots of siblings. In Baradero last week I met Juan (not his real name), a pre-teen who never wanted his picture taken. I tried to strike up a "light" conversation with him, and it went as follows:

Me: So, how many brothers and sisters do you have?
Juan: I don't know.
Me: Are you joking with me, or you really don't know because you don't all live together?
Juan: No, we don't all live together.
Me: How many are in your home?
Juan: (Thinks for a minute) Five.
Me: With parents? Or five kids?
Juan: Hmm...we're seven all together.
Me: Oh, do you live with your mom and your dad?
Juan: No, with my stepfather and stepmother.
Me: Oh, really? I have a stepmother and a stepsister. Where's your mom? (I wasn't sure that I'd understood him correctly, because I've never met anyone who lived with two stepparents.)
Juan: She lives in another village. My father is in prison.

Blessed

I bought a guitar today! Julie sold some of my uniforms for me in Arizona and I used that money plus a little extra to buy the above guitar and the slightly-cushioned case -- 10 pesos cheaper for the snazzy red color! They threw in the two picks you see. It is even made in Argentina! I'm so excited for this, I've been wanting to get a guitar ever since I got here and finally got some good music store advice from my friend and colleague, Monica. I'm not a great guitar-player, I just play some chords, but I've been missing making music, and also found that I really missed the guitar in my personal worship time. And yes, you can find pitches to tune with on the internet!

This week I took a ferry to Uruguay to renew my tourist visa. It was a wonderful day -- cool and stormy-looking but with no rain. I had lunch with a tour group and sat with a Colombian woman. Interesting weather perspective: she told me that her home city, Bogata, is always cold and without seasons. When asked how cold, she said, "Well, nowhere near as cold as this!" Dear reader, it was in the high-50s.

So, here I am with our first sight of Uruguay in the background. When this picture was taken I wasn't aware that it is of the historic part of town. After my city tour I sat right on the edge of the peninsula you see in this photo.

Above and below are pictures of where I sat along the water at the tip of the peninsula. It's funny: I've lived alone for 11 years now. I've really noticed the alone-ness here in Argentina since I still don't know very many people and sometimes spend several days in a row at home. When I was on the ferry and the city tour I was thinking that I find traveling tiring. When I've visited places with friends I much prefer finding a coffee shop and sitting there for hours and talking. The ferry also made me think back to being on the MERCY ship in the Philippines, which was a blast primarily because I was living in community, working and eating and living with other people. Then I had lunch with Laura, the woman from Colombia, and she couldn't believe I live alone (she lives with her parents). So, I was thinking that I'm just kind of crazy, and of course I'm having a hard time being alone because it's not natural.

And then I found this spot. I sat here and listened to music on my I-Pod and heard the waves and prayed and read Scripture and felt incredibly alive and full of the presence of God and not alone at all.

Below is the flag of Uruguay as seen by night on the ferry:
Fun fact: people here don't seem quite as caffeine-conscious as we are in the States. Three of their principle hot beverages, mate, mate cocido, and coffee, are all high in caffeine, yet most people can drink them into the evening. I can't sleep if I do that, so I've taken to traveling with herbal tea sachets in my purse since it can make people uncomfortable if I'm not drinking. Once after I had said no to coffee at 8 pm and casually mentioned I couldn't sleep if I had it that late, someone at our meeting said, "I know you're a doctor, but I mean, have you ever asked a doctor if that happens? If drinking coffee late at night can really keep you awake?"