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