Cold trip to Salta

Two months ago I went up north to the province of Salta. As usual, I stayed with Sulma and her delightful family in the small town of Apolinario Saravia. Because I was there during winter vacation, several of Sulma's family members were in town, including her adorable niece you see in the above picture.
Above you see Doña Lidia, Sulma's mom, making the dough for empanadas. The filling is in the pot in the foreground. They have a gas stovetop but their only oven is wood-fired.

Sulma is an elementary school teacher and has received extensive training in CHE -- she even completed the internship in Nicaragua last year. Sadly, a local group of CHE trainers has not been able to form yet. Her sister Lucrecia and brother-in-law Gabriel have also been trained, but they moved to a different province last year due to an illness in the family. Gabriel had been the pastor of the church plant in Burela, where the CHE program was started. He and his family were also in town for the winter vacation and we discussed their plans which don't currently involve moving back to Saravia. While a group from the province of Cordoba (the Jesucristo Rey church) is still interested in helping them, without a local team CHE can't continue.

CHE consists of three basic elements: a local team of trainers, community health evangelists (CHEs), who go house-to-house to teach their neighbors, and a committee made up of locally-recognized leaders that plans big projects for the community and also selects the CHEs . The team of trainers, as the name implies, train the committee and the CHEs.

I'm not much of a baker but this year I've been making lemon bars. The wood-fired oven was a little too hot and the egg in the lemon portion did not cook evenly. They tasted good, though!

On my last day there I took a walk with Sulma and her mom. Sulma's Dad, Don Alfredo, joined us on his motorbike.

Above you see Sulma as we wait for my bus a few blocks from her house. I don't know when I'll go back there. Neither Sulma, nor the group in Cordoba, nor I have given up hope that we might be able to establish a program in Burela, but for now things are on hold.

I had a few layovers on my trip back to Buenos Aires, and spent hours at a bus station in Metan. Above you see the room I waited in -- there are shrines to the Virgin Mary at most bus and train stations. The poster in orange is informing passengers about swine flu.

Salta is a northern province, which in the southern hemisphere means that it's warmer than the rest of the country. This week was unusually cold, and it had actually snowed in several parts of the province! The Metan station is not enclosed on all sides, and since I was waiting at night -- my bus arrived around midnight-- it was really chilly. After whining to my friends in text messages, I got out my IPod and listened to some great sermons from Rob Bell.

Yesterday's Trip

I went to Berisso yesterday, a city of 80,000 on the outskirts of the capital city of the province of Buenos Aires, La Plata. Above you see Paulinho, Aryany, and Reberson, three Brazilians who have intentionally moved to a slum in Berisso, seeking its transformation. Here they are in Reberson and Aryany's house. We were going over the map they'd made of the community and discussing how they can continue to get to know the people in the neighborhood, especially the adults. They already know most of the children, that's a lot easier!

Reberson is planning to start medical school next year (here they do a combination of undergrad with medical school, so it would be the start of university for him). You can see on the table the $10 otoscope that he bought at a market, we were trying to see how it worked.

Well, Aryany went off to school and Reberson "made lunch." (Meaning, he went down the street and bought pizza and baked it in the oven.) Here you see the way Brazilians eat pizza, which Reberson told me he thought was American! Paulinho is adding ketchup...

And Reberson is adding mayonnaise. Actually, he ended up adding mayo, ketchup, and mustard to his pizza.

It's kind of chilly in their house so we kept our coats on. Aryany just moved to Argentina in December after marrying Reberson, and it's been difficult for her to adjust to the cold. Her poor fingers are swollen and red from being too chilled. But they are both 1) young and 2) filled with love for the people there. They have such a hope for the people in that community. I love this part of my job, where I get to meet with people who share this vision of the Kingdom of God, and I get to encourage them, help them define the vision they have for their communities, and teach them tools to hopefully achieve that vision.

This is a house that Mision Puente was renting until the owners came back. It's right next door to Reberson and Aryany's place. "El Quincho" means the type of building you see below, and is the name of their church.

This is the church, built behind the house you saw above. They started construction nearly two years ago, and short-term teams from Brazil come frequently to add to it.

What a pretty house! Reberson and Aryany were supposed to live in the house next door, and had done some pretty major renovations to it. Thankfully they've now finished most of the inside work on their current house (read: plumbing and gas) and in the last few weeks they painted and added the window boxes!
Reberson standing in his front yard, with the neighborhood behind him. You can see some of the drainage issues they are facing -- last year they tried to get the neighbors involved in working on this issue since it affects them all. It didn't work so well. Next year hopefully they will have a committee of locally-recognized leaders and perhaps they will have success?

Waiting in line for the bus that you see pulling in at the La Plata terminal. I got a seat this time!

Baradero

Above you see Silvia, Nora, and me heading across the tracks into the neighborhoods we're working in. I'm going out to Baradero about every other week now, meeting with Horacio and Silvia, the team leaders. On the day this picture was taken we were working on our "spiritual map" of the neighborhoods. We map the houses plus any altars, brothels, and corners where drugs are bought and sold. This map will be used so that the Baradero team can come up with specific prayer strategies.

Above is an altar to "Gauchito Gil," one of the most popular idols in Argentina. This is in the backyard of a family's house.

Here's a typical house in that part of town. There's a lot of trash around since most of the families don't have trash cans inside or bins out front. In the future, when we have "transformational change agents" improving their own houses and teaching their neighbors, having good trash disposal will be one of the points for a "healthy home."

Above, Silvia is knocking on the door of the house of someone known to be a Christian. We were going to ask her for help with our map, but she was bathing the kids. Late afternoon seems to be the time for washing up, so we usually head to the barrios in the mornings.

I love this picture: kumquats in Horacio and Silvia's yard. All of the above pictures were taken by Bonnie Hudlet, a missionary photographer with whom I became friends when she hosted me on a trip I took to Cordoba. She was in Buenos Aires for some other ministry commitments and accompanied Nora and me on our trip to Baradero, graciously taking these photos for our use.

An answer to prayer: opportunity at my local church

Last Saturday night I had the immense privilege of facilitating a training with the youth at my local church. It was lots of fun! I didn't know a lot of the youth since at church they tend to sit upstairs in a balcony, so I don't even see them. It was also a huge privilege to have as my co-facilitators my good friends Nora and Monica.

A small group discussing how Paul knew so much about the Athenians, and what information he learned about their social and spiritual life.

Yay for Nora! She has been helping me at lots of trainings, and it was so great to have her at this one since she also works with the youth. Above her is a list of some of the ideas the youth had on how to strategically pray for the areas they are going to work in.

Here is the river crossing sketch we use frequently. Here the young woman desperately wants to cross the raging river to go to "El Dot." What, you may ask, is that? Well, while many people dramatize this story by needing to cross the river to be near their dying grandmother, Ana needs to go to the newest Buenos Aires mall! On the right of the photo you can see my friend Monica. She attends this church also and offered to come to pray during the training. However, since she's also taking our training in La Plata, she ended up helping one of the small groups with their tricky, worldview-changing assignment: thinking about relief, individual development, and community development.

Here is another small group. I am so blessed to have had this opportunity, and hope that we can repeat it. Many of the youth said that they want more trainings in these areas, and I also personally want to get to know them better since they are such a vibrant force at our church.

I don't usually use a microphone, but since there were about 50 participants it was necessary.

Florencia, our photographer for the evening -- she even took this picture! She's the daughter of Horacio and Silvia, of the Baradero team.

Randomness

Apropos of nothing, here's my old community group in Arizona. The photo was taken during my trip in April when we had a "reunion supper." Truly a remarkable group of people!

It's been an interesting few weeks for those of us interested in public health. Argentina has now admitted to 65 deaths due to influenza A (H1N1) and after last week's elections major steps were announced for containment: however, each city and province has its own policies. The gym a block away from me was closed for a week but the restaurant there stayed open. Cinemas were selling only half the tickets for a few days so that people could space themselves in the theaters, then many chose to close altogether. Yesterday was a public holiday to celebrate Argentina's independence, and today was declared an additional public "health" holiday for government workers. Here's an article from the BBC about some of the policies and their economic effects. The Minister of Health resigned last week (and it's now come out that she'd suggested postponement of the elections) and the government from one day to the next changed the number of swine flu cases from 1700 to 100,000.

Randomness:

Ads seen plastered all over a ritzy area downtown: "Spiritual advice. I'll bring your loved one in 7 hours. For every question I have an answer." Boy, that is a truly attractive worldview, isn't it? No mystery at all, an answer to every question. Isn't that what we want a lot of the time? Even if the answers aren't true?

Posters seen at the bank: "Immediate approval! Dream it. Get it. Enjoy it." In Argentina, credit is taken to new heights: when you purchase something on your credit card they will often charge your credit card in three to five (depending on the promotion) separate monthly installments!

And finally, the poster I enjoyed most this campaign season was from the Worker's Party: "Let the capitalists pay for the [economic] crisis."

And to continue the laughs, above you have Karina, Brandt, and me doing a cardio workout in Arizona. (There were other even funnier pictures of Brandt doing some great poses, but they were just too unflattering to the rest of us!)

Flu, Elections, Randomness

My soccer buddy Ezequiel.

Random musings:

I was in La Plata yesterday, accompanying a team of Brazilian missionaries that have started implementing the CHE principles. They told me about a little five-year-old boy, Dylan, that comes to play at their church plant/soccer field. The other day he said, "I need help setting up a house." When asked why, he said, "I need to move out on my own. My Dad doesn't love me." A few minutes later he poked his head in at the window of the house we were meeting in, which is next to the church and where the young married couple Reberson and Aryany live. He hung out with us for most of the rest of the meeting, alternating standing next to the two men in the meeting. Five years old.

Infections with the influenza A (H1N1) virus are overwhelming the medical system in Argentina. In the southern hemisphere it is also winter, and therefore also the typical flu season with A (H1N1) added on top. Some hospitals have stopped all elective surgeries, and one hospital has been designated exclusively for flu cases. The majority of the cases have been in Buenos Aires.

Big elections are coming up on Sunday, although not presidential. In my cell group we prayed for peace on Monday, as chaos is predicted depending on the outcome. See this story in the BBC news. It is also predicted that schools, churches, malls, and movie theaters will close after the elections due to the flu outbreak.

Senator Sanford's affair is big news in Argentina since his partner in crime is Argentine. Here's how yesterday's paper categorized South Carolina, "More than 90% of the inhabitants of the state are Protestant, in large part Evangelical. They live austere lives, normally arising at dawn -- in one of the e-mails Sanford says he gets up at 4:30 am - they go to church and pray before they eat."

So, when people ask me about Argentine culture, I hem and haw. How to explain things? How to know if after only a year and a half I even understand things here? When getting up early in the morning automatically means "austerity", how can we be sure we're even speaking the same language?

The view from my balcony at sunset, nice and autumnal.

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?