Thanksgiving Week 2011

27 November 2011
New week, new adventures!  It’s a standing policy that for the offices here to close, it must be a holiday celebrated in this country – completely understandable!  So we’ll work each day this week, as usual, but we’re planning a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday evening!  All the missionaries are invited, even if they aren’t from the States!  There will be a turkey and we’ll all ‘potluck’ the other dishes. I’m excited!  It will still be an unusual Thanksgiving, but fun!   (Anyway, there’s an Argentine holiday next Monday, so we’ll get a day off then!)

Monday night, Sarah, Thea, Dan, and I took the public bus to the Seminary asado/graduation party in the Convention Center (arriving too early, as usual!).  The seating area had been transformed to a dining area, with long tables already set with tablecloths, candles floating in bowls, table settings… and a buffet table set with traditional foods, starting with empanadas (me gusta, I love these!).  The salads were interesting and all very tasty – lettuce salad, potato salad with carrots, beet salad with hard-boiled egg. Things really got going when the asador, the grill-man, started making trips past our tables with different kinds and cuts of meat! First there was the chorizo sausage, then beef ribs (demonstrated by pointing to his own ribs for those of us that are still language challenged!), and more large chunks – all delicious and too much!  On top of that, there was graduation cake!

GS visit & Seminary Graduation

Sunday, 20 November 2011
This past week had several ups and downs for me, as are to be expected, but the ‘downs’ are still… downs.  We’re both experiencing more expectations by our co-workers, as they gain confidence in our skills and our reliability.  That’s definitely gratifying.  Some travel arrangements for dignitaries had to be changed, which created adjustments for many people here.  Adjustments and flexibility are just facts of life!

We ‘Skyped’ twice this week, once with Salazars, a couple with whom we have a missions-coaching relationship, and with daughter Erica.  The Salazars are wonderful, dedicated people; it’s great getting to know them!  Erica caught us up on the mail at home and was so excited about her evening plans – she had won the opportunity to ride on the Zamboni at the St. Louis Blues Hockey game that night!  And it was so fun to see her photos shared on Facebook the next morning!

Interesting week

Sunday, 13 November 2011

This has been an interesting week! It seems like more of my office skills are being used now, while still copying documents and scheduling literature orders to be shipped.

We had a bad storm Tuesday night with LOTS of rain and heavy winds! Usually I enjoy a listening to a little rain on the roof but, with the outside of this house being MOSTLY roof, the auditory enjoyment was a little lost when it sounded like the wind was going to REMOVE the roof! We lost power at about 4:30 a.m. We got up as usual anyway (to Dan’s phone alarm) and showered and fixed breakfast, thankful that the hot water heater and the stove are NOT electric!! After morning staff devotions, the power came back on – AND the Internet, just in time for all of us to get on our computers and work!

Exploring with friends

Saturday 5 November 2011

Thursday evening we had stayed up later than usual, Dan on his computer and me on mine, catching up on our journal for the blog.  Friday morning I woke up crying! But quickly I figured out why – while I had spent the previous evening journaling our adventures, I really wanted to tell all this to my mother – and I can’t. She died in a car accident 12 years ago.  She would have been fascinated to hear all about our travels – all the people and the customs and the fun little bits of information.  She would have enjoyed the adjustments I’m making as I shop for food and cook, all the other details that she always delighted in.

The rest of Friday was certainly better, as we had Thea join us for some homemade soup for lunch.  And Friday evening, we were invited by Sarah and Cindy to join them at Jorge & Irma Julca’s home on the campus of Semario Nazareno for a movie!   We rode the bus with Sarah to the Seminary, walked to Cindy’s apartment, then across campus to the home of the Seminary President!  We met his wife and daughters and several others who were getting together for snacks and conversation and watching the movie “Unknown” – what suspense!  It’s an excellent movie and, fortunately for us, it was in English with Spanish sub-titles.  Jorge even gave us a ride home well after midnight!

Settling in... our first 3 weeks

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Our current tasks... here is a brief description of our assignments here followed by some of the details of our first 3 weeks as we are settling in.

Dan: I am being kept busy with a variety of projects that are using my IT background and related skills.  The details aren't important but I am enjoying the diversity of work from sorting through equipment to detailing out of some hand drawn building plans in preparation for some office moves next year, to cleaning up and revising a web site.  Of course this all has to begin with learning about whats here, who to work with and how things are done as well as finding and learning or relearning hardware and software tools to make the job easier.  Call me crazy but God knows this is the sort of stuff I enjoy and He does promise to give us the desires of our heart...