It´s been a long time comin´

I have been incredibly remiss in updating for the past few weeks, but I have my excuses. We have been BUSY around these parts. The string of visits which I mentioned in my last update haven´t quite ended yet – a group from Good Shepherd Lutheran in Minnesota are visiting us for the week, and before that, as volunteers, we had a mid-year retreat to Tandil in the south of Buenos Aires Province, and before THAT, we had a kid´s weekend camp at the church, which also coincided with Kristina, my friend and fellow volunteer, visiting Montevideo. (Geographic note: in Argentina, the country is divided into provinces, and Buenos Aires is a province…but does not contain the city of Buenos Aires. Like Washington, D.C. and Mexico City, Buenos Aires (city) is classified as a federal capital district unattached to any single state/province).

The camp went swimmingly; 22 kids came out for the event, and barring a few disruptions around bedtime and typical kid-stuff like not wanting to pay attention when other people were talking, it was without any sort of negative excitement – no major injuries, nobody crying all night and wanting to go home, no bed-wetting (to the best of my knowledge, at least), and really, nothing other than 22 kids having fun and learning new songs, Bible stories, etc. To be honest, I had fits trying to get myself excited about camp as it approached. I was…not quite dreading it, but far from excited about, either. However, as we sat and waited for the kids to start showing up, it suddenly clicked. I got excited, I talked with the kids, I gave the best tour of the church EVER in its history (or that´s what I´m telling myself, at least), we played, we ate, and at the end of it all, we went to sleep (more-or-less). The next day involved my amazing small group for our trip to the beach (Grupo Dos), which Kristina, Eva, and I co-led – we sang, played in the water, got a safety lesson from a lifeguard (who, coincidentally, was the one that Dorothea thinks is cute), had a great lunch, played more, did a Bible Study, and in general enjoyed ourselves right on until the end-of-camp dinner after church on Sunday. The other big surprise of the camp: kids from El Cerro. There were 8or 9 of them, all of whom enjoyed themselves, and so once again, there is a great feeling of hope among us that activities with Misión San Juan will get off the ground again. Once camp wrapped up, we had time to take in some murga on Monday night, and then headed off for mid-year retreat.

Before mid-year retreat, though, another landmark event occurred – my birthday, which was celebrated in true Kevin form – travel, insanity, and ethnic food. The fun started only about an hour and a half into my birthday, when I was woken up by a phone call from Karin, Wilma´s daughter, who was wondering if we were still at the murga, though she did start it off with a big, loud “¡Feliz cumple!” In the process of answering the phone, I managed to kick my alarm clock halfway across the room – it ended up under the spare bed. This is the closest that I have come to becoming Pelé in my almost-6 months in South America. This also managed to shut the alarm off, and so imagine my surprise when a knock on my door woke me up at 6:15, 30 minutes after my alarm was supposed to go off. I woke up to, of all things, a swarm of bees in my room – at least two dozen bees had flown in through my open window, and so I groggily gathered my things to the sound of buzzing all around me. We made it to the bus station on time, and took off for Argentina.

It was my first birthday to be spent in two different countries. My birthday present from La Republica Oriental del Uruguay was NOT having to pay a fine for not having my entry card…I still say it was the Buquebus employee who goofed and took my card, as I somehow still had my boarding pass (which they take when you enter the boat) in my passport, but not an entry card. Regardless, when I explained my reasoning to the immigration official, he just gave me a fatherly look, shook his finger, said to be more careful in the future, and waved me on through the line without relieving me of $50 U.S. as is prescribed by Uruguayan law for such a situation. Once on board the boat, fineless and fancy-free, Karin (fellow volunteer, not Wilma´s daughter), joined us on board, as she´d been in Uruguay to renew her visa. We made our way to La Plata (Argentina, not Maryland), Kristina´s home for the year, and ate delicious Puerto Rican food (cooked by Kristina) for dinner. It was a great birthday.

We headed out to Tandil on the 21st. Passing through the pampas reminded me of Texas – if you´ve ever driven through Fort Bend County, you have more-or-less been to la pampa húmeda, and if you´ve driven through West Texas, you can add la pampa seca to the list. The area around Tandil is much like the Hill Country. Nothing quite like feeling at home even when you´re in another hemisphere…

Our time together included lots of sharing, reflection, hiking, guitar-playing, trying not to laugh at silly-looking collars for the clergy in the Danish Lutheran Church, making friends with random dogs, eating loads of pizza and empanadas with members of the aforementioned church, and refusing to eat chinculines (look that one up for yourself) with our porteño neighbors in the campgrounds. We also had s´mores – not very South American, but still pretty dang good.
Next week: This week with our Minnesotan friends, and (maybe) some pictures from January and February!