Mid-February: Schmoozing and Soap Operas

February is the month of visitations – beginning last weekend and stretching on until March 3rd, we will have guests of one sort or another here. In the past week, I´ve had dinner with two estadounidense representatives of the American Waldensian Society, received a mountain of corn tortillas from Tom, former YAGM and the person who first served me mate, and hung out with a delegation of Germans visiting various projects in South America that they´ve been supporting, including La Obra.

Things are just simply not dull when guests come to town. There are always dinners, people coming over to chat, surprise visits to your worksite (sometimes involving a professional organist who walks in on your basic music lesson with the young kids; didn´t know he was a world-class musician at the time, though), and lots of conversations. The two from the AWS invited Kirsten and I to participate in some of their activities in the U.S. when we get back, and are interested in exploring ways to incorporate more intentional ecumenical work into the experiences of future YAGMs in Uruguay. Tom and I shot the breeze a little bit about our times in Uruguay, and I left the conversation seeing a lot more light at the end of the tunnel – there IS life after YAGM, and the cold, rainy Montevideano winter IS survivable. With the Germans, I described the application, selection, and assignment process of YAGM with the director for a German volunteer program of similar nature, and swapped all sorts of travel stories with Thomas Fuchs, a German pastor, world traveller, and all-around neat character. Having guests feeds the soul and expands the mind; the host who gets less out of a visit than the guests is a rare creature.

In other news, summer keeps on rolling toward its finish. March 3rd means back-to-school in Uruguay, and it seems as if everyone is half-desperate to fit in just one more trip to the beach or late night out watching murga. For me, too, that means that summertime is just about finished – back-to-school means back-to-a-normal-schedule at La Obra. Even the weather is starting to drop hints about the impending change of season; for the past few days, the hot, humid summer weather has given way to rain, wind, clouds, and temperatures below 20 C (68 F). Leaves are still green and I imagine we´ve not yet seen the last of hot weather, but summer´s back is broken and fall is well on it´s way to Uruguay.

Also coming to an end soon: Son de Fierro, the Argentine soap opera that Dorothea and KD have been watching religiously. I, too, have been known to watch at least the last half of SdF at least twice a week to stay in the loop…only for the sake of conversation with the girls, of course – honest! This new-found T.V. addiction has resulted in no end of jokes directed toward the two of them at La Obra…as well as recommendations for other soaps to watch. This can only end in disaster – I can see KD and I in June, only a month or so away from leaving, and having arguments over which is better, Páginas de la Vida or LaLola…depends on whether you prefer Dynasty except set in Rio de Janeiro and with bossa nova as the opening music or gender humor involving a main character who was a man and is now a woman (not sure if the change occurred due to some weird quirk or if it was intentional). Regardless, I´m sure that someday when Doro, KD, and I meet up after our time here is done, there will probably be at least one occasion of someone belting out “SON DE FIERRO PORQUE NO TE PIDEN NADA!”