Monday Meanderings

Yesterday was our one year anniversary in Argentina. In the morning a friend texted his congratulations and our co-workers surprised us with a cake at the meeting last night. It's sorta like being married...you know that feeling, "how can it already be a year?" and at the same time, having a hard time remembering what it was like before :-) It's just our LIFE now.

The weather turned colder over the weekend, but still not what you'd call winter weather. We took walks both days and it was really windy but still only needed sweaters. Now last night when it was time to go to Centro Esperanza I grabbed a coat too. My spring coat which might have been a mistake. I think I could have used the slightly heavier fall coat. Mainly because Centro is always FREEZING since it's kept closed up all week without any heat, so the cold just seeps into the block walls and tile floors and turning the little space heater on when we get there is like trying to heat a gymnasium with a cooking stove. Just not happenin' fast enough.

We're heading to Sta. Rosa today with the little trailer to pick up all the twin size mattresses and bring them back to use when the group from Palabra de Vida arrives. The size and shape of the group is shifting and now it looks like we'll have one less couple and girl but more single guys.

We'll also be swinging by a PdeV facility in Sta. Rosa (a drug rehabilitation center) to pick up the props for one of the activities the PdeV group is planning: Mufa Pufa. Not sure what Mufa Pufa is, but I like the way it sounds and writes so I'll probably say it a lot this week. Mufa Pufa.

Our first visitor from the U.S. arrives Thursday. She'll be spending three months with us while observing and experiencing missions first-hand and polishing her Spanish. She's bringing some goodies in her suitcase too :-) Not sure what I'm most excited about: my new glasses, the fabric or books. Is it okay to be equally excited about all of it?

On Saturday the son was in Michigan since it was his turn to run the store and after work he went over to the parsonage to look through boxes we left there. He found Ivan's logbook!!!!! Yippee! The logbook documents all of Ivan's hours in the air, and he needs it before he can proceed with getting his pilot's license here.

Our visitor won't be bringing the logbook though. Because first there are some things that have to be done. It's easier to explain them in list form:
1) logbook must be certified by manager at the Hillsdale airport that the book accurately reflects Ivan's air time
2) the certification must be notarized
3) the notarization has to, in turn, be notarized by a notary recognized by The Hague. Yes that city over in Europe.
(whole lot of notarin' goin' on!)
All of that to make the logbook "official" here.

Hopefully Ivan will be able to get all that done in time for the daughter to bring the logbook when she comes in December.

The son also found a box of my old journals and writing projects. Including a poem I wrote during a creative writing class almost twenty years ago. Gotta say, it was bad then and it's bad now. But my poetry hasn't improved so I'm just gonna throw it out there and give you all a good chuckle for the day. Because I can.

There once was a writing professor
of innumerable talent and wit
who served as a father confessor
(although 'twas a pain to submit)
to budding authors, their faces alight
at the thought of their words being printed
yet rarely ever took time to write
so he promptly came up with incentive.
He herded them north at the start of the year
to a farm in the wilderness bare
and caused them to write until they were near
exhaustion and panic and total despair.
The students did rise in revolt at the end,
leaving him there when they left Cedar Bend.

Have a great Monday!