Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Behavioral Context Projection

Have you ever read or seen Jurassic Park?  Remember how they recreated the dinosaurs?  They found old dino DNA in amber and used it to clone them.  At first glance, it sounds feasible.

However the DNA was incomplete.  And you can't clone something without complete DNA.  So - and here is the interesting part - they grafted amphibian DNA into the missing areas.

Why am I talking about this?  Because people do the same thing emotionally.  It is called behavorial context projection.

Humans are very social.  We function in families, communities, organizations, enterprises, cities, and countries.  We need to understand people to operate smoothly with them.  And so a great deal of our prefrontal cortex is used to read the emotions, foci, and intentions of others.  Most of this comes through nonverbal cues: facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, hand gestures, etc.

Even small children do this.  If a baby is playing with some toys, and you put your hands over his, what is the first thing he does?  He looks up at your face.  Are you angry or annoyed?  Or do you want to play with him?  He is trying to read your mind, as we all do every second we are with people.  

Autistic individuals cannot process this data.  And though they may be very high-functioning in other areas, this inability is socially debilitating.

So it is critically important for us to gauge what is going on in others' minds.  We go to great lengths to do so.

But here is the rub:

Sometimes the cues we receive (or at least the ones we choose to pick up on, consciously or subconsciously) are incomplete.  They are like that incomplete dino DNA.  So what do we do?  We fill in the gaps, just like in Jurassic Park.

But what do we use to fill in the gaps?  We use the emotional context that we know of for that person.  So if the person is a close friend, we have a large context with which to fill in the gaps.  We know "how they are."  But what if he is only an acquaintance?  Or someone we just met?  Then we have little to no context for that person.  So what do we use?  That is the question!

We use our own behavorial context!  Because, of course, everyone is like us.  And if not, they should be.  Or so the Pygmalion reasoning goes.  In actuality, though, no one is really like us... especially those of a different temperatment, culture, background, etc, etc.

In other words, this is what happens: We pick up on some nonverbal cue in someone we don't know that well.  In attempting to analyze that cue, we (consciously or unconsciously) reason "well, this is what I would mean if i did that."

So what happens?  Well, you recall what happened to Jurassic Park.

This is why so often, first impressions of people are very different from what we think of them after getting to know them.  Or if a friend of ours meets another friend for the first time and asks, "what's wrong with him?" We respond, "oh, thats just his way."    

Have you ever noticed how pleasant people notice the positive in others?  And how negative people notice the negative?  Granted, part of that is what we choose to focus on.  But I believe a part is also behavioral projection.  We are filling in the gaps in others' cues with our own emotional context.

What does all this mean?  There is nothing we can do to stop others from projecting their emotional contexts on us.  But we can realize that we are projecting ours on them.

So if you find yourself often disliking new people... maybe you dislike yourself.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Pygmalion Project

A friend recommended a book to me: Please Understand Me 2.  It is all about personality types.  Throughout history, people have divided personalities into 4 main types.  More recently, those 4 types have been subdivided, each, with 4 of their own subtypes.

The book includes a test to determine which type you are.  You can take an online version of it here:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

At the end, you will get a four letter type.  There is also a link to a description of your type, along with its common name.

I took it and found that I am a Rational.  More specifically, a Fieldmarshal.  Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?

http://www.keirsey.com/4temps/rational_overview.asp

http://www.keirsey.com/4temps/fieldmarshal.asp

At first, the book was pretty dry.  But then I got to the chapter on Rationals.  Wow, it really hits the nail on the head!  It says that Rationals are obsessed with efficiency and refuse to expend effort on something that does not have a correspondingly valuable result.  Check!  It goes on to say that Rationals can get absorbed in things and so often appear to be cold and uncaring toward others.  Double check!  Here are some more:

"Some Rationals are seen as using a vocabulary which their listeners find pretentious and pedantic."
"Because of their focus on long-range strategies, they may, at times, be unware of the feelings of others."

I love it!

You might enjoy taking the test and then reading your type description.  Let me know what you think!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Ben Got Baptized!

Ben got baptized yesterday!


He is the first from the English Group here to be baptized!  Excellent work, Ben!  We are all very proud!

We got it all on video for his family!

India Festival

Thursday night was the start of the India Festival here in Buenos Aires.  The Indian Embassy is sponsoring it and it includes shopping, food, and films.  But Thursday was the opening night, so there was a performance followed by a cocktail party.  We have some connections, so we got invited. :)

The performance featured singers and dancers from India, including a group from Goa.  So there was Hindi music as well as music from Goa which has a lot of Portuguese influence.  Check it out:



The cocktail party was very nice too.  Many VIPs were there including the Indian Ambassador, the deputy mayor, and some models.  Also, a friend of a friend won a trip to India!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Rio Revisited

I have neglected to write about my second trip to Rio. But I do love Rio. The landscapes are just incredible. And the juices - equally so.

After Rio, my parents and I came back to Buenos Aires. We went to the Lujan Zoo, which was very cool because we got to play with lions and tigers. Seriously!





We also went to a tango show...



All in all, it was a good time!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

English Convention

Wow... what a fun couple of weeks. Where to begin? Ah, at the beginning!

On Tuesday, Sept 14, I flew to Sao Paulo. There, Dominic and I were picked up by a lovely family from Ribeirao Pires. We stayed at their house for the English Convention. And they were excellent hosts! "Mom" was great. She made pizza, lasagna, barbecue... all sorts of good stuff. She also washed and ironed our clothes. Thanks, "Mom"!

Their dad is a chiropractor and he gave us a good adjustment. I wish I recorded the sounds Dominic was making...

The convention itself was fantastic. It was like an international convention... complete with traditional outfits! There were some Africans and Indians dressed in their awesome attire.


Everyone wanted to come up and talk and take pictures. We closed down the facility almost each day. And, of course we made a bunch of new friends!


On the Wednesday before the convention, we went to visit the Bethel in Sao Paulo. Its a huge complex with about 1000 workers. We got in for a delicious lunch and met so many cool brothers there too.

They had a very touching and information exposition about Purple Triangles and Jehovah´s Witnesses standing firm under Nazi Assault. The depth of the involvement of the Catholic Church was incredible.

On the Thursday before the convention we went to the fruit market in Sao Paulo. That was very cool. There were stands will all sorts of tropical fruit that you could try. We ended up buying some mangosteen and other amazing fruits. Delicious!

There is a lot more to say, but I´m signing off for the night.

Oh yea, the next post will be about Rio!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Chris is Here!

Chris arrived Tuesday of this week. Unfortunately, the weather has been terrible the entire time. Tomorrow should be better.

On the bright side, though, he started a study his first time out in the ministry!

We have the convention upcoming next weekend. And the English convention is the weekend after that in Sao Paulo.

Stay tuned for pics...

Monday, August 30, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Pioneer School

For the past few weeks, I got to enjoy my first Pioneer Service School.  Kickbutt!

The first Friday contianed my favorite section - regarding the New World Translation.  It's really more than a Bible - it's a study tool.  The footnotes alone are totally sweet.  For example, when a verse is not in the text, the footnote will tell you why.  It will list exactly which ancient manuscripts contain the verse (and more importantly) which do not.  Usually the oldest of the manuscripts will not contain it.  But it also tells you the date of the manuscripts and where it is housed, in case you want to see for yourself.

And that's just one little feature.  The appendices are amazing.  I have to spend some more time digging through them.

The food was unbelievable.  Best two weeks of food in my life... so far!  Time will fail me if I go on to mention all the dishes.  Here is a sampling: lasagna, baked honey ham, fried chicken, barbecue beef brisket, hawaiian chicken, home-made bread and butter, collard greens, corn bread, and all manner of salads and vegetables.

And the desserts!  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  At least 3 types of cakes a day, along with fruit salad.  One day a sister made this fantastic red velvet.  Another day were miracle bars (also known as dream bars).  Another day it was this chocolate cake with caramel, cream and toffee.  Another was bread pudding complete with a warm whiskey sauce.  Another was...

Ok, I better stop.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Open House

Today was the first day of the Open House of our new Kingdom Hall on Tucuman!



During the past few weeks, we spent some time inviting many in the community to come see the new building and learn what goes on there.  This included many government officials (Ministers of Finance, Justice, etc) as well as editors of major newspapers and presidents of other organizations here in the city.

Of course, the three-story building was built completely by volunteers and funded by volunteer donations.  Yet, it is an impressive structure.

So today, we had many visitors coming to see the place. Inside, we had representatives of many of the language groups and congregations here (English, Korean, German, Russian, Portuguese, French, Sign Language and Spanish, of course) as well as banners describing the preaching work and history of Jehovah's Witnesses in Argentina.

We also had the showing of two videos.  One is about how Jehovah's people stood firm in the face of Nazi assault by refusing to support Hitler in any way.  For that, many were sent to concentration camps and killed.

On Sunday, we have the second day of the Open House as well as the dedication talk.

Pictures are soon to come...

Sunday, July 4, 2010

How It Should Have Ended

I stumbled upon this some time ago.  Kinda funny if you have seen Iron Man...

How Iron Man Should Have Ended

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Studies

I've posted a lot about Argentina and general experiences here.  But really, the beautiful thing about Buenos Aires are the Bible Studies.

For example, we went on a study yesterday.  He sells jewelry on the street.  What a sincere, humble man!  He appreciates so much learning from the Bible.  Whenever we go to see him, he takes time out of his selling to speak with us.  When we consider a subject, his face takes on this look of deep thought.  Sometimes he will have questions written on a piece of paper to ask us. 

He insists we open and close with a prayer.  He asks us to pray for him to help him understand and make changes in his life.  And he always wants to give us a donation or one of the items he sells.  We repeatedly tell him we don't need it (Jesus said "you received free, give free") but he so very much wants to give.  He told us yesterday that he was sorry he could only give us 10 pesos, but to please forgive him and he would give us more next time. Then he gave me one of the rings he sells. When I tried to stop him he said that he appreciates so much our 'showing him the way' and that we are 'his saviors.' (Of course we said that Jesus is the savior.)  It makes you want to cry!

There are many such humble people here.  It's beautiful.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Mendoza

Mendoza lies at that perfect longitude between mountains and wine.  I mean, check out these mountains!


And the wine, of course...


Marcos and Orlando picked me up at the bus station in Mendoza.  Immediately one can notice the difference between Mendoza and Buenos Aires.  If Buenos Aires is New York, Mendoza is like... eh... I don't know, but a place much smaller and quieter than New York.  San Rafael was definitely more 'tranquilo', but Mendoza was not far behind, considering the side of the city.

It is also much cleaner than Buenos Aires.  And all the streets are lined with 'acequias' which are basically channels for water to irrigate the many trees in the city.  The trees give the city a very natural feel.

We toured the Family Zuccardi winery.  It was pretty slick.  The tour ends with a tasting of 3 of their wines: rose, red and sweet white.  Then we did this awesome wine tasting meal consisting of 8 courses.  I'll see if i can remember them.  The pictures are in the gallery.

1.  Polenta crisps with pizza flavor.  The wine here was a campagne.
2.  Some sort of cocktail with lemon.
3.  'Passion for Olives' - basically an olive cake topped with olive ice cream and an olive cracker.
4.  Mimosa!  Its half orange juice and half champagne.  But this one came in an orange!
5.  Sweetbreads with a sweet pepper sauce.  The wine here was a nice rose.
6.  Pork, potatoes, bacon, and wine-marinated pears.  This came with a Malbec-like wine that was unusually crisp for a red.
7.  Malbec ice cream with cake.  This was accompanied by a very light, sweet dessert wine.
8.  Lemon sorbet with chocolate and sprinkles of something like that popping candy.  There was another sweet dessert wine here called Malamado.  Yea, fun name!
9.  A 'sponge' soaked in orange juice and topped with a twisted ribbon of chocolate.  Quite nice.
10.  Expresso, of course.

Ok, so thats 10, but maybe some of the drinks courses didn't actually count as courses.

After the courses, we stopped to preach to some English speakers working in the winery.  One was from the States and the other was from Australia.  Nice guys.

The Puga family was so hospitable to us.  They constantly had us over for lunch and dinner.  And they took us out to eat too.  Thanks, guys!

One of the foods we had at their house was like a combination between pizza and a sandwich.  Picture these layers starting from the bottom:  toasted bread, beef, cheese, mayo, ham, AND THEN A PIZZA ON TOP.  I am not making this up.

We went bowling at one of those places where the pins are set up by an actual person.  Awesome!  Check out his feet:


On Sunday Marcos took me on a few of his Spanish studies.  I got to read some scriptures!  Woot!

The bus ride home was, bar none, the best bus ride I have ever had.  It was a first class seat on the top of a double-decker bus.  The big leather seat completely flattens to a bed, complete with a pillow, blanket and curtain.  First they give you candy and soda.  Then appetizers, then dinner with your choice of wine.  It was the first time I've had steak on a bus.  Then champagne.  All of this was during the playing of 2 movies.  Then bed time until arriving at Buenos Aires in the morning.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

San Rafael

On Friday, May 21st I got on a bus to San Rafael. It was the start of a week-long trip to the province of Mendoza. What a good time!

Fernan picked me up at the bus station on Saturday morning.  I stayed at his house for a few days, and his family was absolutely lovely.  Here they are:


Fernan is fluent in Spanish, English, and Argentine Sign Language.  So Saturday he took me on an English study with a couple from South Africa.  They were so sincere and humble.  We spent about 3 hours talking and addressing their thoughtful questions.  

Sunday I had the privilege of giving a talk in the Sign Language group.  Fernan was kind enough to translate from my English.  As I was giving the talk I thought it was somewhat funny that all the time and effort I've spent working on speaking techniques such as tone, pausing, etc, were basically useless in this setting.

Here is the Sign Language group:

  

Monday and Tuesday we did some preaching to English speakers in the area.  We met some very friendly guys from the United States.  Fernan, make sure you plant and water that interest!

We also visited the Bianchi winery.  At this particular one they make sparkling wine.  They give you a glass to taste at the end of the tour.  I had 3.

  

During my stay Fernan came up with a new nickname for me: Ironheart.  I don't know about you, but I like it!

After San Rafael, it was off to Mendoza city!  Stay tuned...

Money Doesn't Motivate People

I know this is divergent from my usual posts, but this is something I learned some time ago.  This video articulates it well.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Whiskey in the Jar

Buenos Aires continues to shine in the culture department.  I mentioned some months ago the "Noche de los Museos."  Since then they have also had a "Noche de los Librerias."  And for the past few weeks there has been a major bookfair going on. 

I went last weekend on a Saturday night.  As I walked up the steps of the subway to reach street level, I was taken aback at the sheer number of people swamping the surrounding area.  I've been to large conventions before, and using them as a point of reference, I would guess there were at least 20,000 people at and around this bookfair. 

There was only one store at the fair that sold English books.  So I got a book called "Blink" - so far its excellent.

All in all, I must say BsAs (as they abbreviate it for some reason) does encourage reading and other worthwhile activities.  Well done!

Now, to the title of this post.  I went to a pub last night and they had some live Irish music.  Not only did they sing "Whiskey in the Jar" but a sister happened to be a guest singer.  She was great!

The whole experience brought back a lot of memories of Irish Drinking Songs.  For example:



Ah, what's not to love?

Friday, April 2, 2010

Memorial

We had the Memorial last tuesday in our shiny new hall on Tucuman.  Its a beautiful building as you can see by the pics in the gallery.  We had 81 in attendance, which is pretty good for a group of 35.  Although, I was hoping for 100.

Br Salinas did an excellent job on the talk, even though English is not his first language.  And Chacho gave a fantastic prayer... his first one in English, I think.

We also had the CO this past week.  What a humble brother!  He doesn't speak much English, but made such an effort to do so during the meetings and also during a study I brought him on.  He really appreciated being with us for the Memorial.

We also had lunch for him at my place.  I asked him if he liked parilla, and his answer was a resounding "Siiii!"  Then he said he had to go to take a nap.  I think we will get along just fine...

Random Quote

I heard quite possibly one of the greatest quotes about me today:

"You're more of a jerk than I am, but you get away with it."

I love it!  Its funny because its true!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Carlos' Quotable Quotes

Now that Carlos is here, I wanted to make a small list of his best quotes so far. Here goes:

"I hate colors!" - He denies this one
"Knowledge isn't power."
"Now I know I hate it!"
"Ewww!"
"You don't even care!"
"I hate quality!"  - This one was kind of a paraphrase

Notice how they are all negative!  But hes not having a terrible time here, thats just his way.

Carlos approves of this message.

Oh wait, that just prompted a new quote:

"I don't approve of anything!"

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Carlos is Here!

Carlos arrived last week... and he brought video games!  Now we won't get anything done!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Trash Bins

Yea, its a slow blog day. 

Seriously though, I noticed some time ago that the trash bins are smaller here.  Much smaller than the US.  Why?  These are the questions that keep me up at night.

My guess is its just a different view towards throwing things out.  In the US, everything is disposable, and there is so much waste.  Logically, then, you need a bigger trash bin.

Now, herein lies the rub:  does our view of waste influence our trash bin size OR does our trash bin size influence our view of waste?  Hmm...

Where am I going with this?  It would be nice to derive some action item here, but for now its just a simple musing.

Meat Revisited

Last week I went to the highly touted steak house called "La Cabrera."  It was definitely good, on par with my prior top 2.  So now they are the top 3. 

One really nice touch at La Cabrera was the complimentary champagne while you wait for a table.  Classy!  Of course, they don't take reservations, so there's always a wait for a table. 

So here is my up-to-date review list:

La Bolsa (Centro): Quality: 3/5 Price: 40 pesos
Suipacha Almacen (Centro): Quality: 4/5 Price: 40 pesos
Cervantes (Centro?): Quality: 3/5 Price: 40 pesos
Des Nivel (San Telmo): Quality: 4/5 Price: 40 pesos
La Churrasquita (Centro): Quality: 5/5 Price: 100 pesos
Kansas (Palermo): Quality 5/5 Price: 90 pesos
La Cabrera (Palermo): Quality 5/5 Price 120 pesos

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Chris Got Baptized!

I went back to the States for Chris' baptism.  Congrats, Chris!


More to come here... stay tuned.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Meat

I haven't talked much about the beef here yet.  Well, its true, the beef here does rock.  Not only that, but its plentiful and cheap.  I heard that in Argentina, there are 2 cows for every 1 person.  I like those odds!

Since I've been here I've had my fair share of steak.  Usually, I'd go to a steakhouse and get a fine piece of meat for a good price.  For example, there's one place called Cervantes that we go to a lot after the meetings.  There you can get a nice steak (Bife de Cuadril) for about 16 pesos, or about $4 US. 

Then everything changed.

Daniele (a friend from Italy/Rio) and I went to a place called "La Churrasquita" last week.  I had the Bife de Lomo.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Awesome!  It was 44 pesos (~$11) and kickbutt.  Cooked to perfection, too. 

Last night, we went to a place called "Kansas" which markets itself as a North American grill.  The menu is in semi-English, particularly as they try to use the American names for cuts of steak.  I had the "Ojo de Bife" with a slightly sweet sauce.  Fantastic.

In short, the steak is indeed great.  But at some places, its definitely greater.  Heres my rundown so far:

La Bolsa (Centro):  Quality: 3/5 Price: 40 pesos
Suipacha Almacen (Centro): Quality: 4/5 Price: 40 pesos
Cervantes (Centro?): Quality: 3/5 Price: 40 pesos
Des Nivel (San Telmo): Quality: 4/5 Price: 40 pesos
La Churrasquita (Centro): Quality: 5/5 Price: 100 pesos
Kansas (Palermo): Quality 5/5 Price: 90 pesos

Sunday, February 7, 2010

I Love the 80s

Not much to say, except check out the pics!  The link is to the right.


What a shrill, pointless decade!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

CO Visit in Spanish

This week we had the visit of the CO in the Spanish congregation, Hugo Farfan.  I got to work with him in the ministry a bit and found out that he is not only Peruvian, but also shares my love of Lomo Saltado.  For those of you who don't know what that is:


Delicious!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My First Spanish Meeting Part

I was at the meeting after getting back from Brazil.  Pablo was sitting in front of me.  After the meeting he turned around and said, "hey, you have the announcements next week?!"

"What?!"

"See!"

"Oh snap!"

Thus it began.  Long story short: I think it went ok.  Although I seemed to have a hard time saying "Febrero."

Thanks Gustavo, Daniel, Pamela, Lionel and last but certainly not least, Google Translate!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I Don't Speak Hindi :(

I was born in the United States.  However, my parents were born in India.  So, in most respects, I'm Indian.  (I should insert a footnote here, but I won't bore you with details.) 

Why does this matter?  Well, I've become the go-to guy for everyones' Indian return visits.  Which is totally cool with me.  The only bummer is that I can't speak any Indian languages.  So yes, I'm a bad Indian. 

Several weeks ago, I met one Indian man who speaks Hindi, Punjabi and Spanish.  We had a Bible study.  I stumbled through a prayer in Spanish and conducted the study in mostly English with the help of a sister who translated.  Thanks, Pamela!

Last night I had the privilege of meeting some lovely Indian families.  It took about 2 hours to get to their home.  I spoke to them mostly in English (with some terrible Spanish thrown in).  On one Bible study, I spoke in English, Pamela translated to Spanish and then one young boy translated into Punjabi.  It was difficult!  But they really appreciate the study and cooked us a great dinner!  Complete with Poori! 

Today I got to meet another Indian family.  And yes, they spoke English!  We got to have a lovely conversation and I look forward to speaking with them again.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Back to Buenos Aires

We decided to drive from Rio to Beunos Aires without stopping.  The route took us through Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Iguacu, Posadas, then to BA.  35 hours and more than 2800 kilometers.  One of us would drive and the other would sleep.  Then we would switch.

On the way home, the trip had one last gem for us.  I was driving through the flat pasture of Argentina at night.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  There was no moon that night and no artificial light whatsoever.  I happened to look up at the sky and was taken aback.  I have never seen a more magnificent night sky.  I pulled over and we got out to look. 

I could see the band of light that was the Milky Way.  Isaiah 40:22 says that Jehovah is "stretching out the heavens just as a fine gauze."  It really did look like that.  We could make out all sorts of constellations.  It looked almost like an organism.  Incredible.

We got back to Buenos Aires at about 5am, Monday the 18th.  Then I went to sleep. :)

All in all, it was an awesome trip.  I'm sure I'll be going back one day...

Music and Passion Were Always the Fashion

What happens in Rio stays in Rio.  Eh... and in this blog, apparently.  

The first thing one notices is that Rio has incredible natural beauty.  There is a unique combination of mountains and beach - intermingling in an interesting way.  I'm not sure what kind of geological event lead to the dichotomy, but its definitely cool to see.  Buildings tower high at the beach, but the mountains dwarf them.

The first evening there we were invited to a get together at a brother's house.  We had dinner and then studied the material for the Congregation Bible Study.  It was really nice to meet some of the brothers there.  As always, the brothers were a highlight of the trip.

That night and the next we stayed at the "Girl from Ipanema" hostel.  However, staying in a hostel is like eating a hot dog for dinner.  You can do it once in a while, but its not good for you and if you keep doing it you'll get sick.  So we moved to a hotel soon, thanks to help from my sister.  Thanks, Behroz!

The hotel had a pool on the roof (27th floor) with an awesome view of Ipanema and Leblon beaches.

Most of the rest of the trip consisted of going to the beach, hanging out with brothers, going out to eat, seeing the tourist stuff, oh, and of course, Caipirinhas!  The tourist sights were cool.  The giant statue of Christ on Corcovado was awesome.  At first we were in a cloud (its really high up) so visibility was terrible.  But then it cleared.  We also got the opportunity to witness informally to a Brazilian woman there.  Sugarloaf also had some great vistas. 

The food and drink in Rio is excellent.  We went to the "Garota de Ipanema" for lunch one day.  There I order the Picanha.  Awesome.  Its basically two tenderloins of beef served on a mini grill.  There are also many restaurants where you pay for food by the kilo.  Its like a buffet, but you weigh your plate and pay accordingly.  Some are a pretty good deal for a good selection of food.  Of course, these places have "meat on a sword" which is just plain cool.

They also have some all-you-can-eat pizza places.  They just keep bringing pizzas around and you take what you like.  I must say, I ate a lot.  Including some dessert pizzas: strawberry and chocolate, banana and cinnamon, banana and chocolate, and guava and cheese. 

Another highlight of the trip were the juices, which are known as "sucos" there.  Brazil has a tremendous variety of fruits.  Suco stands are everywhere, and have on the order of 20 or so different types of fresh fruit.  The juices made from them are fantastic.  I had some excellent juices of mango, pineapple, strawberry, coconut, acerola, acai, grape and others that I don't know the name of. 

Pablo and I each had the privilege of giving talks in the English congregation there.  It was nice to be able to help them out.  I went out in the ministry one day.  We were doing Portugese street work on Copacabana beach.  Man was it hot.  I was out for about 15 minutes when I was like "ok, I need some water."  I learned a very basic presentation in Portugese. 

After our stay at the hotel, we spent a night at a brother's house.  Thanks, Gilson! 

We were invited to stay longer, but Pablo had to get back to work.  And I didn't want him to drive alone.  It was very tempting, though.  My next post will describe the way home.

The Long Road to Rio de Janiero

Brazil.  Wow, where to begin?  Perhaps a good place would be all the hoops I had to jump through to get my visa.  America gives Brazilians a hard time to get a visa, so of course Brazil reciprocates.  It took no less than 4 trips to the Brazilian consulate here in Buenos Aires, a detailed route we would drive, a description of the car, the confirmation from the hotel, a special photo, a trip to the bank, and about 500 pesos.  On the plus side, the visa is good for 5 years.

Before I go on, I'll mention that all the pictures are available in my Picasa gallery - the link is to the right.

We started on our trip at about 4am on Sunday, January 3rd from Buenos Aires.  It was four of us in a 1990 Peugeot.  Two of us could drive.  We had a GPS, but apparently not all the roads in South America are properly mapped, because it got confused a couple times.

I've driven across the US, but this was a different beast.  In the US, you hop on an interstate and you cruise for as long as you want.  There's a nice rest stop every few dozen miles with a McDonalds or something.  In Argentina, there are no interstates.  The "highways" suddenly become city and town roads complete with stop lights and speed bumps.  There are police checkpoints with slaloms of cones.  You really need to be alert. 

The drive was first and foremost long.  We arrived at Iguacu (the Argentine side) at about 1am on Monday.  That was the halfway point - reached after 21 hours.  However, along the way, we did see some great sights.  We passed kilometer after kilometer of pasture ground.  Argentina has 2 cows for every 1 person. 

We also had a small issue with the car.  It operates on both gas and natural gas.  The switch that changes between the two stopped working, so we stopped at a mechanic's house at about 7am sunday morning.  He was suprisingly friendly and cheap.  He got it going again.  During this time, however, one of the girls made a call to a friend in Buenos Aires, mentioning the car issues.  Unbeknownst to us, this news started traveling around BA (a la the "telephone game") and got several people concerned.  More on this later.    

We stayed at a hostel in Iguacu.  The next day we hit the falls.  Amazing.  The pictures don't do it justice.  On the Argentine side, you can get right up against the falls, and even on top of them.  On the Brazilian side, I've heard the view is more panoramic, but less up-close-and-personal.  In any case, if you ever visit Argentina, the falls are a must-see.  Much better than Niagra.

The next day we hit the road again.  Destination: Sao Paulo.  But first we had to cross the border.  We exited Argentina without a hitch.  Then there is this neutral zone between the countries.  At the other end is the Brazilian border.  There was no line.  Pablo drove through slowly, but nobody was directing traffic.  He just kinda waved to the people as we drove through.  Then we were in Brazil.  It seemed too easy.  Pablo said "uh... should we do something?"  So after a few minutes in Brazil, he decided to go back to the border to get our passports stamped. 

Everyone was really laid back. It seemed more like a happy hour than a border.  We got our passports stamped and then asked if we needed to have the car checked.  So we went to another office where the guy totally didn't care about the car.  We offered our identification, but he didn't even look at it.  Then he just left.  So were we hanging out in his office, getting a drink of water.  Then we left.

It was the first of many times that I noted the motto of Brazil should be "we don't care about anything."

Almost as soon as we crossed the border, we could see the change in landscape.  Whereas Argentina is almost entirely flat (with the exception of the mountains to the west), Brazil is full gorgeous hills and mountains.  Many times on the road I found myself wanting to capture the views we were seeing atop of the hills.  We also passed a complete rainbow. It was incredible; we could see both ends as well as the entire arch.  Beautiful.

After driving through the entire night, I found myself hitting Sao Paulo right in time for the morning rush hour.  The rest of the crew awoke to find ourselves stuck in traffic.  Its not an experience I would care to repeat.  I was trying to get to the airport to drop of one of the girls, but the traffic was serious.  Plus, I got something in one eye and was thus trying to negotiate the lanes with just my good eye.  Eventually we did get here... at which point I threw the keys to Pablo so I could get some sleep.

I awoke to find ourselves in a very rough dirt road.  I said "I must have missed something big."  Apparently, the GPS got confused again and Pablo had spent an hour trying to get out of Sao Paulo.  We ended up in a really bad area and Pablo took this dirt road to get out.  Again, we eventually got out.

Now it was just highway to Rio.  We arrived at about 4pm on Wednesday.  When I checked my email, I had received emails from 3 different people asking if we were ok because they heard about our car problems.  I told Pablo and he said "I didn't receive anything!"

My next post will describe our time there.