All Good Things…

I must admit, I didn’t think it would be this difficult to say goodbye to my friends in Buenos Aires. 

I spent the last week visiting the Bible students one last time.  As I would leave each of them for the final time, I felt it:  a knot in my stomach.  Part of is that I got close to them.  Part of it is that it brought me so much joy to see them progress.  Part of it is that I hope they continue to do so.  I know they are in good hands and that the brothers here will take care of them.  But it’s still hard.  Not only did they appreciate the truths they were learning from the Bible, but they appreciated me personally.  That makes me feel good, but it makes leaving so much harder.  Many gave me gifts.  As I write this, I’m wearing some of them.  They are mementos of the wonderful people whose lives I was privileged to touch. 

And then there are the brothers here.  They were my life for the past two years.  They helped me in so many ways.  Many helped with language issues.  Many provided transportation and meals.  Many invited me to work with them in the ministry.  Daniel Villalon, in particular, was a tremendous help.  I remember meeting him back in June 2009.  I thought to myself, “If all the brothers in Argentina are like this, I want to stay here.”

Of course, as brothers, we always help each other.  We have come to expect that.  But I really have to thank the brothers here for doing even more than that.  They let me into their hearts.  I underestimated how close I became with them.  Last night, amidst all the hugs and kind words, I realized how much they mean to me.  And now, as I sit in the airport awaiting my flight, I feel that knot in my stomach again. 

Hmm, I just got a text with a song lyric: “Goodbye is a crummy little word.  Goodbye is the worst word around.  I’ll skip that word of you don’t mind.”  Apropos, no? 

My plane is about to board.  But in that same spirit, I won’t say goodbye.  I have a feeling that one day soon, I’ll be back at this airport. 

See you soon, Buenos Aires. 

The C.A.B.A. English Congregation

Wednesday was the day we have all been waiting for... some of us for years.  Our little English group was approved to become a congregation!  And there was much rejoicing!

March 1st will be our first meeting as a congregation.  Brings a tear to me eye...

The group has worked very hard for this.  We have had a lot of growth, including families moving in, Bethel couples moving in, and a student getting baptized.  It was time to form a congregation. 

There is much more work ahead, but everyone is excited and ready to roll.

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!

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

Carlos is Here!

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

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

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

I Love the 80s

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

What a shrill, pointless decade!

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!

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!