Untitled - By Choice

Christmas in South America is very different than we are used to. Having spent two Christmases here on my mission, I've experienced the hot, humid, firework-enhanced Christmases. This one did not disappoint. Christmas Day was the hottest day of the year so far in Buenos Aires (hitting 96 degrees). We did make it into the pool for a while and had a fun day opening presents and enjoying all things Christmas.

On the other hand, the holidays now pose a more difficult challenge in the Los Mouritsen household. It was very hard to see Claire open presents that she hoped Santa Claus would bring as there were so many things we had two of--one for Lily and one for Claire. There is a box of unopened gifts stored in our garage that will become Caroline's. It is most difficult to think of all the fun times we have had as a family on past Christmas Days and to know that each and every holiday will expectedly unfulfilling.

We miss Lily. It just plain hurts.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2008

O Christmas; Tree

A very special event took place for us this week. When Lily got sick, we had been in Argentina just over two months and were still getting situated, trying to meet new people and getting comfortable in our new surroundings. The community welcomed us with open arms. During the time at the hospital, the community rallied around us to help us through this most difficult time by taking our kids, providing us meals, running errands for us, and generally being there for us in our time of need. When Lily passed, we upped and left as soon as we could to get back to the States and some familiarity, leaving all those who grieved with us in Argentina behind. Some of our close friends had told us that the circumstances made it hard as they were unable to have a final opportunity (like a funeral) for closure.

In working with the community, we came up with two separate memorials for Lily. The Embassy approved the planting of a Magnolia Liliflora tree on the compound accompanied by a plaque, and the school agreed to put a bench accompanied by a plaque in Lily's memory. The bench has yet to be placed (we checked today), but we had the tree-planting ceremony earlier this week. There were more than 100 employees, friends, and family members that came to support us. The tree is in a prominent place on the grounds allowing me (and everyone who wants to see it) coming and going every day with no effort. I had a chance to thank the community and our friends for all of the continued love and support. We then put some dirt around the roots of the tree and watered it. Then, just like the funeral, one by one people came to give us hugs of love and support. It was a very special event for us. At the end, Claire sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" in front of the whole crowd. She just walked right up, took the microphone, and belted it out. What a sweet sweet girl. I'll post a photo when it becomes available.

While the service was short, I had dressed up (in a suit) and was sweating profusely in the 85 degree, super humid weather. It has made it so hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Our house has been gussied up by Candace, but it is only an oasis. There are few Christmas lights and decorations around town, and we have begun to see the firework stands (for Christmas Eve) popping up around our house.

Other big news is that we just found out that a TGIF restaurant is going to be built right next store to a restaurant called Kansas. The Kansas is a popular place since it opens for dinner before 8pm. I'm not sure when the TGIF is going up, or if we'll ever go there (we've never been to Kansas), but it will be one more touch of the States. The main drag by our house has a McDonalds and a Burger King to keep the TGIF company.

Going out to dinner takes special planning due to the lateness of the normal dinner hour here. The ward party was on Friday night and it was scheduled to BEGIN at 7:30. While not terribly late, especially if it was an adults only dinner, it's getting late for folks with young kids. As we discussed the possibility of going to the party, we heard from families who were here last year that we should not be deceived by the "early" beginning hour, and that it only starts that early to accommodate the international families in the ward. We determined that it was just too late for our crew and passed, and only found out the next day that it was a good decision.

Ward Christmas parties are for kids and Santa. I should note that this is certainly not a complaint about our ward, just an observation about the cultural differences. As it turns out, while the start time was 7:30, the opening prayer was said at 9:00 and dinner was served around 10 pm. Some friends of ours left at 10:30 pm before dessert and before Santa. Santa arrived (must have taken forever to get to the southern hemisphere) around 11:45 pm, and the party ended about 12:15 am or so. Wow. Wow. Wow. Not so sure if we're just being Grinch-ish, or Grinches, but I wouldn't touch that late of a party with a 39 1/2 foot pole.

We hope Santa doesn't hold it against us and that Santa's helpers (i.e. USPS, Amazon, DPO) keep on working hard until Friday so that we can have a great holiday.

We wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy Holiday season this coming week.

Hurry... Santa Ees Comeeng

While I don’t claim to be a PEZ® aficionado, I do remember several years ago getting a Speedy Gonzalez PEZ® dispenser and thinking it was really neat. It was cool to have a PEZ® dispenser that was a little out of the ordinary, i.e. not the normal Spiderman® (does he need a ®?), Batman, Superman or He-Man dispensers. I remember losing Speedy and scouring each and every convenience store checkout counter for another Speedy Gonzalez to no avail. Would Speedy ever be replaced? Could I ever really replace Speedy? What does Speedy Gonzalez have to do with this post? Well, let me tell you.

Hopefully you remember Speedy Gonzalez from the old Tom and Jerry cartoons so I don’t have to take the time to explain who he is. Now think back as to how Speedy spoke. Think of his accent. Now imagine Speedy Gonzalez singing “Santa Clause is coming to town”. It would sound more like “Santy Claus ees comeeng too tooown”. THAT is what Claire sounds like. When we arrived, we put Claire into an Argentine pre-school where the instruction is conducted in English, but all of the activities are in Spanish. So they have been learning Christmas songs right before the summer break (reverse seasons, remember), and Claire came home earlier this week singing like Speedy Gonzalez. Her native Argentine school teachers teaching a native English speaker a Christmas song in English—I’m sure that’s exactly what her teachers sounded like. “Ees good, ya?

After finally settling back in, Candace® and I finally decided to go see Harry Potter’s Seventh Movie Part One of Two of the Deathly Hallows. There is a movie theater here called Hoyts Premium. For whatever the country lacks in traffic planning, they made up with Hoyts Premium. For 45 pesos (about $11.25) per person, there is a separate movie entrance area (with non-public restrooms), a separate waiting area complete with a hostess to announce when your movie is about to begin, pairs of leather full-size recliners in the theater, with a full menu and “call” button in the chair should your drink be too low. The food costs extra, but if you wanted, you could have a three-course meal (smoked salmon) for about 150 pesos per person (less than $40).

The movie theater is located about 20 mins from our house at a mall that houses the only Walmart in close proximity to us, and the parking garage has little sensors on it to tell you how many spots are available on each level of the parking garage. And it’s easy to find an empty spot cause the sensors are hanging from the ceiling and show a red light if the space is full, or green if empty, so you can see from far away where there is some parking. With all of this high tech stuff, you’d think it would cost an arm and a leg. Our three-hour parking (this is INSIDE the city limits of Buenos Aires, mind you) costs a whopping 6.6 pesos (less than $2).

We’re finding that while there are still some good deals to be had around the city (deluxe movie for about the same cost as a normal movie in the States, cheap parking, cheap labor), most goods are outrageously expensive and continue to get more expensive. The official government statistics and private estimators have a Grand Canyon sized gap in what they believe to be the current rate of inflation. We have certainly noticed a difference (not in our favor) in the short time we have been here.

“Ándale, ándale, arriba, arriba, ‘cause Santa ees comeeng.”

A Day in the Life

Before moving on to this week's topics, I thought it was worth posting the below two photos.

The first picture of from our Thanksgiving trip to Carilo (Where Dreams Come True). When we got to 'La Reserva' for our horse riding, Claire's friends (ages 12, 9, and 7) were all determined to ride their own horses. Claire, while big for her age, is 4, and we didn't think it was too terribly safe for her to ride a horse by herself. There was no age limit presented in the safety briefing and the waiver paperwork we signed.... Oh wait, there was none of that. We showed up, mounted, and were off. Claire was determined to have her own horse. Just when her parents had to put their feet (or foots, or footy) down, the horse whisperers trotted out this little pony for her to ride. You should have seen the look of pure joy on Claire's face. She rode that little guy the whole time and did a wonderful job. The picture either reveals that Claire really is a giant for her age, or that this horse had some kind of head shrinking dust spilled all over its body. Claire the Gaucha. Awesome.

This second photo is exactly what it looks like. It's a pile of horsey poopie with a Sam-sized footprint in it. So there was this pile, and all four adults saw Sam eyeing it. As he got closer, four adults (in their 'teaching' voices) said "Sam!" His selective hearing was engaged, he raised his foot, and squish (or squash, splat, plop, glop). The steam came from mommy's nose (not really), daddy's ears (really), and the poopy (double really). I'm still not sure Sam knows what the big deal was. What a character.

So now on to this week. Based on an experience we had yesterday, I thought I would provide a posting about a more mundane part of living abroad: The Grocery Store. One thing that Candace was concerned about before moving to Argentina was the availability of whole grain foods and decent produce. Despite repeated explanations that there are large grocery stores, she remained skeptical. After being here several months, we have settled into a routine and know the ins and outs of the different options. There are two companies with very large grocery stores, Jumbo and Carrefour. Carrefour has a few large centers around the suburbs and a lot of mini-Carrefours sprinkled around the various neighborhoods. Unfortunately, with our skillfully planned menus, we are particular about what he buy so the mini-Carrefours are used more for when we need something quick (since there is one about 5 blocks from our house).

We do most of our shopping at Jumbo. Yes, that's the name of Dumbo's mother. Yes, the mascot of the store is an elephant. Yes, it is funny that with obesity getting so much airtime in the United States that we shop at a store with a name like that. We do, however, get everything we need at one store. There is a Walmart about 20 minutes away, but it's not a Super Walmart--envision a Walmart with only Argentine goods--not as enticing, huh?

So we make it out to Jumbo about once a week. When we first arrived and didn't have a car, Candace always had the groceries delivered. If you spent the equivalent of about $115, your groceries could be delivered for FREE... so we did. The hassle is that there are probably 50-60 cash registers at the front of the store, and you really have to pay attention to which line you get in. At least a third of them are for home delivery only. There are about 10 that are for small orders (less than 20 items), there are a bunch of regular lines (that get WAY WAY backed up since... well, I'll get to that in a second), and there are a handful of priority lines. Who gets priority? Handicapped, seniors, pregnant women, and women with infants. So yesterday with Claire, Sam and Caroline all in tow, we became priority customers.

While that in itself isn't all that funny, we arrived at the line immediately after a non-priority customer had unloaded his whole cart and the checker was getting ready to start ringing him up. The checker saw us (read: Caroline) and asked the man to step aside. So we took our cart and a half of goods around him and checked right out. I avoided eye contact with the guy who was visibly annoyed... oh well. Sorry, señor, but we DO have a baby... step aside! And off we went.

The other funny thing (like funny = hassle) is that in the produce section, you go around picking out everything that you want, then you have to go to the scales (in the produce section) where they weigh everything and put a price tag on it. It is a far cry from showing up at the front of the grocery store and having them ring up everything right there. Now back to why the lines get so backed up. If you're not smart about when you shop, you'll find yourself there for hours. The Argentine people love crowds. When there is a holiday, EVERYBODY goes out. On the weekends, EVERYBODY goes out. On Saturday afternoon, EVERYBODY goes out shopping. Remember one of the first blogs about the mall food court at 1:00 am... people just love being out. They go out and congregate. So when you shop, the timing is important or you just get stuck.

COMPLETELY UNRELATED: We got the new side view mirror and I fixed it myself. I'm going to be a guest mechanic on BBC's Top Gear.

Finally, another reality of living in a foreign culture. During the last month, the domestic airport in downtown BA has been closed and all flights were moved to the International Airport (Ezeiza). So I had to travel this week and my flight was supposed to depart at 8:40 pm on Aerolineas Argentinas (one I try to avoid due to it's consistent lateness, lack of onboard entertainment, and sub-par (compared to other indigenous airlines) snacks). We were at the airport plenty early and were just killing time until about 8:15 pm when we checked the monitor (FLIGHT ON TIME) and made our way to the security area. That's when we were told that all flights on Aerolineas were delayed. We said that the monitor says its departing on time (even in Spanish) to no avail. We went back to the monitor (FLIGHT ON TIME), sat down, and then looked at the monitor again at 8:30 pm (10 mins before we were supposed to leave), and (FLIGHT DELAYED). It was delayed until 10:00 pm... so we hurried back to try and claim our seats at the cafe where we were waiting to wait some more. While wandering around about 9:05 pm, we heard "THIS IS THE FINAL CALL FOR FLIGHT BLAH BLAH BLAH." So we hurried back to security, made it onto the flight (as some of the last passengers), and were in the air by about 9:20 pm.

Not that I haven't been delayed on a flight before (or 100 times), it was just the manner in which the delay was known in advance, advised at the last minute, then with no more notice (the monitors when we ran back to security still had it leaving at 10:00 pm), it was going to leave us. Hence my attempts to avoid them. Blegh.

So that was our exciting week. It's getting warmer and warmer, and we're trying to get into the holiday spirit in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops.

Carilo: Where Dreams Come True

Yeah. It's Monday night. So what? I was out of town last night and couldn't post.

Last week had a lot of potential and it lived up to the hype. Besides the fact that several weeks ago Argentina announced a brand spanking new holiday, it was Thanksgiving week and we had plans to go to the beach with a friend. So instead of working Monday and half of Tuesday, I only worked half of Tuesday for the week, and it was great. We took off for Carilo, a beach destination about four hours south of Buenos Aires. The city is a few square miles, and all of the streets are sand. It has a wonderful beach and several activities that we enjoyed.

In order to fully understand the depth of the comments I made above about the beach vacation living up to the hype, you will need some background. I spent my young childhood in Utah where the only beach activities were some Boy Scout camps on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Um, we did not swim or collect sea shells. My early life beach memories come from summers spent on the east coast, which included an annual trip to the U.S. Army's famous (have you heard of it?) Fort Story, Virginia: Home of Army Amphibians. Before you go thinking that the U.S. Army has a fortress to guard frogs and salamanders, these are big metal transport vehicles. They rumble down the road into the Atlantic. Coming from an Army family, we had access to the camping grounds and the beach at the Fort.

Now I know you have visions of North Carolina's OBX (Outer Banks for you west coasters), well, the OBX it was not. My memories include hours upon hours at the beach as a young boy where nobody told me that sunscreen might be a good idea. So the second through the fifth day of each Fort Story visit was pretty miserable (not measerable!). Also, the private Ft. Story beach just meant that the Army could leave things there, and we're probably lucky there was no live ordnance there. I just remember swimming in ridiculously cold Atlantic waters, stepping on weird pokey things in the water, being stung by jelly fish, and overall having a terrible time. I'm sure I had fun, but I guess those memories are crowded out by those thoughts, and let's not forget that I'm afraid of sharks. So beaches never held much appeal for me.

But Carilo was different. The kids LOVED it. Upon arrival (after being stopped by Argentine Federal Police, not being able to produce documentation that the car had Argentine insurance, going through an increasingly frustrating conversation with a policeman who had never seen a car with diplomatic plates, explaining that the fact that the car was released from customs was proof that it had the requisite insurance before he let me go because he didn't know what to do), we checked in and headed to the beach because the only thing Claire wanted to do at the beach was look for real sea shells. After our quick walk at dusk (when the beach gets cold), we headed back towards the hotel and I found a seashell. Claire could not stop giggling. She said that it was the best day of her life, and I had made it happen. Score one for dads everywhere.

I should also mention that before being pulled over during the Police's routine checks, we passed some missionaries. After deciding we didn't have room to give them a ride, we passed on by. Then we both remembered the life of a missionary and we flipped a u-turn, hunted them down and gave them some Pop Tarts. I think they were happy. I would have been happy. Be good to missionaries when you see them.

During our trip, another wonderful thing happened. Candace, who has oft-mentioned she hasn't slept through the night for nearly 6 years, slept through the night... allergies and all. It was at amazing. She was so pleased.

On our second day, we drove 90 minutes up to Mundo Marino (Sea World, or better Argentina's version of Sea World). While not as expensive as its Orlando and San Diego counterparts, it was, um, not the same. There was a Shamu-like show, some sort of displays, and some kind of shows. You remember the Hertz commercials: "There's Hertz, and there's 'not exactly'". This was the 'not exactly'. It was, however, a lot cheaper, kept us out all day, and we had a good time with our travel companions. If you consider going while ever in Argentina, it's a nice place to stop and spend some time if it's on your way somewhere, but I will tell you right now, it's not on the way to anything.

The last full day we were there was another victory for dads everywhere. We found some horses, and the 7 year old girl in the family we travelled with talked and talked about riding horses. We found and rode the horses. During the trail ride, she said, "This is the best day of my life."

So in short, not a bad week for us parents. Two declarations of the best days of young girls' lives, a mother who sleeps through the night, several days out of the office, a great road trip getting know more of the foreign country we live in, getting out of any kind of weird traffic ticket from the Argentine authorities, and returning safely.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Bullet Bike

I am posting the below picture in response to a specific request. Can you tell that the tape job was done in haste, and in protest to the motorist who left us with the hanging chad of a side view mirror? Is there really a way to tape up something so ridiculous to make it look nice? I don't think so.

When we decided to order another mirror, we ordered a black-encased mirror instead of the silver-encased mirror. Besides the fact the silver one is more than twice as much, Candace and I unfortunately realized that if losing a mirror only took us a week after getting the car, who's to say it won't happen again in the next two and half years? [SHAKING MY HEAD IN A SAD REALIZATION OF THE TRUTH OF THAT STATEMENT] I could also tell you about the other minor scratch our car endured this morning (my fault), but I'll save myself the grief. It suffices to say that Candace's excellent advice to me is now, "If you're not sure you can make it, don't try." Why didn't I think of that?

Before I forget, this was the exchange I overheard this morning as Candace fixed Claire's hair for church:

CANDACE: Claire, what do you want in your hair?

CLAIRE: A barrette. (I had to look up how to spell it? Did you know?)

CANDACE: You don't want to get lice, do you?

CLAIRE: No.

CANDACE: How about a pony tail or pig tails?

CLAIRE: OK.

Not that it matters, but she ended up in pigtails. Can you guess what has been going around the schools around here? Guess it's not that uncommon. So far, we've avoided it (or do we say "them"?).

So we're getting all geared up for Thanksgiving around here, and how did we spend our weekend?

We thought it would be colder than it was, but with the sun out, our pool was fantastic. Claire loved it, Dave loved it, Sam loved it, Caroline loved it, and Candace loved it. Looks like we just found a great way to spend the Argentine school summer break (from the first week of December until February).

Another fun thing that Candace has really enjoyed is having our maid cook. She is from Peru and loves to cook. As she has turned out to be a pretty good cook, we have loved eating her food. If Candace was in charge of the blog, she could (and would) go on and on about how much she enjoys our maid. Does it sound like I'm rubbing it in a little? If so, good, cause it's awesome!!

What's not awesome here is the traffic. I know I have mentioned it in previous posts and I really don't plan to bring it up every week, but rather when there is something significant about the traffic to report. To begin, I looked up a few quotes on the traffic here in Buenos Aires to set the stage:

--From Wikipedia: "If you are truly adventurous (and have a bit of a death-wish), cars are available to rent in Buenos Aires."

--From an Argentine Travel site: "Traffic in Buenos Aires is chaotic, and sometimes is helps to assume that drivers have the mentality that the driver has right-of-way, even though in reality the rule is the contrary."

--From some random guy's travelogue: "Traffic is Buenos Aires is something of a nightmare. Stop signs and stoplights are to be considered as suggestions, as are speed limits and lane dividers."

--From the State Dept. website: "SAFETY AND SECURITY: Pedestrians and drivers should exercise caution, as drivers frequently ignore traffic laws and vehicles often travel at excessive speeds. The rate and toll of traffic accidents has been a topic of much local media attention."

So based on all of that information, what did I decide to do? I started riding my bike to work. It's 13 kilometers (or 8.1 miles to you and me) from my house to work. Let me state that a different way: It's 13 harrowing kilometers (or 8.1 harrowing miles to you and me). There is a group of folks that ride their bikes down a main traffic artery from the suburbs where we live to the office. Truth is, when I leave, there are a lot less cars on the road and it's quite enjoyable. You have to be alert. You have to believe all the stuff those quotes say. I would like to get to the point where I'm doing it everyday, but it takes some logistical planning with having clothes at work, inclement weather, etc. As this was the first week, it's way better than I thought it would be and I'm looking forward to doing it more often than driving.

While that is harrowing for me... let me just tell you about what is harrowing for Candace. She has little tolerance for bugs, and we have bugs in our house. Mostly, they are just friendly cockroaches that mind their own business and sometimes we find dead ones. Well, one decided to play a trick on Candace and hide on top of her dresser underneath a stack of papers. When Candace moved the papers, Candace FREAKED OUT. There is no other way to describe her reaction and be truthful about it. Hyperventilation, screaming, etc, etc. I was in the next room, heard the response, and with my spidey senses (no bug humor, please) knew that she came across a bug. I attribute that to 10 years of marriage. 10 years of her telling me over the phone about encounters with potato bugs in our house. 10 years of coming home from work and finding plastic cups on the floor (Candace's way to trap a bug in a determined location so I can come home and finish the job). In the grand scheme of things, however, the plastic cup often delivers a slow-painful, oxygen-deprived, or just plain drying out, death, whereas my technique is just a straight forward brute force crushing.

Did I mention that our friends here are COUSes (Cockroaches Of Unusual Size)? Having served my mission here, I'm used to the little guys, but Candace has, um, not quite embraced our motel lifestyle. She (Candace, not the cockroach) has survived to live another day. I love my wife. Always makes me smile.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Back to the grind of weekly blogs. For the two of you that actually read this, thanks for returning. Since I know that Candace is one of them, it will be like Christmas when I find out who the other one is. The great thing about writing a blog like this is that I get to remember what has gone on during the week as well. I have enjoyed doing it and appreciate the fact that I committed to Candace to do it in the first place. In fact, I'm so nerdy that I crack myself up writing some of the stories. In short, this blog has been a great way to entertain... um... well.... me! Hooray.

So based on the title, can you guess which one I am?

Let's start with the good. Our van is here. The Odyssey's odyssey was completed while we were in the United States, and thanks to good and understanding friends at work, the administrative portion of it was taken care of and our smelly car (3 months since we'd seen it, including weeks and weeks locked up in a container at sea) was waiting in our driveway (since it doesn't fit in our garage (and that could be a whole other post!!)). Here's another good:

Family time in Buenos Aires. Not only are we eating out on our porch on a nice Friday afternoon in 70 degree weather in mid-November (impossible for us to have done in our last two stops), did you notice our pool? It's almost warm enough to get the kids in there every day. The school calendar is reversed (due to the season reversal) so we're coming up on the kids' long summer vacation, and they will get full use of the pool.

Last good thing was the maid. After recent events, we have elected for a full-time maid and she started this week. If you ask Candace about the maid, I'd have to change this week's title to "The Bestest Thing Ever, the Bad, and the Ugly".

The Bad: Have I mentioned the traffic? I think I did. Borrowing the first part of The Outback Steackhouse tagline... "no rules" (the rest is "just right"). Is it just me, or do intersections need some sort of indicator on who gets to go? Not in Argentina. The main roads have traffic lights, while most of the side streets are one-way and have no stop signs, yield signs, or peace signs. Whoever gets there first, wins. Well, that doesn't go over well with a minivan full of kids so it's taken a little bit to get used to. One of the more enjoyable traffic scenarios is that most left turn lanes---OK. You have to stop and think about this for a second. Left turn lanes... to turn left. Visualize. You with me?---are on the right hand of the road. So you're driving down the road and need to turn left. What do you do? Um, get in the right lane, block traffic, and wait for the green turn arrow that's hidden somewhere on the right side of the road to cut all the way across the lanes of traffic to turn left. Man, the first 200 times I saw it, I couldn't believe it. And I'll see it this week. And I won't believe it. That is bad.

And what do you think could be Ugly?

Dave. (Who wrote that!!!!)

The Ugly? More traffic woes. So you saw the good, right? The van right? Well, do you think that a Honda Odyssey is bigger than most cars here, or smaller than most cars here? (Hint: The Honda dealerships don't sell the Odyssey--they sell the CR-V and the Pilot.) I mentioned above that our van does not fit in our garage so we park it in our driveway or on the street. Alas, earlier this week, Candace was out visiting someone, had the van parked on the street, and when she came out, we were down a side view mirror. Actually, the side view mirror was down... hanging from the electrical cord. It is now taped to the door of the van as we await a replacement part so I can further my mechanical expertise. What a drag! Not even here a week. Luckily, whoever did it left a very sincere note apologizing for hitting our car, left their insurance and contact information so we can get it all worked out. And if you believe that... you missed the fact this was the Ugly part of the post. Of course they didn't leave anything. They didn't stop. But now we'll be looking for some baby blue vehicle with chipped paint somewhere in Buenos Aires. Some Pale Rider will be Unforgiven when we send some Million Dollar Baby to go Dirty Harry or Gran Torino on them. For A Few Dollars More, we could Hang 'em High. I guess my car was just In the Line of Fire. Oh well.

We've spent the week putting our house together. We are still settling in, looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Picking up the Pieces

Welcome back to the blog. That goes for you and for me. As you know from an earlier post, my goal was to post every Sunday night about the comings and goings of our life in Argentina. The last post was 12 September 2010. The following Sunday, I had planned out my clever title, some great anecdotes, and planned to post. Later that evening, Lily (our 5-year old daughter), required an emergency room visit. A friend took us to the hospital at about 8:00 PM, and I distinctly remember thinking that no matter how late I got home, I would post to be consistent. As many of you know (but mostly for those who don't), Lily was hospitalized from 19 september until 1 October, when she passed away from Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), developed from a severe reaction to a specific strain of E. Coli bacteria.

We departed Buenos Aires the evening of 3 October 2010 en route to Mapleton, Utah, where the funeral was held on 9 October. Lily was buried in Provo City Cemetery next to an older sister of mine, Emily, who died as an infant. The funeral was just as we wanted it to be. The day was beautiful, the flowers were beautiful, and Lily was beautiful. To be completely honest, I could write pages and pages and pages about the last two weeks of Lily's short life, but I am saving those most special memories for myself. Rest assured, however, that Candace and I had our opportunity to say goodbye to our precious little girl and we were with her as she passed.

While it has been over a month since that day, in some ways it feels like it just happened. We spent 30 days in the United States. After the funeral, we went on a road trip to Colorado to visit so many good friends who knew and loved Lily the last two years we lived there before moving to Argentina. It was so good for us to return to our last 'home' and to be loved and buoyed up by so many good people. After we returned back to Utah, we took another road trip to Southern California to spend a week with my sister. By then, we had decided that we were going to return to Argentina.

Why? This is where our home is now. While only arriving a few months ago (July), we have been welcomed so warmly by the entire community, and we have a great support system down here. Furthermore, our Argentine network of friends are the ones who carried us through this experience. Had we taken advantage of some options presented to us, we would be starting over in a new place, having to share feelings we'd rather not with strangers. We returned to Buenos Aires on 3 November ready to start picking up the pieces of our life here. If you remember the most recent blogs from early September, we had not received our household goods. Our goods arrived the Friday before Lily went into the hospital, and since we have essentially been out of the house since then, we returned to a cluttered home. Thank goodness for dear friends in Argentina who had cleaned out our perishable goods and cleaned our house for our arrival.

So now here we are. Still moving in.

Sad.

Caroline and Sam are too young to understand why they've been carted all over the place the last six weeks, sleeping in several different beds. Claire has had her ups and downs, but is now settling in as the big sister. We talk regularly about Lily and how she is still a part of our family. We plan to follow through on our previous plans for Thanksgiving with another family. We have decided that our other three children deserve their parents' full attention to rear them, and we are going to do our best.

We have been comforted by the doctrines of the Gospel as they relate to eternal families. Never has the Gospel of Jesus Christ been so real to us than during the last turbulent two months. We know that Lily is a part of our family. We know that she always will be. This experience has caused us to realize the importance of doing what's right so that we can earn the right to return to be with Lily.

I'm really not sure what else to say. We are taking it one day at a time. We are hopeful that by returning to our routine, we'll be able to have good days. And we will. We have appreciated and benefitted from all of the prayers and fasting on our behalf and thank all who have made any efforts. We have needed them. We still need them.

So welcome back again. See you next week.

We miss you, Lily.

Nahuel Huapi - Gesundheit

There are benefits to working overseas. We get to celebrate (read: take the day off) both U.S. and local holidays. As the rest of the U.S. was planning their barbeques and three-day weekends, we’re left wondering what would have been since we don’t have a car. Every time a holiday comes around (we had an Argentine holiday in August, then Labor Day), we discuss what we could do… we think it would be awesome… then feel sorry for ourselves that there is no way we can do it since we’d be getting two taxis to get out of town, which is just more hassle than its worth since we know our car will come and we can just do those things later.

Labor Day was one of those days where we thought we’d do something great and then realized we couldn’t go anywhere. HOWEVER, it was not a holiday for Lily and Claire so they were going to be off at school. We got very excited about a morning with only two children and thought we were in good shape. While everyone was situation normal Sunday night, Lily woke up with pinkeye. So much for our leisurely Monday morning without the two older kids. We now know where the pediatrician is, how the finances work, and a bunch of other stuff we hoped we wouldn’t have to find out. At least we got to double up on the appointment and got Caroline current on all of her immunizations. Did I mention we’re still without a car? The holiday was anything but. Lily ended up home from school for two days and we’re very lucky that none of the other kids got it.

Since we have always been left wanting when it comes to planning vacations, we decided to look ahead and we have been in discussions with two other families down here about a thanksgiving getaway. It’s a good time to travel down here because it’s before the masses get out of school for summer break (remember, southern hemisphere), yet the American school gets two days off for the turkey day. So we beat the summer rush, don't miss much school, and can enjoy a holiday with family. Our Mouritsen Family Fun List (the list created every place we move to insure we get out on long weekends to see what the world has to offer) is pretty heavy this move so we thought we'd get to one of our destinations for Thanksgiving. The farther option is called Puerto Madryn where some whales have their annual get together, and the closer option is a forest locale on the beach called Carilo. 12 hours vs. 3 hours with all those kids. We would love to do Puerto Madryn and will, but it looks like Carilo this year. We're working out the details and are very excited. We'll keep you posted... um, or I will.

I have made a personal goal to try and reach all 23 provinces and 1 autonomous city during our stay in Argentina to say that I really saw the country. From my mission, I had already knocked out the autonomous city of Buenos Aires (think Washington DC, but I don't think they have that whole "taxation without representation" beef... even though they have every other kind of beef... top 5 exporter in the world, you know) and the Province of Buenos Aires. I have now also checked off Misiones, Neuquen, and Rio Negro. 19 Provinces to go. I was able to take a trip to Rio Negro which is home to a beautiful lakefront ski town called Bariloche. As the central plains of Argentina head towards the Andes mountain range, Bariloche sits on the banks of the Nahuel Huapi lake inside of Nahuel Huapi National Park and a northern city in Argentina's vast Patagonia. The picture below was taken from the top of Cerro Campanario just west of the city of Bariloche. The islands in the lake, as well as the snow-capped mountains made for yet another picture that doesn't do the real thing justice. Also keep in mind that the picture was taken with my 2 megapixel camera on my phone... so if it looks that good on a nothing camera, imagine what it really looks like.

The picture below is taken from a monument on the side of the rode from inside the province of Neuquen looking back across the vast Lake Nahuel Huapi towards the Andes (to the west).

Bariloche and Patagonia are oft-mentioned destinations for travelers to Argentina, as well as Misiones (see the movie The Mission with Robert DeNiro? Parts filmed in Misiones at Iguazu Falls). Just keep in mind that if/when you come to visit, they are not in driving distance of Buenos Aires.