We Must be Closer to the Sun

We arrived at 1:00 pm... and left at 7:00 pm. Assuming each interval took 4 minutes (which is a conservative estimate), that means that Sam went down a large inflatable slide into a friend's pool approximately 90 times. To be fair, he did stop for about 10 minutes to eat lunch, but from the second we arrived, Sam buckled up his little life jacket, climbed the stairs to the top and went down the slide with a PLOP! again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. He LOVED it. About an hour before we left, he got out of the pool, said "I done swimming." Took about a 15 second yawn and looked liked he would collapse from exhaustion right then and there. When we said that if he was done, he could change his clothes and be done, he turned to the slide and said, "Want to go down slide," and took off. We were amazed at the little guy's stamina.

Two more days until school starts. Having two long breaks is great, but I can see how kids and parents get anxious for school to start after so much time. Claire will be starting the second semester of pre-school at the International School since she completed the pre-school program in her Argentine pre-school (opposite schedules, remember?). Since she completed the pre-school program, she would be starting the full-time kindergarten program at the Argentine school which goes from 8 am until 4:30 pm. Yeah, you read that right. There is an hour break for lunch. The cost for us sending her to the Argentine or International school (since it's not K-12) is a wash, so we'll send her to the International school where we benefit from using the facilities by virtue of having a student there. Claire is excited to go, but was concerned that her teachers would be mean. I doubt it. From what we can tell, there are three Kinder 4 classes with about 8-10 kids each and two teachers. Not a bad ratio. Plus, there will be four other kids from our ward that will also be in Kinder 4 so she's bound to have someone she knows in her class.

One of the things that Candace and I talk about is how we feel like our family has gotten so much younger again. Lily was in kindergarten and was learning to read, write, and tie her shoes. She was so independent and was getting more and more independent everyday. Now that she is gone, we've taken a step back and have reverted to having to do a lot of things for our kids. Claire is doing great, and having had so much time with Lily, they learned a lot of things at the same time, but the developmental difference in one year at that age is very noticeable. We are able to retrieve those sweet memories of teaching Lily different skills while doing the same things with our other kids.

Lastly, it would be a shame to not give proper credit to Candace for the following... She spoke about how living overseas has given our kids unique opportunities that other families don't get, but how at the same time, there are some disadvantages for which we, as parents, need to identify and address. The context of the conversation was in returning from Church on Sunday talking about the challenges of our kids attending Sunday School classes in another language they haven't mastered yet. It was an interesting observation that it puts more of a burden on us as parents to make sure that we take full advantage of the opportunities of being here in addition to filling the gaps on the things that our kids are not getting as a result of us being here. Just more for parents to do. Hooray.

Deja Vu for the Second Time

So here we are at the end of another week. We have been looking for things to do on the weekends while school has been out for the summer break. I think I mentioned before that the American school down here has two 7-week breaks, instead of one long summer break. School got out the first week of December and we were able to bridge the boredom at home with the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and now we're down to the final week. I say 'we', but really it's moms everywhere feeling the brunt of having to entertain their kids all day every day. So we have been looking to get out around the city, but who wants to do that when it's 90 degrees outside and super humid. We have made a list of places to take the kids, but will likely wait until fall (March-April).

The benefit of that is that Claire, who only months ago was terrified of putting her face in the water has practically transformed herself into a little fishy. She's swimming all over our pool (which goes 6 feet deep) without her life jacket. She jumps off the sides into the pool, and yesterday donned goggles for the first time and was swimming under water checking things out. We are so pleased at what our pool access has done for the kids. With the heat of the day, the water in the pool is pleasant so we can just get right out there and the kids have thrived.

Yesterday morning, we went to the school (only dog-poopless park around, probably cause it's gated with restricted access) park to play. We knew that the school had been contemplating putting in a bench with a memorial plaque dedicated to Lily, but were not sure when it was going to be done. Apparently, the school superintendent (for reasons not fully explained, in my opinion) did not want to advertise the placement of the bench so as not to 'upset' the kids in the school and bring back the memories of what happened. So they preferred a silent placement to where the bench just appeared over the summer break. Well, the bench is there. We saw it, and with Claire starting classes there in a week, will get to tell her friends that it's Lily's bench, and she will get to see it every day.

The bench was another project (like the tree-planting) that caring people organized and carried out independently. They are both thoughtful projects that have allowed the American community to remember Lily along with us. It is also nice to have reminders found in places we frequent regularly.

Our deja vu moment for the week came when Candace called me at work on Thursday to tell me that someone had just hit our car that was parked in front of our house. Didn't that already happen, you ask? Yes, I answer. A few months ago, someone took off our passenger sideview mirror. They, of course, didn't stop... just left it hanging there. This time, a vehicle passing by had its passenger door open as it passed our car, hitting the back drivers side of the tailgate and breaking the light fixtures and leaving a few small dents. As you can see, the car is driveable and should be a relatively painless fix (and leave no remains of the damage), but it's more of a hassle to deal with a second neglectful incident of someone hitting our car. Twice in six months.

We've got to find somewhere else to park.

Whossits a whatta? Si. Exactly.

So how often do you sit around contemplating the mysteries of the world? Daily? Weekly? During the week, there are a few times that I think about my day to see if there is anything that stands out and should be shared in this blog. The day to day life in Argentina has become exactly that, and so there are few things that stand out as being newsworthy. Does that leave me more time to contemplate the mysteries of the world? Sometimes.

What are some of the things that I contemplate? I often think about the makeup of the world and how each people is so different and yet happy in their circumstances. As an American, I think that we are brought up with a sense of superiority to the rest of the world, thinking that because of our democracy and economy, we are better individuals. I had travelled all over the United States as a child and had even left the country a few times before I was 18 and was able to get a small dose of the world outside of the U.S. It wasn't until I was on my mission here in Argentina, however, that it hit me: Argentines were happy being Argentine. I used to always ask folks where they were going on vacation or what they wanted to do and always expected people to say that they wanted to visit my awesome country. But not everybody did. In fact, more often than not, people were more content to just cruise down the interstate a few hours to spend 2 weeks at the beach in Mar del Plata, and they just plain weren't interested in the USA.

So fast forward to 2011. Having lived a life (kids, mortgage, moves) in my awesome country, it's interesting to live a life in another country. As a missionary, you don't worry about bills, schools, transportation, etc etc etc. But here we are trying to live our lives the way we are used to... but with different resources available to us.

This is where it gets interesting. We're so glad that our kids have been able to experience this at such a young age. For Sam and Caroline, they will have very simple memories of Argentina by the time we leave, but Claire will have many many memories of our life here. Just the other day, Claire went to a playdate where she was the only native English speaker. In addition to native Spanish speakers, there is a Dutch family that lives a few doors down from us, and they also attended. In Lily's kindergarten class, there were American, Argentine, European, and Asian students... all getting a dose of the world outside of their home country. What a great experience!

The challenge is that some Americans surround themselves with as many things American as they can. In addition to only socializing with Americans, they tend to put down the Argentine way of doing things. This superiority complex rears its ugly head. Living in a place where so many things are done differently, its often hard to remember that that's the way they do things here... and it's OK. I remember thinking during a church talk a week or two ago when the American speaker spoke of a poor childhood where the family of 9 lived in a two-bedroom home with one bathroom how that doesn't seem "poor" to the folks here as that would be normal for the vast majority of the people attending the church services.

What complicates our situation a little (as I've mentioned the handful of American families in the ward) is that our provided housing is considerably above and beyond the living means of most people at church, and a few of us have spoken about how it creates a division for social interaction outside the chapel walls.

We are somewhat lucky in that the American families in the ward all live really close to us, and 5 of us work at the same place, while two others work at the same place, so we always have things to talk about and we are always looking for things to do together. Claire is always so pleased to run into other people who speak English. Sam used to scream "no" and throw his hands up in a stopping motion if someone (including me or Candace) spoke to him in Spanish. They are both starting to learn a little more here and there and seem to be more comfortable here. They accept the fact that they don't understand everything and they are always asking questions.

Yesterday at the mall, our cheerful Claire ("Cherry" as Sam calls her) saw another girl and with a big smile and wave, said "Hola." I think the combination of the volume and accent surprised everyone within a 20 meter radius. When no one responded, Claire just bopped away and said, "I guess she didn't hear me."

To summarize, this really is a different life than we're used to. We're pleased that our children can be exposed to a different language and culture at such a young age as we all know the world is getting smaller and smaller. What's even better is that Candace appears to be happy here. She even said yesterday that she really liked the house we're living in. What she meant to say (going back to BLOG 1) is that she really likes the house we live in although it would be so much better if it had a garbage disposal. What a girl!

Empty

Buenos Aires is empty.

The summer holiday in Buenos Aires lasts from early December until the first week of March. Most folks stick around until the holidays and then there is a mass exodus from the city. It is surprisingly noticeable how empty the city is nowadays. The most common destination? The beach. The people leave in droves to the coastal beach cities for 2-3 weeks at a time. Nearly everything shuts down and it takes twice as long to get anything done because nobody is around. Having spent a full month in the States in October, we didn't really plan anything over the holidays other than just swimming a lot in our pool.

Claire, the blonde in the family, has been swimming a ton and her hair was starting to turn a light green due to the chlorine levels in the pool. The remedy? A tomato sauce shampoo. I always wondered if the tomato sauce bath were a myth when it came to getting the skunk smell off of one's self, but I had never heard it for green chlorine hair. Well, it worked. Claire's hair is back to golden blonde. Pretty as can be.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. School starts again in 3 weeks and we've starting considering our options for our northern hemisphere summer return to the States.

If there are questions about life in Argentina or specifics that you're curious about, let me know so I can keep my eye open as things are becoming more and more normal to us.

I hope this clip works... It is from when Claire sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" at the tree-planting ceremony for Lily.

Out with the Old

Having spent so many Christmases and New Year celebrations in the bitter cold (Denver, Chicago, Salt Lake City), this one has been nice. We have made it out to the pool pretty much every day and have made substantial breakthroughs in the kids' swimming ability. Claire was terrified of putting her face under the water and had grown accustomed to swimming all over the pool with a life jacket on. We encouraged the life jacket to give her confidence in the water, and have been trying to wean her off it. Just the other day, she went from floating around in her life jacket, to plugging her nose and jumping off the side of the pool, sometimes into my arms, and sometimes to go under all by herself... then she just paddles herself over to where she can touch to open her eyes. When she's getting extra brave, she puts her life jacket on again, and plunges into the deep end. What a difference a week has made for her.

As for Sam, he only recently gained full appreciation for his life jacket. He knew it would keep him afloat, but he couldn't quite figure out how to keep his head up so he wouldn't be sucking in water all day. To combat this, he swam with his life jacket AND a noodle (I'm sure all parents know what a noodle is). Once he saw Claire jumping into my arms, he ran right to where Claire was and he wanted me to take his arms before he would lean over the side. Ten minutes later, I had to hurry over to catch him because he was jumping off the side whether I was there or not. The life jacket buoyed him right back to the surface, he just turned, swam to the stairs, and did it all again. I have spent 2 hours in the last two days just catching kids as they jump off the side of the pool into the water. We are so proud. What a breakthrough.

Swimming so much does have its drawbacks though. We can hardly keep the swimsuits washed fast enough for as much time as we head in the back yard. We usually jump right in the shower after swimming and we had an incident this week. Let's check out your math skills: One two-year old boy full of energy + two wet little feetsies (not feces, although I'm sure I could come up with one of those stories as well) + tile floor = ???. If you guessed "0", you're wrong. If you guessed "blood spurting from nose and mouth", you're right. Chalk it up to the kid having too much energy and not being able to control himself. Sam had a rough day.

This week also had another momentous occasion to celebrate, and I'm not talking about the Dakar Rally (although I did go check out some of the racing machines... if you're not up on what's happened, the former Paris-Dakar Rally has been held in Argentina/Chile the last few years due to terrorist threats to the race in Northern Africa). I'm talking about the new year. We have heard that the city puts on a wonderful firework display and figured we would miss it since we're out in the suburbs. Well, the top floor of our house is a big playroom with windows on three sides. We saw pretty good firework shows out of all three windows at midnight. Unfortunately, just as on "Noche Buena" (Christmas Eve), the fireworks don't just go off at midnight, but they remain strong, loud, bright, and random throughout the night. So if the rest of 2011 is like the first night/morning, we are in for it.

So now we're in 2011, and as I'm writing this (from the top floor looking out over our backyard pool and the palm trees in the neighbors' backyards), I'm expecting great things. We've been strengthened by our faith and others around us during the difficult end to 2010. We have wonderful children that keep smiles on our faces, and great friends that keep our social schedule packed. We wish all a prosperous 2011.