Lisandro's Birthday Party and a Big Surprise

Johnny will always be Johnny. 

He sure makes me laugh. This is Lisandro, his mejor amigo. His parents own a big party room, Diverty, and we had a lot of fun celebrating this sweet boy. Usually families just drop off their kids and scram, but we were invited to stay, como familia. 

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Li!

And then there's this.

They had face painting at Li's party and to my huge shock, Andrew was in line.

He's never had his face painted in his life - something about preferring not to wear makeup.

As the littler boys were being transformed into Super Heroes, I asked Andrew

(who avoids attention at all costs)

what he was going to ask for.

He said, "Glasses, a moustache, and a beard."

To say I was speechless is an understatement. 

He was very pleased with the result.  And we laughed for hours.

5th Grade Field Trip: Tucumán

So, I'm just wondering how many 5th graders you know who have gone on a field trip that starts on a Thursday at 11:30 pm? And lasts until 6:00 am on Saturday morning? At least one: David Frohling.

As you know, we live in Córdoba Capital. This grand city is in the province of Córdoba. Argentina is divided into 23 provinces and a federal district called the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. David got to travel to Tucumán, another province of Argentina, with the other 5th graders at his school. He was SO excited. They went to the historic downtown and toured the Plaza Independencia, Catedral, Casa de Govierno y Convento San Francisco, Casa de la Independencia, Parque 9 de Julio, Museo Casa del Obispo Colombres, y Empaquetadora SEM (a business that processes lemons and strawberries for export).

When we Chris picked him up at 6:00 am, he was worn out and glad to sleep in his own bed (instead of a bus as he did the previous 2 nights) which he did until 1:00 pm in the afternoon. He had a great time and even took some photos that we can share:

I am so thankful for this group of kids; there are about 25 in his class.
They have a lot of fun together and are all very close.

FAQs

I could write a book on our first year's experiences (and hope to), but I wanted to share with you the most frequently asked questions that we receive upon meeting someone new.  I'll answer them for you too.

¿De dónde sos? Where are you from?

The United States. 

[I'm generally asked this as soon as I begin speaking because my Spanish accent is clearly not Cordobés.  And if we are all together, we don't even need to begin speaking for someone to ask us since we look so different from everyone else.  It's often assumed that we're from Germany with our height, hair, eye, and skin color.]

¿Estás paseando?  Are you just traveling through?

Nope.  We live here.

¿Por qué estás acá?  Why are you here?

My husband and I are accountants and missionaries. We are working in various poor neighborhoods to try to share the hope we have in Jesus a practical way and not just with words.  [If I'm feeling particularly bold, I'll ask my own question:  ¿Qué opinás sobre Jesús? What do you think about Jesus?]

¿Te gusta Argentina?  Do you like Argentina?

Yes. 
[This is true.  It is also the correct answer.]

¿Qué te gusta más? What do you like the most?
The people.  They are warm and open.

 

¿Qué comida desayunás? What do you eat for breakfast?

Pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, cereal, and bacon. 
[Yes, this is a common question, and yes, I say this answer proudly.  Generally speaking, Argentines do not eat breakfast and think it is very strange that we do.  Clearly we do not eat all of the above every day, but I do enjoy watching the looks on their faces when I say it.  Many questions are apt to follow that I won't bore you with.]

Monkey Races and Fetching Desires

It's been an interesting last couple of weeks, filled with waiting (patience), goal setting (humility), and communication (grace). 

Needless to say, my words for the year can be found in those parenthesis above.

I don't feel much like writing about it so I'll leave you with 2 funny pictures that can actually illustrate a bit of what I don't feel like saying.

Andrew, Johnny, and I made these monkeys out of paper, yarn, straws, and tape.  They raced to the top of our closet... a particular orange monkey always seemed to win while the yellow monkey tried really hard to get to the top but couldn't quite make it.  He needed help with his wounds (rips) that were caused by the friction of the assent. 

He got the help from someone a bit older and wiser and eventually learned how to enjoy the climb without too much worry about winning.

 

Buddy: "I love you, tennis ball. I'd really like to chase you."

Me: "Buddy, you're being pathetic.  Why are you so obsessed with that thing?"

Buddy: "I just want to play.  It's my job to play.  Why won't you throw me the ball?"

Me: "I threw it to you a hundred times today.  You just need to wait."

Buddy: "Okay."

He eventually decided to stop waiting, nudged the ball with his nose and watched it roll across the room. 

Then he chased it and started the game his work all over again.

Innovative and creative and willing to work.

Not so pathetic, I must admit.

1 Year & 12 Words

Today marks the day of our arrival to Argentina one year ago.

As you know, there have been low lows and high highs.

(Just like life anywhere, really.)

We are thankful for this year. It has brought us much closer as a couple, a family,

and it has shown us the creative ways that God provides.

We are making lots of new friends, learning a new culture and language, and growing in grace and humility.

As a result of intentional contact and honest communication we have become even closer to friends who now live 5,812 miles away.

Back in May, a good friend of mine from Santa Barbara emailed me the following:
"What are your five most favorite words you have learned in Spanish since being in Argentina? I’m thinking they rank high because of the meaning, the cultural context, the way it rolls off your tongue (or others). Learning and speaking Spanish is such a HUGE part of your life. I want to know more about your life."

It was a great question for me and my answers represent much of our life here. The following is my edited response (I had 7 favorites):

Esperar: "To wait" AND "to hope". Since it means both, it has opened up loads to me in my Bible reading (don’t worry, they’re not all as spiritual as this one).

Me da piel de gallina: Literally this means “It gives me skin of a hen.” However, figuratively it means “I have the chills” (or "goose bumps", or as bilingual Argentines say, "goose flesh").

¡Ojo!: Literally means “eye”, but here people pull their skin down below their eye and say “¡Ojo!” as a way of saying, “careful” or “look out!” If you're into fútbol, you will see South American players doing this to each other.

Permiso: This is what people say before entering your house. It’s like asking permission and they say it before entering a new room or any new place in your home. The correct response is “Sí, pasá, pasá.” or "Yes, come in, come in." It is very polite. My kids have not gotten a grasp on how or when or why to use it. (They’re basically culturally rude most of the time.)

La Cola: This word is funny. It means “tail”, “butt”, or “line”. The boys like to say “Cuidado con la cola” and then smack their butt. In Spain it would be very offensive to refer to someone’s butt as a cola since it literally means tail; the Spaniards do not like to think of themselves with a tail.  And if you think of the expression hacer cola you can think of us standing in lllooonnnggg lines at the bank, the grocery store, the bus stop, or at any the infamous DNI government offices.  (However, I get ahead of myself.  Clearly hacer cola belongs in the "least favorite" list below.)

Puede ser:  This means “It can be” or it’s asked as a question “could it be?” You can use it any time, anywhere and feel like you know what you’re saying.

¡Que feo!:  “How ugly!” We use it all the time. Kind of like, “How lame!”

This isn’t a word, per se, but I love the way people kiss when they meet and greet. It’s very warm and not at all creepy. I love how Andrew offers his cheek (face) when he meets a new adult or how a child comes straight at me with pursed lips and an expectant side glance while waiting for my dip-down to give a kiss and an hola.

And, of course, here are a couple that make my "least favorite" list of the day:

Hospitál/Hótel/Honor/Honduras…: Basically any word that is the same in English and starts with an H. Las haches no suenan en español. (The h’s don’t have a sound in Spanish.) Whenever we use a word that begins with an H we have to be very intentional about not making the H sound… Hugo (Ugo) makes fun of us. (In a nice way, of course.)

¿Me estás jodiendo?: Argentina is the only country where this means “Are you kidding me?” which is totally fine. The problem is if you say this in any other Spanish speaking country it means “Are you f-ing with me?” Yes, the f-word. Because I know this, I do not like hearing it and since the boys know that, they say it often.

Por/Para: Either word represents “for”. There are other translations for them too, like “through”, “by”, “on behalf of”. But I can’t ever get them right and saying them wrong can be translated into an embarrassing situation.

Necesito hacer pis: “I need to go pee" or literally, "I need to make pee." It just sounds feo to my English-listening ears. "Pis" in Spanish sounds very similar to "piss" in English and I still get a little red in the face and shocked when someone says it. I know that sounds prudish of me and I don’t know why it embarrasses me so much. I prefer to say “¿Puedo pasar al baño?” or, literally, “May I go into the restroom?”

So, there you have it wrapped up into a dozen or so words.  After receiving my answers, my friend responded:  "I absolutely LOVE this!  Not only did I find out about the words that are becoming part of your conscious, but I got a little glimpse of how you are interacting with the new culture...Friend, you are dear in my heart. I wish there was an English phrase that expressed a deeper sense than that, maybe there is one in Spanish?"

She's right that there is a Spanish phrase that expresses this better: amigo querido. This past year has shown us that our true home is in Heaven and that God is kind to give us such special friendships here on Earth. 

Chau for now amigos queridos.

NINE!

Today is Andrew's birthday.  He's 9.  And we are very excited to celebrate his life. 

He's a good one, that Andrew-boy. 

Here are 9 things we like about him in no particular order:

1. He's compassionate and brave.

2. He's generous.

3. He's a really good dancer.

4. He loves his brothers and shows them this by his actions.

5. He likes helping his mama cook; he's also hospitable

and likes sharing time around the table with people.

6. He will drop anything to play a good game of Rummikub

(and he wins almost every time).

7. He thinks outside of the box and has a good head on his shoulders.

8. He truly knows the definition of a friend. 

And he's a good and faithful one.

9. He has a very silly laugh and uses it often

with a certain twinkle in his eye.

We love you, Andrew. 

God richly blessed our lives when he allowed us to be your mom and dad. 

The day you were born will always be one of our favorites.
Happy 9th Birthday, buddy.

In case you're wondering, we celebrated with friends last night from 6:30 - 9:30 pm at Mr. Piruetas (a "party room"). 

We played indoor soccer, bounced in bounce houses, danced to funny music, raced electric cars, and ate lots of sugar. 

[And Chris and I dressed up like the King and Queen that we are when we served the cake. 

We do not typically wear blue and pink crowns or silky outfits over our everyday clothes. 

It was mandatory.  "All the parents do it... the kids love it!" we were told. 

We continue to be humbled every single day.

Thanks to Tío Devin for getting it on film and being Chris's partner in crime in eating the kids' food.]

Banco Mundial de la Mujer

We wanted to update you that we had another really great meeting with

Banco Mundial de la Mujer this morning and are excited to be partnering with them. Recently, Chris and I listened to a talk that Steve Jobs gave at a Stanford commencement ceremony and one of his points was that you can’t always connect the dots on things that happen in your life. However, he said, in hindsight sometimes you can.

The work we’ll be doing is designing and conducting a survey for Banco Mundial’s current (450 people) and prior clients to find out what other services they would like/need in addition to the loans being given. (Currently, they only give loans.) They really want to do more for their clients, but have not had the financial resources to do anything more. We will be able to get to know 450 micro-business owners! Additionally, we’ll get acquainted with the barrios they live and work in. After the survey is over and the results are calculated, we will be able to begin creating systems to implement these other services (micro-insurance, health classes, basic business principles courses etc.) that the clients express interest in.

 

It also felt really good to tell Gabriela that we came here to share the love of Christ. We explained to her that our idea is to show God’s love to all different types of people and that working with her and the foundation will enable us to do that. We also told her how much we appreciate what they have been doing for the past 20 years and think it’s very admirable and necessary in the alleviation of poverty.

We wanted to share our excitement and thank you for walking this road with us. It sure has been a process and we know it will continue to be (it’s life!), but we’re thankful for the way we can see God’s hand connecting the dots for us.

Have a great weekend!