Los Sobrinos

So being here in Argentina means I get to see my nieces and nephews. I love spending time with them and have had so much fun so far. Yesterday we spent the day with Albert playing in the park and "climbing" around the house. Today we saw Tomas and Rocio who are the cutest ever. Here are some photos from our first few days...

Albert Joseph wearing my harness, we played climber


Then we tied a rope to him and Jay would pick him up to "be in space" as Albie called it

Rocio, sucking her thumb as always. Last time I saw her she was just sitting up, now she walks around and is close to talking!

Tomas in the clothes I got him. This is the first time I am meeting him in person. Check out that hair...classic

Another one of Tomas

One more of Rocio in the dress I brought her. Check out those curves...

New Adventures in Spanish and Obama's Global Appeal

It's been a long time since we've updated this - mostly because it was a little crazy towards the end of the summer when we were getting ready to go. There was a lot to be done in those last few days before we flew to Buenos Aires. I have a ton of things to write about - what we've been up to since NY; some reflections on this summer; and some thoughts about the gear that we used. I'll try to hit a few of the highlights here...

Since Patti wrote last, I have spent 4 days in West Virginia with Ohio Wesleyan University. You may remember that Patti and I led a backpacking trip to the Red River Gorge for some OWU students earlier in the summer. If you don't remember, just scroll down a little. That trip was for freshman athletes who could not make it to the main Fresh-X trip because they had to start practice for their respective sports. We had a lot of fun on that trip, but it had a much different feel to it than this trip. Backpacking with 5 other people is a great small group experience; car camping with 100 people is on a whole other level.

I must say that this is one of the most well run trips I have ever been a part of, and it was certainly the largest. Feeding all those people for 4 days is a production by itself and the staff and student leaders that we there managed to pull that off and more without incident or serious injury. My job was to lead two days of rock climbing at Seneca Rocks. For those who don't know, Seneca is a major east coast climbing destination and one of my personal favorite places to climb. Although it is very close to "town" it has a very remote feel to it.


I had a great time with the two different groups that I had the opportunity to climb with. The students leaders for both groups were exceptional. One student in particular had some incredible natural giftings in terms of leadership which he put to use on this trip very well. The purpose of Fresh-X is really just to create an opportunity for incoming freshman to meet people through a common experience prior to arriving on campus. The whole idea is to take away those first few awkward trips to the cafeteria because the students already know 75 or 100 faces kinda well, and another 8-10 faces in their small group really well. One brief success story from the trip - There was one student whose had some significant group anxiety issues and was forced by his parents to attend Fresh X and OWU. They told him he was going two days before the trip. Anyway, he really did not want to be there and at times became incredibly overwhelmed because part of the trip involved playing silly games with 100 other people to get to know each other. To make a very long story short, in the end the freshman made some great friendships and overcame some of his anxieties with the help of the aforementioned student leader.

I left West Virginia and met up with Patti in Harrisburg after the trip. From there we headed to my parents house where is was going to relax after the trip and before we left. Sadly, there were a couple things that got in the way of that. First, there was a mountain of mail to open from the two months we had been away; second, we had to sell the car; and third, we had to go through a bunch of boxes to find the things we needed for Argentina. The 5 days there went way too quickly, and my R&R got pushed back until we arrived in Buenos Aires.

My dad gave Patti and I a ride to Newark airport last Tuesday to catch our flight. We made it there in record time, which turned out to be a really good thing since we had to help Ama with her 3 overweight bags, 3 carry on bags, and her 2 boxes. Honestly, getting all that stuff through the airport was not as bad as I thought it would be; but then again I was expecting the worst, so I'm not sure what that means. The whole operation would have gone very smoothly if it wasn't for a not so helpful check in agent, and a very impatient wheelchair guy. Checking in all those bags took some time, which pissed wheelchair guy off. When we headed for security, he took off with Ama because we had spent so much of his time already just checking the bags. That left Patti and I to carry one box, 3 of Ama's carry-on's, our own carry-on's and JP's guitar. We should have checked the box, but Check-in Agent Man said we should just carry it. That save some money, but added headaches.

At the security checkpoint Ama goes straight through with wheelchair guy and he bolts for the gate - Oh, I forgot, first wheelchair guy tried to dump us off on the airtram because he read our tickets wrong. He was going to send us to Terminal E. The only problem with that is that Newark doesn't have a Terminal E. After I convinced him that we were already in the right terminal, he sprints off through security. Patti and I get separated into different lines. Of course, when they x-ray Ama's big carry-on they want to open it, but wheelchair guy has wisked her off somewhere into the unknown. The TSA guy was kind enough not to ask too many questions when I told him that no, I didn't pack that bag and it wasn't mine eventhough I was carrying it. We finally all make it through and meet up again at the gate. One last thing about airport security... as we're sitting at the gate I lean over and pick up something next to Ama. I ask if it's hers, but she says that she didn't drop anything. It's a collection of ID's, and I read the text under the picture on the front - "Federal Air Marshall" I'm fairly certain that those badges could have gotten me into any part of that airport that I wanted to go to. It's nice to know that our nation's top notch homeland security agents are careful not to leave any sensitive materials just laying around at the airport.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful except for the fact that Continental lost every single one of our bags because there wasn't enough time for our connection. That really turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Continental then had to deliver all of those extra bags to our apartment instead of us trying to pack them all into a taxi for the ride into the city.

Since we've arrived, I've caught up on some sleep, joined the gym, and spent a lot of time visiting nieces and nephews with Patti. We've only been here two full days, and already my Spanish has both: improved significantly, and become frustrating beyond belief. I have a new found blinding jealously within me toward bilingual people. I simply cannot learn fast enough.

Last night Jen invited us to watch Obama's acceptance speech at a bar near her apartment. Patti, JP, Jen and I all headed out hear what he had to say. Little did we know that what we were actually going to was a large Obama event sponsored by Democrats Abroad Argentina and ExPat Connection. The place was packed with a surprisingly large number of Americans, and frankly, I didn't like being surrounded by that many English speakers in Buenos Aires. It was a very strange experience to be in the heart of this city and to hear very little Spanish. The Spanish that I did hear was coming mostly from the American event organizers and that jealousy thing showed up again quickly when they would switch back and forth between the two languages. On a positive note, it was fun to be out on the town with everyone and we were able to request our absentee ballots while we were there. Another negative - everything was overpriced.


As for the speech, once again, Obama delivers big. I won't go into too much detail here, but I will note a few things that I really liked.

- Obama pointed out that John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time. He then asks if we want to take a 10% chance on change.
-He made a point to call for reform in the way that we run political campaigns in this country. He said (and I agree) that you should be able to campaign and debate without calling into question your opponent's character or patriotism. I haven't had a TV in several months, so I don't know for sure, but I believe that Obama has not put out and blatant attack ads. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Even in his speech last night he graciously praised McCain for the war hero and public servant that he has been. That is a rare thing in the politics that I have seen in my lifetime.
-Obama also directly addressed the criticisms put towards him, specifically his character and readiness to be commander-in-chief.
-He spoke at length about "the world as it should be" which plucks at my reformed theology heartstrings. I just don't understand why this country so readily accepts the status quo. In my more cynical moments I point to high level corruption, greed, and mindless capitalism that values the corporation above this country's citizens. When I imagine the most powerful nation in the world I picture a progressive place that truly embraces cradle to grave green technology, healthcare for everyone, elimination of poverty, and good neighbor global citizenship. In Hebrew this is known as shalom or universal flourishing - a time when everything is as it should be. Let me just put one disclaimer on this - I don't believe that all of those things can be achieved through government or are the responsibility of government alone.
Which brings me to my last point -
-Obama gets that goverment can't fix everything eventhough that's what the people often want it to do. My libertarian tendencies love this part - government is only one small part of the equation. The individual, family, church and community all have a role to play.

Here's a shot of the packed house to watch the speech. I don't know exact numbers, but there were several hundred people there to see it.

I'll write more soon as I said before. I'm sure it won't be long before I have some hilarious stories about the ridiculous mistakes I've made trying to order something at a restaurant or tell someone I'm using that treadmill at the gym.

El Tigre

This is the view from the back of my mother's house in Southold, NY. We have had this house for years but it was only when we decided to get married here that I realized just how beautiful this place is. The summer of our wedding, my mother finally decided to re-do the house. For those of you who have not seen it, it has now become a Zen paradise. It is very simple in many ways but if you look closely you will see all of the little details my mom put in like solar panels on the roof, bamboo flooring and cabinets and 360 views from huge south facing windows. It is such a wonderful place to relax and spend some time remembering.

Jay and I arrived in NY on the 12th to celebrate my brother's birthday in NYC before continuing on to my mother's house. Jay and I spent four incredibly relaxed days here before Jay left for West Virginia to help out with the climbing portion of Ohio Wesleyan University's Fresh-X. He will be there from the 16th-19th. I stayed behind with my Mom to continue enjoying the sunshine and the lake. It has been so great to be in one place for awhile and to sleep in a bed, take a shower daily, etc. It has also been strange to not be with Jay as we have been with each other 24/7 for 6 weeks!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what we are up to now. Not as exciting as our past adventures but its been good to relax a little. On the 20th of August I will meet Jay in Harrisburg and we will go to his parents house near Philadelphia for awhile. On the 26th we leave for Argentina and will be there until December 23rd. We will continue updating while we are there though!

Photo album

I posted a new photo album on Ofoto. To get to it just click on the link and then hit view slideshow. No need to sign up.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=11yjagrh.919q9x3p&x=0&y=-8rt18&localeid=en_US

Some Photos

We are at Messiah College right now visiting some friends and then are on our way to NY. In the meantime, here are some photos from our trip with Ohio Wesleyan University. We went to KY to the Red River Gorge region.

2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI For Sale

Since our road trip will soon be ending Patti and I would like to sell our car before we move to Argentina. I cannot say enough about how great VW TDI's are. We've averaged between 50-55 mpg over this trip and at times we've done as well as 60 mpg. You just can't beat that kind of mileage with current gas prices. In case you're wondering, that is significantly better mileage than a Toyota Prius, especially at highway speeds when the Prius can't quite keep up with just the electric motor. Also, diesel engines last much longer, so you can expect to get 400,000 miles out of it with proper care. I could preach the benefits of diesel for a long time so I'll just stop now and give you the stats. Read tdiclub.com for more info. I'll post some pictures of it when I get the chance. Call or email me to discuss a price.

2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS TDI
~120,000 miles
New timing belt, water pump, and serpentine belt at 109,000 miles
New alternator
Power steering
Powerlocks
Powerwindows
Alarm
CD, AM/FM, Tape deck
~50 mpg

For the Craigs list ad follow this link: http://lancaster.craigslist.org/cto/798069878.html

Plans Change

On a trip like this, travel plans often change. We are nearing the end of a 3 day delay in going from Ohio to Pennsylvania and eventually New York. Patti and I had just finished leading a freshman backpacking trip for Ohio Wesleyan University in the Red River Gorge, Kentucky when we started out on our way to Harrisburg. It would have been the first stop in a truly familiar place in nearly 6 weeks. Unfortunately, the car had other plans for us. On the east side of Columbus the battery light came on, which typically means only one thing - the alternator. Diesel engines don't use a lot of electric power to run since they don't have spark plugs, so we were able to drive it to a nearby Volkswagen dealership. Sadly, this dealership turned out to be like all Volkswagen dealerships, in that they were absolutely worthless when it comes to customer service. After explaining our situation and travel plans and hearing that no mechanics were available at 4:54 on Friday, the service receptionist offered to take a look at the car. Too bad for us, that he knew absolutely nothing about cars...

We walked over to the car, popped the hood, and the receptionist started saying things like, "well, there's your battery..." and, "if the battery light and the brake light comes on at the same then it's probably the alternator...." My response was, "sir, the brake light is on because the parking brake is on..." He didn't seemed deterred from talking nonsense or encouraged to help us out. He was able to give us the name of a foreign car repair shop down the street that they send "older" VW's to when they won't work on them. Apparently, that dealership only works on VW's up to 2003 and their mechanics are unable to fix anything older than that.

So, off we were for a very tense drive a few miles down the road not knowing how long we had on the battery before the car would just stop running. We made it to Blagoi's International Car Service at 5:15, and there we met the nicest mechanic I've ever talked to. I explained what had happened and he looked at the car right away. He hooked the battery up to the meter and said right away we need a new alternator. He asked us how far we were trying to go that day. I said Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and his response was an accented "Oh shit.... there's not much I can do until Monday." He was able to locate a replacement that would arrive on Monday and promised that by about noon we could be on our way again. The shop was not in the nicest neighborhood so he offered to keep the car in the garage instead of in the lot. We called some friends, who happened to be just down the road at the time to ask if they didn't mind house guests until Monday. They came right over and picked us up, and we passed the time chatting with our Macedonian mechanic.

Our friends Ryan and Annie were on their way to dinner with some other friends when they picked us up. Our string of good luck continued because Bryan and Nadia didn't mind a few extra dinner guests. They turned out to be awesome people and we had the most amazing conversation for hours. Nadia made a great Italian pasta salad for dinner and we all shared a few bottles of good wine. I should just say again that they were awesome people. Bryan was a coworker of Annie's at a charter school for inner city kids. The school's goal is to send kids to college early to start an associate's degree, and Bryan's role there is to help prepare them for college and coach them to succeed once there. In addition, he's a fairly incredible hip hop artist and has a Master's in comparative cultural studies. He did some fascinating work on "El Negro" who was essentially an African who was stolen from his African grave, stuffed, and sent to Spain to be put on display for nearly 100 years - up until 1997. Just before the Barcelona Olympics there was a big push to repatriate the body, but no one was sure where he actually came from. Botswana eventually agreed to accept the body and give him a state burial. That's not quite the end of the story, but Bryan had some fascinating things to say about the development of the idea of race and the "scientific" theories used to reinforce those ideas. Nadia is an Italian teacher by day but recently began working with sex slaves in the Columbus area. I did not know it until Friday, but Toledo, Ohio is one of the worst places in America for kidnapping and forced prostitution. Young girls are kidnapped from Toledo, shipped all over Ohio and the US. Nadia is working with a fledgling organization called Rahab's Hideaway to rescue and offer refuge to these girls.

It was simply an amazing night of conversation. It was incredible to have such richness and depth to a conversation with people we had met literally moments before, and it was wonderful to be with Ryan and Annie since we haven't spent a ton of time together before this weekend. Ryan and I have done a few long wilderness trips, but this was the first real time that the four of us have been able to spend together. I wish it didn't take a new alternator to get us there, but it has been great to be with such good friends.

Tomorow we'll pick up the car where and get back on our way to Harrisburg. Our road trip is finally coming to an end.

The Home Stretch

Today we are leaving beautiful Boulder, CO on our way back east. The plan is to cruise across the middle of the country and make it to Delaware, OH in time to lead a backpacking trip for Ohio Wesleyan University. I reluctantly say that Boulder has been my favorite stop so far - reluctantly because I had heard so many things about how chic, built up and trendy it is. Boulder is all of those things, but it also has many, many more redeeming qualities about it. I think that UC Boulder is our school of choice for when we return from the Peace Corps.

Back on the road for real.... it's a mere 19 hours to Ohio from here.....