For starters, a week ago on Friday was our last day living in Cordoba and it was the most hectic day ever. We decided to invite some of the older kids from Los Sauces over to our house for lunch. Only Marco and Pancho could come, and the two Brazilian volunteers, Yuri and Roberto, cooked an amazing lunch and we all ate and hung out before rushing to the bus to head out to our last day in the community center. As we walked up the street for our last time, the kids ran towards us, a few of them carrying little presents for Jenna and I. I already had to choke down tears during the first 10 minutes while opening the gifts of earrings and bracelets and reading their cards thanking us for being there this summer. If only they knew exactly how much it meant to us. We are the ones who were so
blessed to spend 7 weeks with them. We spent our last day playing everyones favorite game: Quemado ("burned", a more brutal form of dodgeball) and then the dreaded goodbyes... Yuri and Roberto got us a bucket of Bon-o-Bons to hand out as we hugged the line of the best kids in the world. Jenna and I were both in tears. Those kids had become our best friends in Argentina, and I cannot explain how much we love them. Jen and I made a pact to each other, and for the kids, that we would try our very hardest to save enough money to come back soon, and I really hope we can. I would give those kids the world if I could, but instead, once again, its me who is getting an unexplainable amount of love, my heart being so humbled yet again.
We finally had to tear ourselves away from the kids and hop on the bus back to Cordoba. Without a minute to spare, (we had a ticket to Mendoza that left in an hour!) we sprinted back to the house, shoved everything into our packs, and said a temporary goodbye to Joaquin and the foreigner house. We grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal and met Yuri and Roberto at the last second. Us four were about to have an amazing time at the Mendoza Wine Festival.
We pulled into the station the next morning after busing 8 hours east towards the Andes. We were talking about hostel options and looking into festival events in the station when disaster struck: My backpack was stolen. I had set it along the wall with all the rest of our packs and things and went to talk in the tourist office. Even though Jenna and Yuri were standing not even 3 feet away from it the whole time, someone snuck by and snatched it up without them noticing. I felt SO dumb. How could I have set it down?? Why did I not tell Jenna to keep her eye out for it??? To make things worse, it had EVERYTHING in it. We had transfered over a lot of pesos when the monetary crisis was going on in Cordoba, and so we had about $1,200 worth in it. Usually we split our money between bags, but because we were in such a rush the night before, we had it all in one. I also lost my ipod, Kindle, cell phone, passport, bank cards, and the other worst thing: my journal from the entire trip. Yep. Cannot get much worse than that... I filed a police report, called my parents to cancel all the cards, and then there was not much else we could do. Thank God we were travelling with the worlds nicest guys, and they lent us money to still be able to enjoy the weekend. We had only met them a couple weeks ago and without hesitation they calmed us down, "We are in this together, well figure it out". Their generosity, and the supportive emails from my family, reminded me: They were only things. A lot of things, but not even comparable to the amazing people God has put into our lives to help us through situations like that. As my time in Cordoba was coming to an end, I told God " I am ready for whatever else you need to show me along this journey". Apparently this time it was a petty theft lesson. Not exactly what I wished for, but I know the more important realizations that come with it mean more than a backpack of stuff.
Luckily, we were able to quickly put that behind us and enjoy an awesome weekend. A wine festival in southern Argentina with two super fun Brazilians celebrating their Carnaval. Despite having lost so much, we could not cut out the things we had budgeted for all of Cordoba. I mean, how many times do you get to experience things like this?! We went to a wine tasting and a winery tour ( I mean, this is wine country), a traditional music and dance concert in the park, an Italian food and culture event in the plaza, and night-rafting down a river in the Andes Mountains (which now tie the rain forest and the Pacific ocean as the most goregeous places I have ever seen). People from all over the world are down in Mendoza right now for this event. Hearing all the stories and sharing ours has been so fun. The main events of the festival are still to come this weekend, but the guys unfortunately had to head back to finish their time with the kids. Jenna and I are going to head out to camp in the mountains for a few days and then we are planning to head back for the final concert day on Monday before also heading back to Cordoba. One glitch in this situation is that, if you have forgotten, we are the worst travellers in the world, remember? Instead of checking up on our money transfer site before the guys left, we went there today and there is a delay on the transfer. We currently have about $80 (not even enough to get back to Cordoba) and are stalling for time in the hostel until the money comes through. If we cannot get it, our plan is to beg people for money until we have enough to get back to Cordoba where we can stay for free at our house again. A little stressed out, but I know we will figure something out. Also we are pretty crafty, so building artwork to sell out of rocks and sticks is not beyond our abilities. If you are scared for us, please dont be, well be totally fine. (A prayer would not hurt though.)
So yea, only about a 100 days left, and still being thrashed around by the universe. I would not have it any other way though. How else can you learn the hard lessons? I mean I guess some people learn from other peoples mistakes, but how boring does that sound. Just trying to keep a positive attitude here... :)
Hoping our travellers luck didnt completely run out,
Renae
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