A Taste of the Teacher Life

First things first: we're officially lice free, woop! I still feel like that isn't an announcement I should be having to make at this point in my life but what can you do. After a week long quarantine we were pretty excited about it.

Since we are finally bug free, we have officially joined the ranks of teachers at Monterrico Christian School. And of course, we absolutely LOVE it. It is a bilingual school, so although the kids are all native Spanish speakers, they have most of their classes entirely in English. The school goes from preschool all the way to 11th grade, which is the year they graduate high school, so it's a good variety. Renae and I basically help with anything and everything the other teachers need: homework corrections, art projects, organizational projects, and classroom help. We spend lots of time in the library helping kids pick out books, and lots of time reading to different classes. Renae has mainly taken on the 2nd graders, whereas I spend the most time with the kindergartners. Don't worry, I've only gotten gum stuck in my hair once and had to clean poop off one shoe so far, so doing pretty good I'd say. We have been put on the spot multiple times to take over classes, and although we obviously haven't been trained to be teachers and usually end up improvising quite a bit, we love it! Today we even got to give an hour and a half long presentation to the 10th and 11th graders about our trip so far. They were especially interested in hearing about our jungle adventures and the backpacker lifestyle, and we had way too much fun getting to show them lots of pictures and everything we lug around in our packs. Basically, the kids are all SO much fun, the teachers are all incredibly friendly, and we've found ourselves adopted right into the amazing little community the school has around it. I can already tell you there's NO WAY we're going to be ready to leave in a month.

We've also had the chance to check out a couple other volunteering sites in Lima. Last Wednesday night we went with the principal Nancy and 2nd grade teacher Gail to visit the kids at an orphanage across town. It is mostly older kids, and lots of teenagers, so we had lots of fun getting to know them and plan to go back at least once a week to hang out there. Then on Friday we toured a prenatal center, which I was especially interested in seeing after my work at the hospital. We are definitely trying to take advantage of all the different site hook-ups we have here in Lima and plan to check out at least a couple more as soon as we can.

Don't worry, we've definitely had time for lots of fun stuff too, once all the correcting is done. We already feel like family with our roomie Natalie, and she and her Peruvian fiance are always dragging us around and showing us things. They took us to the mall (we now have school-appropriate-non-trail-clothes... pretty exciting), brought us to church, and introduced us to some of their friends. One veryyy early morning last weekend, Renae, Natalie, and I along with a couple other teachers from the school went for surfing lessons, too! We obviously made fools of ourselves but all managed to stand up at least a few times and had TONS of fun. We plan to rent some boards and practice on our own this weekend so we'll be pros before you know it. One day we spent over an hour talking to a man in the park about his pet vulture, which was a whole lot more interesting for Renae than it was for me, but still very cool. He had the thing trained to fly straight to his arm from across the park when he called it! We have also tried some new Peruvian foods, although I wimped out on eating the squid. It was straight whole; looked like it was alive just 5 minutes ago! So no thanks on that one.

Basically we already feel at home in this amazing country, and can't think of any better way to spend the next month than loving up on all the little cuties at the school and exploring the city. Let the adventures continue!

Eating popcorn on the daily (we're all of a sudden addicted, don't ask),
Jenna Flynn

Bugs

Our time in Argentina was filled with birds, but here in Peru we've moved onto a different creature. I'll get to that in a minute though...

So, Jen's last blog left us spending our last of the 90 tourist-visa-permitted days of Argentina in the capital. We tried to cram in everything that we possibly could to make the most of only a few days in Buenos Aires: hands-down thee most beautiful city I have ever visited. (I know I say that a lot, but I'm dead serious this time!) Let's just say I completely fell in love with the city. It only added to the immense list of things I adored about that country. All of which made it harder to leave. And though it was bittersweet, last Thursday morning we packed up our bags, and lugged them (and 3 days worth of food) down to the street to grab a taxi to the bus terminal. We would be busing from Buenos Aires, over 70 hours, to Lima, Peru. I don't think it fully hit us until we were in the cab: "Wait...... 3 straight days on a bus!? The bathrooms on those things are disgusting after, like, one day! Are they even gonna feed us!? Did we bring enough food!? Do they ever let you off at all?!"... After a minor freak out, we decided it couldn't be that bad. Plus, we already bought the tickets, so our fate was sealed. "This may or may not be the biggest mental test we've come across so far..." 

And, at first, it was. Every other time we had bused in Argentina, we got these nice, double-decker buses, with big cushy seats that fully reclined, breakfast service, and decent tvs. (These people have their cross-country traveling down). This time though, after already waiting 2 extra hours, we climbed up the bus steps to a brutal reality. Small, plastic-covered seats which kind of halfway reclined. The air-conditioning BLASTING. A tv which cut in and out and had no sound... Yea, they definitely wouldn't be serving us breakfast either. Our home for the next 3 days could not have been any worse. Since Jenna and I know how our luck usually falls, it was pretty much already expected that we would end up on the scrubbiest thing possible to trek across the continent. How could it not be?

So, for 3 days, we sat on this bus. We were let out (I feel like I'm talking about puppies) at least once a day, to eat dinner, use the rest-stops (where people showered up... Do you think we thought of bringing shampoo? No.), and to cross the borders. We passed the Argentina-Chile border on Friday night, and the Chile-Peru border Saturday morning. During my final hours in Buenos Aires I had to go to the US Embassy to get an emergency passport to leave the country since mine was in the backpack I lost in Mendoza. They had handed me a flimsy passport book with a sticker printed with my information. So besides for some suspicion about that, we passed inspection and were let into Peru. It went by way faster than I thought actually, and the views on the drive were amazing. (And, by the grace of God, we switched buses half-way as well, upgrading to fabric chairs and fully-functioning tvs. Nice.) 

Sunday morning, we rolled up to the bus terminal in Lima. We had finally made it!!! "Okay, God, it was hard to leave Argentina, but I know you have more plans for us here in Peru, more lessons to teach, and more people out there for us to help. We said we would do anything you put in front of us, so we are ready for the next thing, whatever it is." He's funny that guy...

LICE. That is what the next adventure has been. For the last 4 days, Jenna and I have been getting to know the back of each other's heads better than we ever wanted to. Nancy, the principal of Monterrico Christian School, where we will be volunteering the next 4-6 weeks, picked us up from the terminal on Sunday. She drove us to the school's neighborhood, and dropped us off at the house that we are staying in during our time here. The place is beautiful, equipped with a living room, dining room, kitchen, enough rooms for everyone to have their own (for the first time in 6 months!), and thee most adorable roommate: Natalie, the 5th grade teacher at MCS. Jenna and I would get to know the house VERY well, considering the fact that we would be cooped-up, de-licing it and all the items we own. I came to the breakfast table Monday morning and told Jen, "I have bad news. I have lice. And since we just sat a foot away from each other for 3 days, you probably do too. I don't know where we got them (probably the bus itself), but we have to tell the school...". Great. Natalie and Nancy were so accommodating in collecting us and making us feel at home, which is why it sucked to send an email explaining that their new volunteers were "unable to come in... because we have lice". Kill me. We felt terrible that on our first week we would be unable to start, and very embarrassed for the extreme level of scrubbiness we had reached... They only laughed though (as well as our moms back home) when we told them. "At least you noticed it before you came into the school! Maybe God is telling you to relax a little bit. You can come in as soon as all your 'friends' are gone."  

Picking lice out of Jenna's hair isn't exactly under the heading: My Go-To Ways to Relax, but it hasn't been that bad actually. The quarantine has let us catch up on some non-bus sleep and take a few breaths after all the insane moving around at the end of Argentina. So other than the 5 hours a day we spend searching, and getting searched, for little lice eggs, life's good as usual. Needless to say, we haven't exactly experienced Peru yet, so no cool cultural stories, but Jen will have to fill you in on that next week (assuming we're able to rejoin society at some point soon). We did eat cow heart last night though, which was so delish.

And just to paint a picture for you...

The Combined Lice Count:

Monday: Over 100, for sure (Yea, 3 days on a bus without a shower... it was bad.)

Tuesday: 16

Wednesday (today): 8, Definitely making some progress

Oh yea, and the tsunami didn't hit Lima. We're still alive.

Wondering how many other 23-yr-olds have lice right now,

Nae

Que Vida!

What a whirlwind life has been lately! We made it back to Cordoba in time to pull ourselves together a little bit (but actually mostly just hung out with the Brazilians as it was their last few days in the city as well), before our friends Mick and Chris from NDSU flew in to spend a week with us, over their spring break. And from the second those two set foot in the country, I don't think we sat down for more than 5 minutes, and we DEFINITELY never slept more than 5 hours at a time. Lucky for us the guys were eager to join in on the Argentina lifestyle, as well as the backpacker one. So we spent the week cooking up chorris, drinking

mate, tasting the wines, and exploring the country. We overnight bused 3 times that week, and visited 6 different cities... can you say crazy?! The first day in Cordoba we walked the centro, ate in the park, showed the guys our house, and stayed in an awesome foreigner hostel- complete with beer pong. Can't say I'd played that down here yet! The next afternoon was spent in tranquila Santa Rosa, soaking up the sun by the big lake and grilling chorizos. Then we shopped and ate empanadas in Bahia Blanca, before taking a van to our mountain destination, Sierra de la Ventana. And wow, was it worth the trek. We did a mountain hike,

explored the friendly little town, and spent the rest of the time catching up, playing cards, and cooking up feasts for each other in the cozy, lime green cabana we rented out. From there we bused over to Mar del Plata (just in time to watch the sun come up over the ocean, I might add), for a day on the beach. It was a bit windy but sunny nonetheless, and we topped off the night by jumping in the ocean in all our clothes when it turned midnight.... I had made it to my birthday!!!!! We traveled one last time that next day, to Buenos Aires, where we ended up finding a random (but awesome) Israeli hostel to stay in, before heading out to eat and dance to celebrate my birthday. I don't think turning 23 gets much more epic than that.

A quick word on turning 23...

Gotta say I was a bit sad to see 22 go, just because it really has been my absolute favorite year yet. I graduated college, ran my first half marathon, and traveled Ecuador and Argentina. I swam in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, survived a jungle trek, and hiked in the Andes. Sure I also got stung by jellyfish, robbed in a bus station, and have been lost more times than I care to count, but it's all been part of the greatest adventure. Lucky for me I feel younger than ever; more than ready to tackle this 23^rd year. And believe me when I tell you I have not the slightest idea what it holds for me. And that is the best part! Bring it on.....

To get back on track, the guys sadly had to fly home to return to “normal life” on Saturday, and Renae and I have been hanging out in Buenos Aires ever since. The city is absolutely GORGEOUS so instead of getting caught up on sleep, we have been trying to do everything in the few days we have here. We shopped in the San Telmo market, saw La Boca, La Casa Rosada, and the port, and even walked through the streets during a political rally. Luckily for us, we bought bus tickets today, to travel all the way to Lima from here starting Thursday morning (70 HOUR BUS RIDE!), so I guess we will have lots of time to catch up on sleep soon. In case you are wondering, this specific bus ride puts us on the other side of the Argentina border at exactly day 90, out of the 90 we are allowed to spend in the country. So as usual we are cutting it pretty close, but assuming the bus doesn’t break down or something, it’s all good!

With all this craziness going on, it’s hard to explain my mindset. I miss Cordoba so, So, SO much- the roomies, the newfound Brazilian friends, and especially the KIDS- but at the same time am so very excited to get to Peru and start the last part of the journey. As my heart opens up more and more it gets harder and harder to say goodbye and leave people behind, but at the same time gets easier to connect with new ones, so I have to be thankful for the change. Also, I can’t even explain how wonderful it was to see friends from home, and how much we miss them already, yet at the same time how right it felt to send them on their way while staying down here to continue on ourselves. All I can say is the days are flying by, I cannot believe our time in our beloved Argentina is already up (I WILL be back!), and I’m left praying that the days ahead are as amazing as the days behind, because there is nothing else I could possibly hope for!

Hoping 3 days on a bus doesn’t make us crazier than we already are,

Jenna Flynn

1,200 blessings

For anyone holding their breath waiting to hear if we made it out of Mendoza, don´t worry; Everything is better than ever...

After blogging from the hostel last Friday, Jen and I waited around until finally the money came through, and we hopped on the next bus out into the Andes. We rolled into a town called Cacheuta and pitched our tent in a campground for the night and passed out. The next day, discovering the better views and hikes were in another town close by, we hopped on a

bus to Potrerillos. We spent the whole weekend there, in an ACA (Automovil Club Argentino) campsite right next to a beautiful mountain lake. The entire area was surrounded by hills and snow-capped peaks. The most amazing place I have ever camped, hands down. We enjoyed the naturaleza, swimming in the lake, hiking the mountains, and cooking chorizos and rice over a fire. 

The most amazing part about the weekend, though, is what happened on the inside. Right when we got there, we swam out into the lake, and staring at the epic views all around, reflecting on how we had made it this far into the trip, I knew I could not waste one more second being sad about our stolen things.  I realized God brought us to that bridge for a reason: To show us how to be strong in a tough situation, looking at the positive side, and to remind us that we are SO blessed. I could not ask for anything more. All the love and support and generosity we´ve been shown throughout this journey, from back home and down here, adds up to a BILLION times more than all that we lost. To feel better about losing those things, we compiled a list of all the acts of generosity we´ve received along the way, and it humbled us to the core. There is no way we could ever fully repay any of the people who have been in our lives or along this trip, but we´re going to try to pay it forward as much as we can. We want to show God that we trust Him; Losing so much, but continuing on and giving even more. 

Another amazing thing happened this weekend too. We went to mass at a church overlooking the lake on Sunday evening, and the message, straight from God, was written in the gospel: "No sólo de pan vivirá el hombre, sino toda la palabra que sale de la boca de Dios" or, in

English, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word thats comes forth from the mouth of God" Matthew 4:4. The Obispo (Bishop) went on the explain that it is not money that makes us rich, but our spiritual values and being blessed by God, family, and love. Jenna and I looked at each other like, whattt?!! Just in case we missed the message, He had to make it clear. During the offering then, we pulled out all the small bills we had. We missed the basket going around, so at the end of mass, I ran up to the man carrying them and dropped it in. We walked back to the campsite after church, wondering what we could make for dinner, when the offering collector guy walked up to our site."You two really made an impression on the Bishop and I, how about I buy you guys some empanadas for dinner?" We of course could not turn it down, so we went with him. He ordered the food, and started talking. He asked us about our journey, the things we´ve learned, etc. He went on the emphasize the lesson we had already started learning: You have to prepare yourself for the bad times in life. Know what is important, and keep God and all the people you love close to you, so that when bad things do happen, (like losing a backpack in South America) you will be able to pick yourself back up in no time. He eventually told us that he was suffering from a terminal illness, and though he was reciving a transplant in a few days, I don´t think he was convinced he had much time left. He sent us off with a bag of tomatoes and a number to call him if we ever needed anything. I don´t want to freak you guys out, but I think he might have literally been an angel. Another little message from God to make the lesson we learned this past week permanent. What an experience...

We had to say goodbye to Potrerillos, and then after one last day of hanging out in the city, to Mendoza as well. We hopped on a bus to Córdoba last night, and arrived back in our city $1,200 poorer, but richer in all the best ways. I think the travellers luck is back on track. 

Seeking a new backpack,

Nae

P.S. I forgot to add this in to the last blog, which would have been just way too sad at the time on top of everything else, but Mala Ala, our pet egret, died during our last week before Mendoza. She got sick and wouldn´t eat anything, and though I consulted everyone I knew in the bird-bio area, we couldn´t figure out what it was. The zoo guys assume it must have been internal damage from the fall. I buried her in the yard of the foreigner house. At least she got to live for a few more weeks with a bunch of awesome foreigners rather than get immediately eaten by a lizard on the zoo sidewalk...? RIP Baby Egret

How to be the worst traveler

Yesterday was the 150th day of the trip. Only 102 days left. I cannot tell you how fast time is flying. Already having survived 5 months down here, you would think things would become a little more relaxed, that we might get used to goodbyes, that we would be better travellers, and that maybe we would not be completely surprised around every corner we turn. The thing is, this is US I am talking about, so of course it is the exact opposite...

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

The “No-Plan” Plan Lives On

Up until this weekend, the past week was pretty uneventful (at least as uneventful as a week in a foreign city can be, that is). Here are some updates for ya:

-There are only five of us in the house now; us girls and three Argentinian students. It's pretty quiet, and we miss the rest of la familia like crazy. But we are trying to soak up the last few days of having our own room, a kitchen to use (however small and cockroach-filled it may be), and consistent internet.

-Renae and I both racked up over 30 volunteering hours this past week from all of our different gigs, of course gaining experience and falling more and more in love with the kids each day. We are still loving it all, and even though the seven or so work hours plus two more walking/bussing back and forth every day doesn't leave time for much else, we are dreading having our last days on Friday and having to say more hard goodbye's. Especially those kids... HOW we are going to drag ourselves away from them, I have no idea.

-Two more volunteers had their last days at the community center this week; Alice then Elcio (or Elfio, as the kids think his name is) both headed back to Brazil. That leaves just four of us. It is definitely an end-of-summer feel around here! Elcio did have a pretty fun going away party though- we got to have some of the classic Cordobese drink “fernet” with coke, learn some new card games, and attempt to improve on our Portuguese since everyone around here seems to be Brazilian.

-No one probably cares about this but I have to complain for one second: there is CONSTANT construction going on in the building attached to ours, starting at 8:30 every morning and going straight until 4:00 pm. It is SO insanely loud we can't hear anything, can't talk to each other, and don't even think about sleeping. Very annoying to all of us, especially to Joaquin when he tries to study. It's hard not to laugh at him because he freeeaks out every time he walks in the door and the drills start up.

-On Sunday we woke up and decided to head out to a nature reserve called Los Chorillos, where one of the researchers Renae knows is working on a project with reptiles. We had an email from the biologist, Nico, saying to catch a bus to Tanti and then another to Flor Serrana, from where we could find the nearby reserve. This was plan enough for us so off we went. We arrived just fine in Tanti, but then were told there was no bus to Flor Serrana. They told us to take a taxi, which if you have read our last couple blogs you know is NOT in the budget. So, we looked at the map, decided it didn't look too far, and took off walking. We made it maybe twenty minutes before having to ask if we were going the right way. We flagged down a truck to ask, which happened to be a family of five heading to the same place we were. “Hop up in back!” they said, and off we went for the bumpiest, most painful truck-bed ride EVER. But, we got there in I'm sure a fourth of the time it would have taken us to walk, and the family was super nice, stopping to show us an awesome little river spot on the way. No plan plan still functioning? Yes. We walked through the park a bit, and it was GORGEOUS. The trail leads up a big mountain, from which you can see all the surrounding little sierra towns. From there we met up with Nico, who told us to head to the waterfall while it was still nice, so we hiked another half hour or so to the most gorgeous sight we've seen in a while- a huge waterfall coming down from the mountains. We got to swim, sit on a rock in the sun, and it was amazing. Afterward we spent a couple hours helping Nico and his girlfriend make traps to capture the reptiles out of tarps, dirt, string, and sticks. We were busy working, and by the time we looked at the time, it was already 8 pm! The park was closed, there was no one to drive us back out, and it was starting to get

dark. So, Renae and I took off running (literally) back down the trail. Luckily we made it out before it got too dark, hopping over the gate at the entrance just in time. Unfortunately we were still faced with the problem of how to make it back to the city, without a bus back to Tanti. We stopped at a little family-run campground to buy much needed water and cookies, and asked the older woman running it how we could possibly make it back without the bus, phone service to call a taxi, or light in which to walk. Somehow it just so happened that her son had to drive to nearby Carlos Paz later on that night, from where we could catch a bus. As always, someone was looking out for us, and we had found our ticket out of there! We spent the next couple hours sitting at a little plastic table on the family's patio, under a roof made of vines with the most delicious grapes, talking about life, travel, and the BeeGee's with the woman and her son. So, needless to say that although we were worried about ourselves for a bit there, and wondered if we'd have to sleep under a tree without food or water, everything turned out for the best and instead of learning our lesson from our lack of planning it was further cemented in our heads that this is how the best adventures come to be.

Well, that's all I've got for now; it's time to go love up on the kids for one of the last times :(
Hope everyone's doing great back home in the cold, if it helps it's been raining pretty much every day here so unfortunately we're not soaking up 100 degree weather anymore either.

Wondering how two whole Cordobese months passed without me noticing,
Jenna Flynn

One half of a journey

Well, we made it to the half-way point. We're still living in the foreigner house in Cordoba, on a very small weekly budget, trying to save up money and energy for when we continue moving around every couple of days again. We were busy all last week filling up every possible time-slot with volunteering. I am still working with the Applied Zoology Center in the zoo during the weekday mornings. We started a part of the project to look at hormones in the egg-yolks of the Rhea, so I spent hours last week thawing frozen dinosaur-sized eggs and taking yolk samples. The I got to see some of the labs on the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba campus to complete some other steps of the experiment (all of which most of you do NOT want me to go into depth about, so I'll spare you). The university is starting to become full of students returning from summer vacation, and it makes me miss school like crazy! Who would've thought...


An Update from Jenna: I am still going to the Ronald McDonald sala every morning. The parents are starting to use the facilities, one by one, and I'm loving seeing the whole thing develop. I have gotten to know the parents, the other volunteers (including Juan, the 65 year old volunteer who gives me Spanish poetry lessons), and the cleaning guy Esteban. I even got to run the sala by myself for one whole day this week, which I am pretty proud of. So other than the morning I had to make the half hour trek to the hospital in the pouring rain, all is good.


For both of us, it has been an eye-opening experience to learn about some of the inner-workings of the hospital, the zoo, and science labs of this Argentine city. The standards of quality and cleanliness here, for example, are completely different from those in the states. To give you some examples: the entire zoo has only one veterinarian, there are stray dogs and homeless people roaming the children's hospital, as well as families posting up the halls with folding chairs, and, while we were running our experiments in the biochem lab on campus, the power kept cutting in and out forcing students and researchers to pause experiments and lose data. Some things you would never imagine being negotiable, we definitely take for granted in the U.S. Consider yourself VERY lucky.

During the evenings, we still do 5 hours with the community center kids, with whom, after weeks of tag, poster-making, games of ninja and lightning, we've become best friends. We only have 2 weeks left with them before we head south, and we're already dreading having to leave them. We'll also have to say goodbye to our pet bird in a few weeks, as we probably can't get away with taking an egret on the bus. She is growing like crazy though, and will hopefully be able to fly before we leave. I couldn't afford to fill her huge appetite with hamburgers anymore, so I switched to chicken entrails. I'm not sure what kind of a killer-bird I'm raising by feeding it other bird parts...

Mala Ala also learned how to jump out of her box. In this picture Jenna caught her hanging out in the closet with our packs.

Last Thursday, we decided to take advantage of another opportunity to help. A group called g.a.n.a.s. (I put the foundation details under our time-line tab in case your interested) meets every Tuesday and Thursday nights in a plaza near downtown to hand out food to the homeless in the streets of Cordoba. On Thursday we showed up, not exactly knowing what it would entail, but were immediately humbled by the long, patient line of men, women, and children, with all their belongings in duffle bags, backpacks, and plastic bags, waiting to be served a meal of rice and sausage out of big serving coolers. After feeding this bunch, we rolled the coolers around the streets downtown, looking for others who needed dinner that night. Many of them were regulars, and we could see that the g.a.n.a.s. volunteers had developed genuine friendships with them. Everyone receiving food, which was a small plastic tray filled with rice and a chunk of bread, was very gracious. Some of the people we served included families with small children. On Tuesday we went again, and this time hopped in a car with some volunteers to go to other parks and plazas further away. We met people living on mattresses in the streets, on benches in the park, and in cardboard boxes under bridges. With this opportunity to go up and actually get to know them, our hearts were blown wide open. These people were as nice as anyone else we've met along this journey: telling jokes, asking about our trip, and opening up about their stories. We woke up one man sleeping on a piece of foam in the middle of the park to ask him if he wanted to eat. As he was eating, the volunteer asked him, concerned, if the rain bothered him, as his foam and blanket were wet from the rain earlier that day. The man answered, “What rain?!” and then smiled and continued to eat his meal. The whole experience is one we will never forget. Just when we thought we had seen the worst of what life can deal, God put another realm of people in need in front of us. Experiences like that definitely make us look at life through a new lens by humbling our hearts and opening our eyes to other struggles. I am constantly realizing just how blessed I have been during this life, and I hope God can continue to show Jenna and I the ways we can give back. 


127 days, the half-way point of our journey, and still we're being surprised by the things put in our path, our expectations never failing to be surpassed. With everything we've already learned, all of the things we've experienced, and everyone we've met, I cannot believe were only half-way done. What else does God have to show us? What other crazy plans and people can we stumble across? Whatever it may be, bring it on. I don't think any plan, situation, or dream would be out of the question now. That being said, a huge part of our strength and courage to do all this comes from the love, support, and prayers we get from back home, and for that, at this half-way mark, I want to say thank you. I couldn't be more grateful. It has been a blessing in disguise to be so far away from everyone I love, showing me just how important they are in my life. And guess what... now there's only one half of the trip left until we're back to squeeze the life out of everyone we've been missing!! So watch out, the countdown has begun...


Love,
Nae



P.S. This week we had to watch some of our housemates pack up and head back to their countries. Kanya from Australia and Marcia and Renato from Brasil completed their 6 weeks of the volunteering program in what felt like the blink of an eye. We had an asado the night before their flights to top of the amazing adventure of living in this United Nations household. We all stumbled through our spanish goodbyes, and even though it is hard to say exactly what you want to say in another language, the message was clear: we had all come to learn from one another, and love one another. As Jenna said as we said our last goodbye, “Something very special happened in this house”. Cultures were shared, language barriers torn down, and, in only 6 weeks, we made close friendships with people from all across the world, and we will always remember our time in Cordoba for that especially.