Recently we said 'see you later' to Felipe, one of the young adults at our church. Felipe battled a degenerative muscular disease throughout his life and was a great example of perseverance and faithfulness. He trusted in Christ firmly- and his phrase for life was 'Viva la Vida'-  Live life! We mourn with his parents, and yet also rejoice at the prospect of seeing him again in the new creation, running and jumping like never before.

Back from Chile

I got back yesterday from a short trip to Chile. I went over to teach a 3 day intensive at the CEP- Centre for Pastoral Studies of the Anglican Church. Julie went with me for the weekend, to spend time with our friends, the Charles.

A few impressions of Chile-

# everything seemed much tidier, more ordered  and cleaner than in Argentina.

# they actually had prices printed on the tickets of clothing- not just a sticker with the price. We don't see that in Argentina where we have 25% inflation.

#the mountains around Santiago are spectacular (and they are real mountains, not just hills), still with snow on the highest parts.

# there is more variety of international food than we have in Córdoba... we even ate 'proper' Chinese!

Wedding stress

A week ago we went to the wedding of a young couple from church. In Argentina, the church is not able to 'legally' marry (not even the Catholic church). You have to be married by a judge. Some people opt to go to the civil registry a few days before the wedding,  whilst others have the judge come to the wedding and officiate there.

At this wedding, the judge had arrived at the reception venue for the 7.15pm civil service. Tension started to rise as the bride was nowhere to be seen and the 15 minute tolerance period ran out. We were left wondering as the judge disappeared... she had an another appointment no doubt. But we were relieved to learn that she was going to return at 9pm to try again. Fortunately the second time around the bride was present. And all went off without a hitch- including fireworks to celebrate the nuptials.

One of the cultural differences to weddings here in Córdoba is that many have a 'tarjeta' ... that is, that the guests pay to be there. It is not common in other parts of Argentina but here in Córdoba it has almost become the norm, although the amount they ask varies greatly. It does somehow change the wedding experience- it is hard not to spend the time critiquing the wedding as to whether we are getting value for money (and also makes you think twice about leaving early!).

Easy to forget

I was reminded today of how easily we forget that life here is different. Our colleague Amy had to obtain her police check for her visa, which involved having to line up in the national bank to pay the fees... we forget to mention that she really needs to take a book.

An hour or so later, she has learnt what we could have told her... bank queues are great places for finishing off your latest book!

Two firsts today!

Today I represented my faculty (Languages) for the first time- in a tennis tournament. The uni is holding the pre-olimpiadas, selecting teams to represent the university at the national level. It was a wild and windy morning which made the tennis quite a challenge.

But in the second set we had a serious distraction. A police officer apprehended a young guy just metres from our court. He had him down on the ground, gun pointed at him, shouting at him- and then even laying in a few kicks to the gut. A whole bunch of other officers then arrived on motorbikes and in cars. It was all happening.

My opponent was quite distracted by it all- and I managed to win the second set! (although  I ended up losing the match in a tie-break).

Still surprised!

Some things in Argentina still manage to surprise us. Just had a knock on the door from a guy selling cards for the 'Day of the Postie'. He wanted me to buy a card for 50 pesos (AU$10) that presumably goes towards some sort of gift for posties on their 'day' (everyone has their 'day' in Argentina).

The thing is that their 'day' was the 14th of September- apart from it being really quite expensive, I didn't really see how the money was supposedly going to get to 'my postie'. And we couldn't really say the postal service here is worth writing home about!

I have a slight fear that our door has now been marked with a special sign- and that we won't be getting any more mail for quite some time!

It´s Black and White

Freak weather patterns are here in Córdoba.

In this past week of WINTER (here in South America the change to Spring occurs on the 21st of  September) we have experienced seering 41 degree heat ... hot northern winds, and devastating bushfires.

One particular locality near the city of Córdoba lost a third of its town to the fires, leaving 30 families homeless.

However within the same week, the temperatures have dropped by 40 degrees. The same locations where homes were destroyed, livestock killed and more than 50 thousand hectares of land burnt have now experienced an extraordinary event .... a blanket of snow.

Thankfully the snow  has brought the bushfire problem to an end. It also been a better outcome for local waterways than a heavy rainfall, as the contamination risk has been alleviated a little.

And to top this week off, we have experienced an earth tremor of 4.7 on the Richter Scale!

 The epicentre was close to Córdoba capital, and we were all conscious of the solid shaking we received (though nothing compared with what our Chilean friends live with!). The shake occurred at 10.30pm, and felt like there had been an explosion or serious car accident nearby, as the ground shook and windows rattled.