March 31, 2007

I know that this update has been a long time coming. I actually started it a month ago, but time seems to be on fast forward here. I can’t believe that we have already been here for two months.

Dane went to Buenos Aires and has returned. We all missed him while he was gone for nearly two weeks, but he did make it back with all of our things and didn’t even have to pay a bribe for them. What an adventure that was for him. He will tell you all about it in his update that he is working on.

The children and I carried on here without Dane. We walked to town and back a few times, which was slow because David is slow and all over the place, but nevertheless we made it and didn’t have any problems. We went to the Jardin de Los Pajaros (Garden of the Birds) here the same Sunday that Dane and Elijah went to the zoo in Buenos Aires and we all enjoyed that very much. One night when I took Elisabeth to the bathroom, I saw the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life. I closed the door behind Elisabeth and me, and when we turned to leave, there they were! The two spiders were larger than my hand and could have made a meal out of a mouse. Needless to say, I had a hard time opening the door again, but when I mustered up the courage, I ran in the house and returned to the bathroom to give them a large dousing of cucaracha spray. Thankfully, the spiders ran off out of the bathroom.

We have had requests for more pictures of our rent house and new pictures of the baby, so I hope to include them in this update. We did discover after we finally ventured into the overgrown backyard of the house that we have two lime trees, two orange trees, a mango tree, an avocado tree, three peach trees, mandioca (cassava plants from which mandioca and tapioca are harvested), a squash or gourd vine, a banana tree, and something else that I can’t remember the name of, but the neighbor said it was dulce (sweet). The children spent an afternoon picking green oranges and limes and squeezing there own juice. What fun. Our neighbor with the chickens also has a guava tree and some other fruit that resembles a fig, but tastes like a banana. What a blessing to find these things! We had no idea that our rented house had such a goldmine of produce around it.

The front of our house and Abby.

Flowers in our yard in front (above). And part of our backyard (below).

The children are doing great. We have finally gotten back to our homeschooling and this week the children are starting to get into a comfortable routine with it. The baby is growing and is such a sweet one. David, our baby genius, who turned two this week is talking up a storm in full sentences and riding Elisabeth’s bike with training wheels all over the house. He runs the bicycle into the wall on purpose in order to do what he proclaims is a, “pop a wheeie!” The girls are a tremendous help with everything, and Elijah loves having the opportunity to help his father with all the things he has been working on.

Joseph at five weeks.

(above) Joseph at six weeks. (below) All the children last night (notice the red dirt on the boys pants and the girls feet – if you live here your children will never be clean for more than 10 minutes)

Since Dane has been back from Buenos Aires, he has made life a little easier here at the house. He plumbed water into the house so that we now have water from a faucet at the kitchen sink. He also rigged me up a hose so that I could fill the washing machine without having to haul buckets of water (running water is so nice, particularly when you don’t have to carry it from place to place, but have it just where you need it, when you need it). He also put some shelves up in the house, so that we could unpack some things and get some things off the floor. I especially appreciate the arrival of some of the things that we shipped from the U.S, namely; towels, plates, and cooking utensils.

Dane has been able to make frequent trips out to the chachra and has begun some work out there. He began by clearing a path in the weeds with a machete and the 4Runner and today he bought a weed eater and took it out there. We hope that the construction of the barn will begin soon. It has been delayed for various reasons up to this point, but it will go up very quickly once the guys get started on it.

We will have to make a trip soon to get the necessary signature on Joseph’s birth certificate that can only be given by one man in Posadas (95 kilometers away). Without this man’s signature, Dane nor I will be granted residency in Argentina based on Joseph’s birth. In addition, we will have to go together to Buenos Aires to the American embassy to get Joseph’s CROBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad). If we can’t get to Buenos Aires for a while, we may try to get his Argentine passport and wait until we come to the U.S. to apply for his U.S. documentation.

Furthermore, we continue to be humbled and realize how spoiled we have been. We have visited several farms lately and have seen some very different ways of existence. Homes here are very small and some families on the farms live in single roomed shacks with dirt floors. The people make things out of any available materials and they often don’t have running water. These people don’t complain and are very gracious hosts. Visiting with them and seeing their homes have made me realize that there are so many things that I have taken for granted in my life of convenience. I am thankful to God for opening my eyes through these experiences.

I have so much more to say, but this email needs to be sent out. I will try to get another update out soon. Take care.

Jessica

An update from Argentina 3-9-07

Hello all, sorry this is so late, it is long but a lot of stuff happened. I hope it does not bore you but it is a good example of how things work here.

I finally got back from getting my truck and things from the port in Buenos Aires (BA). This is one story to tell about how things seem to work here.

The ship was scheduled to arrive on the 23^rd of February with our things and our lawyer, Gonzalo, in BA wanted me to be there a few days earlier to try and get some paperwork done and be prepared when the ship arrived. The ship was reporting to be on time so I left that Wednesday evening (2-21-07). I decided to take Elijah with me for company and so that he could see everything that was going on. I went to the bus station and got one ticket and they said Elijah could share the seat with me since he was young. The bus ride is about 12 hours and Elijah slept well but I did not because he was in my lap. We arrived in BA the next morning (2-22-07) and went straight to Gonzalo’s office and checked on the arrival of the shipment and low and behold, it was not going to arrive until Monday the 26^th. So with nothing else really to do there, I decided that I would save some money by taking a bus home and go back to Buenos Aires again on Monday. Because the bus station in Obera let Elijah share a seat with me, it only cost $126 pesos for the trip and the cheapest hotel in BA that I could find was $80 Pesos per night. This coupled with the fact that Jessica was home alone with the rest of the children and the new baby, I wanted to go back to Obera. Elijah and I went to the bus station in BA and I went to a bus line that had whole beds (cama total) on the bus, I thought that if we could share a bed then it would be much more comfortable for me on the way back. The beds are about $24 pesos more than the recliners (semi-cama exectivo). So when I got to the window for Singer (the bus line with the beds), they told me that Elijah could not ride with me because he is 5 and only 4 and under can ride with a parent. I tried to plead my case but I did not succeed and I did not want to spent another $150 pesos so I went to another line, Via Bariloche (the one I used to go to BA) and they told me the same thing, that I was going to have to buy a seat for Elijah. After I pleaded in very bad Spanish, and showed them my ticket going to Buenos Aires, they relented and allowed me to purchase only one ticket. This worked out pretty well because the bus was mostly empty so we each got our own seat and I slept better that night. We made it back to Obera that Friday morning and all seemed to be going well until I got a phone call from Gonzalo about7:30 that evening and he had a new development.

Gonzalo had hired a customs broker to help him handle our case at customs, he felt that the agent would streamline the process and generally speed things up. Well the broker took our packing list to customs and the customs officer said that we were trying to bring things into the country that are not considered tourist items. The agent said that if I could apply for residency (apparently if you can import more things as a resident or at least as someone who has applied for residency), bring them the residency application and $3,000 then he would let me have my things. Yes, I said $3,000, and that was US dollars. I was shocked and I told Gonzalo that we probably just needed to send the things back; our whole shipment is not worth $3,000 (in the US). Wow, Jessica and I had been concerned about this shipment for a long time. We had invested a lot of time and money into getting everything just right (as far as we knew) and with everything starting to wear on us being in this new culture, this was really very unsettling news. We were very careful to only ship things that would be needed for camping as a tourist which would allow us to import the things without paying any duties. I remembered that Natalia (the escribana who has been helping us) said that they had a friend who was a customs broker in Obera so I called her to see if there was any way that we could enter the things through customs in Obera. Well apparently all things like this have to clear customs in Buenos Aires. Natalia also called a lawyer friend of hers who used to work customs in Buenos Aires and he said he was surprised that the agents were asking for the coima (bribe) prior to the ship even arriving. The lawyer friend said that the bribe usually happens after the ship arrives. None of this was very comforting, we could not call anyone to explore other options in the US or in Buenos Aires because it was late Friday evening so Jessica and I had the weekend to think about this before I left Sunday night to go back to BA and actually deal with this.

So Elijah and I booked another bus, this time we paid for 2 beds, I was very tired from the previous trip and I wanted to be rested when we started to deal with this new surprise. Before we left Jessica and I were coming to grips with the fact that we might have to pay a big chunk of money to get our things out of customs. The way we saw it at the time, we had already spend about 2000 USD to ship the things there plus the value of the things and there is no way we could replace them here for that much money. Our options were really very few, we could either comply with them (looks like 3000 USD), or let them confiscate our things (0 USD but no things) or ship them back (2000 USD or more and no things). I did not sleep well that weekend. I want to note here with hindsight that my attitude about this whole thing was very selfish and I was not trusting in the Lord but I was relying on my own judgment and understanding to solve this crisis, this was the real problem, I do not believe that my trusting in the Lord is going to afford me personal gain but that it is my obligation as a Christian. It is all too easy to be moved out of the way when such small trials present themselves (this will be a lesson learned for me, Praise the Lord).

The time arrived for us to go to the bus station and this time the whole family went to see Elijah and me off. The bus that is qued up has a Buenos Aires on the display in front so I am thinking that this might be our bus. It is always a little awkward boarding a bus here because we cannot communicate well so what typically happens is, as did in this case, I approach the driver (or whoever it is that appears to be checking the tickets) and just give him the ticket and try and figure out what it is he is going to tell me. This time I think the driver told me that I needed to board the other bus in about 15 minutes (really for all I know, he could have said I need to board in 15 minutes or there won’t be another bus). So we waited around wondering if that is our bus or if there is going to be another one in 15 minutes. The other bus does show up and I gave the driver our tickets and he indicated that this is the right bus and so Elijah and I get on. The driver told us to go up and this confused me a little because I thought I had booked 2 beds on the bottom but I went on in and went up the stairs. On top, we found our seat numbers but not only are they not beds but they are small “cheap seats”. Ok, I am thinking, I need to go and try and figure out what is going on. I talked to some people inside the station and after several attempts, I think that we are supposed to change busses in Posadas (the capital of Misiones about 100 Km away). I explained all this to Jessica who is waiting with the baby and 4 children and we got on the bus. Everything went pretty smoothly with the help of a couple of other people who were on the same travel plan as we were and they helped make sure we got switched over to the right bus. I have noticed that when people know or perceive that we are having problems or need help someone seems to show up to help us, this has been a real blessing all along the way. The bus ride went pretty well until we got to Buenos Aires where there was a major accident on the only major freeway going into the city from that direction. I found out later that a truck ran into a pedestrian bridge and knocked it down. We were at a complete standstill and we were expecting the ship to arrive that morning. After being stuck for about an hour and a half I contacted Jessica to see if she could discuss our options with the shipping company and perhaps bypass or at least make a new run at the customs office. Jessica talked to several people and it was becoming pretty clear that we did not have many options. So after about 4 and a half hours the traffic started moving again and we were on our way to meet Gonzalo in his office.

When we arrived, Gonzalo was ready to move full steam ahead with making my application for residency, which would take at least 2 days, so that we could have all the paperwork we might need when we deal with customs. Once the ship arrives, the port charges you per day per cubic meter so any delays in customs or wherever were just going to be costing money. First we called the receiving company to confirm that the ship has made it in as scheduled and, guess what, it won’t be there until the 28^th 2 days later. So apparently, ships are very unpredictable and they really don’t communicate well either. This ship left the Bahamas several weeks prior and has had no other stops, you would think they would be able to estimate their location and speed better than that but at least this gives us a few days to get the residency permit filed and be ready. At this point I decided to make my case to Gonzalo who was convinced and adamant that we were bringing things not consistent with a tourist. Gonzalo said that the customs officers had concerns about several things that were a problem and that we were not going to be able to explain away like the garrafa (large steel tank), the 48 swords, and the drill. I told Gonzalo that I don’t know what a garrafa is, I am not bringing 48 swords, nor am I bringing a drill. He looked at me a little puzzled and then got out our translated packing list that I sent to him by email. At this point, I got out our packing list in English so that I could see what he was talking about. The first item that was a concern, the garaffa, was a Gatorade thermos (about a 2 gallon thermos), after a quick explanation to Gonzalo about what that was he said OK well that will be simple to explain but how can we explain the 48 swords. We both turned to the place where he was referring and what was there was 48 razor blades for my utility/carpet knife. Well apparently when this was translated, it came across as knives for cutting carpet and in Argentina, they use big swords for cutting carpet. Now aside from me being very curious about how in the heck do you cut carpet with a sword, I could see what the problem was. I then explained for the next half hour or so what these little old rusty handful of utility blades were that I have had since 2001 when I graduated college, that most of the things on the packing list could fit in a small toolbox and weren’t worth 15 USD new but could be handy as a tourist if I needed to make some repairs while camping in the jungle. The last issue to settle was the drill which Gonzalo pointed out was a perforadora on the list. In Argentina, a perforadora (a hole maker) is a drill but in English, this was a punch which is certainly reasonable hand tool if you are going camping in south America. So, all these things in a new light, I had some relief that things were starting to look better.

So Gonzalo is now going to retranslate the packing list so that we can make a run at customs as a tourist and I agreed to proceed with the residency filing as a backup plan. Gonzalo is still not very optimistic about things primarily because the customs broker he has hired is not very optimistic. The main reason is that the agents have already looked at our case and are expecting there to be problems and are thinking there is an opportunity for them to get something out of the deal. So we began all the steps to getting residency, I have all the paperwork I need; passport, criminal background report (translated with apostile), Josephs DNI (documento National de Identidad), and Josephs birth certificate. Now we need an Argentine criminal background report and a certified translation of my passport and Texas criminal records and we are good to go. We went to the place to get my Argentine criminal history and they were not taking any more people that day so we had to wait until the morning and we got the other papers to the translators so they should be ready the next day so we should have everything we need the next day then we can go to the immigration office and make the filing.

Tuesday morning, first we called the receiving company about the container and it won’t be there until the 1^st, so we have another day or two or three, now I know why they told us over and over that they don’t guarantee arrival times. So we went to the criminal history office and took a number, our number was 320 something and they were on 100 or so and this was about 10:30 in the morning. I asked Gonzalo what time they opened and he said about 8:00. I said that if it took them 2 ½ hours to see 100 people, then we aren’t going to get in until 2 or 3 o’clock that afternoon. He did not think so, so we went around the corner for a coffee (the thing to do in Buenos Aires) and went back to the office about an hour later and they were on number ……. 140. So we were going to come back that afternoon, in the mean time we went over the retranslated packing list to be sure there were no other items that might cause problems. We should have all the documents that we need and we will be ready to go to immigration first thing Thursday morning to make the filing. The immigration offices open at 7:30 am and close for the day at 1:00. The ship is still scheduled and now confirmed to be arriving on the 1^st which is Thursday. We have not had much time but things seem to be working out.

Thrusday Morning, we show up at the immigration office when it opens and wait a little bit, our number comes up and we see our agent and everything looks good …… except for one thing. The officer wants us to have the signature on Josephs birth certificate legalized. So we go to the office where this can be done (about 20 blocks away) and low and behold the person who signed the birth certificate is not registered in the computer at Buenos Aires so they cannot legalize the document. The only solution to legalize the birth certificate is for someone in Posadas (600 miles away) who is registered in the computer to sign and legalize the birth certificate. So we went back to Immigration with the idea that perhaps we could get another agent and the other agent would not notice or ask for the same thing but when we got there, we got a different agent but the first agent was helpful enough to remember us and discuss the issue with the second agent so we are stuck. We thought perhaps we could FedEx the certificate but FedEx does not go to Misiones. We tried DHL but they have a 48 hour delivery. None of these options were going to get results before the middle of next week and there are charges at the port to think about. I thought that I could catch a bus to Posadas that night, get the paper signed on Friday (if the person was not on vacation or something) and I could be back in BA on Monday morning ready to go back to immigration. Then I remembered the Lord and I could see that there was only one way and that the doors were closings on any other option. There are none that have authority that is not from that Lord, this includes the customs agents. I had been living the last 6 days without prayer or thinking of the ways of the Lord and now all of a sudden I understood that I needed to relax and trust him and that He had made a way for us thus far on our journey and without so many road blocks and difficulties. I was relying on the reason and efforts of men and got wrapped up in all of that so I told Gonzalo that tomorrow (Friday – it was after 4 and customs was closed) I wanted to go to customs; I could go by myself, and just see what the Lord has in store. Gonzalo did not think that was a good idea but I insisted a couple of times and he still did not think it was a good idea. I told him that if the Lord will make a way then there will be a way. He said he wanted to talk to his customs broker and see what she recommended since it looked like the residency thing was out of the picture any time soon. He talked to her and guess what she recommended, she recommended that we go down to customs alone and just see what happens just like I had told him; although he acted like it was a new idea and asked me if I was willing to do that. I told him yes that that is exactly what I wanted to do. There are still a lot of hurdles ahead but now I am back to doing what I am supposed to be doing; trusting the Lord, whatever the outcome, I am going to be a lot better and there is a big weight lifted from my shoulders.

Friday morning, we went Vanguard (the receiving company that handles all the paperwork at port) and paid them and got a receipt for clearing the container through customs. At Vangaurd they needed some document notarized so we went to get this document and paid Vanguard. By the time this was finished, it was about 11:30 and we went to customs but they were closed for lunch. Gonzalo knocked on the door and the guy that opened the door knew Gonzalo and let us in and looked over our paper work and said it looked good and for us to come back after lunch. When we went in after lunch, the clerk sent us to one of the customs agents who looked over our packing list and said that it was too complicated and that we should just put a car and a trailer for camping. All the documents were signed and filled out and we were done with customs. That was it, no problems, no bribes and ready to go. There was still an inspection to do but I was confident that that would go well. So with our clearance from customs I went to the terminal (it is about 5:00 Friday Afternoon) to see if I could unload the container and the people there said that they were still working the ship and it would not be ready to start releasing containers until Monday. So I am going to have to spend another weekend in Buenos Aires away from Jessica and the children.

On Saturday, we rested.

On Sunday, Elijah and I went to the Zoo in Buenos Aires. This was fun for us both. All the zoo’s I have been to do not want the patrons to feed the animals (aside from the petting zoo or something) however this zoo relies heavily on the patrons feeding the animals. So, except for the bears and tigers and such, the animals (elephants, rihno’s, camels, deerlike animals, monkeys, etc) are all waiting for the passersby to throw them some food. This was very interesting in some parts and very concerning in others where the animals looked to be malnourished. All in all, it was fun.

Monday morning (March 4, 2007), we went to the terminal to get the container and we found out that we need to hire a bonded warehouse to take our container out of port and handle the inspection. We went to a couple of these locations and found one that would do it Manana. It is funny because when everyone is talking in Spanish so fast that I cannot follow, I always seem to pick up that word out of the conversation. It meant another day in Buenos Aires.

Tuesday morning, we went to the warehouse to get the container and we found the container and were going to open it. There was a problem, the seal on the container did not match the number on the paperwork. There was obviously a typo where the first digit in the 10 digit number was not the same. It looked like for a minute that they were not going to let us open the container but since I had the key to the lock on the container, it was clearly mine and they agreed to let us open the container. So we opened the container, and I drove the truck out of the container, the customs agent looked the car over for about 10 minutes and said Ok it is good to go. Whew, this should be it, ready to leave and get back to Obera. We went into the office of the bonded warehouse to pay and get the release and they said there was a problem. There was some piece of paper missing that showed the container was released from the port to the warehouse and we needed to go back to the customs office and get this paperwork. AAAARRRRRGGGGG. So we went back to customs and got in just before they closed and after waiting a little, we got the document and permission to keep the vehicle here for 8 months but when whoever it was that gave us permission signed the documents, they put a note requiring another inspection from someone in another department. Double AAAAARRRRGGGG. We went back to the bonded warehouse and gave the customs agent there the paperwork hoping he would not notice the note but of course he did. He said we need to go get the other agent at an office about 8 blocks away it was after 5:00 by this point and the other agent had gone for the day so we were going to have to wait until tomorrow for the other inspection. Manana again. The other inspection is really rather stupid because I have been in and out of the truck and trailer and it has been out of the container most of the day where I or someone else could add or remove things from it. I drove the truck back into the container for safe keeping overnight and went back to the hostel.

Wednesday morning, we went to the office where the other agent was to take him to inspect the shipment and he said that he needed written instructions before he could go, we showed him the note from the customs agent who made the request but he said we had to get the his order from a particular person in an office downtown. So we went to the office and after spending some time finding the right person, he made a little note on the back on a piece of paper and handed it to us. I want to say here that all these documents and things we are getting from these government agencies have no other records, we have the 1 and only copy to all of these documents and in many cases there are no documents, just one guy telling another to do something a certain way. So with the “work order” in hand we went and picked up the other inspector and took him to the warehouse. I opened the container (before the agent was there) and when he got there I pulled out the truck and he looked at the vin number on the truck and said OK, good to go. That was it. I had to wait a whole day for basically nothing. I paid the warehouse and after spending 3 hours getting a signature from what seemed like everyone who works in the bonded warehouse, I was allowed to leave. So not knowing how much gas I had, I went to the service station, dropped off Gonzalo near his office and hit the road. It took me about 18 hours driving time because the truck was struggling a bit with the load and I drove straight through (with a little 1 hour nap early in the morning). I got one ticket for Elijah being in the front seat (only people 10 and over can ride in the front apparently) and made it home the next morning.

The Lord made a way for this, although it was very difficult and when I got home, I was doubting whether it was worth it or not but I made it home. Well that is the story and if anyone wants to import your vehicle as a tourist, I could give you a lot of pointers on how to make it a lot easier. From start to finish, it took 2 weeks and 2 trips to Buenos Aires and back. I praise the Lord and thank Him for His mercy on me and my family.

There is more to come. I would like to tell you all about Buenos Aires some time and about some of the other things that took place while I was there, perhaps in another email.

In Christ,

Dane Donaldson and Family