Donaldson Family Homestead: May 2007

May 5, 2007

Hello from Misiones, Argentina. A few weeks have passed and we have lots to tell about our adventures here, so much so, that I’m not even sure where to start.

First of all, we have not gotten much done on the chacra, but we are making all kinds of plans. The quotation from the electric company to get electricity out there is pretty expensive, so Dane has been researching hydroelectric power and other sources of alternative energy. He visited with Professor Dick Barney at the Engineering University here in Obera, who has been building hydroelectric turbines for 30 years, and he offered some of his students to help Dane when he begins the construction of ours (sounds like fun!). Senor Barney also has a truck that runs on ethanol and he told Dane that if he grew a hectare of sugar cane and bought a distiller than he could produce more fuel than he could use in a year, so, as you can imagine, Dane is very excited about the possibilities. In the meantime, while the hydroelectric project is being planned we are going to try to get out on the land using a generator and some batteries for electricity.

In addition, the water pump is also going out on the 4Runner and Dane has not been able to find a replacement in Argentina. A man at the auto parts store has been calling around and wants Dane to take the pump off the truck so he can try and match it up with something; hence, we will be without a vehicle for a while again and that will keep us from getting to the chacra too, but we have plenty of time. Dane has taken some great pictures when he has been out there.

Hacking through the monte, we found…..

a spring….

and Elisabeth.

David nearly lost two of his toes in one of the bicycles. He was sitting in a chair while Elijah was getting on his bicycle and swung his foot into the gear mechanism of the bike right as Elijah took off. When Elijah heard David scream, he quickly got off the bicycle and dropped it, jerking David out of the chair. Two of David’s toes on his left foot, the little one and the one next to it were caught in the gear and completely severed except for a small piece of skin on the underside of each. We got him to the hospital and they were not real hopeful that they could be sewn back on until after they viewed the x-rays. Remarkably both toes were severed at the joints and neither bone had been broken, so two hours later they put him under anesthesia and sewed them back on. The surgeon told us to make sure that the toes continued to have circulation in them and to come back immediately if they turned black. Amazingly, he was on his feet running after four days, and his toes appear better each day. We have before and after pictures that we debated about sending, but they are pretty gruesome. If you want to see them, let us know.

Furthermore, we made a couple of trips to Posadas (90 kilometers away), the capital of Misiones, in attempt to get our residency paperwork filed and to get Joseph’s documentation and passport; however, both trips produced nothing. We needed three things in Posadas: to apply for Joseph’s Argentine passport, to get Joseph’s birth certificate legalized so that it would be accepted in Buenos Aires when we filed our residency paperwork, and to get a Certificate of Good Behavior. The first time we went to the Federal Police they would not process a passport application for Joseph because the Registry of Persons here in Obera had made a mistake on Joseph’s DNI card (like a social security card) and the mistake would have to be fixed in Obera. So, we went to the Police Station to get our Certificate of Good Behavior to show that we have not committed any crimes in Argentina since we have been here, and found out that we would need another form from Obera to do so. Next, we went to get Joseph’s birth certificate legalized at the Ministry Interior, but they sent us to the Registry of Persons on the other side of the city – the office was open, but the people were on strike and would not help anyone that came in. Because of these things, we left Posadas without accomplishing anything. We spent the next few days getting Joseph’s DNI card corrected and obtaining a form from the police department in Obera. A week later we went back to Posadas thinking we had what we needed to get some work done. We went back to the Federal Police to apply for Joseph’s Argentine passport; however, their machine was broken and they said to come back in a week. The next stop was the police station for our good behavior certificates, but we arrived five minutes after they closed (I had no idea that they closed for siesta an hour before everyone else). Hoping to achieve at least one of the things that we needed to get done, we went to the Registry of Persons only to find that their office was again on strike for another week and a half. We left Posadas again without accomplishing anything. In the meantime, we have to have our documents retranslated and legalized here in Argentina because I had them done in the U.S. I should have known better, but since it looks like it might take a while to get the things done in Posadas that we need for the residency application, we have plenty of time.

We got our tourists visas renewed for another three months. After spending days trying to decide how we were going to cross the border with our large family and avoid taking our vehicle with Texas license plates just for new stamps, the Lord showed mercy on us and our neighbor who works for emigration here, arranged for us to drive to the Argentina – Brasil border to get stamps on this side of the border. The military personnel at the border were very kind and stamped our passports as if we had left the country and then returned again without our actually having to cross over to Brasil. This saved us a lot of money and time.

We now know that we can get packages without having to go all the way to Buenos Aires to get them. We went to the post office three weeks ago and there was a form in our box and the post office guy said that we had to go to customs in San Javier, about 45 kilometers away to get it. We went to the post office in San Javier the next week. We had to wait for about thirty minutes for a customs agent to come from down the street. When he got there, he opened the box, went through it, and charged Dane five pesos customs tax for the items in it. The customs guy was a little confused by all the toilet paper. Grandpa John and Grandma Fran had sent two jars of peanut butter and about ten Charmin to Go rolls from Florida (we are prepared and armed now for those outings to places without toilet seats and toilet paper- whew!). Dane told the man the toilet paper was a joke, but he doesn’t think the guy thought it was very funny – we did.

In addition, we have all enjoyed the many different kinds of critters around here. Everyone knows that things are big in Texas, but I bet the insects here would outsize most insects of Texan persuasion. The children have been really anxious to send some pictures of some that we have seen and some that they have collected. We will include some in this mailing and maybe another. Our neighbor’s cat has moved in with us and we all like him a lot. We try to keep him outside, but he takes every opportunity he can to get in one of the beds. We have found him sleeping with Joseph so many times that Dane joked that Joseph likes it when mommy purrs, since Joseph typically sleeps with me.

This is a moth the size of an adult’s hand in the bathroom.

This is an eighty eight butterfly that Abby found on the chacra. Dane also found one with an eighty and Sarah found an eight hundred and one.

This spider was on the wall in our bathroom. I think it is a wolf spider, but it is hard to tell because there are about a hundred baby spiders on her back. Creepy!
This tarantula was on the wall in our kitchen. We have been told they are edible, but I don’t anticipate cooking any – ever.

These two pictures are of a butterfly that Abigail caught in the house the other day. It is the size of an adult’s hand.

Here is a picture of el gato snuggling with Joseph in Joseph’s bed.

Here is another picture of el gato sleeping in Joseph’s bed.

Below are some other pictures we thought that you might enjoy.

This is a picture of David, Abby, Joseph, and Elisabeth in the front yard. The girls were trying to keep David busy after his accident because he got pretty bored sitting in a chair all day.