February 22, 2007 Update

February 22, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has passed and we are doing great. I hope all well with every one of you in the U.S.

Our first week with the baby has gone really well. I have recovered very quickly from Joseph’s birth and Joseph is such a quiet, sweet little guy. He rarely makes a sound unless he is hungry or has the hiccups. As of Tuesday, he had already gained 9 ounces. When I walk with him in his sling, the people here are very concerned that he is squished or hot; however, he is very comfortable and snug just as my other babies were in it.

We are continuing to get more settled into our rent house. We purchased a refrigerator and a stove, so now we can cook and store food. The diet here is different from what we are used to, but the food is very good. I will have to learn to cook with the ingredients that are available here. For instance, our Argentinian friends who speak a little English have never even heard of peanut butter, or peanuts for that matter, as they are nonexistent here. We have been eating lots of dulce de leche (something like caramel that is made from milk and sugar and used to eat with all sorts of breads and cookies), polenta (like grits) with meat, milanesas (like chicken fried steak, but more Italian) with rice, fruit, eggs, and of course lots and lots of pan (bread). The diet here does not have much variety, but the food is good and carne (beef) is the cheapest and most available meat. Barbequing meat is very popular, but we haven’t done that yet; however, we did have some at Gabriella’s parent’s house. One of our new friends, Noelia, a baker, is going to teach me how to cook some things on Sabado (Saturday), which may expand our current diet a little.

They do things differently in the stores here. In the meat department, all the meat is laying in the case in huge pieces or slabs. The customer tells the butcher what type of meat and how much he or she wants and it is all cut there in front of you. You can tell the butcher exactly how thick you want your steaks, etc. I like this feature a lot. Furthermore, in the fruit department, there are bags that you fill with however much fruit or veggies that you want and then the attendant ties your bag closed and weighs and prices it. The eggs are sitting on a shelf or in a basket unrefrigerated and fresh from some local farmer. The customer takes as many eggs as he or she wants and puts them into a bag or carton. At the bakery, the bread is sitting out in baskets or in the display case and you have to tell the attendant what kind and how much you want and they weigh it out and price it for you. The one feature that we don’t like as much is the unrefrigerated ultra pasteurized milk. The milk isn’t that bad if you take it home and refrigerate it, but it will be nice when we have some fresh milk again.

Dane left for Buenos Aires with Elijah on a bus last night because our vehicle was supposed to arrive on the ship this Friday and the lawyer wanted him to come early to begin the paperwork process; however, he called this afternoon and said that the ship has been delayed until Monday. Due to this, he may leave there this evening and be back tomorrow morning. It would be cheaper for him to come home and head back there Sunday night than to stay in a hotel there for the weekend. Buenos Aires is a much more expensive place to stay than Obera.

I know many of you would like more pictures. We have not sent many because they are so large and we don’t want to tie up your computers all day downloading pictures, so we will send a few at a time.

I better stop writing for now and will try to write again soon. Take care.

Jessica



Sarah at the back door of our house.

Abby filling water bottles in our bathroom.

Dane’s office in our bedroom.

All our boys in our bed with Elisabeth in the background.

And me at our kitchen sink.

***I’ll have to get a picture of Dane to send to you so you can see how much weight he has already lost from all the walking. I keep teasing him that I’ve already lost about 30 pounds (from having the baby of course), but pretty soon he is going to need some suspenders, at least I have my regular nonmaternity clothes.

**************Reading this old email, I realize how ignorant we really were when we first arrived here in Argentina. For instance, they do know what peanuts are here. They are called mani and they do sell them in the stores and our neighbors even grow them. However, peanut butter is something they are not familiar with. The peanut butter that my dad sent from Florida was a big hit with the English students that we met in Obera. They were very excited to try something they have seen on television as a popular food in the U.S.. I'm not sure if it is available in other parts of Argentina.**************