We're Here

February 2, 2007

Hola family and friends,

We arrived safely to Buenos Aires Friday morning January 26th very tired from the all night flight but anxious to continue on to Obera, our final destination. We made our way out of the airport with all our things without even having to go through customs (I guess that they felt sorry for us or something with all the children in tow and not understanding Castellano – crazy Americans). The day continued to be one event after another:

1) First the hotel room that we had rented for the day so that we could rest was located in a building at the top of two flights of stairs and with no elevator. There was no way to get all of our luggage (750 lbs of it) up the stairs without a tremendous amount of effort, so we talked to our taxi driver who told us that we could stow our luggage at the taxi headquarters located just a block away from the bus station that we would be leaving from that night. We dropped off our luggage to be stored and then headed to the bus station to buy our tickets to Obera that evening.
2) Once at the bus station, we had to figure out from the hundred or so bus lines there which company would have a bus traveling to Obera that night. After an hour or so we found one and purchased our tickets on Expresso Singer and got five todo cama seats (seats that lie flat like beds). We then ate lunch and rested for a while. ******Just a note to those who might travel to Argentina in the future – if you plan to travel by bus from Buenos Aires to anywhere else in Argentina carry some tissue or toilet paper with you because you will not find any in the bathrooms at the bus station except that small amount that you can purchase from the full time bathroom attendant. Furthermore, most of the toilets do not have seats on them!)
3) After resting for a while, we took a taxi to our appointment with our lawyer in Buenos Aires that we had hired to help us through the customs process when our vehicle arrives into the country. The taxi driver dropped us off and we went to the address that I thought I had memorized as being Gonzalo’s; however, when we got there, no one knew who we where talking about. We walked back many many blocks in the rain to the taxi headquarters disappointed and confused because at this point we did not realize that we had the wrong address. We thought that perhaps our lawyer had packed up and closed up shop without informing us. ***We did discover the next day that we had in fact gone to the wrong address and the lawyer had been waiting with a customs broker for our meeting.
4) We waited for an hour or so at Manuel Leon Tienda, the taxi headquarters (a very nice, clean place with toilet paper and toilet seats in the bathrooms) before they returned us and our luggage to the Retiro bus station.
5) We waited for an hour and a half at the bus station carefully guarding our mountain of things from the thousands of people there until our bus arrived.

Our trip to Obera on the bus was nice and we got some much needed rest. In fact the children fell asleep before dinner was served that night and did not awake for breakfast before we arrived in Obera the next morning.

Upon arriving at the bus station in Obera we had the chore of finding a remise (taxi) that could haul us and our things to a hotel. We checked into a hotel for the night, rested, ate, and rested some more.

The next morning we moved to another hotel around the corner and have been here (Cuatro Pinos) ever since.

Every day we have searched for a place to rent until we can build a house on the chacara (farm) and have looked for internet service so that we can stay in touch with you all at home and so that Dane can continue to work for Brown-McKee. Furthermore, we have hired a Castellano teacher, Gabriella (a third year ingles student), who comes to help us learn the language every morning and who accompanies us around town as we try and communicate our needs with the locals.

The escribiana, Natalia, who speaks very good ingles (English), arranged an appointment with her obstetrician for me this past Monday. Dr. Frontini is more than happy to deliver our baby that is due in two weeks; although, we would much rather have our baby at home. We will continue to pray about this, as either option is going to be a hard decision for us to make because of the details pertaining to both. Anyway, she did a sonogram and the baby is healthy and so am I.

We are all doing well and getting in shape since we have to walk wherever we go. We are continuing to adjust to the schedule here. The people work from about 7 – 8 am and then have siesta from 12 pm (all businesses close at this time) until 4 pm (all the businesses open again) and work resumes and lasts until about 9 or 10 pm. My obstetrician appointment was at 9:00 pm which is typical around here.

We hope you are all well and hope to keep in touch as often as we can. When and if we get internet service at our home, it will be much easier to contact everyone.


Jessica