Week two: getting aclimated

An old adage shared with us by the prior LDS missionaries goes as follows: Any misfortune viewed with the right light can be considered an adventure. So our response with each misfortune we encounter will be, “Un Adventura!” or in English— “It’s an adventure!”.

Let me explain one of our adventuras so far. Many of the tiendas (stores) do not take any sort of credit card so it is important to carry cash with you. Also, if you don’t drive with your lights on and receive a ticket, you have to pay $800 pesos (about $53). If you can’t pay on the spot, the fine doubles. So obviously, it is important to carry cash with you. Our first stop at the bank with our debit card was in Concordia which is about 2 ½ hours away on terrible dirt roads for much of the ride. We first shopped at the Carrefour (which we call the Walmart-want-to-be) and paid with a credit card. We were starving and went to a restaurant for lunch which of course did not accept credit cards.

Our adventura began at the banco when we inserted our card. Instead of money, we got a slip of paper saying that our card would remain at the bank. What! Why?

We only have one debit card which we realize now is not smart, but there we were hours from home with no way of getting cash. Fortunately, the Martinsen’s had extra so we had lunch and got home without our debit card. We tried to call the bank’s phone number which was on the slip of paper but only got an answering machine.

The next morning, we talked to Yuka, the ranch manager, and he said, “Go back to Concordia right now—all four of you and we will take care of your responsibilities here. Do not call the bank—just go!” So off we went wasting our precious training time in the truck rather than getting acquainted with the kids.

When we finally got back to Concordia, the bank jefe was called to help with our problem. He told us (after some waiting) that we would have to come back the next day because the safe could not be opened until 2 pm. By the way, everything closes in the afternoon during siesta. After explaining how far away we lived, the jefe finally agreed to meet us at the front door after 2 pm that day, and he would open the bank just for us.

Whew! We got it! We thought our adventura was over. Oh no! On our way home we stopped about half way in a town called Federal and tried once again to get money. To our horror, the machine ate our card again. Now we have two adventuras!

Long story short, it rained the next day so we were stuck at home. When we finally got back to Federal after leaving at 7 in the morning to get there by 8 when it opened, the bank worker graciously said she would look for it. Then the gal pulled out a stack of debit cards so thick it looked like she could deal them out for a card game. So strange. We got the card and were home in time to pick up the kids for class.

Obviously, we didn’t try using our debit card until we called our bank. Yes, they knew we were in Argentina. That part we got right, but we had been sent a new card with a chip and this one was no longer valid. It’s nearly impossible to get mail here, but we are having two cards sent to Yuka’s mother’s house in Feliciano. Yuka is known by everyone including the mailmen. We are told this is our best chance of getting mail.

Even young lambs have the right away 8/22/16 Can you see them in the middle of the road?

August 24, 2016

These are our new friends. The dog, Romeo, eats our scraps, follows us whenever we walk away from the house, and barks at strangers who don’t work at the ranch. He is the best watch dog ever and I don’t have to touch him to stay friends (since I am allergic to dogs).

The roosters eat our scraps as well as bugs. I like seeing them around our house knowing that there are fewer bugs because of them. Whatever trash we don’t give to the chickens or dog must be burned by the gauchos. We take paper trash to a big burn barrel away from the house.

This is how the gauchos heat their rooms and cook their food.

Pack rat? Believe it or not, some of the above is sold to the highest bidder.

We went for a walk and Romeo found a bathing pool.

August 25, 2016

We try to walk everyday which has amounted to only about 4 times with all the rain and work we needed to do. When it rains, we stay put. With a heavy rain, it takes 3-4 days to dry out enough for the roads to be passable. When the roads are too muddy to pass they are not called bad but “feo” or ugly. 

Yuka thought he was having a bad day until he saw this cat having an adventura even worse than him.
Somehow this cat got his leg caught and tangled in a rope hanging by the house. Yuka cut the rope and you should have seen the cat run. August 26, 2016

Even dogs honor seista time.  August 26, 2016

Yuka wanted us to experience the best car wash in Entre Rios. Three men spent over an hour hand washing our truck for $200 pesos or $13 dollars.

We keep a bag of clothes and essentials in the back of the truck in case of a surprise rain storm and we need to spend some time in a hotel in Feliciano or Federal the closest towns. Our address is really just coordinates and our GPS doesn’t have all the dirt roads in it so we have to know our way around. 

Yesterday on our way to Federal, we made a wrong turn and ended up having to back track about 30 minutes. Miraculously, we found where we had gone wrong because we were completely on our own.

We had one week of training though most of it was spent traveling around to get our debit card back, and one week on our own. So much has happened since then. Yuka Brest is the boss around here and you’ll probably hear much about him. He told us first thing to clean and organize the home. Wow, for any of you who know me (Amy), that’s sort of my passion. However, what a project! 

August 28, 2016



The whole house has been gone through and cleaned and reorganized (4 bedrooms about 2500 sq feet maybe more). Most furniture has been moved and cleaned. Everything has been sorted through and organized. We now have one room as the office, one room as the sewing room, one as a music room, and we put two twin beds together to create a king size bed in our room.

 The laundry room and kitchen have been reorganized so that at least I know what we have and where it is. We put the exercise room in a wide hallway and made a matt out of something I found. (An exercise matt at the Correfour cost $35 American dollars.) We made weights out of old heavy batteries in bags made out of Tang containers that a previous missionary must have made. (8 lb weights cost $50 American dollars) We strapped the twin mattress together and filled in the gap between them with items we found in the house. It was not a coincidence that what I needed seemed to be available.

August 28, 2016

Yuka said yesterday that it looked like a different place and he danced around happily. We're off to a good start with Yuka.

This coming week will start with wet roads. We couldn't make it to church today because of the rain so tomorrow will be the same with no school. I still have curtains to wash and they are so big I have to cut them in half before they'll fit in the washer. So tomorrow I'll start sewing the edges and putting the clean ones up and cut more for the washer. They are filthy! However, we're close to finished with cleaning and organizing and a few days stuck at the ranch will give us enough time to finish the project.