we were there to start preparing things for an even in may, and we had to go meet people and talk to pastors, and get what needed to be done, on behalf of our dad, done.
i am going to give you the blitz verson, as best as i know how...
we set off super early saturday morning. and sat cramped in a dual cab mazda truck literally for the rest of the day. we left around 7am, and took a lunch break, and arrived at our location around 5pm. if i can say anything to you folks over der yonder the USofA, it would be, don't take paved roads for granted. the lack of them make life a lot harder, or at least more uncomfortable, than it should be. yes, SHOULD. i was super exhausted, and managed fitful sleep nearly the entire way there. again, it was anything, but uncomfortable, but if i have learned anything it's to never leave my feather down pillow behind. that helped... a little.
fuerte esperenza "mighty hope" is a little town in the northwestern corner of chaco. it's got a church that we always visit, and also an extremely successful entrepreneurial business man named juan francisco paganini. their house is nothing short of wonderful. it's not large and lavish, it's simple and all the nothing excessive. it is wonderful, because bugs are not nearly as prevalent, it's CLEAN, and best of all a shower that has hot water and pressure. whoa. it's too good to be true.
i am not gonna lie, i had a mini meltdown that night. my phone had connection and credit, so i tried calling home and i got through. i called my mom, and wished with all my might that she would have been there with me. we had shared the same room and bed together two months earlier. the room was a bed... and a multitude of bugs consisting of cockroaches, mosquitos, spiders, and other creepy crawlies. i didn't like it. not one bit. it was especially hard because my family was over at the house in the light of day, and i was a million miles away in a whole different world.
sunday morning, i wiped the sleep from my eyes, and tried to be more optimistic. and the day was better. we went to an even smaller town that was their equivalent to an indian reservation. the government had given the tobas their plot of land and set them on their way. but the land produces nothing. animals can live off of it, but the farmers have to be driven, and work the land. that doesn't happen. we visited two dentists that were contracted by the government to be there. one was a christian, and the other became a christian after our visit. it was beautiful. after reading half of wide awake. i jumped out the window of my room and went to church. why? oh the room to my door was in the very front of the church next to the stage.
monday, we toured some cattle grounds of the aforementioned paganini man, and then headed back towards civilization. we went to roque saenz pena ( said RO-Kay science PAY-na) to visit the kohn's. we visited in the offices for about three hours, and prayed over different areas of the grocery store. i started to get terrible pain in my legs, so much so that i could barely stand. also, the other woman in our group of five was getting stomach pains, so we prayed away from the group for a little while. turns out where we were the workers were also feeling oppressed. we made it to our hotel, and the spent the rest of the evening resting. we caught up on communication with the outside world, and had a nice dinner.
tuesday, we set off to visit anthony and jessica rosier in samuhu, but our truck broke down and we had to turn back, and wait for the mechanic to fix it. six hours later after doing nothing but lounging in the shade and reading my book, we finally hit the road once again. this time we made it all the way to samuhu (said samOO), and there we cooked a giant asado (bbq) an i made a gigantic salad to make up for my lack of vegetable intake over the past few days. i finally took a hot shower, and went to bed.
wednesday i slept in. it was a beautiful thing. i made it to 10:45am. we had decided to take the morning easy, as we were not in a hurry to get to our next destination. from samuhu, we went to pampa del indio. gabriel drove and made great time. they thought it would take us three hours minimum, and the trip ended up taking 2 total. we stayed in the house of a pastor and his wife. they are descendants of german immigrants, so they are fair skinned, blue eyes, and light hair. we talked about their ancestors and everything. they are a sweet couple. you can definitely see the difference between the immigrants and the true argentines. their houses have a different style, their churches are built different, and the mannerisms to me also vary. with nothing else to do, i laid out in the strong Chaco sun. later that night, we went to what was originally supposed to be a pastor's meeting. then we found out others would be there as well, then we should up. there were more children than anything else, so poor gabriel had to change what he would talk about three times that day. for dinner we ate an asado de chivito, or goat bbq, it's actually really good... and for dessert our hostess made us homemade flan. it was a bit eggy, but still good. that night i had to sleep on the top bunk, while gabriel took the bottom bunk. it was a good thing i slept in that day, because i got no sleep that night.
thursday we headed home. it was a good thing, because as soon as i woke up i didn't feel right. it got worse as the day went on. our car ride home was two hours long, and i was in agony the entire time. i don't know what happened, but i think all the dirt roads got to me combined with food poisoning from the flan the night before. it was all i could do to not cry. it took forever to get home. and when we finally did i went straight upstairs to my room and collapsed.
i ended up getting a fever.my stubbornness only held out for so long, i finally took the pill the doctor brought me (aka matias), and then fell into a fitful sleep. i woke up from my siesta, and felt well enough to play tennis... and aparently i did, because i beat gabriel. :)
in conclusion.
while it is never easy to go on the trips into the interior, something good always comes out of them. i am still waiting for the good to come out of the trip that i took back in september, but it'll happen... someday. the good that happened on this trip, among other things, was that i got to hang out with my brother and get to know him, and see him living his dream. it's great to know that i can get along well with my own brother even under times of little sleep, and high intensity, and being mentally exhausted (speaking spanish under aforementioned circumstances does that). while the trip was challenging in so many ways, i wouldn't trade it just for the time i got to spend with my oldest brother. he took care of me, and was a great companion during the entire trip. we talked about a little of everything, and laughed, and remembered memories. it was grrrrr-eat!
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