Blue-winged Macaw, or Burrowing Parrot of Patagonia

The wildlife in Patagonia is amazing. As we drive around just going about our business, we often spot some really amazing animals. We've taken up bird watching and animal identification as a side hobby. Its also fits nicely and easily into our homeschooling study of science. I never leave the house for trips without our Aves de Argentina [Birds of Argentina] guide book. I try to make our mission trips around Patagonia count. I think they are highly educational in so many different ways; bird and animal study being just one way.

I have found bird identification to actually be really hard, and we're not that good at it. Wikipedia helps. My bird book says these are the Blue-winged Macaw, but they're really not as big as macaws, and yet seem bigger than most parrots. Wiki helped us further identify them as the Burrowing Parrot of Patagonia.


they are very skittish and very fast, making it hard to get a good picture

After our first day of outreach in the mountains last month, we drove back into the town of Chos Malal for the night. A pastor we met at a conference our first time in the area offered to let us stay at their house since they were out of town. Their house is located downtown, but surrounded by tons of huge old trees. These trees were the perfect place for a huge flock of parrots to spend the night. From the sounds of them, there were more than hundreds, if not a thousand easily.

Parrots are very noisy. A thousand parrots are extremely noisy. They chirped and chittered and chattered and squawked and screamed all night long. It seems no matter where we go here in Argentina we can't get away from the noise! If it's not the twenty million neighborhood dogs yipping at every leaf that moves, it's motorcycles, cars with bad mufflers, neighbors partying into the wee hours of the morning, or a thousand crazy parrots yapping and squawking. Fortunately, this particular night we were so tired after having been up for almost 24 hours driving then doing this and this, that we passed right out and slept like babies all night long. Or I should say I passed out. The birds woke Tony up several times during the night with their squawking.

:)

Field Trip: El Chocón Dam

One of the things I love about homeschooling is being able to ditch the workbooks, seatwork, schedules, curriculum, dry textbooks (well, actually, we don't really do these), pencils, moans and groans, and head out the door for some hands-on, real life learning.

My kids (fortunately for me) love science, so we don't have to do a lot of pre-packaged science curriculum. My boy is almost totally self-taught in the area of science, to the point where my eyes start glazing over when he launches into his mini-collegiate lectures on Basilosauraus, Indricotherium, and Ichthyosaurs. But, because he is getting older and there are other branches of science - to which I believe they should be exposed - when I found out about the dam nearby, a light went on in my head.

SpringboardIntroductiontoHydroelectricity! Yeah!

(geeeek)

So, as soon as our car was released from Car Purgatory, we took off like a family of bats out of hell.

Off we sped to El Chocón Dam, an hour south of us out in the middle of the desert. We got the private tour of the inner workings because Omar, one of the pastors of the church we attend, works in the Control Room. It was soooooo cool. We learned a lot about hydroelectricity - very exciting!


the reservoir and dam

 The dam creates a lake 10km wide by 80 km long. The water is a beautiful, clear blue-green.

Driving down to the bottom of the dam we came across some free-roaming horses

 Below the dam, approaching the Powerhouse where the Control Center and turbines are located.

The overflow channel where water can be manually released from the resevoir in case of a power outage or rising water levels in the lake.

 Below the dam: alamos, desert, and the River Limay.

Beautiful cross-bedding in the sedimentary rocks... The kids were like, "Whaaa?"

A model of the inner mechanical workings of a hydroelectric dam.

 The turbines. This was a six turbine dam.



Control Room

Because Omar speaks Spanish, is really intelligent and uses really big words, talks really fast, and is really passionate about hydroelectricy, the kids didn't really understand a word he said. So we had to look up dams and hydroelectricity and the basics thereof after we got home later on.

We also watched this very informative, simple, and illustrative video on the workings of a hydroelectric dam....

Some interesting things we learned:

• electricity can not be stored, as it is generated it needs to be used immediately or poof! it's gone
• Brazil has the most dams in all of South America and sells much of its extra hydroelectric energy to neighboring countries
• it only takes 40 employees to man this huge dam
• El Chocon Dam also controls the secondary dam 30km downriver, all from on location
• the dam is made of earth, not cement, therefore has a greater capacity to withstand earthquakes
• if the dam goes, all of us downriver on the floodplain are goners (Nice, huh? I actually knew this. I quick peek at Google Earth before we moved here and my geology background could see that right away. In light of the Matthew 24:4-8, not sure I will ever invest in property here. :))

busyness, drunkeness, and other general weirdness

Life is busy here. And sometimes a whole lot of weird. I feel like my head's going to explode trying to process it all sometimes.

Good Friday, Tony spent all day in the slums while I took the kids on a nature walk - our first "official" nature walk in Patagonia - complete with list of things to look for. Since I had spent the entire week with visions of public school dancing in my head, I figured it was time to get out before somebody {Mommy} lost it.

Tony came home from a draining day, hoping to rest and eat something before we quickly headed out again to a meeting then a movie showing, only to get a call from the slums about an altercation with a drunk. Someone (we know) had shown up to "help" one of the families rebuild, but he showed up so drunk he could barely talk. He claims he's a Christian, he was insisting he was there to help, proceeded to walk around the site "praying" in a loud voice, continuing to insist he was there to help and to "do the Lord's work". All he succeeded in doing was making the families really, really mad. One of the dads called Tony asking him to come back and remove the guy before he killed him. We didn't put it past him, so back Tony went. One incident like that, someone showing up wearing the name "Christian" but acting really not, could completely ruin everything we've been trying to build for months.



drunk guy {in the red hat} - sometimes he's sober, like here


That's another new thing for us... flagrantly alcoholic church-goers. Slaves to alcohol who have no self control, but claim to know and love Jesus while getting rip-roaring drunk, all the while not seeming to think this is anything to really be alarmed about. The next day after a binge, they are "doing well, all is well, I'm well, God is good, and Praise the Lord!". It's kinda weird, definately new. At least people in the States who go to church and claim to know Christ but who are really raging drunks know better than to shout it from the mountaintops, at least in my experience. A certain level of shame is a good thing - it means you might have a clue that something is not. quite. right.

We have not-so-infrequent run-ins with inebriated people. It's the nature of the beast. I'm nobody's judge, but I am certainly learning to not answer my cell phone depending on who it is - and definately not after midnight {always bad news}, because then I can never get off the phone. Drunk people just go on and on and on in usually beligerent drunken stupors. There's no reasoning with them. I have better things to do with my time than to talk to someone who isn't listening anyway. Tony's really good with drunks, though. He keeps his calm and is able to take control of the situation; I just get annoyed and kick myself for answering the phone, vowing not to next time I see the number. The last time Pedro called I just told him the truth - You are a slave to alcohol and you need Jesus to set you free. He's the only One who can help you. I must have said goodbye and told him Tony would call him at least ten times. All he wanted to do was ask me how I was doing over and over again and put me on the phone with his grandmother (sweet lady that she is). Six months ago that would have been really awkward. I still think it's weird. But now, it's just kinda normal.

Pedro, Tony, Raul, and Alberto [Pedro was let go for drinking on the job, so returned to his little town up north. He still calls us.]

Fast forward Easter morning. As I was in the bathroom getting ready for church, I heard a gunshot. I heard Tony from the other room, "Did you just hear that?" Uh, yeah. Sure did. The weird thing is, everyone here says we live in a "nice" neighborhood. That wasn't my impression when we first arrived here. But, all things being relative, it is a "nice" neighborhood. For here. A nice neighborhood with gunshots. Yeah... 

Gunshots were just never on my radar, but hey, I guess they are now.

Easter afternoon we spent at the children's home.

But let me preface this with a little rant first- may I? Just humor me.

PARENTS: Don't leave your kids with anybody. Let me repeat myself... DON'T LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN WITH ANYONE. If you heard some of these stories we hear, if you knew... REALLY KNEW... that 90% of sexual abuse cases are perpetrated by someone who knows the victim... you wouldn't ever leave your kids with anyone. Family, friends, your trusted church friends. An.y.one.

Okay, I'm done. Ignore me if you want. It's just some statistics with a suggestion. I'm sure there are people in the world we can trust, surely.

So, I was finally able to go to the Children's Home {where all the kids have a story like above}, now that visitations are up and running again after summer break. We had a great time with the kids - we played Duck, Duck, Goose; Red Light, Green Light; and Freeze Tag - Argentinian versions, of course. Some of the young adults from church shared the Resurrection story as we sat around an outside table talking with the kids. I was amazed that most of the kids had never even heard of the Resurrection before. They thought Easter was about eggs. I took my daughter with me on our visit; she loved it and asks me all the time when we are going back.

my friend Keren with one of the sweeties from the children's home

There's more that's been going on, some that makes me nervous. Like Tony beginning a new ministry in another home for older kids... 13 and up. Kids aging out of the other home with nowhere to go. No one visiting them. No one sharing love and the gospel with them. I asked Tony if he really thinks this is a good idea. I mean, people get knifed in homes for older kids; they are bigger and they have bigger problems. Kids are extremely street smart here, more than most adults I know. A guy that used to work in one of these homes recently showed Tony his scars. So, really, Tony... don't you think maybe we should just forget this one? He doesn't think so.

And there are other things that are happening that are weird, well, more like extremely disturbing. Things that are just unbloggable. Things that remind me why I don't like having neighbors, and why I don't trust anyone. Things that make me shudder and remember that this is a yucky, fallen world. Things that remind me that yes, indeed, this is a battle. A WAR (Ephesians 6). Things that remind me of the very reason we are here. Things that, once you begin to fight them, wake up the someone who doesn't want to lose any ground. Not an inch.

I've been reminded, uncomfortably, this Resurrection week of the Truth in 1 Peter 5:8...

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,

seeking whom he may devour."

Feelin' it. Hoping next week is better.

Day 3: Cancha Huinganco

  So, as I was saying about that pastor's conference we attended... [Day 1, Day 2]

Day 3, of the four we spent in Chos Malal, was a particularly blessed day. Sunday morning service lasted at least three hours... worship and prayer just went on and on and on... a sweet time. Hearts softened, cleansed, healed, renewed, strengthened for things ahead.



camping out in the van



Then... chivo patagonico was on the menu. Free-roaming goat cooked over burning embers for lunch, the big meal of the day.

The dead goat sat out on a table all weekend, under a sheet (notice fly). One just begins to shrug at some point on the relaxed food preservation thing. Ya have to.



Cost of food for the weekend?


US$12 per person, for two days. At least something is cheap here, the food was at least this weekend. (It certainly isn't in the city.)

We had to all pitch in with preparing what we ate. No catering here. Here is Tony acting like he always helps out in the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, I do this all the time...!"

suuure ya do

After lunch and saying goodbyes to old friends and new contacts, everyone left. But we headed back to the to church in Cancha with the local missionaries who have worked here for 10 years - they have discovered a place in the hills where you can find fossils. Tons of fossils.

church

"You're the one that likes rocks, right?" they had asked me earlier. I don't admit my passion for rocks often because it's just, well, weird. But they soon discovered that yes, indeed, I do love me some good rocks. So off we set, across a field of boulders and up a ridge in search of fossils - a motley crew of adults and children.


looking back down the field of boulders towards the church (in the upper right grove of trees)



looking up towards the ridge

No one had water but us. We soon discovered there is no need to carry water. Just drink from the mountain-fed streams. (Um, they did. I didn't. Too chicken. No upset tummies though, so I guess it's fine.)
 

Tony sucking up some water

I enjoyed sharing my geologic observations as we hiked up the foothills, explaining the possible causes of the field of boulders, gullies, ridges, streams, and various striations in the rocks along the way. Everyone seemed interested as we talked about the layers of sedimentary rocks, the fossils we soon found imbedded within, and Noah's Flood versus millions of years. Fascinating stuff.

searching in a fossiliferous gully

We had hiked several miles, up, up, up. Then we headed down, down, down with pocketsful of fossils.


bingo

I was so thankful for this fun little reprieve for the kids. They, too, have sacrificed everything to come here. We try, when we can, to make living here fun for them. They loved fossil hunting so much that we decided to make it a tradition every time we come back to this place. 

We then stopped back in at the rural church for a potty break. There is no running water, so you have to dump a bucketful of water down the toilet to flush. The bucket fills up slowly outside under the trickle of water that drips from the spigot. The water supply is low at this time of year, having dried up considerably after a long, hot summer in the dry mountains. We set up the projector and showed a few more movies to our tired gang, had a snack, then went to visit the neighbors: Dona Luisa and her man (that's supposed to be an n with a little squiggly over it, but my computer acts funny sometimes here in Argentina and won't let me do it).

Dona Luisa was born and raised in this remote place. 77 years she lived in a primitive little house with the outhouse located a few steps further down towards the river. Her chickens and geese and dogs and horse and cows all share her yard. Two years ago the government built her a new house. She now "lives well". She has two bare bulbs and no other bills to pay but the electricity, which is about five dollars a month. I envy her life - so simple, so healthy, so quiet. Visiting her was one of the highlights of the whole weekend for me. As we sat in her little kitchen, her man smelling of horse and earth and well, dirty feet... I thought, "This is it. This is what we came here to do. I love this." It helped that I left the kids with Tony and went with the missionary's wife... just the ladies, a real treat. Wish it could have lasted longer. We emerged from Luisa's little house, the stars stretching as far as the eye could see, and walked contented back to the church in the cool air, a night as black as I've ever seen.

my stellar IT abilities and my poor deprived children

I just deleted ALL our cell phone pictures from our computer. The dangers of the digital age. And of leaving Chris in charge of all our IT issues. I never said I was qualified for this. Fortunately, we take most of our pictures with the regular camera. Like this one, which I like just because.

Chasing a flock of wild turkeys in the remote Patagonian wild. Because somebody's got to do it.

small homeschooling update and a field trip

For six months now I've wanted to write an update on homeschooling here - how it's been going, what we've been doing, how we do it, etc.. But I can't seem to find the time.

I really should have set up the computer in Mommy's room so I could blog in peace - because everytime I sit down to write something, someone starts talking to me, asking me questions, needs something, starts whining or fighting, or someone rings the doorbell (unexpected, as always). Our house has turned into an revolving door. I can't seem to finish a thought, let alone a post. Forget about being alone.

I haven't found a balance yet between being a homeschooling mom, a wife, and now missionary. It's too much most days and something usually gives. Right now it's the bathroom, it hasn't been cleaned in weeks, and I'm not sure when I'll get to it. Someone said they are surprised I post as much as I do. I try to post as much as I can because, selfishly, it's fun - and, in my "free time" (haha, whatever) I'd much rather write and play with pictures than clean the bathroom. So the bathroom will remain dirty for a bit longer.

Crocheting I gave up on. Reading, too. Blogging is my only poison now. Don't judge.

This week, now that our car is fixed, and after a long day (all days seems long), we took the kids on a field trip to the Observatory overlooking the city. Another benefit of living in the largest city in Patagonia: a Ford Dealer AND an Observatory. Sweet. There is even a Museum of Fine Arts here, and the Patagonia Symphonic Orchestra. The circus is also in town. Who knew?

Through the Observatory telescope we were able to gaze upon three planets: Jupiter, Venus, and Mars.

We could see Jupiter and the four largest of its 64 moons; even the colored bands on Jupiter were visible.

We saw Venus in it's blue and orange, crescent glory. {Venus waxes and wanes like the moon. The cooler gases in the southern hemisphere are blue right now, indicating it is in winter; the northern hemisphere is orange, indicating summer}.

When we gazed upon a glowing red Mars, we could also clearly see both of its moons.

It was awesome awesome.

When I feel like I'm failing my kids in their home education, unable to get to all the things I want to do with them due to being pulled in so many different directions, I try to remember that they are doing a lot of amazing things. They are also learning Spanish and doing missions with us along the way.

Here in our neighborhood we've been dubbed the the "weird Americans" that teach our kids at home {Tony is quick to point out, "Hey! I'm not American! I'm from here.}. We are also the only homeschoolers I know of within a 10 hour radius. To our friends back home, we're probably weird, too: our homeschooling probably  doesn't look anything like theirs, at least not as of late. We are weird here, there, and everywhere. I didn't expect that to be challenging to me, what others think of us, but it has a little bit. Sometimes I deal with it well, sometimes I don't. Most days I just pray God will pick up the pieces I drop.

It's a hard life, a crazy life - but a good one, a blessed one. Even amidst the seeming chaos of our days, as we still struggle to find normal and firm up what we are actually doing and where we are going missions-wise, I don't know that I'd want it any other way. My prayer is that this life and path we have chosen in obedience to God's Word, He will use for good. Not just in the lives we hope to reach for Christ, but in our own children's lives. We often pray that this crazy missions life we live will draw our kids closer to their Creator and Savior, not push them away. It is a delicate balance I can't say I can even pinpoint most days. Sometimes I feel only God's grace can push us off the fence upon which we teeter daily, push us from the side of crazy over onto the side of safe and sane and saved.

Venus and Jupiter

We've been wondering for months about those two bright lights in the western twilight.

They just seemed way too bright to be stars.

Now we know that they are not stars in fact, but Venus and Jupiter. Someone was over the other night and pointed out the red "star" off to the right of Venus and Jupiter... Mars! She also mentioned there is a Planetarium here in town.

Ding-dong, light goes on: Homeschool Field Trip! Can't wait to take the kids.

These planets can be seen right now from every corner of the earth. We can see them here in Patagonia. Friends in the northern hemisphere say they can also see them.




So, next time you look up into the sky at dusk, look due west and see if you can see them, too!

7 Lies About Homeschoolers, debunked

Heehee.

beating the heat

How do you beat the heat (that is, manage to not just lie around like a useless slug) when it hits 102, 104, 108, day, after day, after day, NO AC?

To stay cool, we play with water. In any form: washing the car, watering the grass, jumping in the above ground WalMart special, drinking lots of cold beverages. Wearing your bathing suit all day long, splashing water on your extremities and forehead and standing in front of the fan, or dousing yourself with the hose just to hang some clothes out under the penetrating sun. This is how we manage. I'm sure there are other ways, like air conditioning - but we left those luxuries behind us in the First World. 

 

Little Chunkies making "birthday soup" for Bear, Bear, and Wow-wow - and using the container designated for watering our favorite street dog



Negrito - our favorite street dog



terere: South American loose green tea leaves steeped in cold pink grapefruit juice - I'm addicted to this

Or we homeschool, looking for any excuse to not go outside. 88 inside is better than 108 outside. Today we found my girl's computer math program. It got packed away almost six months ago. She was actually excited to see it and asked to do math on a Saturday.

Maybe one day we'll get AC here. For now, the four window units we brought are useless. We have bars on our windows - not conducive to popping in a window unit. AC is ridiculously expensive here. $1000 a unit and up. Sha! I don't think we'll be getting one soon.


the bars on our windows (on a very ashy day with, incidentally, a lot of desert dust plastered to the window)

Tonight, after hitting 102F again today, God had mercy and sent some rain. And an electrical storm. And another beautiful sunset. Times of refreshing, albeit brief.

He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,

Who makes the clouds His chariot,

Who walks on the wings of the wind

~Psalm 104:3

photos... just life

Uploading these on snail-speed internet will probably drive me to the edge, but I'm a gluton for punishment. So here are some random pictures from missions and church and life here in Argentina...

Side note: When the neighbor heard of our internet troubles (we still don't have it installed at home), he said he waited three months for his. Then he had pity on us, since we've only been waiting a month, and gave us his Wifi password. Nice, nice, niiiice neighbor. He's not around during the week, so I guess he doesn't mind us using up his broadband. Thank you, Jesus. I can't say the connection is hugely better, I still sit by the window and am constantly moving the laptop at strange angles, being bumped off randomly for no explicable reason. But here I sit because everyone wants pictures. And we love you. So we suffer with this insanity provoking connection out of love for friends and family, and random internet stalkers. And blogging is still fun, even though not as much without hi-speed. Somedays I'd rather have a root canal.


Tony doing a Bible study with Pedro in his plywood house (you can see our pool in the upper left)

  

Baptism in the Limay River (it was cooold from spring, mountain run-off)

 

Sr. Velazquez who repairs our bike flats - we have invited them to our Wednesday night Bible Study,
and his wife has expressed interest - hopefully they will come soon.



Puma and fox skins at Sr. Velazquez's bike shop
(I believe Pumas are endangered and you're not allowed to hunt them.)



armadillos

 

deer head and bobcat skin



water balloon volleyball at Youth Camp for the 9-11 year-olds; most of these kids are neighborhood kids that aren't from Christian homes, but are being reached through the presence of the church or its Christian school

 

rinsing the potatoes for youth camp with water stored in gas containers -
there was no running water on site except in the bathrooms



pebbles on the River Limay

Patricia, who lives in this house across from Tony's sister's, is a Christian who would come across the street and encourage us and pray for us during our time in Buenos Aires

our living room/dining room 5 weeks ago

my almost 3 year-old begged me to start school: "I do hometool, too? I do hometool, you and me?"

spring flower, Buenos Aires

more early spring flowers (mums?), Buenos Aires



a playground at at the edge of our neighborhood



:)