Too Much Train - Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009

We woke up to a cool temperature today. Rich said it went down to 58 degrees last night, so no wonder sleeping was comfortable. It only warmed up to 73 degrees today and there was a cool breeze blowing all day. Sometimes our weather keeps us guessing. But, today was pleasant and no humidity.

I finished getting all the baptisms from last week entered and wound up with 32. We haven't had that many baptisms for a couple of months now. Maybe we are getting out of the slump and things will continue to pick up a bit. Hope so!

We have been working with an interesting situation lately. In June, a baptism took place with a lady in one of the wards in Nunez. I entered it timely, but the ward clerk has called several times stating that it hasn't shown up on his ward records. I have emailed Osmar who is in charge of our baptismal records to see if he can shed any light on the matter. He said that the baptism in June was a duplicate -- that the person was already a member so they deleted my entry from the record. He said that she was baptized in 2003 in Peru and that her records are in a ward in Peru. The ward clerk called again and said that the lady emphatically states that she was never baptized in Peru, so they want verification of that previous ordinance. The clerk wants to know where in Peru the records are located, then he can send for them. Occasionally in the past, we have had a couple people baptized that were already members. It seems strange that the person can't remember an event like that, but it has happened.

We knew that one or both of us had to make another trip to the Capital this afternoon to pick up our papers from the escribano (notary). Rich called to make sure they were done, and he was told that she hadn't been in yet and to call back after 3:00 or 4:00. The next call told him that yes they were done and we could get them anytime after 4:00. They close at 6:00.

I had started working on my ten packets for the departing missionaries, and said yesterday that I just couldn't take time to leave the office again, but I hated to send Rich off alone. He indicated he wouldn't mind if I went with him -- hint, hint, so I decided I would go. Besides, it was later in the afternoon so I had worked most of the day.

We hurried out the door and walked fast to the train station because we know that the schedule has one train leaving pretty close on the hour. Right we were, as a couple minutes after purchasing the tickets, here came the train at 3:56 p.m. The best part is that we found two seats together. Yea, we get to sit down the whole way.

The closer we got to the Capital, the crowds waiting to board trains going in the opposite direction were staggering. Oh dear, what were we going to do to avoid these crowds? We don't go very many places on trains during after work rush hour, so this would be a new experience for us.

We got off the train and flagged a taxi to take us to the escribano's office. Veronica waited on us again and probably thought I was nuts to want a picture. We don't take time to explain about needing pictures to document our blog entries, so we just blame it on our kids at home and tell people that our children back in the states want to see what we do and the people we meet and work with. And, they do! So, they accept that and always comply.

We gathered our papers and off we went. We decided to find a place to get some dinner, thus letting the rush hour train traffic die down a little. We asked the security guard at the door if there was a restaurant close by that he could recommend. He directed us to a little Italian restaurant about two blocks away.

It was too early to order any pastas and some other items that were on their menu. At the 5:00 - 6:00 hour they only offered pizzas or ensaladas. We ordered both. We sat our camera on a table across from us to capture our dinner date.

The salad we shared was a Caesar salad with chunks of chicken in it and croutons which were small slices of a dried baguette bread. It was very tasty. The pizza was a Margaritta which, in addition to pizza sauce, spices and cheese had tomatoes, black olives (which were gross) and shredded lettuce on top. Never had lettuce on a pizza before. It tasted good too. We were full before we finished off the pizza.

We decided we would have a taxi take us to the Retiro train station which is the beginning of the line. That way we thought we would have a better chance of getting a seat as the train starts empty. The train wasn't leaving for about 15 minutes, but the doors had already opened by the time we got there and all the seats were taken. We walked clear through the train and there wasn't a huge crowd, but all the seats were occupied. There is one section in the train that has no seats, it is mainly for people with bikes or strollers or whatever. There are bars to hold on to and most people end up sitting on the floor. There are a few stand up type seats that one can lean against to take a little weight off the feet, so we decided to just stay in that area and use one of those.

As we sat (stood) there waiting for the train to leave, it was unbelievable how many people poured through the doors. It was just wall to wall people. We felt like we were in a cattle car. We were grateful that our backs were against something solid so we didn't have people leaning on us. It would have been a great pick pocket opportunity for someone. We were by a window that was wide open so air was blowing in to keep things ventilated, thank goodness. As the train started moving, we wondered where the people would fit that were waiting at the stations along the way. Luckily, at each stop there were those that got off making room for more to enter. Our Virreyes stop didn't come any too soon. We think we will try to avoid traveling anywhere on trains in the late afternoon/early evening hours. We don't like dealing with that much adventure!

Coming home not having to make dinner was great. It was almost 8:00 anyway, and time to start this entry.