Change of Plans - Saturday, Jan 16, 2010

We heard thunder towards morning and realized that our Saturday activity was not going to happen today. It was raining when we got up and it put a damper on our plans. We had planned to go to Tigre and take a sightseeing ferry on a ride through the canals that circled an island. We understand that there are places to picnic and play and even a museum is located somewhere on the route. There are "water taxis" that circle the area letting people off and picking people up from various points of interest along the way. We don't know too much about it so wanted to check it out for ourselves. Maybe another time!

So now what to do?? It took the soup out of our sails and I couldn't get excited to do anything. Besides, it was raining. I had things that I could do -- clean the house, wash some clothes, study Spanish, or answer emails, but nothing really jumped out at me.

We did need to go to a Panadaria to buy some sort of bread or rolls to take to dinner at the Argyles tomorrow. They have invited us to dinner at 5:00. So, since the rain had let up, we decided to head out and get that taken care of. Then, the thought hit us that we should go to the Kodak place up on Constitucion and get prints made of several pictures that people have requested from us, or some that we wanted to give to others. Great idea!! So we quickly went through our photos and found the ones we wanted and copied them to a jump drive.

It was just drizzling when we left at 11:00 and the walk was refreshing. It is amazing how many businesses close down during the month of January to go on vacation. They just put a sign in the window that says when they will reopen. Some close for two or three weeks. I guess the Mom and Pop places can do as they wish.

We found our bread that was baked fresh today. We love the long skinny loaves of baguette bread, so that was our choice.

Right close and across the street was the Kodak store, so we had success in printing the copies of the pictures we selected. That was a good thing to get done.

While walking home and close to where we live, we came to the house or business that is being demolished. We were interested in seeing it from the ground level because . . . .

from our balcony we have been watching workers tear it down board by board, with a sludge hammer, and pick and shovel. They have been working on it for a week. In the States, it would have been down in a day with a bulldozer or ball and chain. So many things done here in Argentina are labor intensive using man power instead of machinery. I guess that's good to keep people employed.

When we got home, we remembered that the missionaries from the Virreyes branch were having a baptism at 3:30 today. It was earlier in the day than usual due to a wedding reception taking place in the cultural hall this evening. They had told us about it earlier in the week and since we were free this afternoon, we decided to go to it to support them.

The Ailán family with mother Estela, daughter Abigail, and father Miguel were baptized by the threesome of Elders Davis, Curtis, and Charles (kneeling). We were glad we went to this baptism because there was a very low attendance of branch members. The elders said that usually the branch comes out and supports the baptisms, but today there was just the Relief Society President, the Elders Quorum President, the lady who gave the talk, and us. The early hour may have prevented some from coming. We had never met them, but they seemed like a nice family. The mother looks like she has no hair, but it was pulled back into a long pony tail that was neatly braided.

We enjoy these elders and see them often because Elder Curtis is an AP and Elder Davis was with us in the office and at home while he recovered from hernia surgery last month. Elder Charles has just been on his mission one month and is getting good training and good experiences working with these other two elders. It was nice to see him use his priesthood today to baptize the father.

We peeked in the cultural hall as they were decorating for the reception tonight and snapped a picture. Most receptions use the same format. Tables with a colored runner down the center, bouquets of flowers on the tables, and clusters of balloons positioned around the room seem to be the preferred style of decorations. The open space in the middle is for dancing.

We walked home in sunshine at 5:00, had French Toast for dinner, and then we mustered up enough energy to clean the apartment before I started on this entry.