Missions in Argentina

In Argentina, the Assemblies of God has a missions program that is similar to the program in the United States.  Like BGMC (Boys and Girls Missions Challenge), Argentina has Manos Chiquitas (small hands).  Argentina kids use a Mate gourd to take offerings (where kids in the states use "Buddy Barrel").  The slogan that Argentina uses is on the poster below, which translates to "Missions is done with the feet of those who go, the knees of those who stay, and the hands of those who give."

Doorbell

Do you have a doorbell?  We finally have a doorbell here in Argentina.  It is customary to clap your hands instead of knocking on the door here in northwest Argentina because everyone has fences/gates and dogs.  At times, it is difficult to know that someone is clapping at your door - especially if you have music playing or are out in the backyard.  Not everyone uses our doorbell, but it helps for the most part!

So the next time someone knocks or rings your doorbell, imagine if they had only clapped!  It was difficult to catch someone clapping at our door, so we made a "mock" video to give you an idea!

License Plates and Double Parking

Everyone in our city double parks downtown. There are traffic cops that write tickets if you are there too long or not in your vehicle.  Your vehicle may even get towed if it is there too long.  Most people double park for something quick - like picking someone up/dropping someone off or going to the cash machine.  (By the way, we try to never double park).

We recently found out that there is a system in place that we didn't know about.  There are people that get paid for writing down license plate numbers of vehicles that break a law.  But there is no paper trail and the people don't realize that there are fines until they try to sell the vehicle.

Reality is though, that these people are writing up these "tickets" especially for business vehicles - whether there was an infraction or not... so that they can get paid.  They are figuring that it is for a business... therefore the business has money.  In fact, they have also offered to take a bribe (for a lesser amount) to not turn in the infraction.  But remember, they are getting paid for every infraction that they write.  (and there is no actual ticket nor proof needed - only their word). A friend of ours recently tried to sell a business vehicle and found that there were $5000 (or $40,000 pesos) of fines that he had no idea about.

French Fries

Every time we buy a bag of french fries here in Argentina, we are reminded of living in Othello, WA.  You might ask why... there is a potato processing plant in Othello that makes french fries.  In fact, it is a McCain processing plant!  It's a small thing, but it makes us smile every time! 

Bottle Caps

In Argentina, we still use many glass bottles for drinks.  Some kids asked me during itineration what they do with all of the bottle caps.  As you might have guessed, some are recycled.  But, in our area, they also use the bottle caps to secure areas of the ground (especially near sidewalks) that are deteriorating due to the massive amount of rain that we receive each year.  The bottle caps that are stuck into the ground create a safe area to step on that will not slide even when covered with a puddle of water.  (Oh... and my kids love asking waiters for extra caps so they collect them) 

Ralph Hiatt Visits Alto Comedero

Ralph Hiatt, a "retired" missionary to Argentina (from CA), visited Alto Comedero on Wednesday and Thursday. He is VERY well known in Argentina.  He has done many crusades, especially for children, with his gauchito friend, Felipe. It was great advertisement for our church plant.  We are using this to launch our kids' club on Saturdays at 5 pm.

Impacto de Fe

The new church plant that we are working with is called Impacto de Fe - Impact of Faith.  It is in a part of town called Alto Comedero.  We are currently meeting in a house until we have enough people to start expanding.  This area of town does not have many paved streets (only one sort of concrete main street).  We would like to find a property to buy at the beginning of the year!
Pastor Omar and Paola have attended the Bible Institute in Córdoba and returned with a heart for Jujuy!  We are excited to parnter with them.

Bugs in the Backyard

Since it is warmer weather, we are spending more time outside.  This means there is more time to find interesting things in our backyard.  We have MANY beetles that live in our area.  The video above is just to give you all an idea of how loud the beetles can be on any given day.

On Friday, we took a field trip to a museum (for school) that specializes in dinosaurs, minerals, and geology.  The museum also has a section of stuffed animals and pinned insects.  One of the workers decided to show us more of the insects.  We found out later that he was entomologist that works for the university and the city.  He showed spiders, scorpions, etc.  The province of Jujuy is having an influx of new scorpions.  There have been two deaths this year from a type of small scorpion (since the venom is more concentrated).

 So, what should we find in our backyard besides the furry caterpillar?  Can you see it in the picture below?  (It's below the pole on the leaf.)  Yes, a small scorpion!  Our oldest son saw it first...  The kids were so excited and freaked out at the same time!  One of the other kids was sitting in that area yesterday.  So,we killed it (sorry if you love bugs).

Warm Weather

We are having very warm weather and high humidity!  Everyone in the United States right now has been talking about Fall and the leaves changes with the weather.  Since Argentina is in the southern hemisphere, we are experiencing Spring.  Today was 102 degrees (F) with 90% humidity.  So, how do you cool down without an air conditioner?  You play in a river, of course.  In our case, we have two rivers that run right through the middle of our city: Río Grande and Río Xibi Xibi.  The Río Grande comes from up north and is quite full of churned earth (similar to the Mississippi River), but the Río Xibi Xibi flows from the mountains through mostly rocks (so it's more clear).

Packages

On Wednesday, we received notice that a package had been received in the post office for us.  We could not retrieve it the same day because the part of the post office that we needed was already closed.  So, on Thursday, we went down to the post office in the morning expecting to wait in line, pay our fee, and receive our package.  The post office had changed locations since the last we had visited (a year ago).  When we got there, we found that we had to ask for an appointment, or "turn," at customs (aduana).  There were no "turns" left for the day, so we received an opportunity to return the next day.  Thus on Friday, we returned to pay our fee at the post office (for them holding the box and sending a notification that it was there) only to find out that customs is no longer at the post office, but three blocks away in its own separate building.  At the aduana (customs), we waited for around an hour (thankfully we were number 2 on the list of appointments)... they were working on the computers and moving furniture. So, after 3 days and a lot of waiting, we finally received a care package that had the items we wanted to make Thanksgiving easier to share with the people around us (we are expecting 16 people this year), as well as a little candy from the states.

Prayer Walks & Drives

 This week we were praying for the neighborhood of "Ciudad de Nieva".  We walked around the neighborhood praying one day and took a bus (since our car is in the shop) around the neighborhood another day.  We thought we would share a few photos from those two days.
  The bus we chose only comes to the bus stop every 30 minutes or so.  The bus route was larger than we thought.  We waited for 20 minutes in the shade, but since it was 102 degrees out and near 100% humidity, the kids were uncomfortable.  

 We found the other staircase up the hill.  It has less steps, but a greater distance than the staircase that goes straight up the hill.  (You can see Jonny and Nate climbing the hill together).
  All around town are chalkboards that have "Tombola" written on them with a bunch of numbers.  There was one hanging outside of a small store near our bus stop.  Tombola is like the lottery here.  

We always find interesting things on our walks (although usually not on camera).  We found this snail... the kids wanted to not only watch him, but to pray for his safety.  Later, we also found a snail in our backyard, which they named Dashy. 

Life returning to Argentina

We have returned to NW Argentina.  After finding a new house to rent, we have started exploring our new neighborhood (barrio).  There are many one way streets that are not labeled very clearly (usually with a small arrow on the side of the building/house on the corner).  There are often no street signs at all.  Here are just a couple of streets near our house - no street names, only arrows.

We are living on a hill in our capital city of San Salvador de Jujuy.  We have 3 roads that travel down the hill, but there is also one stairway down the hill.  It has 108 stairs, which isn't that bad on the way down the hill... just on the way back up!  Also, when we have a rain storm, it's a great waterway.

We live near a plaza named the Plaza H. Yrigoyen.  He was a president of Argentina two different times during the 1920's.  As I understand it, his full name was  Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen Alem.   He was considered the "father of the poor" and was a teacher before becoming President.

September 2014 Update

We are excited to share with you our most recent newsletter!  You can follow the link below over to our website to view the pdf.  CLICK HERE

Please let us know if you would like to be added to our newsletter email list or physical address list.  You can email us at schneidernewsletters @gmail.com .