Carnaval Season 2015

Worship Areas

 Here in Jujuy, there are MANY areas available for worship.  Every time someone had a "miracle" from the virgin Mary (Jesus' mother), they place a shrine to worship her.  They they simply call her the virgin from that area or place - sometimes a town, a neighborhood, or a larger area - like a mountain.

Below is another worship area for Gauchito Gil.  You can read about him HERE (in wikipedia).  He has his "own" website, but it's in Spanish (You can see it HERE).  There's a song for him as well on the website if you want to learn it.  People give offerings or sacrifice to him for a miracle.  People also place a red ribbon on their car for luck or protection.

There are other places of worship as well.  For example, San la Muerte - Saint Death.  There is a specific prayer that is offered.  It says (more or less), "Powerful Saint Death, skeletal spirit that accompanies man in his misfortunes. you have power to protect me in times of danger. I name you my protector and I am sure you hear me. Lord of Death, chosen by God for your gift of justice,
I ask you to free me from all harm and evil, so that neither sorcery nor disease, or misfortune, or loneliness, neither poverty nor treason
can be with me. May your protection cover and protect me from
my visible and hidden enemies.  Don't allow yourself to be used against me.  And let your scythe
return evil to whom has done evil against me."  There are other prayers, but this is the idea.

Some other gods or saints that are worshiped here include:  Pachamama (sort like mother nature-more infor HERE and the less religious website HERE), Difunta Correa (people place water bottles for her), etc.  Many idols, along with the witchcraft.

Taxis

Here in San Salvador, we have yellow taxis from different companies with numbers on the side.  The taxis have a little red light in the window that says, "libre," which means that they are available.  Sometimes though the taxis drive with the light on when they have been called to go pick someone up.  When this happens and you try to flag them down, they have a certain hand signal.  It's the same as when we say so-so with one hand... flat hand tilting side to side.

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!