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).