Medical Safari #1

Well, Here goes, Medical Safari #1. San Luis, Argentina. We headed out, the Jarvis, and us, in our van loaded with medical supplies, tool boxes, extension cords, cans of Raid, ironing boards, irons, curtains, the ever present black medical bag, and homemade brownies to bribe the most resistent Missionaries. One of my purposes in going was to identify medical facilities for the missionaries who become sick in this area, 4-5 hours from the mission office. What I found was that the facilites do not have brochures with all their information, so I took pictures of their boards so I could remember what they had. Two of the Sister missionaries accompanied me as translators. I can speak basic Spanish, but not enough to bargain and negotiate with hospital administrators.

I taught basic First Aide in all the zones that we went to. All the basics, bleeding, loss of breathing, CPR, etc. We had fun, and willing victims. The reward was ice cream ordered from their favorite ice cream store, Gridos.

Steve repaired and repaired. In this apartment he put up curtain rods so these lovely curtains could be hung. Notice the beautiful sunset.

It was of course fun to see some of the old cathedrals. Each town has a plaza and usually a beautiful old church right across the street.

We have been hearing since we arrived of the hail they have down here. Well, here is an example. Some of them were the size of golf balls.

He is still pretty spry, climbing on top of this apartment. Go Grandpa! At one of the apartments he fixed 10 electrical outlets.

Here is Steve on top of the roof putting a new lid on a water tank. All the water tanks down here are on top of the ground. That is how they get the water pressure to make their water run.

After 3 days of teaching first aid, visiting hospitals, and making repairs, we treated ourselves with a night at a resort on the lake. For some reason I have no pictures of the lake. The road around the lake is made so it can be a racetrack for car races. Quite a novel idea. They were going to have the big Carnival celebration here in March.


We did not make the reservations, the other couple did. The valet took us to our room, when I saw the sign on the door that said Brazil Suite, I became a bit nervous. When we went into our room, I knew a mistake had been made. I called the manager and said, this cannot be our room. It was beautiful. The most luxurious room I have ever been in. He just assured me there was no mistake, so we just pretended we were king and queen and enjoyed our royal suite.

We finished our trip with a visit to one of the wards there. The people were so wonderful. We bore our testimonies, and yes, Grandpa even did his in Spanish. The children were so darling, they all came up to shake our hands.

We went home tired, but knowing much, much had been accomplished. New hospitals were identified, new Dr.s found, apartments so much the better for us having been there.

Listen When Your Mom Gives Advice!

Who would think that I would need to rely on one of those motherly words of wisdom from my childhood to solve a mission medical problem. The phone rang. "Hermana Brown, you will never believe what I just did." I braced myself for the worst news. "I was at a member's home and they were eating prickly pear cactus." Now my interest was picking up . . ."I guess I wasn't very careful and I must not have scraped all the stickers out, because, now I have cactus stickers in my tongue and down my throat. What should I do?"
I tried not to laugh--or cry! What a predicament. But what to do? I could send him to the Dr's and have them pull the little prickles out with forceps . . .or . . .I remembered that my Mother used to tell me when I was a young child . . ."If you get any little fish bones stuck in your throat, try eating a piece of bread and it will gather up the little fish bones." Well, it was worth a try. I shared this with the missionary . . And it worked!!! It took three pieces of bread, but the little stickers are all gone.
Mom, thanks for looking out for me even down here in Argentina. I am so glad I listened once in a while to all those words of wisdom.

P-Day Argentina Style!

I think these grapes are sideways. But yes, it is getting ready for the harvest time here. This was at the home of the family we had our celebration dinner with.

We went golfing with two of the office Elders as a treat to them and us. The Bishop's daughter went with us. It was fun. Real close to the sand trap he is.

Here we are, stopping for a break in the shade.

What Elders do! Nope that is not my butt. They got a really neat shot as the ball went in the hole. It was their first time golfing, and I actually think they beat us. We bet M&M's. So we owe them.

We celebrated real Argentine style with an "Asado". It is a special B-B-Que. Here is Elder Brown getting into the middle of it. It was delicious--chicken, beef, and sausage.

Here is our celebration dinner. All the office Elders came to celebrate with us. Sorry the picture is blurry.

New Years 2010!

We had a great New Year's Eve. We decided to out to eat, but lo and behold, they do holidays the right way! Nothing, nada, nunca-nothing was open. We did find our favorite chicken restaurant would sell take out things. So we took home a stuffed chicken breast that was so delicious. It was stuffed with ham and cheese. We also got the biggest order of papa fritas (french fries) that we could order, and then a wonderful tossed green salad. We went to the Jarvis's. Oh yes, earlier that day we had picked up a kilo of our three favorite ice cream flavors. So we were ready.
It had been their anniversary just a couple days earlier so we treated them to this wonderful dinner and gave them a small gift for their annivesay.
At midnight we went up on the roof and took in a sight to behold--fireworks at 360 degrees. The whole town was one big fireworks. We were surrounded. I haven't figured out how to get my video on--its not great, but you can hear the noise of the fireworks.



Here is Steve holding on to our "globol" just before we let it go up into the sky. I love these. They are so gently and beautiful. We are trying to figure out a way to bring some home.

There it goes!

Up into the sky. Well, the New Year is here. No Rose Bowl parade or bowl games. But I love the fact that I have a whole New Year to create as I wish--with a few side tracks I am certain.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Our Christmas Celebration!

In Argentina the Christmas Trees are decorated on December 8th. This is the Day of the Virgin Mary. So we are in Argentina, and that is what we did. We loved our tree. We put a string of lights on it and then decorated it with all the ornaments made so lovingly by our Grandchildren. There never was a prettier tree in all of Mendoza.

On Christmas morning, all the office Elders cooked breakfast for us Oldies. You never saw such a feast-grapefruit, waffles with fresh strawberries and whip cream, french toast, scrambled eggs, and somewhere they even found bacon (a little salty-but bacon). It was wonderful.

We had all drawn names and we had a great gift exchange. These are our awesome office Elders.

So our Christmas was wonderful. We did not exchange gifts between Steve and I. We decided instead to give gifts to others. We bought new baptismal clothes for the Mission Office, and we gave money, clothes, and toys to an orphanage.

We missed family, but we had a most wonderful Christmas. One of the best things was spending the day from noon our time until 9pm at night calling family. There is no better gift parents can have than talking to their children. We love you all so much.

Santa Comes to Argentina!

This was the Mission Christmas Party. It was held two days in a row, with half (100) of the missionaries coming on one day, and the other half on the other day. The tables were set, the program was a day to remember from start to finish. it started with the traditional White Elephant gift exchange. You never saw such energy and excitement! That was followed with some fun games, Apostacy (a way to play musical chairs using prophets names) We only broke about 5 chairs as they scrambled to be the last ones in.
Hot Potato, and then some relays. Steve and I were in charge of games. But we had lots of help.
Following the chaos of that, there was a beautiful program of the Nativity. The Elders and Hermanas loved being a part of it. We also sang Chrstmas Carols.


And then after dinner was over, there was a talent show, followed by the guest of honor, Santa himself. Do you think he looks a little familiar?

Each of the missionaries had to get their picture taken with this special guest.

And I even snuck a little kiss onto Santa's cheek. I think he is such a special fellow.

Merry Christmas!

Panchita is gone!

For those of you who might have noticed, Panchita is no longer with us or on the blog. She came to a very sad fate. The glass coffee table broke, when "you know who", sat on it. I am not accusing anyone, but it seemed a little spiteful of him. Panchita went flying to the floor. I scooped her up. Ran her to the kitchen and to a bowl of water. She seemed a little sad for several days, but then seemed to recover, and then, she just died. Belly up she was. A funeral was held with special words and tributes, and then . . .Down she went.
I hope this sad news does not cause great distress and mental anguish among our friends and family.