Yes, I’m still alive! I have been slammed with work these past few weeks... Plus every day I forget to update, the harder it gets to catch up. So a brief review (in chronological order) of some activities:
Asado for Leah’s parents who came to visit from the United States.- Leah hosted an asado at their apartment complex. Most of the kids from the program, some of the people from the apartments, and some Argentinian friends all got together to celebrate!
Hanging out with the girls from church – a lot! Lu (Lucia) and I have spent a ton of time together lately – she’s just so much fun! She only lives a few blocks away (maybe a 10 minute walk) so that's really nice. It’s now our tradition to go out to eat fajitas before either of us takes an exam... Needless to say, we go a lot.
Waffle Night – I hosted a Waffle Night for my Bible study group last Tuesday. María Inés, Ivana, Lu and I hung out and prepared the first ones, and I taught Lu how to make them. Then Lucio, Paula, Valeria and Nancy showed up, so we made some for them too! They got to try all kind of toppings... I cooked some with chocolate chips and some plain, and we put Dulce de Leche, syrup, whipped cream, apples and cinnamon, raspberry jam, or some combination thereof on top! When we finally got done eating, we had a great Bible study.Valentina’s birthday – Valentina’s birthday was last Thursday, the first of November. We had a very small family dinner party for her. (She’s having her big “party” on Monday at a little fun-park.) Her parents bought her a prince and a princess Barbie, which she loved. I bought her a Disney princess tea set (which she loves offering to EVERYONE who comes in the door now) and a pink princess purse to put it in. She was in heaven. ;-)
Going to see Vicky’s band play – finally! – Vicky from CRI has a band that she’s been trying to get us to go see since the very beginning of the semester... They are VERY talented as far as playing music – I was very impressed! But their lead singer is pretty much terrible. He sings completely through his nose. But oh well, it was fun anyway. :-)Sushi Club – I went out to eat sushi with Satomi, Tomomi (those are the two Japanese girls that I went on the trail ride with last Sunday), Amelia, Megan, Cayley (from Canada) and Vicky from CRI. It was good sushi, and the Japanese girls taught us how to properly use our chopsticks and eat sushi. It was fantastic.
History midterm – I got a 10/10! I have a Lit midterm this Wednesday, and a Spanish midterm this Thursday. I can’t wait to be done with exams!!
Romina’s birthday / Halloween costume party – last night, I went to a surprise birthday party for one of the girls in my Typography class. We all came in Halloween costumes. It was absolutely fantastic! She was VERY surprised, and we all had a great time throwing whipped cream, silly string and gobs of shredded paper at each other. I made several new friends during this “war,” and definitely had fun.
Highlight of the week: Going to “El Diquecito” with church on Saturday mornings (today and last week) – we do a Sunday School program for the kids in a little town about 30 mins outside of Córdoba Capital. (Córdoba Capital just means the city rather than Córdoba province.) 
They live in absolute poverty – most of them wear the same clothes every week to church because they only have one set, none of them have running water, a lot of them are undernourished and all of them are absolutely sweet as pie. I walked with the girls from church to go pick them up (you can’t get there by car) and you wouldn’t believe how beautiful... They live along a gorgeous river right between the mountains. 
They have absolutely nothing and are completely happy. Of course, some families are worse than others. Most of them are well-educated kids whose parents love them and read to them at home, they have just fallen into bad economic circumstances. (It’s not that hard here in Argentina.) But there’s one family in particular that’s especially tragic: they live in a cinderblock / wooden board shack by the river. 
There are 14 children, and the mom is in her early 30’s. The dad’s abusive, the mom’s an alcoholic, and they all have sicknesses that could easily be cured with a little Lysol. But four of them come, and we love them. I am absolutely in love with “El Diquecito.” It’s really the church going out and making a difference in the lives of people that could too easily be passed by or forgotten. I’m helping them organize a PowerPoint to present to the home church to ask for craft supplies, toys and clothes for the kids. It definitely makes me thankful for everything that I’ve been blessed with...Then tonight, I went to the youth group meeting and we watched “At The End of a Spear.” It’s a movie about missionaries to the Wodoni indians here in South America. It made me sob, of course. If you haven’t seen it, it is definitely worth seeing.
Tomorrow I’m going to see “Acis and Galatea” – a Handel opera based on a Greek myth – in the “Teatro del Libertador” with Cayley, Josh and Tara. I am SO excited, it should be absolutely amazing!
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