EVERYTHING is different here!

Everything is different here and rightfully so. When you go to a new place you don´t know quite what to expect and when you leave your world-view is different in many ways. I´ve experienced that already in just the short time we´ve been here. I would like to try to explain how things are different here. Once you live in a place for awhile the differences seem to disapear or seem to become not so different anymore but nonetheless there are many differences living here than in the states.

#TRASH & DOGS: There is quite a bit of trash all over the streets. The youth from the church have made an effort some saturdays to clean up trash. This is very commendable. Also the sidewalks and town is full of stray dogs-where there are stray dogs there is lots of doggy poop.

#TRAFFIC: The streets don´t have stop signs and the town had two stop lights. Where the streets intersect adn there in no stop light, and no stop signs the first vehicle to the intersection goes first. If two cars come to an intersection at the same time, the car on the right has the right away. Most vehicles don´t have seat belts in the back seat and I haven´t yet seen a child strapped in or in a car seat. It´s not uncommon to see whole families (dad, mom, and child) riding on a moped or motorcycle. Even if the child is sleeping the dad drives the moped and the mom holds the child. There are also quite a few four wheelers that people drive around town.

#EXCHANGE RATE: The exchange rate is approx. 3,34 pesos for ever $1 dollar. The exchange rate changes on a regular basis, but right now it´s really good. It would be alot harder for someone from Argentina to come to the states than it would be for someone from the states to come to Argentina, financially speaking. In the Argentine money system they also don´t have one cents. So if I go to the store and pay for groceries and are supposed to get $3,37 back in change, they will either give me 3,35 or 3,40 back.

#WORK DAY: The Argentine work day is much different than we are used to in the states. The work day is approximately from 830am to 1pm and then most people go home for lunch and a siesta (nap) and then go back to work from 530pm to 10pm and then go home to eat supper at about 11pm. Even the school kids go home for lunch in the afternoon and go back to school in the evening for a couple more hours. Family life and work life are intertwined here. It´s not like in the states where you get your work done all in 8 hours or so and then go home and have family time.....both are a constant state.

PACE OF LIFE AND CONDITIONS: The pace of life is much slower here than in the states so also is the sanitary conditions. The other day at the grocery store I saw the deli person cut the lunch meat without gloves, lick his fingers and go back to cutting the meat. When eating at someone´s house people share cups and plates, etc. At a meal most of the time there isn´t a utensil in the dish for people to dish out of, you just use your own fork or spoon that you´ve been eating off of. Things like this bother me more than they do Nathan. It´s so ingrained in me to be sanitary in all ways.

CHURCH: The Mennonite Church is divided into four zones (North, South, West, and Central). The people go to the church building that is closest to where they live (their natural habitat) to worship. On Sunday evenings all of the zones come together in the central church building (the biggest church building by far) to have a corporate worship time. Not all of the zones have a completely finished building but that doesn´t matter. There is also no church bulletin or a prescribed order of worship. It´s led by the Holy Spirit according to what the H.S says to do each Sunday. Many of the people in worship feel free to sit or stand according to what the spirit tells them to do and raise their hands or kneel on the floor according to what the spirit tells them to do. I had a conversation the other day with another gal from the states that has been here much longer than I have. I was wondering why the church feels much freer here to do what the spirit tells them in worship and in the states it feels like the church has a more prescribed order of worship and we are told what to do. She explained in like this... there are two different kinds of worship (intellectualism & emotionalism). The states churches run more on intellectualism because there are many well educated people in the churches in the states. Here the churches run more on emotionalism (what feels good or right). I have come to the conclusion that for the Holy Spirit to move and work in peoples lives BOTH are needed....intellectualism and emotionalism. I´m still trying to understand this fully but it is a real challenge for me to think about.

ENVIRONMENT: It´s summer here right now and can get quite hot, however it´s a dry heat, not a humid heat, mostly. It also hardly ever rains here, so many people water their plants, sidewalks, paths, dirt, roads, etc. Everything gets watered here. In the winter it can get quite cold however it would be very very rare for them to get snow. The hole in the ozone layer is not a myth and is very much felt here with the summer being so hot. A local told me that the sun wasn´t this hot 20 years ago and it keeps getting worse.

DAILY LIVING: The toilet and shower in many houses (including our apartment) are all in one area. After taking a shower you have to squeegee down the floor, so that it´s not slippery for someone to use the toilet. Also after going to the bathroom the toilet paper can´t be flushed down the toilet, it gets put in trash can next to the toilet and taken out with the trash later. The trash man comes almost everyday to pick up garbage. Most people outside their houses have a small basket on a long pole where they put their trash. This is mostly so the stray dogs don´t get the trash and spread it all over the town. The food is also different here. Most of it is bland kind of foods. Some popular foods are asado (kind of like grilled meat), empanadas (like cresant rolls with eggs, meat mixture inside), melanasa (a flat piece of meat that is breaded), papas (potatoes of any kind), gaseosas (soda which is drank with almost every meal).

CUSTOMS: The culture is very warm here. When you encounter a person the first thing they will probably do is give you a kiss on the cheeck and ask you how you are doing. If you spend any time with a person you most likely will also be offered yerba mate (pronounced mahteh). This is a kind of a tea and can be drank cold or hot, with water or with juice. Almost everyone drinks it regularly.

I´m sure there are many more differences but these are some of the main ones that we are experiencing on a regular basis. I hope this helps you become more familiar with the Argentine life.