THANKSGIVING!!!!!!! I was lucky enough to get to travel for Thanksgiving with my volunteer group to Uruguay for about a week break and retreat. Our first stop was Colonia Valdense, a smaller country town. We stayed at a small organic farm that is affiliated with the church. This was exactly the place I needed to go for my nature fix. It was such a beautiful place which made it difficult to leave!
Our retreat was so much fun! I got to see the other four volunteers that I have not seen in three months. It was great to hear about their experiences both good and bad. It really made me realize that I am not the only one going through extreme highs and lows in my placement. We also had some great spiritual, mental, and physical revitalization that helped us feel refreshed and ready to return to our placements.
I cannot believe I have been here just over three months. It was really great to step back from what I have been up to for the last months and get to reflect a bit on how it has been going. The retreat gave me some time to think and to contemplate how my expectations, goals, and fears have changed. Plus all that nature, fresh air, peace and quite was just so good for my soul!
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| Welcome to Uruguay! |
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| Playing Argentine card games in the retreat room. |
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| The FARM!! |
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| Sunset group walk on the farm road (missing two people). |
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| Our cute new dog friend! |
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| THANK THE LORD!! RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING!! O how I miss you. BA does not really have a recycling system :( |
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| Eating was a large part of our retreat! Man was the food good here. Not only did we not have to cook it, but it was organic and fresh! We were literally drinking milk straight from the cow that lives 100 feet away, eating cheese made in the building next door, and enjoying fruit and veggies from the nearby field!! |
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| Oscar, the director of the organic farm, showing us around and explaining plants and how the farm works. |
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| Some lovely tomato plants. |
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| Me hanging out with fresh cheese and no I did not get a chance to cut any. |
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| LOOK!! They grow corn here too! This same picture could have been taken in Minnesota! |
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| Where they milk the cows! |
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| Fresh jams and dulce de leche that we had the pleasure of eating everyday! IT WAS SO TASTY!! I even bought my own jar of peach jam to bring home! |
THANKSGIVING DAY COOKING!
On Thanksgiving day we prepared our supper together in the great kitchen on the farm. I was in charge of making the pie. Pie is not something that is commonly eaten in Argentina and it was interesting figuring out how to find the ingredients and the substitutions for ingredients impossible to find here. I have been really getting into cooking and baking here and I enjoy the challenge of trying to make something from the US that is not common here/ difficult to find the right ingredients...so I had a blast making "pumpkin pie."
This was my first attempt at making a pie alone (maybe not the best time to make my first pies...due to the fact that I was baking for lots of people and for a holiday...hmm). Pumpkins like we have in the US are basically impossible to find here. Plus it is spring here (not fall) so that makes it even more difficult. I ended up making a squash pie instead. It also turned out that there were no pie pans in this kitchen so I had to use random pans. I make three pies total: banana cream pie, french apple pie, and "pumpkin" pie.
Due to the lack of pans I had to make one giant pie that contained two pies in one pan. As you can see below, I constructed a "wall" as we called it in between the two. The pie was about five inches tall. Everything went really well and tasted great but the oven was not the best so the huge pie was not 100% cooked through all the way. None the less people seemed to enjoy them. I had a lot of fun experimenting and problem solving so we could have pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving! It was yummy!
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| Me with the giant pie(s)! |
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| Las/el cocineras/o!! The cooks!! |
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| Our Thanksgiving table. |
It was great to be joined by Kate's family (country coordinator) and two missionaries from Bolivia. I really felt like I was with family and we all had a great time. It made being away from home almost easy and painless. Plus, to me, it did not feel like Thanksgiving but just a fancy and fun meal because of the hot weather. On Friday we traveled to Montevideo where two of the volunteers live. It was fun to get to see where they work and live plus a bit of the city.
MONTEVIDEO!!!
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| We went to H Potts (Harry Potter) in Montevideo Shopping (Shopping: what they call malls there)! My first movie since I have been here! I give it 4 1/2 stars by the way! Also a little side note: I am currently reading the seventh Harry Potter book in Spanish. It was my first non-necessity purchase! |
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| La Playa (the beach) in Montevideo. |
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| SOCCER on the beach!! |
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| View from the our boat before departing Uruguay. |
Had a blast on the trip and really did not want to leave the farm! Now I am back in Argentina and gearing up for Christmas. There will be a lot of activities going on at church. It seems crazy to me that today is the first day of December. I am listening to Christmas music as I blog and it seems so out of place to me as I sit here sweating in shorts and a t-shirt with a fan blowing on me. It is even stranger when I think of the snow in Minnesota right now. It seems like an imaginary world to me. It will be exciting to experience Christmas without snow and in hot weather. Who knows I might even head to the beach...just because I can!
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