Friends near and far.

Moving as often as we have means that your friends are everywhere. When you move from a location there are always people that you "take with you". I sometimes realize that in a given day I might hear from an old friend in Adelaide, Australia, another one in Geneva, Switzerland and yet another now living in Singapore. The part of this that makes me laugh is that the one in Oz will soon be heading back to France. The one in Geneva is on her way to India for a wedding of a friend made in Argentina and another is in Singapore having just returned to that location from England.

My favorite blogs are written by people that I know from past locations. Some of my favorites are based in Trinidad, Ireland, Siberia and India. Reading about everybody's new adventures bring them closer. We are all separated by vast distances yet when we end of back together it is as if we have never been apart.

I left Canada nearly 15 years ago after living there for 12 very happy years. When I return to Calgary every summer it is just like old times. When we left Calgary we left the city but not our connections there. When you are far away from your family, your friends become your new family. I left Los Angeles over 30 years ago and it is much the same. I have been lucky enough to reconnect with old high school friends there and it has been great. I so enjoy meeting new people but there is something about the people that know your history. They just "get" you!

From what I have observed, getting older with your friends is not a bad thing. Especially when you consider the alternative!! Most of the women I know look and feel better than ever. Lots of us are enjoying our 50's way more than our earlier years. Many of us have semi-empty nests and are spending our time and energy on ourselves and our partners. I find though when my "chicks" return to visit are the best times of all.

Already gone. :-(

The rain came and the rain went. Back to the roasting heat. Yuck. It was nice to have you rain and a cool night. Come back soon!

And the rain came.........

It has been a VERY hot week. Temperatures hovering around 35 Celsius. For my North Americans that is the high 90s Fahrenheit. In the city that feels like an oven. The steam seems to be rising from the pavement as I walk from place to place doing my normal errands. I was woken up this morning at 4am by flashes of lightning followed by loud claps of thunder. I sat out on my balcony and enjoyed the rain and wind. It was a tremendous treat. Finally some relief from the heat. I can only hope that is stays around awhile.........

700 done, 318 to go.......

I have had dreams about backpacks, little white socks and white running shoes. In my dreams the shoes are jumping out of their assigned boxes and walking quickly towards me!! Its ironic that last week we were taking all of the shoes out of the boxes that they came in and placing them into large cardboard boxes by size. Now we have spent days taking them out of said boxes to continue their journey to a child's feet! We had over 40 people helping us last week. Some from as far away as Lafayette, Louisiana.



By this coming Tuesday (January 26) everything will be packed and ready to go. Each backpack will have a child's name and a group attached to it. We will then celebrate that the job is complete. I am hoping by then that the shoe dreams will stop and are replaced by dreams of the beach, the ocean and maybe a cocktail!!

SACS "Send a Child to School"

SACS "Send a Child to School"

I have found that one of the keys to my happiness of living in a foreign county is finding something worthwhile to keep myself busy. I wish I was as altruistic as I sound!! I enjoy having lunch with girlfriends, going to the lovely gym at the
Four Seasons Hotel, enjoying a pedicure or a massage but its not quite enough.

Living overseas for so many years with stops in Thailand, Peru, Ecuador, India and now Argentina, I realize how incredibly privileged we are. I am not saying that there are not problems in North America. Of course there are but there is also a bit of a safety net. Not a perfect one without holes but a shadow of help for those who need it. In many other countries there is no assistance to be had. There is a great need in all the countries outside of North America (USA and Canada) that we have lived and Argentina is no exception.

My calling here is SACS (Send A Child to School). It is a group of volunteers that I have the privilege to be part of. I serve on the Board that consists of 9 members at the moment with room for more. One of the joys of this lifestyle is that new people enter your life frequently. One of the sorrows is that dear friends leave when you are nowhere near ready to say good bye to them. For this reason we are at 9 instead of 12. (soon to be 8 as one of us goes to Russia) Our current Board represent the USA, Canada, England, India and Argentina. Our goal is to provide a backpack with the supplies they need to begin the school year. Paper, Pencils and notebooks as well as shoes, socks, labcoats (Argentine school uniform) and of course a the backpack itself to take to school. This year we will be able to outfit 1018 children. This takes both time and money!!

Since the school year begins in March, 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere we are entering our busiest time. We have already unpacked and re-packed over 500 pairs of shoes and packed over 1000 pencil cases. By the end of January we will unpack another 518 pairs of shoes and ultimately fill the backpacks ready for the children. This is no small endeavor. It takes lots of time and lots of volunteers to accomplish this. In the coming week will will pack things up with the grade appropriate supplies. We will then put the child's name in it and place it in a big bag ready for delivery in the later part of February.
Finally we go to the school, church group or homework center and meet our kids. This becomes an occasion for the whole family and we all have a great time. Below you see a wonderful women who runs one of the centers. She brings her own small daughter with her so she can devote her afternoons to the children. As you can see, they adore her. The little poppet with her is a girl just beginning Jardin. (kindergarten) They wear a special lab coat in either pink or blue. She had just told us she had never expected to own a new one and insisted on putting it on right away!



During this busy packing time we also begin our first fundraiser for the 2011 school year. Yes.........we are a group of planners! Our first event is January 28, 2010 but im afraid that is another entry all together!!

Hot, Hot, Hot, Weather

I watched the news last night and saw the UK covered in snow. England does not cope well with snow. Scotland might do a bit better!! Canada is a country that handles snow. That is because they gets lots of practice. Still you have to admire them. There is lots of complaining but people get on with their lives. The country does not just shut down because of a little white stuff.......

In Argentina it is summer. The hottest month in the southern hemisphere is January. Think about how hot it can get in the middle of July and you will understand the heat here. In the city the concrete makes it even hotter. I always walk on the shady side of the street and am grateful for invitations from friends to swim in their pools. In the evening the sun goes down and you can feel the breeze touch your slightly sunburned skin. Sitting outside in a cafe enjoying a glass of wine you true feel sorry for all the cold people up north!!

2010 A New Year

New Year. For so long that has always been September. Fall and the beginning of a school year has always felt "new". Now with an empty nest, I am trying to look at January with fresh eyes. First there are the dreaded New Years Resolutions. These are usually something to be made, procrastinated about and ultimately ignored until they are forgotten. I am trying to look at these with fresh eyes too. I have succumbed to the temptation though. The resolutions have been made. I will learn to do something new. I will file the mountain of paper that threatens to bury me. I will improve my Spanish. I will keep off the caffeine and moderate the wine consumption. And most of all, I will give myself a break if and when I fail to do any of these things.


Simplicity is a key. Enjoying small things. Looking forward to going for a walk this afternoon and having a scoop of frutilla grazinado sorbet. That in English is strawberry chocolate chip sorbet that is a little bit of heaven on a cone. To get there I pass old buildings with beautiful iron doors. Parks full of families enjoying their holiday. A simple walk that is perfect.

A simple walk that turned out to be anything but! It turns out the Dakar Rally is now held in South America............Who knew? Africa is now considered to be too dangerous to hold the race so it has been relocated to Argentina and Chile. As we took the 45 minute walk for ice cream we were surrounded by people out to see the Rally cars, trucks and motorcycles. The mood was contagious and soon we were standing on the street cheering with the crowd.

The 373 drivers officially begin the journey from Colon to Cordoba, 349 kilometers. 16 stages and 9,030km later, the participants will return to Buenos Aires in the middle of January. I look forward to seeing the cars at the end of the race.

Sometimes you are lucky and get to experience the unexpected. The beginning of a new year is a clean slate waiting to be written on. New adventures, new people and of course the family and old friends that make your life complete. For now I am enjoying the anticipation of what is to come.