The rest of our Journey home (We arrived!!)

Day 3 (Thursday):  Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Badlands NP and a flat-tire

• We started the day at Mount Rushmore National Monument.  There was a great tour/explanation in the sculpture studio about how the rock was actually carved.  Over 90% of the carving was done using dynamite.
• Filled up with gas (very good move) and drove the scenic route down Needles Highway around Custer State Park.  This trip was longer than expected but we saw some amazing rock structures, prairie dogs, pronghorn deer, goats, mules and buffalo.  
• After 3-4 hours of scenic driving around Custer State park we drove backroads to Badlands National Park.  The map we were using was a bit deceiving as many of these roads are gravel.... and LONG.  
• We drove all around Badlands National Park.  I was struck with how similar it looked to Painted Desert in Arizona - opposite sides of the Country and similar geology.  
• When we were leaving the Badlands and Chelsey noticed that the driver side, front tire was going flat.  I could hear the air leaking out.  No surprise as half the day's roads were gravel.  Upon closer inspection, the hole was big enough for me to put my finger in.  I put the spare tire on and we creeped up the road at 50 MPH looking for a service station.  We were informed that there were two service stations - one 20 miles to the West and one 20 miles to the East.  We took the bet and headed East as it was in our direction.
• We arrived in Kadoka, South Dakota around 9:00 PM, found a hotel and asked the clerk for a place to eat.  He informed us of two options in town:  the bar on one side of town or that shack on the other side of the interstate.  The shack had a great Cheeseburger.  

Day 4 (Friday):  Flat-tire repair and driving

• At 7:30 AM I went to JS mechanic shop in Kadoka, South Dakota.  They immediately confirmed my fear - there was no patching the tire.  I asked them if they had a new tire for me to replace it.... they started searching the used stacks.  They did not have any tires.  I got into a discussion with the owner of the shop and asked him if he had any suggestions.  After a get to know you conversation (I think he was sizing me up) and a conversation about the virtue of patience (complete with stories of past impatient customers from New York City), I explained that we were missionaries returning home.  This changed the conversation.  The owner had gone to Bible College in West Virginia.  He wanted to know where we had been so I told him about Paraguay.   He would have been helpful without knowing our story but he was really helpful after knowing it...  he said there were two more service shops - one 100 miles East and another 40 miles West.  They called around and the shop 40 miles West had the tire.  No luck with the store 100 miles East.  He also offered to have someone else bring a tire in from Rapid City if we were willing to wait until 12:00 or 1:00 that afternoon.  We decided to backtrack to Wall (40 miles West).
• Wall, home of Wall Drug Store, is also home to one repair shop (De's Tire & Muffler) who luckily had a pair of front tires for our car.  DISCLAIMER:  Both tire guys said the puncture would have happened with brand new tires.  We were not delinquent in our tire maintenance.  We went and enjoyed a quick breakfast at Wall Drug Store while they replaced our front tires.  Chelsey rode the rabbit at Wall Drug Store and we went back to pick up the car.  
• We got on the road about 11:30 AM - about 19 hours from Eminence.
• South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa are covered with windmills (and not much else).  Did you know that a farmer gets paid $2,000-$4,000 per windmill that they let the electrical company put on their land per year?   

Day 5 (Saturday):  Driving and arrival

• We started the day about 7:30 AM with almost 9:00 hours to drive.
• We re-entered the Kentucky a little after 5:00 PM.  Feels great to be in the Commonwealth.  
• Little Bit was really happy to see us (we have a video that I am going to post).  We had a nice, casual dinner with my family.

Sunday:

• Went to Mass this morning with mom.
• This afternoon, Mom and Dad threw a really nice welcome back get-together today and we got to visit with family and friends.  It was great to catch up with everyone and to share a bit of our experience.  Thanks to everyone who made the long trip to spend the day with us.  

Total Mileage: 2.400 miles in about 40 hours

Coming Week:  Many of you will be hearing from (or seeing) us this week.  Tomorrow we will be looking at our apartment for the first time (yes, we rented an apartment without seeing it).

More reflection to come on Paraguay (as soon as we settle a bit).  

Our (very indirect) Journey home

We arrived back in the States last week and spent a few very good days with the Canossian Sisters in Albuquerque.  My posts about Paraguay are not done.... but in the meantime (while still processing all my thoughts/feelings/emotions) I figured I should update everyone on our road trip.

Day 1 (Tuesday):  Albuquerque, NM to Winter Park, CO

• left ABQ and the Canossian Sisters around 8:30 AM on Tuesday (photo top right with Sister Christina)
• visited Garden of the Gods in Colorado Spring, CO
• looked a bit around Denver-- including a brief tour of State Capitol
• enjoyed a great dinner at Mountain Sun Brew Pub in Boulder, CO followed by fresh baked cookies from Boulder Baked
• backtracked a bit and ended the night at about 11:00 PM in Winter Park, CO

Day 2 (Wednesday):  Winter Park, CO to Custer, SD

• got on the road a little before 9:00 AM and looked a bit around Grand Lake, CO
• drove the 45 mile Trail Ridge Road through the Park (see photo right)
• had an amazing lunch at Village Inn (nothing fancy... just really good) and took off driving North on I-25
• visited Fort Laramie National Park (see photo of rabbit taken on the historic grounds)
• drove some really long, straight, State roads through some NASTY storms, up and into South Dakota.  I cannot get over how much open space there is in the West. (photo below, too)
• arrived in Custer, South Dakota around 8:30 PM.  Amazing pizza for dinner from a local joint.  Another long day of driving tomorrow.   

Tomorrow we will be visiting Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park.  Likely arrival in the Commonwealth... Saturday.

Our trip so far... roughly 1000 miles.

View Driving directions to Custer, SD in a larger map

Sitting at the Airport

We're sitting at the Airport in Buenos Aires.  Doesn't feel real but we will be back in the USA tomorrow at 10 AM Albuquerque time.  See you all soon!!!

 

Getting to know the Sisters (and their work) in Argentina

On Friday we said all our "goodbyes" to friends (who now feel like family) in Paraguay.  Much more to come on our feeling about leaving, but for now I will leave it at that.

We took an overnight bus across Argentina and are now in the Capitol City of the State of Buenos Aires, se llama "La Plata."  There are multiple communities of Canossian Sisters here and they have had a presence in this community for over 125 years.  We are spending our last few days in South America getting to know the Sisters and the work that they do.


Saturday, after arriving around lunchtime, we visited the city of La Plata a bit.  Sunday, we went with Madre Ilda (from Mexico) to visit Buenos Aires.  We are planning on going back tomorrow and I will try to post some Buenos Aires photos after tomorrow's visit.

Today, we had a very long day.  We went to one of the Canossian schools (Berisso) in the area, under the false impression that we were just going to sit around and watch classes in action.  Not the case.  We visited 6 classes of students in Jardin, 5-6 classes of students ranging from age 10-18 and 3 different sections of recess.  At all of these "visits" we told the story of our Mission to the students and fielded questions in Spanish.  My head was ready to explode!!!  I have never felt so much like a rockstar in my entire life.  At one point, I was given a microphone and asked to talk to a group of 200 or so kids... totally impromptu... and totally in Spanish.  On the playground we were literally surrounded by students who were shouting questions at us about America, pop-culture, sports and (rarely) our mission (see Chelsey getting swarmed at right).


Highlights included talking with the kid who, after hearing we were from KY, asked us if we knew Nerlens Noel.  I explained that he was one of our favorite players but that I did not know him personally.  The kid was without a doubt disappointed.  After spending the day with the kids in school we went out to explore some of the other areas in which the Sisters work.

First, we visited a very poor barrio that is the Argentine' Sister's equivalent of the barrio debajo del puente.  It was absolutely impoverished and we saw many of the same problems with drugs, unattended children in the streets and shanties that we have come accustomed to seeing with all our friends in Encarnacion.  One distinct difference is the barrio here is much more spread out.  Houses are bigger and have yards (covered in rocks and trash).  Top left is a photo of public housing that was installed in the barrio.  If you look closely you can see where people have built additions onto the houses with whatever materials could be found in the barrio.  Top right you see one of the three chapels that the Sisters have in the barrio.  They were all covered with graffiti but the people in the barrio seemed intent on trying to keep them nice looking.  They were repainting one of them when we visited today.


One barrio, named "Nueva York" was particularly interesting.  It is the definition of an abandoned place.  It reminds me a little of what we constantly hear of Detroit.  At the moment, people live in the stone homes but enter through windows and broken doors.  Tin roofing provides cover for holes in walls and roofs for housing additions.  The architecturally beautiful, ornate stone buildings are covered in graffiti.  People have ripped out the marble floors to sell.  The entrance of the neighborhood has a high standing arch with the inscription "Mansion de Obreros" (Mansion of Workers) with the date 1920.  You can imagine well-to-do people walking the streets and enjoying the shopping and restaurants but, as of now, it is no more.  A factory in the town closed and the city literally died.  The housing now is only for very poor squatters and the streets are covered with drug dealers.  Walking around the barrio called "New York" was probably once comparable to walking around the brownstones in the City but, now, the place is nothing more than an skeleton.

We concluded the day with a visit to the Hospital Italiano which the Sister's founded 127 years ago.  They are still totally involved in the operation and actually live on the 4th floor of the Hospital.  It was amazing to see the kind of operation they run.  It is a privately operated hospital which employees over 200 doctors and 250 nurses!!!  How many Canossians run the hospital???  There are 5 nurses that run the show (with the help of the other hospital administration).  They had pictures up in the hospital showing the founders of the hospital 127 years ago.... pretty neat to know how deeply integrated they are into the communities that they serve.  Another example of this integration --the school we visited today has been in operation for 70 years and many of the students are third generation attendees.

We could not have selected a better group of Sisters to work with than the Canossians.

Clothes - Round #2

We are out of Paraguay (currently visiting with Sisters in Argentina) but I wanted to provide a quick summary on how we used the clothes provided by Nancy's visit (in June).  In Round #2 of clothing collection, we received:

• 49 pairs of underwear and socks
• 49 pairs of boys pants
• 144 boys shirts
• 94 pairs of girls pants
• 102 shirts and dresses for girls
• hair supplies and shoestrings (you would be amazed at our need for shoestrings)
• 10 pairs of shoes

This brought our clothing totals to (insert drum roll here)...

• 109 articles of clothing for babies (under 3)
• 150 pairs of boy's pants
• 340 boy's shirts
• 287 girls dresses/pants/shirts
• 28 pairs of pajamas
• 13 coats and jackets
• 35 pairs of shoes
• bottles, socks and underwear, hair supplies and shoestrings
• Over 350 LBS of Clothes in TOTAL!!!

Special thanks to our friends who donated in round #2:

• McRae, Jonah, & Elliott Pennington
• Bryce Shields & his Grandmother
• The Morrison Family
• Davanna Grubb
• Brenda Tackett
• Sue Riffe
• Betty & Cindy Riffe
• Billie Kirk
• Miranda, Claire, & Ray McLanahan
• The Madisyn Callihan Family 
• The Matt Davis Family 
• Mrs. Stephenson's 2012-2013 Kindergarten Class

And, again, a special thanks to Nancy and my sisters who have helped with collecting ropas.  

Kids were SO proud of their new clothes.  I even had a kid show me his t-shirt that we gave him on the last day of school... a whole 1 month after receiving it!!!  We were not able to distribute ALL the clothes we received which is amazing because the kids are going to continue receiving clothes for the remainder of the year.  Thanks again for supporting our mission.