It was a long, but good day.
Again, could not get up in time to make it to 6 am prayer. Just too stinking tired with this lingering illness to get up that early. In fact, early is the worst time. I force myself to get up at 7 - 7:15 in order to get Nate up and start getting him ready for school. We have to be out the door at 7:45 am so he needs a minimum of 1/2 an hour to dress, eat, go to the bathroom, wake up, etc. While he is doing that, I am doing the same, basically.
I have started drinking a lot of Yerba Mate (a strong green tea that is extremely popular in Argentina) for breakfast. I figure it is hot (because the house is super cold in the morning), healthy (since I am trying to get over this lingering illness), and helps wash all the junk off of my sore throat and make it feel better. - Ha, even as I write about it, my mouth is starting to salivate, I can taste the mate, and I am getting a little buzz. How's that for the power of suggestion. Pavlov would be happy. : )
Anyways, got Nate off to school, came home very cold and keep drinking more mate as I pressed forward trying to spend time in God's Word and Prayer. It was a challenge, but I managed to stay on target and keep moving forward. I am not a morning person. lol.
Jonny & AJ got up a little later. Jonny is more of a morning person than Aliana. : ) She is down right surly in the morning. You have to stay out of her way. Jonny is tired, but more pleasant. Poor little thing. She is just like her mom. ha!
The kids played games while Heather walked to the cash machine at the rotunda (about a 15 minutes) and then over to the main post office downtown (about a 30 minute walk) to pick up some packages from her mom that were stopped at customs.
Customs - apparently each person is allowed 1 package of up to $25 in value per year from outside the country. After that, you get to make a trip to the Post Office and go through Customs to get your package. Here is what Heather described to me:
1st. You have to stand in the longest line in the PO - to pick up your package. Ok, but what we did not know is that you have to PAY a holder's fee to get it - 5 pesos ($1.25) per package. You show them your paperwork that came to the house telling you to come pick up your package, sign for it, and than THE GUARD takes the package(s) over to the Customs Area (Aduana) where you stand in line again.
2nd You go through Customs - they read the customs report attached to the envelope/ box, open up each package to verify the contents, make sure it is all yours, take down your personal information, and explain how they charge you for everything. I think our packages came to 64 pesos ($16) to get them out of there. All told, I think it took her about 3 hours. Thankfully, it was well worth it - shipment from my mother-in-law: small presents for everyone! There was quite the little celebration going on at the house today. : )
I also had a good talk with a local who is going through some really hard times. We are trying to have him do some work for us at the house to help them out financially while he is out of work. He has a good attitude considering all that he and his family are going through. He knows that God is trying to teach them some important things and while they are in pain in the process, he knows that it is necessary.
Got some more of the winterizing done today. Not as much as I wanted as I wanted, but the house IS a little warmer tonight. The cold weather is on the way for this weekend, so I guess I will need to get the rest done tomorrow.
There was much more that happened today, but this is all the time and energy I have for today.
See you again soon.
God bless you all and do great things in and through your life -
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