Is it really almost Christmas???

This is Plaza de Mayo...the plaza representing the independence of Agentina with the casa Rosada, or the house where the president works in the background. The president is a woman. (her husband was the previous president). B.A. is well known for tango...the next photo I took one afternoon while out exploring in an area called San Telmo. They dance, and then go around with a hat for collections.

Hola mis amigos....
I'm back in Uruguay after spending the past 2 1/2 weeks in Argentina. I have complete a month of language school and at some point my attend for 2 more weeks. I will now begin to settle into the things I came to be a part of.....the orphanage, and the farm ministry.

.....First of all though, if you believe in the power of prayer,PLEASE just take a moment NOW and pray that we would receive rain in Uruguay. We DESPERATELY need it. It rained quite a bit when I was in Argentina, but they have received none here....Cows and sheep are dying and crops have died. There are some towns where their total water source has dried up. Please lift this up to our King....Our creek which we water our crop from has dropped significantly and our fields of grass are dying which the cattle and sheep eat......

My 2 weeks in Argentina was a great schooling experience, but the "family immersion" was disappointing.....single woman in her 60's who takes several students at a time which results in nobody speaking English....french and english in my case. Oh Well. I lived in an apt. on the 5th floor (133 steps), right on a major street in the central part of Buenos Aires---unending noise at all hours! I got quite good at the subte (subway) routes to get me around and some on the train. This is a HUGE city of over 12 million people!

I was so blessed to get connected to some friends of friends back in Boulder, which resulted in some unexpected companionship and fellowship. Its so amazing to be invited to spend time with people you have never met with open arms. The common bond through Jesus can be sooo amazing! I also got invited to spend an afternoon/evening with a local Argentine family from the church I went to which was so sweet as they knew our communication would be limited. I took the supte to the train, and the 1 hour train ride and spent a great evening with the family of 5 which included lots of charades.

I had the opportunity to go way up north in Argentina to see the amazing waterfalls of Iguazu...on the border with Brazil and stay with the sister of one a missionary who works for Billy Graham. I was ready for some alone time, and prayer time and decided to go! It was a 17 hr. bus ride each way so I got plenty of that!!! The falls are surrounded by rainforest and are absolutely AMAZING! I could barely take it all in!

Blessings to all of you during this special time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior! I can imagine the hustle and bustle back in the states....quite different here. Apparently there will be an entire night of fireworks!
thanks for the messages and prayers!
Holly

Belated happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving fellowship---- Holly helping in Sunday School------- Learning to make yogurt & cheese
Hello!
Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving with fellowship, family and freinds. I was at the farm and we had 15 of us there and it was a potluck. Gary made a smoker out of an old stove and we had smoked pig (from our farm) and a chicken (the photo at the top) ... I got to meet some other missionaries so that was great!

I am currently in Buenos Aires for more languge school for 2 weeks. Its just across the river from Montevideo and was the perfect opportunity to get a taste of Argentina. My living situation isn't the host family situation like I had hoped for but God is showing me that I need to rely on Him through frustrations and come before Him always in prayer. I am in a class of 5 and REALLy like my professora and the other classmates. I was blessed to go to church with Annie and Bill Kennedy..friends of friends from Boulder last Sun. They had another missionary from the states translate the message for me, which was wonderful. Her name is Liz, and is a Doctor here doing missions work. It was great to connect with her. We will continue to pray for one another and keep in touch.

After church, I went to a celebration with Bill and Annie at the home of one of the boys who was baptized that day....I ate tongue, homemade empanadas, and rode a mechanical bull they rented for the party....can you believe it? too funny. I have been invited to go out on a boat with the family tomorrow so that will be good for my language immersion! (they speak VERY little English)

Keep praying for rain in Uruguay please as people were losing their crops. We are blessed to have a little creek on the farm and an irrigation "system" that Gary designed with a pump to get water into a place where we water our large gargen from. The pump broke and we didn't get it back from being fixed for almost 2 weeks so me almost lost our crop as well.. Uruguay has been in a drought, but here in B.A. we just had 4 days of rain...I pray UY got some as well.
I have heard from many of you that you aren't getting my blog so I will try and correct that ....I thought many of your were receiving it, but you aren't...blessings to all of you--Holly


our first home made cheese!

Sheep shearing

How sweet is the face of this little lamb? (and my sheep shall know my voice)....
Well,
Its been busy on the farm. 2 days ago we had all of the sheep sheared.This gets done every Spring by hired hands. Quite the process of having them all in the pen and then one of the guys grabbing a sheep, "hog-tying it", and then one of the other 2 guys shearing it. The sheep looked sooo different afterwards!
I will attach some photos at the bottom. Notice the car that pulled the shearing machine..it was an old 1960 mercedes with a trailor.....not exactly the type of car I expected for farm work.

Please pray for rain for us here. The forecast is no rain until January which will hurt many of the crops of people without any means of irrigation (the majority). Also, we are giving praise that our pump for our irrigation finally got repaired, as our plants we are growing our huge garden were starting to die. The time frame for getting things repaired here is quite different than in the states.
Muchas abrasos to todos (many hugs to all of you)
Holly

out of the City and to the chakra (farm)

Well,
I am finished with the first 2 weeks of language school in Montevideo. I am back at the farm until the 28th of Nov. I will help on the farm, continue to study Spanish on my own, and meet some of the people around here they are "connected to". Had some great time with the sweet children at a Church in San Jose y-day...so precious!
The local family I lived with were extremely caring and it was a good experience for immersion. Below are a few pictures from my time there. The photo at the top was taken while on a walk in the City, the little boy I'm holding is Nahuel, the grandson, my host family, and a photo of the school. This family was wonderful and it was a great immersion experience.

Hola

Saludos de Uruguay!
I am now just over 1/2 way through my second week of Language school while living with a local family here. It is going well as far as I can tell. I at the advanced beginner level according to the school I am attending. Every day I learn ALOT but its difficult to practice it all and retain it all....poco Y poco (little by little)

Yesterday I went on a school activity where we rode a local bus almost an hour away to walk up to the highest place in the City. The view there was absolutely spectacular back towards the city. There is an old fort from the 1800´s that was built to help defend Montevideo with old cannons and some neat stuff. I also went to lunch near the port with a gal from Euorpe who also is going to school here, and we shared some type of "mystery fish" at a restaurant. None of the fish listed on the menus were in our diccionaries so we just picked one. All we knew was that it was grilled...It was delicious, and by far the most flavorful meal I have had here.

today the busses went on strike but will start again at 3 p.m....could turn out to be a huge mess. They are wanting more money. I can´t even imagine the problems that would cause in this huge City of over 1.5 million people who mostly commute by bus. There are always lines of people waiting all along the streets for busses. If I had to walk back to where I am living I would have to do some heavy map navigation, and it would take me about 2 hrs....there are many other suburbs (barios) farther away.
thanks for the prayers and I miss so many of you!
Holly

almost a week here

Hello,
Have had a tough time getting an update posted....its been a very busy week. In hindsight it would have been a great idea to have had a bit of "down time" after arriving here. I finished my first day of school in the huge City of Montevideo yesterday and am spending the weekend here at the farm. This is about a 2 1/2 hr. bus ride from where I am living with a local family for school. I didn't know how much I would enjoy the farm environment after the City but its very refreshing, and WONDERFUL to have the fellowship.

I really like my school and had 2 other women from Germany in my class last week. The professors don't speak English so its like learning to Charades at times and I felt a bit frustrated y-day with the new material. Overall, the food here is very plain as they don't use much seasoning, and especially not spicy. (I looked for hot sauce in the supermercado but didn't find any) Thebig meal here is lunch, but I usually just grab a snack as its during school. Dinner is very late. Often we finish dinner after 10:00 at my homestay family which I certainly am not used to.

When I arrived here last eve, I helped plan sweet potatoes from cuts off of previous plants. There is a huge garden here. It is going to be so wonderful to eat such fresh food out of the garden. We will have lamb tonight and yes.... it is one that used to run around here in the pasture....I will get used to that in time I guess.

Please continue to pray for my time a language school and for the ministry here...
In Him,
Holly

Day 4 in Uruguay

Well, time has just been like a whirlwind since I got here even though one would think it would be a very leisure pace.....it hasn´t been except for my first day on the farm which was on Saturday after 27 hours of travel in planes including layovers, 4 planes, and then about 1 1-2 hour ride to the farm....
The farm is quite beautiful and serene....many cows, sheep, pigs, 3 horses, chickens and or course a rooster, 4 dogs, milk cows...i think that's it. Saturday night I slept for 13 1-2 hours and then began sorting through my things to pack for school here in Montevideo. I take a local bus every day for about 30 min. each way to and from school. I have finally found this internet cafe that I can send e-mail from. The cost is 15 pesos, or about 70 cents for an hour.

On the television at my host family where I live there has been news about the election in the U.S. each day..they watch CNN in Spanish and I understand parts. It will be interesting to see if makes the front page of their newspapers. I have been asked several times who I think will win, and why we have the voting on Tuesdays.....
Anyway, I like my maestra (teacher ) in school and the other 2 women in my class who are from Germany. I will do homework this evening, eat late with my family...around 9:30 p.m....and then go to bed on a full stomach....something that is hard but better than going to bed hungry like a large part of the world...lots to think about.

Holly has arrived safely!

Hola mis hermanas (hello my sisters)
Praise God, I'm here....after 4 flights, and almost not making the last flight...its past midnight and I'm whooped! BARELY made the last flight after having to take about a 45 min. cab ride to another airport in Buenos Aires to fly to Uruguay....The cab driver basically told me there was no way but "vamoa a ver"...meaning we will see. My mind went briefly to....what will I do if I don't make it??? How far to the port to take the 3 hr. ferry... or????
Then the scripiture, Be anxious for nothing but by prayer and thanksgiving make your requests made known to God".....so I began just talking to God Instead and... well, here I am. That peace I experienced in the midst of that was WWWAAAYYY better than the anxiety I almost got wrapped up in.
Please let others you know who may be wondering and praying for my travels know I'm here safely. I was greeted with a sign and smiles....Gracias a Dios.

Getting Ready to Go!!!!

Sitting at the Cup on Pearl St. in Boulder with my dear friend Kathleen who is helping me figure out how to do this! Final countdown is 3 more days after today, and I"ll be Uruguay bound!