A una iglesia

Domingo 05 - Sábado 11 Enero   

It finally happened. After many neighborly invitations to churches in the area we finally agreed to go to church with Oscar & Nancy, and family, who live two blocks south of us. They have a pickup truck, so we followed them in our car, since the directions seemed confusing to us. Took us about 15 minutes to get to the church. We had to take the autopista west a short distance, and a short drive north thru the country. The little village where the church is, maybe a dozen homes, is La Cumbre de Metlac, a part of Dos Rios, the town northwest of the where the big bridges cross the deep Metlac barranca. 

Were we actually going to attend an Iglesia Bautista Gracia (Grace Baptist Church)? Apparently yes, as we leaned when we turned a final corner and saw the front of the building.  Upon arriving, one parks along a dirt road. The church is new, recently plastered and painted, and still building roofs over the outside area. Immediately Oscar introduced us to some english-speaking folks and also the minister. One lady is from New York. Everyone was very friendly. People mingle about outside for a bit, or avail themselves of coffee and treats, then go into the church. There is a stack of bibles, all in spanish, on a table by the door for those who did not bring one.  Some folks had their bible on a tablet device.  The church is tall-ceilinged and painted white inside, with two aisles and 12 seats across. Also a small balcony up in back, where most of the teens sat. Probably 120 to 150 folks attending today, standing room only in the back.  

Boom, boom, boom – the amplified music has started. Soooo loud, it could have shaken a dwelling. Drums and acoustic & electric guitars were played by six men of various ages. One could sing as loud and off-key as one wanted and the persons standing next to to you could not hear you. Our ears started ringing. For almost an hour, everyone remained standing and the young man at the podium directed the sound, responsive readings and songs. The lyrics for the songs (but no musical notation) were projected high on the front wall. We have not seen this done before, but it sure beats handing out song books. Finally with continual praises to God in prayer and song, we sat. Children at this point went into another part of the church, for sunday school. The music used was not hymns, at least with any tunes we were familiar with, but seemed to be shorter pieces of sung praise. Seems most folks didn't need to look at the lyrics, so we suspect the music was the same each week.

All first-timers were asked to stand and asked where they were from. Several towns were represented by the dozen or so newcomers. Following this, the pastor made some announcements about classes during the week and planned work sessions (for the new roof over the front patio), then launched into an hour-long sermon which was about "doubting Thomas," asking everyone in the congregation to follow along in their own texts.  The sermon was all about what was written in the scriptures, what events had transpired then, and  how we today can understand each passage.  This was all similar to Carmen's church upbringing. However, Dan's churchgoing history is different, with the liberal pastors he recalls mostly sermonizing with only a brief reference to scripture and much more interpretation and application of the ideas to modern life. The sermon was entertaining since the minister was full of movements while talking. Many times the congregation let out joyful noises and "amen's" at what the preacher said. Bit different from the more sedate services we are used to.  

Being the first sunday of the month, there was communion, open to all present. The grape juice and bread was passed out to those standing. The bread was an uncut small round loaf that folks had to break a wee piece from – not too sanitary. More songs of praise, and then the offering was collected by people carrying long poles with a long black bag at the end. This is good. No one can see what the other puts in. At the end of the service there were a few more announcements, and an invitation to all to stay for a meal or snack after the service.  Everyone shakes hands with people standing near them, and after the service closed, as they walk outside. There is a small eating area, where foods prepared by women of the church are served, which one pays for at prices listed on a chalkboard, to reimburse the ones who furnished them. 

We now felt a little awkward and at loose ends, so made an excuse and went to our car to leave. We had left home at 10:30am and were told the service was over at 1pm, but it went almost an hour more, and could easily have taken more time if we stayed to eat and chitchat. Just as we were about to get into our car, a man who spoke some english came up and talked for awhile. He asked if we would be back next week. Dan said maybe and the fellow wanted to know why a "maybe."  We told him the music was a bit too loud for us, and perhaps next time we could sit in the balcony, since Carmen is unable to tilt her head back comfortably to read the lyrics high on the back wall. We actually will probably never devote this much of every sunday going to a church - but who knows. We definitely did appreciate the experience, and meet some nice people. You can see some video about the church here.  We both feel that one doesn't necessarily have to be together with others in a church building to express our praise and thanks for this beautiful world, loving friends and the dear family we are blessed with.

Monday morning we got a phone call from Luci, Shattuck's housekeeper. Something was wrong with the lock on the back gate over at Las Magnolias, Frank and Ania's home. (We've included some fotos of their beautiful residence.) She felt that someone had tried to break in. We drove over to check it out about 10:30am, just as fog and much colder air was rolling in. The lock – whatever caused the problem, needed replaced. We drove into Fortín and bought a new lock that we could set to the old combination. Back later in the day, now with some chipi-chipi precipitation happening and spent much time changing over to the new lock, involving widening holes for the thicker cable.  The new one is stiff and difficult to use. Imagine it will loosen up with time.  We showed Luci how the new lock worked.

Back home, in the afternoon rain, Carmelo showed up. We would have bought fewer plants had the sun been shining, but we felt sorry for him out in the bad weather, and he had been waiting for us in the cold and wet. We did tell him that we would buy no more gazanias after today though. Really, nine is enough! They have to be in the full sun or the flowers do not open. Full sun, we have very little of except on our terrace outside the bedroom. We remember seeing a cemetery in Turkey full of these beautiful flowers.

Come the evening just about dark we got another call from Luci, this time explaining that the new lock wouldn't trabar (fasten).  We offered to go over and see what was what.  By this time it started to rain. We got up to the back gate, with a flashlight, and sure enough the tongue and lock wouldn't fit together.   Also the tongue end of the new lock was missing its protective cap (which has the little nubbin on it to show where to line up the digits), so something was amiss for sure.  The cap had fallen off somewhere in the dark. It appears that instead of feeding it thru carefully she had wrenched the tongue end out thru the rebar loop, tearing off the plastic cap from the end of the cable in the process.

With the cap off, the knurled resetting ring is exposed, so she obviously twisted the reset ring while turning the digits.  The lock wouldn't shut because it no longer was set for a known combination.  Fortunately we brought the old lock in the car with us so it was threaded thru and things locked again.  The new lock was also left there, unlockable, and it was too dark to hassle with removing it, as the stiff cable was wound round and round the door frame.

Wednesday we went back to fix the lock situation (after buying another, simpler, cable lock just in case), and to feed their kitty.  We determined that the expensive cable lock just wouldn't work without risk of inadvertent & occasional loss of its combination, so we removed it and installed the smaller one with a fixed combination. The cat was nowhere to be seen.  Since we were out with the car, we shopped around looking for stovepipe for our new small hot water heater, to be installed just outside the kitchen on the front porch. Letting it vent into that space would just bring exhaust fumes into the kitchen, so a pipe thru the porch roof is a must.  Few people seem to vent above their heaters, so finding stovepipe meant traveling all over the city. Dan also visited an obscurely located warehouse in Córdoba which stocks refractories and high-temp materials, scoping out options for building a fireplace-insert rocket stove he's got ideas for.  When we got back home Dan called Luci with the new numbers for the lock.

All this week our house has been serenaded by a gray cat in heat. Doesn't she know that our Gardi is an "it"? Gardi has not been allowed outside our bedroom with out a halter and leash, since he went traipsing across the roof tops of our neighborhood. Just afraid that he might slip and fall into a cravasse or jump down into a yard where he can not get out. And he would die a slow death. When Gardi first came to live with us, he had no collar. Whenever Pepe, our six pound Pomeranian dog, was getting his collar put back on, after a hair cut and bath, Gardi would try to get his neck into it. We bought Gardi a collar, put it on him, and he strutted around like a proud peacock. He always gets upset if we take his collar off, and yes he also stands perfectly still to get the harness put on, until, that is, the leash goes on. Immediately his stomach hits the floor and you can't budge him. He should be living with little people who like to dress up their animals – like Carmen when she was young. She still remembers putting clothes on her cat and taking it sled riding down the hill next to her home. That kitty always seemed to be happy with the situation, or so she remembers.