Wet and Wild: A Monday Bike Ride Home in the Rain

Woosh! Said the wind as I opened the door to leave the dentist's office and could see the sprinkles starting to freefall from the sky, sporatically like popcorn.  So, I jumped onto my creaky bike, opened the gate, and went for it.  What choice did I have?

All around me, the earth was going wild like a drunken frat boy, wind pushing and flailing. 

I grasped my handlebars uncertain and glimpsed up at the swirling clouds in the grey sky.  No sign of lightning.  Pedal to the metal. 

I glided along, feeling the rain on my head, drops sliding down my cheeks, a welcomed cooler shower in a day of muggy heat. 

I kept on going, intentionally weighing myself down, paranoid of the flippant tires and bouncy, often breakable frame, I said a silent prayer. 

It was at this point that water started appearing all over my body, no longer a trickle, now, there was pelting rain, spray coming up from the pavement on my feet, and a wind that whipped the rain in at least 10 different directions. 

With the wind, came a stop, and I pulled over to shelter in the steep doorway of an abandoned car dealership.  2 minutes later a man came running around the corner.  He saw me, gave me empathetic eyes, then ran to his car and drove away.  I thought to myself 'Really? Could someone see that I am helpless here? In my green teacher dress, with my blue teacher bag, and my bouncy white bike?  Was I that threatening for someone to stop and offer a ride? 

As the wind eased up, I took an opportunity to run through the puddles, splashing along from one doorway to another.  Soon, I arrived at a Remis or Taxi stand, "Tienes coches que cabe mi bicing?" Do you have any cars that my bike will fit in?  "No hay coches." Gut punch. "Y si hay, no cabe tu bicing." Slap in the face.  Was that really necessary?

Defeated I walked on until I saw some fellow cyclists looking like wet dogs, riding a long, with a smirk on their faces, saying "We get it. Just go!" 

It was then that I embarked on the last 15 minutes of my journey, laughing occasionally at the ridiculousness of it all, smiling at the fact that I for the first time all day, felt refreshed.  With the last 5 minutes getting progressively darker as I approached my home, I channeled Thomas the Tank "I think I can" to get me that last 2 km and arrived on my steps, pumped for a warm shower and dry clothes.

We live. We learn. We love.

Today, a dear friend, asked me about what I would miss about Argentina.  Argentina has been fruitful for me in many ways.  First, I feel stronger as a coach, from being able to do graduate work around student-centered coaching and put those skills into immediate practice, develop and fine tune them over the last two years.  Secondly,  I am probably speaking Spanish better than I ever have in the last 11 years of studying, immersing myself in, learning it.   Finally, I will miss the rich and diverse group of friends I have here. 

You see, I entered Argentina, at a peculiar and new point of my life.  I was now "a woman with kids." Never before had I had that label preceding me.  To add on to this, I wasn't just a woman with kids, I was a woman with a toddler.  Pablo was just 1 when we docked up in Argentina and after traveling across 4 continents in a month with a 1 year old, upon arrival, I was already asking myself "Did I make the right decision for my family?"

We live.  We learn.  We love. 

So, here I am 1.5 years later, approaching the end of my time in Argentina, and currently, single parenting.  Everyone knows the importance of asking for help but how many of us are actually good at doing it or honest with ourselves when we need it.  Likewise, how many people can you count on that will listen, be there, give you practical and realistic feedback and still love you. 

We live. We learn. We love.

This weekend, I reached out to about 6 friends for help around the weekends and getting in 1-2 hours of exercise.  I am a physical person and being outdoors and in nature and exercise is food for my soul.  It helps balance my emotions and exercise helps me be a better person and more importantly at the moment, a better mom.  The reality is, as many single mommas, I am sure know, that exercise is one of the first things to go when you are sailing your own ship with a toddler. 

During the week, I am blessed by my nanny, Vero, who loves Pablo inside and out and stays around to allow me to get some workouts in, etc.  During the weekend, it's harder finding someone to come to hangout for an hour or two.  Still, when you have a tribe of people who are kind, understanding and supportive,  they will make this happen.   Within minutes of sending out a call for help, my Buenos Aires tribe was on it, putting a couple hours in their schedules over the next few weeks to help me get a couple of hours on my own and to also, let Pablo and I both take some time away from each other.   I love my child to the moon and back but we are all better if we can let off some steam and breath a bit independently, if we are given this blessing.

So, although, I am leaving Argentina after 2 years, it has helped me realize the importance of tribes and letting go, and asking for help.  Near and far, call out to your crew, whether its justification of the doubtful voices in your head overanalyzing something that seems really odd, or whether its a call for a moment to breath while on single parenting mode,  find your people who will be everything for you. 

I promise you. It's not only worth the time and effort.  It's love and joy for your soul and those around you. 

Produce Power: Thinking Differently on Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables

I had never been to PF Changs before I came to Argentina.
I was shocked to see one of the only food brands besides Mcdonalds in Venezuela: TCBY, which went out of business in most places in the US at least 20 years ago.
And whenever, I go home, it urks my brother, that I would rather go for traditional Mexican, lovingly prepared, homemade tortillas, recetas de abuela y mucho mas in place of Chipotle, which I never have been too.  My brother almost got me there once and then there was an E coli outbreak and I reined it in.

Today, we went to PF Changs for lunch.  For Argentine standards, it's fairly expensive, although, comparable, I imagine to what it would cost in the states, between $8-15 a plate.  I ate my meal and was satisfied.  There were vegetables, shrimp, sauteed in a rich, coconut curry sauce.  Overall, it was a pleasantly flavorful meal for Argentina's sake, still I looked at it and judged all too much at once.  I started with myself.  I could have cooked a much better Asian meal than this.  I moved on to the actual food. In a country full of pretty beautiful fresh produce, I wonder how much of this food is actually from here and how much is prepped, frozen, or pre-shipped from the US or whatever distributor is closest.  I finally stood back and looked at the grander restaurant. It was packed full of people, more people than I have ever seen in the few times I have visited. Why would people support this business when there is much better produce out in the grocery stores for much better prices? 

Convenience is everything particularly in a world where we have almost sped our lives up to the speed of the internet.  And as more people in the world find themselves working multiple jobs or working and raising kids at the same time, all in the name of survival, convenience is often our best friend.  It's no wonder that you can get any frozen vegetable you want in the States and they are significantly cheaper than fresh loose produce.  It's also terrible for our kids, for ourselves, for farmers, for carbon footprints. 

We must think differently about how we consume fruits and vegetables. 

• Consider using mesh bags and buying loose produce (not pre-packaged)
• Consider planning out your meals so you can go to the grocery store twice a week, getting produce that is actually ripe and ready to eat, so it doesn't get thrown away
• Shop seasonally.  In Argentina, we are spoiled because usually the fruiterias and verdurias only have what is seasonal but in the States, you can get anything, anytime.  Fruits and Veggies More Matters is a good site to help you stay informed about what is in season so you don't pump up carbon footprints consuming out of season.
• If you are lucky to be in places where there are orchards, farms, etc., consider picking your produce fresh.  Hopefully, more farms that are close to cities will open up there doors in the future so we can decrease carbon footprints from farm to table.  
• If possible, compost! I am really hoping we can start something at Lincoln with all the space we have that will encourage people to compose their waste rather than trash it all.
• 

Becoming the Change

A few of you may have read that I stupidly lost my phone in an Uber a few days ago
In between trying to distract my child with multiple objects and him being a hot mess,
He threw it under the seat and by the time we arrived, we all just wanted out.
I had recovered a number of other objects from the car so I just automatically didn't worry.
Then, a few hours later, went searching for my phone to order an uber home and bam.

A little mad at Pablo but more mad at myself for letting it happen.  I let it simmer on Friday night.
On Saturday morning woke up, willing to just let it go.  Two dear friends immediately reached out via my facebook post to let me borrow their phones while I waited for another to be delivered or what may come.  I really didn't think of it at all until I got an email that sent the driver's number and that he had found it.  I had Andres use his phone to send a few messages and call but no response. 

To be honest, I was okay with it.  The situation in Argentina is very fragile right now.  The currency is devalued almost every week and over the last 9 months we have lived here, it's gone from 25 to nearly 45 pesos to the dollar.  This makes life hard for anyone who is paid in pesos with a country that with the exception of alcohol and food, is particularly dependent on imports.   I realized that there was a very good chance that this driver might have needed the money from the phone to feed his family more than I did.  I was ready to let it go.

When eating lunch at the Olivos food trucks, Andres went to get something to eat and was gone longer than usual.  I saw him receiving a call.  As he walked up with food and drinks in his hand, he declared "Your phone has been found. The guy will bring it tomorrow."  Wow.  I thought, miracles do happen, but once again, was reluctant to believe that the issue was solved.  We both agreed to give him a reward of about 2000 pesos/ $50, not much but a good sum here and we thought it was a fair and not overly boisterous reward.

This morning, the man arrived around 10 am and we took the money out to him.  He did not want to take the reward but he asked us for another favor.  Wow.  I was blown away.  So he didn't take the money, but what he did was more proactive and better than anything I could have imagined.   "Here is my resume, here's my experience (listing his experience). More than anything I need better work." 

In a world where there is a lot of pain and a lot of greed and a lot of nonsense, this man's kindness and gumption moved me.  I am really hoping that somehow we can help find him more consistent work.  He does truly embody Gandhi's "We must become the change we wish to see."

#Sol19 #finalslice #buenosaires #argentina #bethechange

ABCs of Me

Anxious
Ballsy
Curious
Dancer
Energetic
Foodie
Grateful
Hypochondriacal
Intelligent
Juicy
Kissaholic
Loving
Mother
Natural
Organizer
Perseverant
Quirky
Runner
Shaker
Traveler
Underwater lover
Valiant
Wondering
Xi
Young at Heart
Zealous

Lost phone drama

On the way to a friend's house tonight.
Pablo being the usual tyrant he is in the car.
He sits down and I try to distract him with his stuffed monkey, Ramona la mona.
That doesn't work. So I reluctantly give him my phone.

2 hours later as we are about to leave the friend's house,
We realize the phone is amiss.

Find my Iphone, google searching later.
It's gone. The phone is gone.

It's just plastic but I live in Argentina
A country where the exchange rate is volatile
And phones are the last things on people's minds
Who want to feed their families.

So I sit and am frustrated and have high hopes in humanity
That the Uber driver will mysteriously appear and return it.

Nonetheless, I have deleted, erased, reported lost.
I will probably never see it again.
It's okay, it's just a little glass, metal, plastic.
I am on top of things.  My photos are backed up.

It's the frustration of being somewhere where
people are in extreme need, which I have to respect and understand
and not take for granted.

It's the frustration of not being able to comfort or console my wildly, wiry son
On short car rides and so I succomb to abnormal patterns.

It's the frustration of knowing a good chunk of my weekend is now going to go
towards sorting this out.

A Slice from Another Time

One fine day in Koh Phangan, Thailand, while hanging out with my newly made 20 something Malay artist friends.  We decided to go to a secret beach. 

"If you just follow the coast, you will end up somewhere that is untouched, precious, paradise." the locals told us. 

And so we walked along giant elephant grey rocks which lined the Southeastern shore.  

We walked nomadically without a plan, without much water.
It was mid-day, we were sober, we were fine but then we reached a point. 

The point came where we had to jump between two rocks, less than a meter but over a rocky crevice that you had to fight looking down at.  One wrong move and you could be tumbling down the rocks and end up with a bloody body in the sea. 

Riz and Lionel looked skeptical. They stood pensively, examining the options.  "Paradise beach" Or "Our simple lives."  

Long legged me looked at the cliff and initially leaned against the wall, sending some gravel tumbling.  While that's not going to work.  I thought. 

So then, I laid my body in the trusting hands of the earth and basically starfished against the rocky wall, and spread my legs between the two big rocks while sticking my tentacles to the wall and not looking down. 

I had made it, with no great pain or effort. 

The boys looked at one another.  I wanted to continue.  They weren't going to let 22 year old me beaver off into the jungle searching for paradise beaches. 

Rizan decided he would make the jump and made it, but with a couple of rocks tumbling into the sea. 

The other two said "No thanks. We'll see you later."

So we walked on, and within 20 minutes had arrived at a deserted beach.  Besides the grey skies, everything about this place was perfect.  Coconuts lining the shore, palm trees draped over us, and warm water to dip our feet in. 

New friends, we chatted about everything.  While all that ran through the back of my romantic 20 something head was, I wish this wasn't so platonic.  Where is my lover that I am supposed to experience this moment with?  

And so the moment passed, but still is one I will forever hold onto.  

I have been lucky enough since then to end up on equally exotic beaches with lovers and bask in the moment but for that slice of my life, it was just natural beauty and the start of a beautiful friendship that still smiles after nearly 20 years.