The day after John’s party, our family got together for Mother’s Day… twice. Welcome to our crazy family.
Dad playing "swords" with Brod at a beach BBQ.
The Secret is Out – I’m In Australia
That is right. I am in Australia right now, after having flown the 18 hour trip from Buenos Aires to Sydney and then another short flight to get me to Brisbane.
So why am I over here? Although I was always planning on returning later this year, I came over earlier in secret to surprise my eldest brother John for his birthday party. The idea was to walk up to the door and totally surprise the guy.
To be sure that there was no leak whatsoever, I told virtually nobody about my journey. Everything went very smooth until the very last days when he somehow found out about our secret. But nobody knew that he knew until after the party, so we all had a good time anyway.
Now I am here for about six weeks before returning to my land of Argentina via a short stopover for a week in New Zealand. If you want to get hold of me, then details are on the contact page.
John’s Birthday Party
The main reason that I came over to Australia was to celebrate my brother’s 40th birthday. Although my and Brodie’s arrivals were supposed to be a surprise and he found out, the party was a lot of fun with friends, relatives, and family all present.
The birthday cake with a delicious and rich flavour.
The Return to Australia
After having said all of last year that I would return to my home country of Australia this year, I never expected that it would be so early in the year. When my dad approached me about the possibilities of coming back for my brother’s birthday, and the dates seemed to fit perfectly into the way my year was shaping out, there was no reason not to go.
So on the 2nd of May, I climbed aboard an Aerolineas Argentina jet and 18 hours later, with a stopover in Auckland, I was in Sydney airport. What mixed feelings that brought.
Waiting at the Sydney airport.
For one it was great to be back in the country where I was born, with so many things so very familiar. However on the other hand I was now far from my home of Argentina, and the people that I cared so much about.
The shocks of Australia after being away so long…
Hanging Out With Friends in Buenos Aires
Taking Advantage of the City
The first thing I did after arriving in Buenos Aires was enjoy a good amount of time on their super-fast Internet. There is something about big cities that seems to allow the Internet to be really fast, and after using Internet in the towns for a while, it seems like a big luxury to be able to watch the pages fly up almost as fast as I click.
Of course, the other great thing about a big city is the variety of things that can be found in them. So I also have taken advantage of the shopping here, finally finding some music that I had been looking all over for, and picking up some other bits and pieces that had been needed but not urgent.
So with the “city stuff” done, it was time to head over and catch up with my friends. Most of them hang out on the YWAM base in Ituzaingo, so that was my first port of call and I stayed here a number of days.
Catching Up with Friends
It was great to enjoy an “asado” (BBQ) on Monday with Ramon and Myrta with so much steak and meat that we could not finish eating it all, even though we tried. Monday was a public holiday all over Argentina. It seems that Labour Day/Day of the Worker is celebrated in a great part of the world, with Australia, Argentina, China, and other places all taking the day of May 4th as a national holiday.
On Tuesday I made the opportunity of catching up with Hyrullo and Nilufa who had recently returned from a trip to their home country of Uzbekistan where they were able to catch up with family and friends. We enjoyed a large lunch and lots of conversation during the course of the afternoon.
Finally, Sergio, my good friend who had helped me with all of the paperwork for my bike, and in whose name the bike is currently registered, came over to visit me at the base. He and his family are only down in Buenos Aires for a short time, after which they are heading off to Africa.
During our time together, it did not really dawn on me that this was the last time that I would see Sergio until I visited him in Africa, until right near the end. It was a very hard and sad goodbye, to farewell such a dear friend for what was effectively the last time I may ever see him.
It has been great to see many of my good friends during this time.
Air-Conditioning Installations
When the opportunity to hang out with my brother Joseph came along in the form of helping him install ducted air-conditioning units in houses, it sounded interesting. After helping him out for a while I discovered that this sort of work is actually very enjoyable and gives a great sense of achievement at the end. It also was great to get a better understanding of just what it is that Joseph gets up to every day.
One of the bigger units in a "rough install", before the house is completed.
I’m not sure that I could call myself an air-conditioning man, but it was fun to learn and chat and hang out with Joseph during those times.
Measuring up for one of the ducting holes in the ceiling.
Preparing the ducts on the ground makes life a lot easier.
Identifying and Obeying Our Values
A doctor seated beside me told me of how he and his Catholic priest would head over to his place for a number of beers. Sometimes they would get so caught up in their conversations that they would drink until they had become drunk. His question was, "what harm is there in two guys getting slightly drunk at home?"
The implication however, was that getting drunk was perfectly fine because if the priest did it with me it must be ok. Talking to him further revealed that he had a number of children who were now teenagers. This doctor mentioned that he would never drink in front of them. This directly contradicted with the man’s first statement.
We started discussing this point, arguing that if he was not willing to drink in front of his children, then it was obvious that he held a value that drinking was wrong. If it was not wrong then there would be no problem in drinking in front of them. It may also be, for arguments sake, that the value was about it being wrong to get drunk. In either case, this value was being violated when the doctor would drink to excess with his priest.
Not only this, but each time he drank with his priest, he was fooling himself into thinking that everything was alright because his priest was also part of the act, dissipating part of his guilt. Perhaps he was reasoning with himself that it was ok to drink because he felt that he could control himself, or for some other weak concession that he was making for himself. In reality, he was trampling all over this value of his which so clearly showed itself when his children were around.
After violating a value for a sufficient amount of time, our conscience does not remind us so loudly of our error and we start to sear it as with a hot iron, becoming less and less sensitive to it. Soon we do not even hear it, but it does not change the fact that we are still acting against it.
Being true to ourselves is identifying those values that we hold and starting to live true to them, obeying our conscience no matter how weak its voice may have become. It is through doing this that we will experience true peace, both with ourselves and with others.
Fishing Double-Island Point
For more than 10 years I have not picked up a fishing line, something that I used to do virtually every holiday for all of my young life. Then, while chatting with my brother who is still a keen fisherman, he offered to take me fishing.
With my dad and my cousin, both keen fishermen, also invited we had a team of four to go fishing. It was a one day excursion, leaving at 4am in the morning and returning early afternoon, and although I did not get a great amount of fish or anything spectacular, it was great to just hang out and enjoy this activity with family.
Here are the photos of our time there…
Rigging up the fishing rod first thing in the morning.
Photo Story – The Canberra Days
For my first days in Australia, I was able to make my way down to Canberra to catch up with Chris, a good friend of mine from Argentina. We took some time out of the conference that he was attending to check out the sights of Canberra, Australia’s capital city.
Parliament House in Canberra.
Catching Up with Eric and Nat
I have known Eric from our school days. We met when his family moved out to the same country town that I had only recently arrived at too. I sold him my a dud motorbike and our friendship just grew from there.
Eric and his family. (Left to right: mum, sis, me, Nat, Eric, dad)