Preparing to Leave Baires

Queridos Amigos,

When I arrived in Argentina a month ago my only intentions were to pay homage to the latitude where Linda was conceived sixty years ago, and to scatter Bill's ashes at Iguazu Falls.  Bill had always wanted to visit Iguazu when we came to Brazil years ago for him to deliver a paper which was translated into Spanish from English, but we never got to see the mighty falls. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Iguaza Falls with my family.

Now I am busy as my son Tom and I prepare to leave.  I am planning the unfolding of the day as I drink mate.  When I started my magazine fifty years ago I named it Cafe Solo after the strong black coffee we drank in Colombia.  Now I think mate is a brew that suits it better.  A cebrador pours brewed tea into a leather-lined cup which is passed from person to person. Each person sips from a bombilla to drink the herba dry.  Everyone who is nearby is invited to the ritual... the postman, cleaning lady...it is bad form to touch the bombilla.  I like the taste of the tea which is like my favorite oolong.  I like the idea of passing around the spirit of the circle as well.  It has the strong, audacious sense of the tango (more about that in the future).  I have become a porteno during my month here.  Everyone asks when we'll return.  I pray we do and for a longer time.

My first task today is to clean out the refrigerator which frightens me like the refrigerator in the Douglas Adams story which took on a life of its own.  Whenever the family went out to eat here in Baires, we ordered the delicious lomo at a parilla.  Unable to eat it all, we always took it home.  Now, there is a month's supply of lomo which we must find a home for.  It is just too fabulous to throw away!  Kind-hearted Yasmine liked to give the box to a beggar on the street, but it's a tribute to Buenos Aires that there are so few beggars, only the mate drinking homeless in the park who  On our trip to Uruguay we wrapped up all the left-over chicken, fish and lomo dinners and took them for a walk on the beach of Rio de la Plata.  It has been a lifetime dream to visit the river and put an elbow into it.  As a child of the State between the Missouri and the Misssissippi, I revere Iowa the place that did not seem that cold for wading.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any poor people there, or any people at all, to receive our bountiful doggie bag.  We did make friends with a lone dog, La Mancha, who happily wolfed down all of our leftovers.  Now that Yasmin and the children have left for school, I suppose Tom and I will have to go to the park we visited every day to feed the pigeons and the parakeets, and offer the lomo to the dogs who chase the pigeons.

Soon I must say farewell to the shopkeepers I befriended: the pandaleria where we bought our media lunas and dulce de leche every morning, the lavenderia which washed our clothes every week, and to my hairdresser, Luis, who refused to cut my hair.  "No, I won't do it!," he protested in Spanish, "it is too beautiful, I will wash it and comb it." Yesterday was special as I planned to go hear Tom's end of term speech and go to dinner with his colleagues.  Luis went to work.  In the middle of the coiffure, he stopped. "Oh my God!, he exclaimed, I have never done anything so beautiful." He made me feel wonderful and it was certainly worth the $20 including tip he charged.

To get to Tom's speech we took a taxi through avenues of Buenos Aires that I had never visited before.  This is winter and to honor Tom I wore a woolen skirt and was freezing!  I forgot about the cold however during his talk about education in an auditorium full of educators and graduate students.  They seemed rapt with attention and eagerly questioned him after the talk.  I felt so proud.  After the talk some of Tom's co-workers took us to the Nautical Club for supper. I ordered salmon from the Rio Plata.  They revere the river here as I do and insisted we pay homage to it before warming-up inside.  I will stand in the cold for the Rio de la Plata any day!

The conversation that night was one of the most fascinating I have had during my month here.  Upper class women who were finishing their doctoral studies in education told of their conversations with the Minister of Education and of their passion for further educating Argentina.  They believe education is the hope for their country.  I feel they are the hope of their country.  When I told them how thrilled I was by their commitment, Paula, Tom's Fulbright guide, asked me, "why are you so surprised ?".  Maybe I wasn't surprised, just thrilled.

Queridos amigos, I am so grateful to you who have had faith in my journey all this time.  How miraculous I could go through life with you.  

Adios, muchachos, companeros, de mi vida..........