It is no secret that I have no patience with models of mission which measure success in terms of who has clocked up the most air-miles. I’m not planning any air-miles this year, but the last couple of weeks we have been out on the road for various motives;
First was our Latin Link team conference to the province of Salta. We didn’t drive it this time. Our unreliable beast, in the words of the old refrain, “won’t get that far”. Luckily there’s a good bus route. I left home in possession of too much evidence suggesting that this could well be the worst Latin Link Conference ever (despite some stiff competition), and it actually turned out to be the best ever. Lots of things seemed to fall into place, and we reached what I think will turn out to be some significant milestones in our discussions. I suspect there quite a few people praying for us. And with such stunning scenery as a back-drop, really what more could anyone have asked for:
Then we went home for long enough to wash clothes and repack, and me n’ the kids were off to Scout camp at the agricultural college a few kilometres outside San Francisco;
Scout camp survived, and then I had a rare trip out on my own, across to Santa Fe where the University are trying to do something with my qualifications in order to render them useful in this land of much bureaucracy. I’ve been playing this silly game with various institutions for literally the last four years, and I think last week’s phone call was about the most sensible thing anyone has said so far; “Let’s not try and figure this out over the phone, how about just bring everything you have and we’ll have a look at it…” Now there’s a plan. So off I went. The upshot is that I have yet another new list of bits of paper that I need to generate (naturally), of which item three on the list is a sworn statement made in front of a judge in which two Argentineans have to testify that they know me to be a professional of Special Education. Spot the flaw? How about, if I’m trying to get my qualifications recognised here, then until I can get them recognised it isn’t actually possible for anyone here to know me as a professional. So really I’m looking for two people who like me enough to lie for me. Lucky I found a plethora of willing volunteers at tonight’s prayer meeting! Hoorah.
And just in case I start becoming tempted to measure my own self-importance in all these not-air-miles travelled, we spent this weekend fully tied to the ground, making and selling one thousand eight hundred “pastelitos” (deep-fried jam-filled pastry things) for a Scout fund-raiser:
And now I’m too worn out to go anywhere. Airmiles Schmairmiles.