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The Biggest First Time Event So Far:
Several weeks of delays and disappointments continued our practice in patience and flexibility, and eventually led to Colby and Tremayne landing in the Esquela de la Familia Agricola (EFA) for the first school experience of their lives. Pedro plowed through the bureaucracy that was unclear as to how to deal with these two non-Spanish-speaking tourist-visa students who wanted to partake in the school's education program. Homeschooling is an unknown concept here, but there did not seem to be any problem with that aspect of the boys' backgrounds. The teachers were excited by the potential of this exchange for the students. 
EFA is a setting we couldn't have designed more ideally ourselves. Located in nearby Colonia Caroya (a town originally settled by Italian wine growers) it is a weekly boarding school where children from farm families come to study traditional academics as well as family agriculture. They live in dorms and share community work duties. Upper and lower grades attend in alternate weeks, and students bring home assignments to work on during their week off. This has been a first time for us parents as well, since we never went through sending the boys off to kindergarten. This Friday after their first week, we were relieved when they climbed off the bus at the station in Jesus Maria with giant grins on their faces and kisses and handshakes for their fellow students as they said good-bye to them for the week. And then they talked our ears off the entire trip home to La Pampa. We look forward to many more tales to come in this chapter of their lives.
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Our Argentine Social Scene
Argentine socializing, like at home, revolves around food and conversation. We are still working on our Spanish conversation skills but we already excel in our culinary appreciation, as evidenced by our widening waistlines. At casual friend and family gatherings we have sampled traditional empanadas, small pastry pouches filled with meat and cheese surprises. We have feasted (gorged, may be more accurate) at several informal asados where huge hunks of meat are patiently roasted over coals shoveled from a nearby wood fire. Volleyball playing helped pass the time and work up an appetite. There was a birthday party with fireworks on the cake and an assortment of the ubiquitous little sandwiches made from paper thin slices of meat and cheese between flat squares of crustless white bread. Card games were accompanied by pochoclo con sal (salty popcorn) although movies have been accompanied by pochoclo dulce (sweet popcorn.) Afternoon teas include a shared gourd of yerba mate as well as a variety of fracturas - cookies, croissants and pastries with different forms of sugary toppings or fillings. We provided our friend and Spanish teacher, Zuli, with her first taste of curry which, although mild to us, was far too uncomfortable for her tender palate that is used to the typically sweet and mellow Argentine diet. 
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Cordoba City
Both exhilarating and exhausting, a few day trips to the city of Cordoba (pop 1.3 million) have given us a taste of the frenzy, noise and smells that are common to any large metropolis. It is definitely a change of pace from the placid life we lead in La Pampa. Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina and is a 1.5 to 3 hour bus trip away from us depending on if one catches the express bus or the bus that stops in every dusty little pueblo along the way. We've done both. It costs less than 7 pesos (just over $2) and is a comfortable ride if you have a seat, which is not always guaranteed. 
Though known for its rich history dating back to the 16th century Jesuits, we've gone to Cordoba for the 21st century Cine. American action movies are far more enticing to the boys than weathered buildings and stone statues. Our hope is that some of the mystique will sink in anyways, as we walk in the shadows of the bewildering mix of architecture and culture and then relax in the sureal spray of a water fountain dancing to the song "We Are the Champions."
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The Many Uses of the Plastic Bottle
What appeared at first to be a roadside recycling spot on the main route from Ascochinga to Jesus Maria turned out in fact to be a roadside shrine to Difunta Correa. The tiny icon sheltered beneath a magestic algarrobo tree and surrounded by hundreds of plastic bottles is devoted to a mother who died from exhaustion and thirst on a journey following her husband's army battalion but whose baby was found still alive suckling her breast. Her thirst is now quenched with soda in exchange for her miraculous benevolence, especially towards travelers. Argentina is very good at putting garbage through many cycles of good use before it is discarded or recycled. At La Lucena one of the many uses of plastic soda bottles, as well as an assortment of other juice and milk containers, are as pots for tree seedlings being raised for the "Trees for Tomorrow" project. Perforated bottles serve as handy waterers for those seedlings and others are filled with a homemade cider vinegar mixture to become insect traps for fruit trees. Our neighbor Nati created a unique fence out of bottles and wire for keeping dogs out of her little garden and we delivered worms to the new compost bins in a makeshift pepsi container. 
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