Don´t cry for me, Argentina, even though we are leaving

Yes, we are headed home tomorrow, so this is likely the last post in the blog from Argentina. Boo hoo! Today is April 19th. I am giving the date because my last three posts have shown up as April 13th, but they were written after that. I don´t know why that is happening. The last post I did was on April 17th.

The smoke from the fires has gotten continually worse over the past days. There has even been a serious emergency alert in the capital city for the last couple of days. My plan was to extend my stay here for two days and visit Iguazu Falls up north. However, due to the smoke and closed roads and airports, I had to cancel my plans and I am traveling home with the rest of the team.

Visibility is non-existent in some places and roads are often closed in many places. On Friday, the road from Baradero, where we were staying, to Pergamino, where the conference is, was even closed for a while. That was unusual because the wind had been blowing the smoke in the opposite direction. It was unclear whether we could go to the conference. It was finally announced that the road was opening, so we left in a hurry. We encountered a road block en route, but were able to skirt it by taking some dirt roads to another highway. We arrived at the conference on time, but the start of the conference was delayed a couple of hours because of the smoke. Attendance was pretty low on Friday night, and many people cancelled. Liliana and Alfio did not leave when we did, and their late departure from Baradero caused them to encounter more problems on the roads than we did. Since we gave our presentation on Friday night, we were glad we left when we did.

Our GSE presentation, including the skit, the slide show and my thank you speech, were well received. I originally wrote my thank you speech in English, and Liliana translated it into Spanish. I was really glad to be able to first fully express myself in English. Although I can communicate a lot in Castellano, it is not at all with the same sophistication of words or feelings that I use in my native tongue. Thanks to Liliana, my little speech had a lot of feeling and seemed to be appreciated. The highlight of the night, for me, was the spontaneous talent show at the end of the evening. I encouraged Eecole to perform. She sung ¨My Funny Valentine¨to rave reviews. She really has a great voice.

The conference today, Saturday, was really fun for our team, especially since we got to see a lot of Rotarians we had met during our visits around the province. It was great to know so many people at the conference and to feel so at home.

We are winding up today with a rest, some last minute shopping, and a big farewell dinner tonight. Tomorrow, we will make the three to four hour trip to Buenas Aires and Ezeiza Airport. Keep your fingers crossed that the smoke abates and we can get to our flight without incident.