Elementary my Little Prince.

The Buenos Aires Players is a theatre troupe that has been producing educational plays in English since 1982.  Each year they tour around Argentina presenting age appropriate theatre to help children learn English.  They provide resources and worksheets for students to engage with before hand.  The lower half of the school watched The Little Prince and the upper half of the school watched a version of Sherlock Holmes where Sherlock’s grandson, a bumbling detective, was called on to solve a mystery.

The theatre used to be the cinema but with the advancement of film projection they no longer show movies as the projector is considered old technology.  There have been talks about raising the appropriate funds to buy a new projector but as yet nothing has happened.

Bubbles and needles.

You may recall at the start of the month our washing machine went out on stress leave and we resorted to a mixture of wearing our clothes while showering, hand washing and carrying a basket of dirty washing several blocks to wash at a friend’s place.  Thankfully we didn’t need to go to a stream with a rock.

Our good friend Rosario gave us a recommendation for a repair man and he explained that we didn’t break the machine, it just broke.  He was worried that the repair may not be worthwhile as the machine was old.  As it turned out, the repair was about a quarter the price of a new machine.  We opted for the repair and found true service.  The repair man drilled, improvised, reconfigured and in the end stood over our gas stove heating up metal to melt part of the plastic casing so that the new part would fit. 

When it came time to pay we tried to round the price up to allow for his extra time but he simply said that, that was the price.  It’s nice to see good old fashioned service.

In a couple of weeks we are heading up to Iguazo falls in the north of Argentina.  While it has been some years since a reported case of Yellow Fever in Argentina, it is still recommended that people have the Yellow Fever vaccine before heading to the falls.  We were going to have the vaccine done last time we were in BA but Depp and Talluah were so sick with the flu that we couldn’t.  We were worried that we had to travel four and half hours back to BA to have the vaccine but Rosario came to our rescue yet again telling us about the hospital in Pehuajó (100km west, population of 38000) that does the vaccine for free.

We caught the bus to Pehuajó, stopping at some little towns along the way, to be greeted by gale force winds.  We had dressed for spring but Pehuajó had a little bit of winter left over for us.  By the time we arrived at the hospital our hair looked like we had skydived into town.

The doctor who did the vaccine said that mum and dad should go first so that the kids would see that it was OK.  In theory this sounded like a good idea as the kids had no troubles with their vaccines in Australia less than a year ago.  Talluah and I had our injections and can honestly say that they were the least noticeable injections we have ever had.  However, Depp and Truce saw it differently.  The colour drained from Truce’s face until she matched the table top in pallor and she said she felt like she was going to faint, and Depp burst into tears and showed everyone his impersonation of a koala clinging to a tree, I was the tree.  After some fanning for Truce and coaxing for Depp we all left the hospital protected and ready to battle the gale back to the bus terminal.

Happy Birthday Indiana.

Indiana celebrated her 14^th birthday today.  It was a quiet affair of pizza and cake at home.  For those of you who follow us on Instagram you will already know that Indiana is quite the artist.  She never ceases to amaze us in the way she sees things differently.  I can't believe how quickly 14 years have gone, and I know all parents say that but it really does just feel like a minute ago she was running across the couch and diving into her soft toy box like a clown doing a high dive into a puddle... She was barely one year old.  Let's just say she is an absolutely gorgeous kid inside and out, her generosity and loving nature shines through and we are so proud to be her crew.

Yesterday was Teachers’ Day.  What's the best present you can give a teacher? A day off you say, well you'd be right.  But wait there's more not only did the teachers get to sleep in and avoid saying "1, 2, 3 eyes on me" but we also were given some lovely gifts.  

You missed a bit.

We have acquired a self propelled lawn mower that starts first time, doesn’t use any fossil fuels nor disturb the neighbours.  One of our grade six students said that she had an extra rabbit and since rabbits are not permitted in our home state we thought this was a great chance to have one while living in Argentina.  As the adoptive family we have been allowed to name the rabbit...  
Introducing, Philadelphia Whiskers (A.K.A Philly).

While we are OS we’re renting our house out in Australia.  During the past seven months the oven and dishwasher in our house have died of old age and have needed to be replaced.  It seems that our washing machine here has followed suit, they do say it comes in threes.  This morning when our washing machine was unusually silent we knew something was amiss and we ended up having to wash our clothes by hand.  Unfortunately this machine requires a Torx screwdriver to undo the back, which my leatherman surprisingly does not have and they're a little tricky to find so I’m not sure how soon we'll be able to fix it.  Until then it's rocks and wash boards.