Uruguay

Since it was only a one hour on an express ferry ride across the widest river in the world to a new country that we’d never visited we couldn’t resist the temptation to see what Uruguay looked like. Although you can’t judge a book by its cover what we found in the little village of Colonia on the shores of Uruguay was a delight!

We stayed at a lovely little hotel right on the water. Perfect place to unwind….

With some nice food…eggplant, mushroom and fresh mozzarella snack below with pumpkin ravioli in the background. And a little shopping.

In twenty four hours we were back on the ferry and headed straight for the Buenos Aires airport. This little piece of home, clearly visible from the freeway, bid us farewell just as it had welcomed us when we arrived…the Buenos Aries LDS Temple:

And on to a speech and some fun with our family in San Diego….and another 17 hours on several airplanes. Yeah! I can get so much done! Seriously love it!

Fascinating Stories

We always meet such fascinating people with lives that are almost unbelievable when we have the privilege of traveling to meet people all over the world. .As in every group we speak to, every person has a story. Some more spectacular than others, but certainly an interesting story. When we finish presentations, often people come up to us with their stories, some that I really want to remember. So for the record here are just a few that I heard:

A young woman in her mid-thirties sat by us at the first dinner of the conference who started her life in NYC. She came from a broken family but both parents were trying their best. Her father, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, had told her that she and her siblings would never have to work. He had scrimped and saved all his life and had apparently gone through such a hard time that he didn’t want his children to experience the same thing. That promise didn’t come to pass and although she didn’t know it at that time the family was living hand to mouth for much of her childhood.

That statement, however, took a toll on her older siblings who are still hanging dependently on their father and have no work ethic but something in her was different. She was attending a private high as a freshman in NYC when she read a book about the damage that education was doing to children…dumbing them down. Consequentially, she decided to drop out of high school at 16. She moved to her mother’s double wide mobile home in Washington state, got a job and basically hibernated. One day she was walking around the campus at the University of Puget Sound and decided she wanted to sit in on some of their classes. When she went into the office to ask about that possibility, they said there was no way she could do that without an SAT score.

But this was one determined little girl. She went to the bookstore and bought all the books she could find on taking the SAT, hunkered down for three months and did nothing but study for the test, determined to get 1600, the highest score. She came very close to that and was immediately allowed to register at the University. After two years she transferred to Stanford where they readily accepted her because of her exceptional grades and excellent progress. She finished that degree along with a master’s degree and started her own company, which she had recently sold. Still unmarried, she expressed her fond desire for a family but needed to find the right guy first. Just an amazing story!

Another story was from a young mom who said that after finding that she and her husband could not have children of their own they adopted two. Their four year old has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and their two year old has a lung disease that requires her to be on oxygen 24/7.  She of course, said that they wouldn’t give them back for anything but they had no idea that their healthy babies would develop mental and physical health issues that would require more than they had ever imagined being able to cope with (just as it is with our genetically born children). She was obviously sleep deprived after getting up several times every night to adjust oxygen levels for their youngest. But she was a strong individual and had hope that the lungs would begin to improve in about three years.

A young father approached me at one of the evening events and told a most amazing story about a friend begging he and his wife to help with a young mother who was in prison, had just given birth and desperately needed help with care for the baby just until she got released. With the mom chained to the hospital bed, they picked up the one-day-old baby and took him home to their other four young children.

Days turned to months as the mother begged them to keep him just a little longer and a little longer until she got back on her feet. Occasionally she came in and took him for a few days but when it got to hard, she brought him back. With the mom still in and out of the drug scene they were happy to take care of the little guy and had fallen in love with him.

Five years later, she decided that she was now ready to take her child back….to a very scary existence. When they saw what their beloved little charge was being exposed to (drugs, foul language and not much supervision) they tried to get custody of him but because no legal papers had been signed they were powerless. When the Dad became more adamant that she allow them to keep him her comment was, “Quit bothering me unless you want to see your wife’s body floating down the river and I know just the people who can do that.” Well they gave up on their beloved little son and even though they see him quite often and the mother comments on “what nice manners he has,” their hearts are ripped out as they see the future he faces. With five years of great training and seeing what parenting is really like, they are praying that he will become a good parent himself someday because of all their efforts. Ah life!

I loved every story that I heard and immensely enjoyed learning from people from foreign countries. Saudi Arabia is one of our favorite places to visit. Totally fascinating!  These good men from Saudi were at our table on the night of the last event in Buenos Aires.

 

One of them told the story of his Saudi Arabian father who was very wealthy and a magnanimous humanitarian who had spent millions of dollars in aid to Africa when 911 occurred. Sadly the government (maybe the UN?)  somehow labeled him as a terrorist, seized his funds and forbid him to leave the country for eleven years!  This young man had just been at a prestigious law school in the states with his father as they were reviewing the magnificent injustice of that case. They are both now back at work doing good in the world. Ah politics! 

Another had a 21-year-old brother who was ruining his life with drugs at private schools in Canada and then Ireland. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t get him to change his mind about his lifestyle. We discussed that it might have something do with entitlement.

Just look at these good faces!  They have all been educated either in the states, Canada or Australia and spoke perfect English. We have loved working with these chapters in the Middle East over the years. They get such a bad wrap (as do we Americans there ).  I love to hear their remarkable stories including their good lives with arranged marriages that work and beautiful, bright,well-behaved children.

There are so many good people in the world!

“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”

One thing that almost everyone in the world would call to mind when they think of Argentina is the Broadway Musical/Movie Evita. As mentioned in the previous post, we finished watching it at 1 a.m. the night before we left for Argentina and it was a great refresher course. According to many Argentinians, it is also pretty accurate. 

Eva Duarte Peron was one of the the world’s most iconic personalities. Born in 1919 as the illegitimate daughter of a prestigious land owner who never claimed her, she was raised in poverty, left home and went to Buenos Aires at age 15 to wend her way to fame.

 

At age 20:

                    Here is a short history of her later life which we found very interesting:

We found her life to be fascinating!  From the square at Plaza de Mayo, the site of many political rallies throughout the years, you can see the balcony from which Eva Peron gave her famous speeches (thanks again Kathy).

Can’t you just hear Madonna singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” from that balcony (although I think Hollywood may have used a balcony a little closer to home).  The scope of the scene was pretty impressive!

This house is called Casa Rosada or “Pink House” and is the official residence and executive office building of the President..

Eva Peron died when she was she was approaching 33 years and was adored by most of the poor masses and hated by most of the upper class as she stood by the side of her husband, Juan Peron. It’s a stunning history!

Even though her family name (Duarte) wasn’t one of the “chosen ones” for being laid to rest in the amazing cemetery for famous people located in the heart of Buenos Aires, she somehow managed to have her Mausoleum placed there (although her husband is not beside her).

She was born in 1919 and died of cancer in 1952, which is quite incredible when you think that dynamic woman with a checkered past turned Argentina upside down, with both adoration and devastation in her short life as the wife of the President.  

 

The cemetery was quite incredible and made the wild cemetery we saw in New Orleans this year seem pretty small.

We’re sure there are fascinating stories behind everyone of these elaborate mausoleum doors! Some looked like small cathedrals. 

Here’s a peak inside one of the simple but tasteful mausoleums with someone’s ashes inside the urn below. 

And some of those doors hadn’t been opened in a very long time!

The huge event on the last night of our conference began in the extensive tunnels  and channels under the city which were originally designed in the 1800s  for people to use as a sewer system and a place to deposit their garbage in order to get it out of sight. The tunnels have been beautifully restored and the organizers borrowed posters from the Eva Peron Museum to display on the walls as we passed by (many of them seen above).

We viewed her life from childhood to the grip she held on the nation for the last seven years of her life and her loud voice was shouting in the background at a campaign rally as we progressed through the tunnels.

 

One of the most telling things was the view of Eva Peron from different people you talk to. Our guide on the bus to the event compared her short 33 years to the life of the Savior. She did do a lot for women’s rights including procuring the vote for women.  However our guide in the tunnels said that she was the worst thing that ever happened to Argentina. She apparently bankrupted the country, was often cruel to her enemies and was a total despot.

The evening ended with a spectacular dinner for 400 with spotlights on the lilies which were the centerpieces of each table. There were also two fabulous singers who represented Eva and Juan Peron who sang moving songs in Spanish, ending with “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” 

Stellar evening!

Teaming Up in Texas

What fun we had this weekend at a delightful retreat in Austin, Texas. Our assignment was to teach a terrific group of entrepreneurial parents and their kids about the issues surrounding Entitlement! To our delight the event was at a wonderful 700 acre resort just outside Austin.

I forgot to take pictures of the fun families we met but here is the chapter president introducing us.

As usual, we were freezing inside the over air-conditioned hotel rooms and melting outside at 97 degrees at 76% humidity.

The next morning we took a bike ride around the quite incredible grounds complete with a section of the Colorado River, a gorgeous gold course, a competitive Frisbee course and lots of fun animals for the kids to enjoy!

 

The bikes were like the ones we used to ride as kids but so much fun! No gears and no hand brakes. Just push back on the pedals to stop. Our kids have probably never heard of that. We had fun!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

From Hawaii to Cleveland

From Maui we flew to Oahu and had a couple of lovely days on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. It was so fun thinking about the old days when we were there in our early marriage. One of the biggest arguments of our lives to that point came when Rick decided, because we were so poor that he was going to find a great cheap buffet, gorge himself in the late morning and then he’d be fine on food until morning. I was not fine with that and he soon learned that I eat only small amounts several times a day. It was a pretty dramatic argument but I won AND learned how to always carry food in my purse (sometimes from the buffet) to survive. Funny!

Nevertheless we were delighted to be back in our old stomping grounds! The banyan trees and sunsets abounded, as always:

Some of our time was spent with this wonderful dynamic woman (in yellow) and her parents whose grandfather happened to have immigrated from Pakistan when her dad was young. 

We had such a good talk and her delightful and very opinionated 80-year-old mother came to our presentation below: I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of her father who was 88 and joined us for dinner straight from playing tennis!

My beautiful fragrant lei and Rick’s beauty made with nuts and fresh leaves were heavenly!

They had a graphic artist who did this fun thing with our book staring her darling little son Subash, who was an only child and the apple of everyone’s eye! They had our book inside the box which was the invitation to this event.

The morning after the event we met some of the parents for breakfast at a beautiful, modern hotel with lots of clever ideas…like an upside down Christmas tree:

And by evening it was time to fly off….to Cleveland! It was an overnight flight, then on to Minneapolis and then a change-over to Cleveland. We wondered if it was worth the trip until we met the extraordinary people who took care of us there, one of which was an owner of several car dealerships. He left us with a new Porsche Cayenne which is a crossover….complete with all the places we might want to see in the GPS. We drove ourselves to see the sights including the Rock and Roll Museum. We even drove ourselves to the event where we had such a good time with about 80 beautiful people like the ones below!

I have to say that this trip was a pure delight. We had spoken in Cleveland nine years earlier for the guy on the right and he decided it was time for us to come back. We’re so glad he did but we don’t mind saying that we’re going to be pretty happy to get home tomorrow night! We have only one more trip next week and then we’re home for Christmas.