Q: What is the ward/branch like you attend?
A: There are about 70 members who attend regularly, but many members are inactive. Sacrament meetings are very noisy because most parents let their toddlers run amuck in the chapel-- small children are always climbing up onto the stand. President Peralta often lets the kids sit on the bench next to him on the stand to keep them from being too distracting, but they always hop down again and start running back and forth. It´s distracting, but at least the entertainment value of the meeting doesn´t depend on the speakers. :) And the kids in our branch are pretty cute.
Q: How many show up on Sundays? Do you have regular Church-Built building or is it a rented or purchased building that has been repurposed?
A: Our building is church-built, but it´s a little smaller than the ones in the states. It has two main wings connected by a hallway. One wing is the chapel, the hallway and the other wing contain classrooms and a kitchen. Outside the building is a basketball court where the youth like to play soccer. The whole deal is surrounded by a very tall fence complete with intimidating spikes on the top.
Q: What is the socio-economic profile of the ward/branch?
A: The Peralta family (really 3 families: the abuelos and one unmarried daughter and two married sons with 2 children each), the mainstay of the branch are pretty well off. They´d be middle class in the states I think. Their houses look finished and are nice on the insides. The other families I´ve met live in much humbler circumstances. Their houses are made of bricks and cement with no plaster on the walls and many of them are slowly building additions, so a section of the house may be just pieces of tin and fabric stapled over a wooden frame. Everyone has a tv though. I´ve met families with a bigger, nicer tv and speaker set than ours who live in a house no one would pay to rent in the states. But electronics are cheap and maybe the bleak brick and cement look is a cultural thing.
Q: What is your neighborhood like?
A: We live in the barrio of Lanusse, on a fairly nice street. Most of the houses have a small patio in front fenced in by tall iron bars-- not very welcoming, but the crime rate is high here (and everywhere else too). Our apartment is above a small convenience store. Right above the door that leads up the stairs to our aparment there is a large sign for Quilmes, which is a popular brand of beer here. That makes me laugh. (Where is the sister missionaries´apartment? Oh, under the beer sign.)
Q: Is your apartment in a multi-story or single story building?
A: Two stories. Ours is one of 3 apartments.
Q: Do vendors still ride down the streets with horse/donkey drawn carts selling things like soda water, firewood, kerosene, etc?
A: Not in Lujan. I´ve seen horse drawn carts collecting trash though. Some vendors have carts attached to their bicycles, but they sell things like flip flops and furniture.
Q: Are there still street vendors selling newspapers and shouting, "Diariooioioioio....."?
A: Sadly not, at least not en campo. Maybe en ciudad.
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