Meet the ‘Rosarinos’

 

…that’s what you call someone from Rosario.  Rosario is part of our field, and once a month we go for a visit with the handful of friends there.  We stay a night in each home and have the Sunday morning and a gospel meeting with them, before going back to Paraná.  Rosario is 300kms south of Paraná, and we travel there by bus, it takes three hours on the motorway.  Here they are…

Nestor and Virginia have three children who unfortunately for us, have all gone to live in Canada.  Their daughter Griselda was the first to go, she went to study English in the USA, fell in love with a Canadian, and they married.  Then her two younger brothers went, learned English, got jobs…and also fell in love!  Damian got married last year, and now Dario has just announced his engagement.  Tough on the parents…they face it bravely, but it’s hard on them, especially now the grandchildren are coming.  They stay in Argentina because their home is so useful.

In the dining room.  Virigina often makes us pancakes for breakfast!  To be eaten with Canadian maple syrup brought back from one of their trips…

Looking from the front door to the little park.  Note the dog kennel set up for a couple of street dogs! 

This is the home where we have special meetings in July.  The meetings are held in the basement garage you can see Nestor climbing up from down there. 

Patricia is the only one in her family professing.  Her parents were too (now died).  Her husband and three sons are very nice and welcome us into the home…maybe one day!  Her father was in the military during the time of the repression, they lived in a military camp, and she tells stories of terrible things that used to happen when the guerrillas would get in.

Mario is the elder of the little meeting in Rosario.  He and Pocha were Pentecostals until they met Donald Campbell and his companion in the late 70s – early 80s.

After lunch in their home, with Steve and Amy, and the del Curto’s two grandchildren (sadly none of their three children so far are interested in the meetings, even though they were just little when the parents began)

Oh….I mustn’t forget Delfi…close your eyes cat-haters!!!

Now Don Ale and Susana…Ale is 85, and has had numerous bowel ops, but still manages to keep going.  He was born in Italy, and emigrated to Argentina as a little boy with his parents.  He was a widower and Susana a widow when they met about 25 years ago.  He had known nothing about truth, but professed a few years after they married.

Emilio and Marta Seguer and four-year-old Valentina.  Emilio came to meetings through Marta about seven years ago, and professed, then they married.  Marta is one of the Cioppi family, her parents have now died (their mother died of cancer 2003, their father a few years later).  She has 5 brothers and sisters, whose names all begin with M.  Two of her sisters also live in Rosario, Mabel is single, and Miriam is married.  When they were little kids they were all little terrors, according to what everybody (including themselves) tells!!  It was their cat that bit Donald and gave him rabies…he was in this field in his first years in Argentina and (very patiently) would take the kids on the back of his bike and play with them.  Now that they are big, there’s noone quite like ‘Tio Pato’ (Uncle Duck), and he is putty in their hands!!! Just ask him!!

Here’s Mabel…

We have the gospel meeting straight after the morning meeting (with an half-hour interval).  This is because it’s too much for people to come and go twice in one day.  Some have to travel in a taxi, and it would be very expensive for them.

With Steve and Amy after the meeting.

Amy’s hungry…Mabel’s dining room (also the meeting room)

Yummy strawberry shortcake made by Mabel (she is the cook in a daycare centre for handicapped people.

Oh no..it wasn’t just Amy that was hungry!! 

The three sisters Cioppi, Marta, Miriam and Mabel (the fourth lives in another town, and the two boys aren’t professing)

Here’s Miriam with her husband Mariano who also came to meetings and made his choice through her. They have three little boys, who are worth 10 each! 

Last Sunday they had a kind of house-warming lunch after the meeting and invited the church.  They’ve just finished building their house.  Mariano runs his own business designing and making machines that make things like stickers, transfers, fridge-magnets, things like those mementoes that have a resiny finish…know what I mean??  Here are some photos from Sunday.

Since they have their new house, we’ve been able to start staying the night with them.  The kids love it, because there’s someone to cart off hunting bird’s nests/referee their running races/play soccer with (well, I try!)/play whatever game they invent in general.

The little guy is 6 but is he TOUGH.  He’s not scared of anything, and plays real rough.  Of course his bigger brothers get the better of him (for now), but he just will NOT cry when he’s stomped on/bashed/smashed/endures some major injury.  He braces himself for a few seconds then gets up intent on revenge! What these boys HAVEN’T had happen to them… the latest was a very gruesome injury on Caleb’s part, when he was doing some great tricks on his bike, came off and the handlebar ripped into his shin, causing a huge, gaping hole worthy of a horror movie (not that I watch them!).  !5 stiches and 2 weeks rest later…he’s still waiting for it to heal up properly so he can join his brothers in the pool…what suffering having to wait!

One day while we were there, the pool cleaners came.