Day 1 (tour)

DISCLAIMER!! TOMORROW  I WILL POST PICTURES TO GO ALONG WITH THIS!!!

Success success success!!!!  Great day!   We started our day at 8 today…  We had a wonderful breakfast of bizcochos provided by Elena, and then we headed to Portones.  That was the beginning to the walking tour that was planned.  Portones is a mall named after the gates (portones) that are there.  We took a random bus that had Portones as its final destination, but we did not realize that it took us through the worst parts of Montevideo.  It was nice to see that since the rest of the day was going to be spent looking at one of the richest parts of town.  Once we got to Portones, we started by seeing our old house, my grandparent’s old house, my grandmother’s house (recently sold), and the house I lived in until I was 5.  Then we continued our walking tour through la rambla.  There, we walked a bit on the beach and sat on some rocks… Sarah took the chance to mark territory and we continued to my favorite street, Arocena. 

Here we met up with Maia’s friend, Sol, and her sister Tini (Martina).  It was soooo nice to see her again and catch up.  Sarah got to try her first Chivito!!! (if you don’t know what this is, look it up, it’s worth it!)  Then we walked to Sol’s house together, and we got to meet Sol’s little sister who is 3.  After spending some time with them, we headed back on the bus to Elena’s to catch our breaths.  After 30 minutes we headed back out to Hemming-way for tea time and the sun set!   My aunt Marianne joined us and then we headed on a night walk and a trip to the grocery store in order to kill time before going to “cantar de todos.”  This is the choir that my mom was in since she was little and all of her friends are still in it.

There is one thing I have learned these past weeks, and that is the fact that music truly brings the world together.  I thought it on the bus the other day as I heard a guy sing beautifully in spite of his horrible cold and as I watched the choir sing today.  When we arrived, Daniel (the director who gave my mom guitar lessons as a child) introduced us and told everyone that we were Irene’s daughters and that they would sing some old song so that we would recognize them.  He talked about how my mom was one of the founders of the choir and how much they missed her and hoped we would get to sing with them some day.  As soon as they started the first song I started to cry….   This was the song that a lot of them sang when the surprised my grandmother for her 80^th birthday.  I will never forget her face when she heard the voices coming from the backyard…  Song says it all…  The songs continued and Daniel picked ones that would mean something to us… All I could do was cry.  I can’t really explain why… Maybe it was because of how great of friend they are to my mom, or how much they cared about us.  Or maybe it is simply because the songs were so beautiful and sooo filled with emotion.  As Daniel said before starting  “Irene would cry with these song”… well, apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, cause I was a wreck.  After the rehearsal we headed back home at 10 pm.  Our day will start at 7:45, which is the time that our bus leaves for Colonia!!!!  For now, I’m off to sleep!

Heini, Heini, Heini

Ok so I’ve know that China and I don’t mix well since I took Chinese in High School, but Heini’s Chinese story is driving me crazy.  After finishing what I could read in his folder, my aunt Marianne and I got together Sunday to go over the handwritten ones to see if I had missed anything.  Oh and I had. … SOOOOO MANY little details about the ghetto in Shanghai and his troubles getting out.  We worked on his folder from early Sunday morning until like 4 in the afternoon.  There were many desperate outbursts from the both of us, as we made it through sentences like  “We only got out of the ghetto because of _______.”  For some reason the most important parts of the sentences were nearly impossible to read!  But we made it slowly through about a fourth of them.   I have been working on the rest since, and I will get together with Marianne in order to finish, but not till after Sarah leaves.   Sunday, after working,  Maia and I headed to Lucia and Nacho’s  house to watch Man of la Mancha and the Wizard of Oz.  We had a blast catching up and eating Lu’s famous cake and Nacho’s yummy faina.  On Monday, we headed back to work at around 8:00.

 Maia headed out to a bookstore with view of the beach a few hours after we got back to Elena’s.  When she returned we ate lunch with Elena, and then we headed to see our Elena.  That would be the wonderful lady that took care of us when we were little.  She started working for my grandfather’s GRANDMOTHER.  That would be my great great grandmother! Elena is now 92, almost 93, and she is doing wonderfully!!  On the way there, we took the bus to meet Marianne and kinda got out like 4 stops early, so we had a lovely 20 block walk, but the weather was incredible!!!!  (not too hot, not too cold, and sunny).    Once we made it to Elena’s it was like traveling back 15 years.  She still looks the same, sounds the same, and treats us the same.  She told me about my great great grandmother, and how she would put sugar in the food that Elena cooked, because she didn’t want her to cook it. 

Maia and I with Elena

After leaving her house, we headed to Elena’s (my aunt) house to get the house ready for Sarah’s arrival on Wednesday. 

Tuesday  was crazy!  We woke up sooo late! Too late to wash our sheets and have them dry before night time.  So clever me decided to go get them washed and dried.  I called information to get the number and address to the nearest place.  Then Maia and I walked there, left the sheets, told my aunt, found out the guy leaves clothes smelling horrible, called the guy so he wouldn’t wash them, found out he had already put them in, and then waited to pick them up later.  When we realized that he had washed them, we moved on to our next task… Making pastel de carne (Sheperd’s pie).  After this, we rushed to shower and make it to my grandmother’s to take her out for tea.  We took her to a lovely café and then rushed back to get the sheets at 6:00.  On our way back with our LOVELY  smelling sheets, we saw this older man (70 ish) running in front of us.  He was in such a hurry and it was incredible the shape he was in.  Maia and I just stared as he rushed to catch the bus.  After making it back, I made Sarah’s birthday cake, wrapped presents, and had the Sheperd’s pie for dinner.  Funny story…  We decided to have Coca Light with our dinner…. However, after Maia, Elena, and I tried and failed at opening the bottle,  we resorted to using a wrench… It still took 2 of us to get it open.  TOOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!

Today, I went to get Sarah from the airport and Maia went to see her best friend here.  She had not seen her in 7 years, and they had a blast.  Sarah and I went back to Elena’s to shower and unpack.  Then we headed to pocitos, walked around, found a cafe, and sat down to eat lunch. 

Sarah's soup bowl!

Maia came and met us, and after eating we took a little walk around the “Rambla.”  The most beautiful place here.  It is a street that goes along the coastline.  Today was a lovely day to do that.  

Sarah was beat and cold, so we chilled and we waited for my aunt to get back from work and we ate the cake and Sarah opened presents.

Cold and tired Sarah

 

More fun!

Ok, so I figured that the next time I wrote I would be done reading.  But… NO.  Heini and his hand writing turned out to be a PAIN!!!!  However, the work isn’t horrible, and we’ve had some great days to go with it.  On Friday we had our own little adventure to “El Geant.”  It is a huge store with a mall on the outskirts of Montevideo, where Maia had an appointment to renew her I.D.  Once there we looked around, bought some fun things, and looked around the store.  At one point, the ABBA song “money, money,money”  was playing, and Maia and I, like the fools we are, were singing along.  At one point, an older man  starts walking our way, so we stop.  And then we hear him sing “money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world.”  We had to bite our lips not to burst out in laughter.  After that, I sat down to have a coffee, and Maia did her little paperwork, and we left.

On the bus back, a guy and his guitar got on (approx. 20 years old).  The bus driver warned him that he was the 4^th to get on and that people might be tired, but he did anyhow.  When he went to talk to us, he could barely speak without coughing, he had no voice, and it was obvious he had a fever.  Maia and I looked at each other and braced ourselves for what was about to occur.  When the guy started singing, it was AMAZING.  Our jaws dropped, you couldn’t tell that he had no voice and was sick… It was amazing.  We gave him some money and then continued to Elena’s house. 

Once there we enjoyed the afternoon and then at 6, headed to Ale and Mati’s for dinner.  We had a BLAST! Stayed up chatting till around 2 a.m. and then went to bed.  This morning, we went to “la feria” (a little market, well … not that little) and shopped around. 

 After that, we headed to a “Parrilla,” where we had enough meat to feed a million!! After that, we returned to Elena’s (the wonderful Ale drove us) and we got ready for the ballet.

We met up with Lucia and Nacho before the ballet in front of the theater, and then we sat in our amazing seats that my aunt got us through Canal 12 (the tv station she works at).   The ballet was WONDERFUL!!!!  I, who usually never likes ballets, was beyond impressed!!!  I would recommend it to anyone.  There was a mix of all kinds of music, percussion, and dances. LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!  Now, I am back at Elena’s and am about to finish up with Heine, because I truly can’t read his handwriting for another day!!!

Old picture of the Barro Negro Bus (theater on bus)

Inside bus

Old pictures!

Rubito Making Asado!

Watching Rodrigo's soccer game

Silvana making pasta

Rubito making the sauce

The rain/hail in Atlantida

LONG LONG LONG UPDATE!

So I was told my last update was pitiful, so I am playing catch-up now !!!! Well, last I wrote it was to quickly mention everything that took place last weekend.  After getting back to work we went to the movies to watch “el Cuento Chino” with Marianne.  It was wonderful! Very funny, but also hard to figure out if some of the jokes were on the racist side….  After that we went with Marianne to Atlantida. The bus driving really stepped on it, and we made it in only 1 hour!  The walk back to her house from the bus stop was wonderful… It was not too cold and it wasn’t that cloudy!  So I grabbed the umbrella that my aunt had, and I danced and sang “I’m singing in the rain,”  like a fool down the empty dark streets! It was refreshing!  Once at her house, we worked on some letters and then headed to bed… We stayed there till 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and then, since we had not been to the ATM, we legitimately sat down on the floor and had to round up all of our coins to make it back to Montevideo on the bus!!!! 

Once in Montevideo, it was RIDICULOUSLY cold!!! We were not ready for this, since when we left it had been ok! Wednesday, we kept working on the letters until around 3, when we headed to Tienda Inglesa to get groceries for the week.  We got a fishy call from Elena asking us to buy ravioli and whole milk…  Maia and I looked at each other and said “WHOLE MILK???”  But we followed orders and returned home.  When I opened the door to her apartment I see a man sitting by the dining room table.  None other than the one and only Pablo!  The only family member we had not seen this week   came in from Buenos Aires to see the HUGE Penarol soccer finals!  They played in Brazil, but there is nothing like watching soccer game with friends and people that care as much as you do!  We hung out with him and watched the U-17 Uruguay team play Rwanda.  The game ended with Maia’s future husband leaving the field injured… Poor thing! After that we did some work and then returned to our soccer watching positions and watched/listened to Penarol’s game….  Sadly they lost….

After that, already midnight, we headed to bed, because today we had a TON to do.  We read and translated until 1.  Then we headed to the police station.  YES, the police station… We got arrested. NOT.

Maia has to renew her national I.D. tomorrow, and she has to have proof of reporting her lost old one… We got there to hear a hysterical woman, who looked a little under the influence, yelling at a poor little police man behind a desk.  She talked about how Saturday she got into a fight with her boyfriend, got mad, started yelling, told him to take the kids, and he did.  Now she wanted them back because she wanted to leave the city.  She wanted to see what his report said, in order, to see all the lies.  After 45 minutes of waiting, I realized that we didn’t have a cell phone, so I told Maia I would rush back to Elena’s apartment (3 blocks away) to get it, in case Pablo left while we were still waiting.  When I returned Maia had already done it all!  Even put up with the policeman that could not spell anything.  She spelled out her name, and still, he misspelled it.  PRICELESS!!!!!!!  After that we came back to say goodbye to Pablo and continued working!  I am almost done!!!!!!!!!!!!!  All the legible letters are almost completed!!!!  It’s crazy to think that!!!!

Ok, so I know that was a lot! But I am heading back to reading Heini’s letters from Shanghai!  I’m currently trying to find out the details of this story!!

Some quick catching up...

Last week turned out to be incredibly productive!  I made it through two of the longest folders!!!! Kurt Wilk and her friend Ulla!  Ulla’s folder also included some letters written to her in 1937 that I could not read because the Suetterlin was driving me crazy!  I’ve decided, it is smarter to wait and meet with Hanne about these, than spending a million hours trying to decipher them…  These millions of hours I am spending reading English, Spanish, and German letters….  There have been sooo many incredible things that I have read, that it would be hard to note them all.  However, the last one that I read discussed the unification of Germany and my grandmother’s fear that Nazi forces would reunite again.  The stories just keep  coming… My cousin also gave me an interview he did with her.  Here, she explains her feelings toward Germany and her nationality.  Overall, I am thoroughly pleased with the amount of information I’m finding, and that almost everything is relevant!  Now, I have to finish up a folder with Menia’s letters (another friend) and then I will have two “random folders.”  After that, all the reading of letters I can do, is done!   The rest will have to wait for Hanne’s help.  I will continue to read material until June 29^th.  The material will include all the documents and a very very thick travel journal (1961) where Oma finds many of her friends scattered around the world.   I am slowly seeing the end of the reading tunnel!!!!

After a week of a LOT of reading, we took the weekly family break.  The whirlwind began on Friday night with Catalina.  We spent the night over there and spent the morning with her on Saturday, even though she was kind of sick!  At noon my aunt and Catalina drove us to Atlantida, where we spent the rest of the day with my other two cousins, Rodrigo and German, and my aunt and uncle.  We had a blast!  We played board games, watched Rodri’s soccer game, drove around Atlantida, ate our first asado in years, and ate her homemade spaghetti and pizza!!! Then at midnight they took us to my aunt Marianne’s house, where the thunderstorm continued and the hail began.  We slept wonderfully with the sound of the storm and the ocean… Soooo… Sunday we ate lunch in Atlantida, greeted my father for father’s day, and then got on the bus back to Montevideo.  Once in Montevideo we picked up my grandmother, took her to my uncle’s house and we watched OHS’s  the Wizard of Oz together.  We brought her a present because it was “grandparent’s day” in Uruguay.  After enjoying this time with her, and a little time with Cata,  our uncle took us to “la ciudad vieja” to meet up with Lu and Nacho.  We had a blast with them!! They are the best! We had a wonderful tea with them, and then headed to “barro negro,” which is a play on a bus!! It was soooo funny!  It had the usual characters you would see on a bus and more!  After that we went by my uncle’s house to get our bag, and since we were sooo tired we crashed there for the night.  We left early this morning to return to work! 

After reading half of Menia’s long file, we headed to the movies tonight.  We watched “un cuento chino.”  It is an Argentinian film that turned out to be very funny and entertaining!  Then we took the bus with my aunt back to Atlantida, and we brought letters to work here tomorrow!  So…. Tomorrow afternoon we will head back to Montevideo and have a pretty quiet routine week of work after a crazy but WONDERFUL weekend! 

           

Stepping on Toes

Today, I think it finally realized how different my grandmother and I are. 

Being here for 3 months was worrisome for many reasons… The first being that the work is tough and there is not really a wrong or right way to do it.  The second was family. Three months is a long time, and they haven’t had to put up with me for this long in 10 years, and my poor aunt has never had to live with me!!!!! As I invade my family’s life for 3 months, my main goal is to not step on toes.  I’m trying to be helpful, neat, optimistic, available, and invisible all at the same time.  I love being here, but at the same time I have to realize that I just catapulted in into my entire family’s daily routines and we have taken over every aspect of my aunts life.  There is nothing I love more than my family, but at the same time, I want to be able to leave in August with them still wanting to see us the next time we come. This involves not over doing it and making sure that we get to see everyone without unintentionally making some feel unimportant and ignored..…  

I don’t think I realized how much I avoid stepping on people’s toes until I started reading Oma’s letters.  Now, here is a woman who doesn’t seem to care how the others reacted to what she was writing.  I am by no means saying that she wasn’t a caring person, because she definitely was not.  But the way she handled situations has truly amazed me.  When someone wouldn’t write her back for months, she would write some really threatening letters… She would sign with her usual “much love” and at the end she would write “notice I didn’t say much love. That is how mad I am that you haven’t written me.”  In this way, everyone knew how much they meant to her, but they also knew how upset she would be if they didn’t write.  I am the complete opposite, if I don’t hear from people, I take that as a hint and instead of instigating anything, I keep quiet and avoid conflicts at all cost.  Whatever Oma thought, you knew.  I think it’s an admirable quality, and I think Maia got some of this from her.  Oma was willing to step on any toes, and I always admired her for it, even though when they were my toes, it killed me because sometimes I rather not hear the truth!

Anyhow… Now that I got that little fun fact out of the way, I’ll let you in on what I’ve been reading these past few days… It’s been A LOT!  I have read the folder of:  Pilar, Fani, Julio, Clarita, Erika, Moses and Sofi, Inge, Tante Lotte’s, and now I am looking at Ulla’s.  These people are friends and relatives of all sorts.   And the best way to describe the amount is with one of Oma’s lines in a letter to her friend Hanne in Berlin.  (2001)

“I have a whole big bag full of letters from all our old families, back and forth through time I see them ... a tragedy ... oh well”

I don’t know if she is referring to the same tragedy I am reading, and my translation is truly pitiful… But reading and witnessing the disappearances of these families is inexplicable.  One day her uncle Moses is writing from Israel about how Sofi is sick, and then the next day Sofi writes to say that Moses has died.  And this specific death happened naturally (or due to poverty) way after the Nazis…. The cause doesn’t make it any less sad, and for some reason just like in the other instances, the letters with the families always stop with one of my Oma’s letters inquiring about the other.  After a death is announces, a response seldom comes after, and that is the saddest part.   Well not really, because then come paragraphs like this one that my grandmother writes on Sept 21, 1946 about Edith (Hanna’s mother)

 “She is the only one of our loved ones from Germany who survived. My grandmother died in the street from a heart attack, but at least she was spared of the worst.  Aunt Frieda and little Tali were both deported.  One heard no more from them.  We get mail sometimes from uncle Heine in Shanghai, he is a cook in a concentration camp/ghetto there.  We are looking to bring him to Montevideo, but it is very hard.  Wish us luck. ”

The letters today haven’t been very uplifting, and the material isn’t new, but slowly the names and events are making sense.  Maia started to make family boards with pictures and the faces make the information even harder to swallow, but it is fascinating how much these letters have to tell!

               

Party!!!

So today was a mix of cooking, baking, rolling, and reading…  The letters came first… Same ole same ole...  This time, nothing that interesting, just some conversations with her neighbor who moved to Australia.  I plan on reading some more tonight, so perhaps I will find some new information. 

After reading some early this morning, Maia and I walked to Tienda Inglesa to get the things we needed for the birthday party tonight.  My aunt Marianne loves sushi, so that is what I made.  Right after I got back I cooked the salmon (since I refused to eat it raw and the smoked one was REALLY expensive) and made a ton of rice.  After chopping the cucumber, I called my cousin Lucia to get the recipe for her famous chocolate cake, it is incredible!!!  I baked the cake, gave it a Dulce de Leche filling, covered it with a mix of chocolate and dulce de leche, and then I covered it with meringues… SO YUMMY! 

Final Product!

After that, we cleaned and I made the sushi, which turned out pretty well!

Me and this kitchen have become best friends!

Sushi!!!!

By then my aunt Marianne came and we had put balloons out, and the “picada” (a.k.a. cheese, olives, little sandwiches, and chips) on the table. 

While we waited for Lucia and Elena, we watched some gossip on poor Forlan and Zaira… He has even been accused of having another MAN.  Poor guy, whatever the reason for the breakup was, Argentina is sure it is his fault, and Zaira’s sister says “the truth will come out.”  Hahahaha it has provided us with some good laughs!

Birthday girl answering her many birthday messages!

After everyone arrived, we ordered Maia some pizza and enjoyed some fun!  We had two cakes, since Marianne bought herself a cake, which was my Oma’s favorite cake!

Aunt Elena (host)

 After lighting the candles once, we hit up the other cake and did it virtually with the parentals as well!  Now, its back to work!!!

Cake numero uno!

Cake numero dos! With a crowd in Oxford through Skype!

The Cold is Back

And the ugly weather is back! Ugh... Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were such pretty days. And then today, it's back to a cloudy, humid, cold Montevideo. I really shouldn't be complaining because I have been here, inside, working all day. Yesterday, Saturday, after getting back we got right to work... Again I thought I would be able to finish Adi's folder with his war stories... but there were over 50 letters, and it took forever!!!! So, at night, we took a break and went with my aunt Elena and her goddaughter to see Pirates of the Caribbean. The mall was PACKED. This weekend all the malls were not charging taxes (almos 20%), so they were all packed. The movie was great and we had a blast! When we got back, the big fight was on tv. Yes, that's right, THE big fight... So apparently Uruguay has this famous woman boxer, and a few months ago she competed with a Spaniard who had obviously beat her, but the judges said the Uruguayan won... so last night was the rematch. I had never watched boxing, and I don't think I ever will... All I can say is that I thought the Uruguayan should have lost, but she won. Anyhow... that ended late, and since I had a lot of work today I went to bed... I was awaken by some CRAZY news this morning. Forlan and Zaira Nara seem to have called off their wedding! AH hahahahahaha! We got a good laugh out of that, and as Maia left to spend the day with my cousins, I began reading more letters. She got to eat lunch with the cousins, watch Felipe's soccer game, go to the mall, etc...
While she did that, I finished Adi's stories, and was disgusted by the horrible scenes he described in Israel... Death, torture, explosions, etc... After finishing his folder, I moved on to Hanna's letters with my grandmother. These letters are from 2001 - 2007. These are really hard to read for me, because they have the past and the present mixed in. Therefore, it talks about Maia and I... The greatest thing I read was her happiness while she retold the surprise party that my mom organized for her 80th birthday. Even though we were in the U.S. my mom and my aunt contacted all of her friends and the their own friends that grew up in that house. On March 28th, they all surprised her... some just showed up, and then the choir that was made up of their friends snuck in through the back yard and started singing to her. She says she was beyond surprised and happy. My mom had ordered food and had it sent to the neighbors so that she would suspect nothing. It was thrilling, I still have videos from that night, and they are priceless when paired with these letters. She also talks about how much she loved meeting Amy when she came in 2006, and how much she loved our chats...

Mixed with these stories of the present they discuss their childhood in Berlin. In the middle of their long conversations I found Hanna's phone number in Berlin (2007). Hopefully it is still the same, and she is still living, because I would love to visit with her when I go to Berlin.

That is all for now, I have a lot more work tomorrow, and it is my aunt birthday so we will be celebrating that too! Another crazy week shall begin!

Sprinkled with Ash

Ok, so the past two days have been two more routine research days... Since I, thankfully, have organized most of the letters, I am still moving one person at a time. The first thing I do when I get a person's folder is organize it chronologically. This allows me to see their conversation as fully as possible. I have done about 8 people so far, and I don't even want to count the total... I think it is way over 50. Oh, and these 8 were the shortest folders... The most interesting folder so far has been her cousin's, Adi's. I am about to finish the folder, but so far, he has talked about the people he is killing in Israel (since he left Uruguay to join the Israeli army), the women he has proposed to, his love stories, the people he has discovered, and his escape from the massacre of Rabat. All these letters are from 1948 and 1949, and they are allowing me to learn about what was going on in my grandmother's life, because she is telling him everything.
This kind of work has eaten up the last three days. On Wednesday, after I posted, I began this process, and worked until Maia got back from the soccer game. When she returned, I took a little break to hear all about the experience of watching Uruguay's first home game since their fourth place finish at the World Cup. AND ... THEY BEAT THE NETHERLANDS!!!!! Well, they tied (1-1) and won with penalty kicks! Such a perfect game to watch, and they presented Forlan with the Golden Ball. After that I continued to work until about 3:00 am. After a late start on Thursday, we continued to do the same thing, and since I was behind, Maia decided to skip her planned trip to a great bookstore with a view of the beach.... Good thing she did, because later that night we found out there was an armed robery right next to it.... Oh big cities. OOHHHHH! Fun fact, we woke up to see that Montevideo was covered under a thin sheet of ash from the volcano. This sheet was enough to cancel all the flights to and out of Montevideo. The cloud is apparently awful for planes!
This morning we woke up at 8:00 to head to Atlantida, because my aunt needed someone to be at her house while she was at work, since her carpenter needed to come finish some closets in her new house. Here, Maia and I got a lot of letters done in the peace and quiet!!! The sun was out all day and it wasn't really cold until the sun set. After finishing letters, we began taking some things out of boxes and cleaning the millions of dishes that were still not unpacked... That took a good 5 or 6 hours. It was exhausting. Tomorrow we are heading back to Montevideo early so I can spend all weekend working on the letters.

Rain Check (break) [plus pictures]

Break Replaced.

So since my break was cut short this weekend and I had to cancel plans with a cousin, this week we replaced our plans!   On Monday we woke up early and worked some more.  Maia started translating the packet that my grandmother had concerning Berlin in the 30’s.  This included all the information she sent a pair of ladies from the Prinzlauerberg Museum.  This folder is over a 100 pages long, so Maia was a bit overwhelmed.  At the same time, I finished sorting all the letters.  In the pile still to sort, I found letters from Oma’s aunt Frieda and her cousin Tali, who were still stuck in Berlin.  The first  page of material that Maia translated dealt with them as well.  In her material, Oma was asking the ladies for the information they had on the deaths of Frieda and Tali.  We could not decipher all the details because the answer was handwritten and impossible to read, therefore, I will take it to Hanne or email it to someone who can read it!  After finishing work for the day, we cooked with my aunt and watched the Argentine equivalent of dancing with the stars… Then our “break” began.  We woke up early Tuesday, 7 a.m.!!!! And took a bus (well actually we got lazy and took a taxi) to Pocitos to meet with my cousin Catalina and have breakfast.  After that, my cousin, Diego, walked the three of us over to her art class, where the three of us got to paint! 

Cata painting on the wall!

She goes once a week and works with two teachers, and she truly has a blast!

Cata having a great time!

The three artist, you can see a bit of the sun I painted...
Painting is obviously NOT my thing

When we got done at 11:30, Diego came back to get us and we went to her house, where Diego showed off his artistic talents!  He has become quite the cook and baker!  He is a vegetarian and is all about eating well, organic, etc.  He made me the most delicious lunch!  Some special rice with some other cereals I did not recognize, with zucchini, carrots,etc… Then something else I didn’t recognize…  After lunch, he made us some tea from some herbs he had picked from their garden. 

Chopping some carrots, I think...

His final dish. It was delicious, and I would say what it was, but I'm not sure!

At the same time, my other cousin Felipe arrived and showed us his cooking talents as he made pasta for Maia and himself.  And since there wasn’t any cheese (CRISIS),  Felipe and I went and got some.

Feli's own little masterpiece

  

 Following lunch we found out that my aunt Alexandra was stuck in Sao Pablo for the night because of the volcano ashes down here, and that meant we would be spending the night.    Therefore, we had to go all the way back to Elena’s to get our clothes.  So… we left after lunch, stopped by and saw my grandmother, bought postcards, ate some ice cream, and then headed back to Elena’s.  Here we had “la leche,” (equivalent to tea time or snack time) with Elena, grabbed our things, got on the bus, and headed back to Catalina’s.  Thankfully, we were all tired and got in bed pretty early.  Today, we woke up early again and I am again at Elena’s working.  This time, I am by myself, because Maia has left me to go watch URUGUAY VS. NETHERLANDS at the stadium here with my cousin Lucia and my mom’s cousin .  She was very excited when she left  about 45 minutes ago on the bus! Now, I am going back to work to see if I can get some more letters done this morning!

Cleaning up the Mess.

I almost went to sleep without posting today, which would have been ok, if it wasn’t for the fact that the blog keeps my project organized.  Today organization was the theme.  I went through almost all of the material and divided it into boxes and folders.  Almost all the letters have been placed in folders depending on whom they were for or who wrote them.  The process was slightly horrifying because there were letter everywhere but it is looking ok now….



before!

Before!!

and after!

 

This process took legitimately all day.  Since I’m still sick (now actually feeling worse than I did during the day)  I got to spend the day inside with the letters, documents, pictures, notebooks, journals, etc.   Among  the really old letters I found some pictures from when my mom was little, some notes she wrote to her dad, and some card she wrote to her parents.  I am saving those to take back to her!

At the same time I found my grandmother’s report cards from school in Germany (early 30s) and some more of her notebooks.  I also found another picture of her class.  In that same stack, I found my grandmother’s bother’s birth certificate, and letters that her aunt Erna wrote with her husband Michael in the 1920’s.

Since I didn’t do any reading today, there isn’t much interesting stuff to tell, but I hope the pictures tell it all!

I also forgot to write about the locked box we found. Well .... we found a locked box!  We didn't have a key, so my dad suggested from the U.S. to use a saw... so we did, and as I had guessed, it contained more letters, and journals.  But one journal was from Germany when she was about 10 years old! It had notes from her friends and her parents.  I am going to get her friend to help me read it!  There were tons of letters and the diaries from the year she left Germany, so they should be very helpful!







Oma's father and a note he wrote to her

And After!!!



Break Cut Short

So…. This little weekend of fun was cut short.  On Friday we woke up relatively early at 9:00, and we were on the bus at 10:00.  We got to Atlantida at 11:15, and we headed to pick up my cousin Rodrigo from school.  He usually gets out at 12:15, but since it was his birthday we got to pick him up early.   In Uruguay, the kids that go to the public schools go either in the morning or in the afternoon.  He goes in the morning.  After that he led us to their house, since he usually takes the bus by himself he knows the route very well. Thinking that when we left he was just 1, and that he turned 11 yesterday is a scary thought.  After that we ate lunch together, played some board games, and then walked down to the beach. 

 

BAD DECISION!!!

WIND WIND WIND

Oh how I wish it was hot!

Atlantida

Though the walk, the view, and the puppies we saw on the way were wonderful… It was soo windy and cold by the beach.  That is where the cold that I had really turned into this great flu that I have now.  On the walk back we stopped by a little shop, where I got my cousin whatever he wanted. And then we just played with his dog (horse is more like it) and hung out at his house once his parents got back from working in Montevideo.  At night we cut the cake and my uncle drove us to my aunt’s house where I realized how horrible I felt.  After that, I had to make the sad decision that I would miss Rodrigo’s big party the next day (since it was outside,) and that we would have to cancel our plans to have a Pajama Party the next night (right now)  with my other cousin in Montevideo.  So… After Maia went to Rodrigo’s party, we got on a bus and headed back to home base, where I will be staying in bed for at least tomorrow.  The good thing is that I can still read letters in bed!!! Once I get some stuff from the letters tomorrow, I will post again.

Struck Gold!!!!

Even though I already posted today, I just had to fill everyone in... So today, after posting the blog, laying down to rest, and getting some food... I decided it was time to look through all the boxes to see what all was in there! If my Oma was alive today, they would have her on one of those shows for hoarding!!!! 

Just about 1/100th of what we found tonight



Some detail family history

I found pictures from my grandmother's class when she was 6 (in Germany), pictures from everything you can imagine, my great great grandfather's work permit from 1920 in Germany, a map to my grandmother's neighborhood, a map to the cemetery in Germany to find where her grandparents were buried.  TOO MUCH!!!

Map to the Cemetery in Berlin

Then I found the letters between Oma and her friend Hannele after they found each other in 2001. 
Then, best of all I found a folder full of letter between my grandmother and two ladies from the Prinzlauerberg Museum in Berlin, that did research on Berlin and her neighborhood during the 30's.  Here she talks about EVERYTHING!!! Pages and pages of things... where she went to school, what they played, how they got out of Germany, whose idea it was to leave, etc! GOLD!!!!  Then, I found a tape with interviews of others that these women had found also! Don't think I can use those, but all the things she wrote are soooo helpful!!!

 Then, when I thought I had see it all, a page falls out of a huge stack I overlooked... And it reads (in Spanish): 

                     The last witness 
 Stories for my granddaughter Martina, who always wants to know "how I was as a child," and my granddaughter Maia, who never asks but always listens very interestide to whatever I say." 

The stories I hadn't seen...

And there starts a new book that she started in 1995!!!!! With new stories and more details on family members!!! This "book" that I'm putting together will get some stories (those that she sent and those that she didn't) straight from the one and only Oma!  In the same forder i found a little book that started with (in Spanish)
"In case at any time it occurs to you to know who my family, and therefore, your families were."
 And again a VERY detailed description of everyone!!!

The little book with family...

It is unreal. Today I found my book... In CD's, tapes, letters, stories, newspapers, emails, chats, and more!! Now, break until Sunday..  Whew...

                  The last thing: All of the letters that my parents sent her when they were in the U.S. in the 80's (100+)