U RU GUAY!!!!!!

After the visits it was hard to get back in the work state of mind….  The first days were a drag trying to figure out how to format this story, where to start, what to include, what to exclude, etc…. For now, I am taking the easy route and going through it chronologically.  The beginning, Berlin in the 30s, has been tedious because most of it was written already… Oma had stories everywhere and they are soooooo detailed!  There are stories in letters, in documents to a museum, in emails, etc.  This section alone has taken me all week!! And let me make something clear, I have done NOTHING else, well…. Except watch 2 soccer games…  (I’ll get to that in a second!)

The first days of formatting involved a lot of fact checking, researching, and reading.  In between all of this, I realized that one of Oma’s cousins, Evelyn Garbatti, should still be living and in the United States.  As I searched for her, I came across a lot of adds searching for her, and I got in contact with the man searching for her.  He is a researcher from Yale that has been researching the other side of her family.  He sent me some information on Heini and Helen, Evelyn’s parents, and in return I sent him some dates that I had from their trips from Shanghai to Montevideo.  It is truly fascinating to realize that someone else is looking for the material that I’m finding.  This was enough to get me all fired up again!!!

Since then, I have outlined the entire book, written the first 7 pages (still on Berlin)of the book, and really hit a bump on the road.

 On Wednesday, I met with Hanne for the first time.  At that point I realized the amount of letters that I needed help with, and after an hour of watching her struggle, like I do, with the letters, I realized that I am pretty much alone to figure them out…  This is one of the scariest thoughts up to this point, but I have decided that I am going to focus on the hundreds of letters that I have read, the stories I have, and the legible material I still haven’t read.   With this material, I will continue to write the story and the book, later I will fill in the book with the details in these letters that I haven’t been able to decipher yet… But it is going to be very rough and long, VERY LONG!!!!

On another note, it was wonderful to start learning about Hanne’s story.  I was very surprised to find out that she is technically not Jewish…. Well, the issue is that her mother was not Jewish, just her dad.  Though her mother converted to Judaism, when the Nazis came she renounced it and they would have been safe staying in Frankfurt.  However, her father was taken to a concentration camp, Buchenwald,  and her mother refused to stay in a place that he would be persecuted.  Hanne’s father was let go from Buchenwald because he had the iron cross that signaled he had fought in WWI.  When he was released, he still did not want to leave and had to be convinced by Hanne’s mother…  As Hanne said, “he was more German than Jewish, most of them were…”   Though I couldn’t get as much of her story as I wished to get in 3 hours, I will be meeting with her again. 

Now the rest of the week was just tedious details that I don’t care to share, because, truthfully,  I’m over it!!!  I am ready to focus on the big picture, and I am doing well doing it. 

Now, on to those two soccer games that sound like they mean NOTHING.  Oh but they do mean something, they actually mean a lot.  They mean that our little Cinderella story of a team beat Argentina, the host of Copa America, out of their out tournament, and then beat Peru to move on to the finals.  THE FINALS!!!!!  It is unreal. This country is up and they are happy, they are PROUD.  The word is that Uruguay is a favorite, since Paraguay has made it thus far but hasn’t won a game… This scares the entire country and the ones that are the least sure are the players.  They have maintained an incredible humility and have to be some of the most humble and respectful people I’ve seen on tv in a long time.  All they keep saying is, “this is for you guys, enjoy it.  We are going to do what we can, but it is for you Uruguay.” 

Here, there are flags everywhere, which is not the norm here.  The people seem happier and all the headlines are about the 20,000 Uruguayans that are heading to Buenos Aires for the final.  Though everyone wants a win, they are more than pleased with the results thus far.  Supporting and Proud, those are the words that I would use to describe this nation today. 

With a crisis over tickets, since Argentina release almost no tickets to Uruguay and Paraguay, there  are still an incredible number of Uruguayans making the skip across the puddle to Buenos Aires to watch the big game.  Best part of all, I GET TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I can’t even believe it,  however, my uncle Emiliano is going with my cousins Diego and Felipe, and they invited me to go.  Though we were not guaranteed tickets until last night, we have them now.  It is unreal! When Alexandra mentioned it, I hesitated, but then whether they expected it or not, I gave them a YES!!! Now we are leaving tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning to Buenos Aires, and we will return at 6:15 a.m. Monday morning.  It is going to be CRAZY but unforgettable…. I get to see this country at its highest point, and it is wonderful.  Though I will miss the caravan in Montevideo if they win, I will be at the stadium wishing and praying that these players get to have the victory that they deserve after giving this little country so much pride!    URUGUAY NOMA!!!! VAMOS ARRIVA LA CELESTE!!!!!!