Brick by brick.

The winter winds have arrived with such strength that we hung the washing out after sunset yesterday and by morning everything was cold but dry.  A few minutes in front of the heater and everything was ready to be put away.  The weather changes so dramatically here.  At the start of the week, when Indy arrived at school it was -2.  Then by mid-week, the temperature was in the low teens.

The majority of homes here are built using a red ceramic brick and then covered in render.  Larger buildings have concrete columns poured and then the bricks are used to create the walls.  We’re not sure how they are secured in place but we are thankful that we don’t experience earthquakes in this part of Argentina.  In some of the poorer parts of town, extensions are added onto houses using just bricks held together with mortar.  The main problem with this style of building is that there is no insulation and the walls become extremely cold.  Our bedroom is above the garage and the exterior doors face the prevailing winds, which means that our floor is ice cold in the mornings.  You can forget the floor is lava, the floor is a glacier is a far more dangerous game.  Every morning we leap from our bed, via a series of pillows, to the hallway where the gas heater is just so we don’t suffer from frost bite.  In spite of the cold floor the house is very comfortable and we are thriving here. 

Depp continues to soak up the Spanish all around him.  The other day, as I was arriving home from work, the following conversation happened…

Talluah said, “I can hear your dad.”

“Why did you say that?” asked Depp.

“Because, I can hear your dad.”

“No,” said Depp rather matter of factly, “why didn’t you say puedo eschuchar su papá?”

Further to this, a few days later a friend had dropped off some boxes with toys, kitchen utensils and other things she no longer needed.  When Depp came home from school and saw the boxes he was still in Spanish mode and started speaking to Talluah in Spanish, “Mama, look at the boxes.  Three boxes with toys.  Are they all for me?  Who brought the boxes?”  Then he started naming the toys inside and the books.