If you had told me even four years ago that I would begin an intensive study of Spanish and end up flying from Honolulu to Buenos Aires and Montevideo to meet my Spanish teachers I never would have believed you.

But here I am, sitting at the Daniel Inouye International Airport waiting for a flight to Houston, and from there, a flight to Buenos Aires, and then to Montevideo, Uruguay.

It was a little less than four years ago that my daughter-in-law, a Mexican national, challenged my son and me to learn Spanish. I jumped in with both feet, studying up to 6 hours a day, listening to Spanish podcasts, and watching Spanish telenovelas every night.

About three years ago, I discovered a daily Zoom class called Cada Día Spanish, which uses games and social media to teach the language in a fun way. Our teachers were located in Uruguay and Argentina, and I resolved one day to visit those countries.

I became friends with several people from the class, and we formed a Spanish Conversation Club, meeting daily in the afternoon after the morning class. The result is this trip to South America, with three of us women from the club, plus one husband. We will meet our teachers who will act as tour guides for the visit.

In addition to visiting the usual tourist places, I have also made contact with a Uruguayan organist who will show me a pipe organ in a church near our hotel. So I’ve had to pack my organ shoes and some music!

We also plan to tour the Cathedral in Buenos Aires to see the organ there. That was the former parish of Pope Francis, before he became the pope, and apparently there is a museum there to celebrate his time there.

We had kind of a rough start to the Easter Day service this morning, with the first trumpet starting the prelude (La Réjouissance by G. F. Handel) too early without waiting for the pastor’s opening Acclamation.) So I motioned him to stop.

We tried a second time to start La Rejouissance before the second acclamation, but then I realized with horror that someone must have turned off the external amplifier to the organ because there was no sound coming out! (But we just had rehearsed it! That’s what happens when you play a “toaster!”)

So it was on our third try that we finally were able to play Handel’s glorious music.

And yes, in answer to my previous post, the congregation DID stand throughout the postlude, the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, arranged for organ and three trumpets. I even heard some people singing along! It was fabulous, even if I do say so myself.

Happy Easter!

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