April 19, 2008
Buenos Aires,

Buenos Aires needs a respite

Dear Friends,

It is not usual that I write so often, but life here in Buenos Aires is usually much more calm. Now again I am asking urgently that you pray for this country.

As I wrote in my last two letters, the small and mid-sized agricultural sector has been at odds with the federal government here in Argentina. The government has been negotiating intensely with the representatives of the various agricultural sectors.

However, it seems that there are at least two or three renegade farmers who do not agree with the negotiations. For the last nine days, wildfires have been raging in the southern end of the province of Entre Ríos, just north of the border of the province of Buenos Aires and about 200 miles north of the city of Buenos Aires. As of today’s noon-time news, almost 200,000 acres of grasslands are burning. The government news sources indicate that the fires were started by arsonists and have been continually fed by these same people. Federal and provincial police forces are searching for various fugitive farmers. The news media are not indicating what the relationships are between the farming entities that are negotiating with the government and these fugitives who are suspected of having started the fires.

Last Sunday we could smell the smoke here at home, but it wasn’t affecting visibility here in the city of Buenos Aires. On Monday and Tuesday mornings there were major, fatal, multi-vehicle accidents on the major truck routes coming from the northern agricultural provinces, near the Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires provincial borders. Now those routes are closed. When I drove home from work on Wednesday evening, the visibility on the local highways was impaired. Yesterday, the hospitals in the city of Buenos Aires were put on a “yellow alert” for respiratory problems and other symptoms due to increased levels of carbon monoxide in the air. Today, the smoke outside is getting quite dense. I am sending a picture I took today of our front yard at 1:30 p.m. on a supposedly sunny, cloudless day. The visibility on the local streets in our neighborhood is about 250 or 300 yards.

Firefighters in the affected region say that the only way they will be able to control the fires is with rain. Unfortunately, no rain is predicted through Wednesday. And the winds will continue to blow from the north, which means that the smoke isn’t going to disappear from the Buenos Aires metropolitan area any time soon. Hopefully, at least, no more fires will be started.

Please pray for rain! Also continue to pray for the negotiations and for the economic  recovery that this disaster will require.

Blessings,

Katie Griffin

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 280