I arrived home yesterday afternoon after 2 flights and a car ride. I haven't had a lot of time to process everything yet but I am so happy to be home with friends and family.
We had a wonderful last two weeks that God blessed tremendously. Thank you for all your prayers. I hope to have more pictures up before I am off to Tucson in two weeks. Hope you enjoyed the updates...sorry that they weren't more frequent.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
July
Sorry that I haven't posted any updates in awhile. It is hard sometimes to remember to get in touch when things are pretty busy here and when the internet comes and goes...but enough excuses :)
July has been a good month thus far and it is crazy for me to think that it is half way over, which means only a little over 2 weeks left her in Argentina. Since the start of the month I feel that each of us are forming close relationships with families and individuals. It is exciting to see them growing as we spend time talking, going shopping, eating, and watching movies together. We had a fourth of July party with one family and it was so wonderful to treat them to dinner and spend time helping each other with english and spanish.
Yesterday we got back from our week vacation in the province of Cordoba. We spent some time relaxing in the beautiful Villa Carlos Paz. It was great to get away from the big city and climb a mountain. I didn't realize how much I missed Flagstaff and Tucson until I was hiking up the mountains in Carlos Paz. Since we are only here for two months at first it seemed silly to take a week off, but in reality it was absolutely necessary. The trip really allowed for reflection and relaxation. It is definitely going to help me focus on the last two weeks here.
One of our friends from Argentina was able to join us in Carlos Paz. His name is Elias. I felt that it was great to have at least one friend with us and I think that he was able to see God's love working through us as we interacted with each other and with him.
God has been teaching me a lot during this trip as well and working to improve my character. While in Carlos Paz I was challenged to deal with conflict with a teammate and I was making this a huge deal in my mind that I was sure for the rest of the trip we would not get along and I would be constantly feeling upset about it. But God allowed for me to approach that person and talk out our issues in a loving way. It is really easy to count people out when you feel like you don't have to love them, but it is even worse to try and resolve differences when you know you have to love them. I think my perspective on conflict is changing through this experience.
Now we only have 16 days left and this is exciting and scary to me. Part of me wants to just rush through it so I can be home, but the other part of me realizes that doing this would be selfish. I want to strengthen my friendships with the people here in Argentina. Our goal in being here is to get people thinking about God and helping them to know who He is, and if that is to have any impact in their lives we have to build trust and friendship. And we still have time for that. Hopefully I can focus on right now and not think about the next school year too much while I still have time here in Argentina.
July has been a good month thus far and it is crazy for me to think that it is half way over, which means only a little over 2 weeks left her in Argentina. Since the start of the month I feel that each of us are forming close relationships with families and individuals. It is exciting to see them growing as we spend time talking, going shopping, eating, and watching movies together. We had a fourth of July party with one family and it was so wonderful to treat them to dinner and spend time helping each other with english and spanish.
Yesterday we got back from our week vacation in the province of Cordoba. We spent some time relaxing in the beautiful Villa Carlos Paz. It was great to get away from the big city and climb a mountain. I didn't realize how much I missed Flagstaff and Tucson until I was hiking up the mountains in Carlos Paz. Since we are only here for two months at first it seemed silly to take a week off, but in reality it was absolutely necessary. The trip really allowed for reflection and relaxation. It is definitely going to help me focus on the last two weeks here.
One of our friends from Argentina was able to join us in Carlos Paz. His name is Elias. I felt that it was great to have at least one friend with us and I think that he was able to see God's love working through us as we interacted with each other and with him.
God has been teaching me a lot during this trip as well and working to improve my character. While in Carlos Paz I was challenged to deal with conflict with a teammate and I was making this a huge deal in my mind that I was sure for the rest of the trip we would not get along and I would be constantly feeling upset about it. But God allowed for me to approach that person and talk out our issues in a loving way. It is really easy to count people out when you feel like you don't have to love them, but it is even worse to try and resolve differences when you know you have to love them. I think my perspective on conflict is changing through this experience.
Now we only have 16 days left and this is exciting and scary to me. Part of me wants to just rush through it so I can be home, but the other part of me realizes that doing this would be selfish. I want to strengthen my friendships with the people here in Argentina. Our goal in being here is to get people thinking about God and helping them to know who He is, and if that is to have any impact in their lives we have to build trust and friendship. And we still have time for that. Hopefully I can focus on right now and not think about the next school year too much while I still have time here in Argentina.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Making Friends
This week has been a blessing and a great pick me up at the midpoint of our trip.
On Monday we went to two nursing homes. We met a woman named Maria who is 101 years old! She kept telling us how she can still do everything on her own, she can even go to the bathroom on her own! She also just told us how blessed she was and how content she was with her life. She never married and the nurse tried to get her to tell us a story about her one love but she replied "no, that story is for me." I wish we could have heard it, but still it was wonderful hearing about how content she is with where she is and her gratitude to God for her life. We met some others and heard them sing some old Tango songs. It was really great speaking with them in Spanish and just realizing how similar they are to people in the US. We are all people right :) We sang some songs for them in English- Lord I lift your name on high and Marvelous Light.
At the second place we went I met one man from Italy who moved here in 1948. He kept asking me if I understood better in Italian or Spanish (after he told me a story completely in Italian ;) ) The story of moving here brought him to tears- me emociona. He missed his home country and I think that his family was split up due to the move. There were multiple boats leaving Italy after WWII and they went all over the Americas. So one brother may end up in Canada and the other in Argentina. After talking with him I spoke with a blind man who has lived in BA all his life. He recently went blind and it cost him a lot, I think he said due to him losing his job he couldn't afford to take care of his sick wife and she ended up dying- I held his hand while we sang a few songs. There is a lot of sadness with many of the people there, but I think they truly enjoyed us coming. When we were about to leave one woman asked to talk to me. I didn't understand her at first but I had Marisol come over and help me with the translation. She asked me if I liked the new president of the US but then told me it was a stupid question and not to answer it. She then proceeded to tell me that she was delighted to know a North American girl :) She also asked me if I had ever been in love and asked me if there was anything I would like to ask her. I didn't have much time to ask her but I asked her when she was married. I think we are going to be going back so hopefully I will have a chance to ask her some more questions about her life. It was a wonderful day and I think that they were so grateful to have us come and visit them.
Yesterday (Thursday), I went to my friend Jimena's house. Her best friend Alexandra was there too. Jimena is a photographer and was going to do a photo shoot of her friend Alexandra. She asked me to be a model for her as well. So Alexandra and I dressed up and went up to Jimena's studio and we posed for a few photos. Since my sister is also a photographer I am used to having to be a model :) It was fun to be a part of it.
After the photo shoot I went to the kitchen and talked with Jimena's mom, also named Alexandra. She gave me a spanish lesson on how to use the vos form. The vos is the tu form in Argentina. We had mate and talked for a good while and the rest of her family joined us, her dad and two brothers. I really enjoy being with their family. We are going to have them over tomorrow night for dinner which I am especially excited for! The Dad, Pepe, always jokes with me in Spanish but most of the time I don't understand. However, last night I was able to joke with him in Spanish so I am improving :) When I left her dad told me to remember that their home is mine as well. It is so nice to be so warmly invited into someone's home that I have only met 3 times or so. I hope that we can show them the same love to them tomorrow night when they come over. Please pray for their family :) God has definitely given me a heart for them.
Well it was great to have these two experiences this week. We are now half way through our time here and it is wonderful to see deeper relationships form. I have had lower energy lately but with the time in the nursing home and with Jimena's family I feel rejuvinated.
On Monday we went to two nursing homes. We met a woman named Maria who is 101 years old! She kept telling us how she can still do everything on her own, she can even go to the bathroom on her own! She also just told us how blessed she was and how content she was with her life. She never married and the nurse tried to get her to tell us a story about her one love but she replied "no, that story is for me." I wish we could have heard it, but still it was wonderful hearing about how content she is with where she is and her gratitude to God for her life. We met some others and heard them sing some old Tango songs. It was really great speaking with them in Spanish and just realizing how similar they are to people in the US. We are all people right :) We sang some songs for them in English- Lord I lift your name on high and Marvelous Light.
At the second place we went I met one man from Italy who moved here in 1948. He kept asking me if I understood better in Italian or Spanish (after he told me a story completely in Italian ;) ) The story of moving here brought him to tears- me emociona. He missed his home country and I think that his family was split up due to the move. There were multiple boats leaving Italy after WWII and they went all over the Americas. So one brother may end up in Canada and the other in Argentina. After talking with him I spoke with a blind man who has lived in BA all his life. He recently went blind and it cost him a lot, I think he said due to him losing his job he couldn't afford to take care of his sick wife and she ended up dying- I held his hand while we sang a few songs. There is a lot of sadness with many of the people there, but I think they truly enjoyed us coming. When we were about to leave one woman asked to talk to me. I didn't understand her at first but I had Marisol come over and help me with the translation. She asked me if I liked the new president of the US but then told me it was a stupid question and not to answer it. She then proceeded to tell me that she was delighted to know a North American girl :) She also asked me if I had ever been in love and asked me if there was anything I would like to ask her. I didn't have much time to ask her but I asked her when she was married. I think we are going to be going back so hopefully I will have a chance to ask her some more questions about her life. It was a wonderful day and I think that they were so grateful to have us come and visit them.
Yesterday (Thursday), I went to my friend Jimena's house. Her best friend Alexandra was there too. Jimena is a photographer and was going to do a photo shoot of her friend Alexandra. She asked me to be a model for her as well. So Alexandra and I dressed up and went up to Jimena's studio and we posed for a few photos. Since my sister is also a photographer I am used to having to be a model :) It was fun to be a part of it.
After the photo shoot I went to the kitchen and talked with Jimena's mom, also named Alexandra. She gave me a spanish lesson on how to use the vos form. The vos is the tu form in Argentina. We had mate and talked for a good while and the rest of her family joined us, her dad and two brothers. I really enjoy being with their family. We are going to have them over tomorrow night for dinner which I am especially excited for! The Dad, Pepe, always jokes with me in Spanish but most of the time I don't understand. However, last night I was able to joke with him in Spanish so I am improving :) When I left her dad told me to remember that their home is mine as well. It is so nice to be so warmly invited into someone's home that I have only met 3 times or so. I hope that we can show them the same love to them tomorrow night when they come over. Please pray for their family :) God has definitely given me a heart for them.
Well it was great to have these two experiences this week. We are now half way through our time here and it is wonderful to see deeper relationships form. I have had lower energy lately but with the time in the nursing home and with Jimena's family I feel rejuvinated.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Prayer Requests
Some prayer requests
- Jon's health-he has had a fever the past 3 nights! Please pray that we all don't get sick and that he feels better
- Strengthening of friendships with the people we have met here. For me specifically for Jimena, Silvana, and Mikaela.
- Dependence upon Jesus for our strength and energy :) I have been reading about Paul and just amazed at his persistence in his outreach and just the love that he has for everyone.
- This weekend I am going to be giving a talk at the youth meeting at one of the churches here. So pray for my nerves and that God would be able to speak to them in that time.
A busy weekend etc...
So this past weekend we had our first English class here at the house and a hang out night at our house on Saturday night. Both events brought a lot of people here to the house about 15 people showed up both nights. It was definitely great to see so many people here :)
For the English class we split up into several different groups based on ability. Jon and I had a group of 5 students all around 18 years old. They were really proficient in speaking and writing so we played some more advanced games. One of the games we played is called telephone pictionary. Each person gets a stack of papers with as many papers as there are people. Everyone then writes a sentence on the first sheet, i.e. The cow jumps over the moon. Then everyone passes their entire stack to the person next to them and now everyone draws to their best ability what is said in the sentence. Every other time you write or draw until your stack is returned to you. It is really funny what some of the outcomes are. After this game we made them split into two groups and do skits in English. They did really well but made us make up one on the spot as well. There's was definitely bettter-but I blame it on the fact that they had five minutes preparation and we didn't have any time to prepare :)
The class ended around 10 o'clock and no one stuck around afterward. But we ended up playing soccer with a bunch of guys from the seminary that is right behind our house. It was a blast. The first game it was the Americans vs. all of them. We actually tied and had to go do penalty kicks, and lost during that. But after that first game we switched the teams up. By the end I felt like I improved a bunch, making 2 goals and 2 assists. We played till around 1:30.
The next day, saturday, we planned to have people over at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to play some games and watch a movie. Only a few people showed up at the beginning but by 8 or so we had about 15 people here. We played signs and talked for a long time. Some of us watched transformers in Spanish as well. It was really a good time of getting to know people better. Oh and I almost forgot... we introduced Argentina to the pizza cookie-pizzookie. They loved it! Though most of them thought I was crazy putting the ice cream on top right after it came out of the oven. But it was fun sharing this treat with all of the people we have met thus far. Such a Blessing! About three of our contacts ended up staying really late. Martin had told us that it is not very nice to kick people out of your homes so..... the last people left at 5:30 am! It was a long night but so worth it :) Thankfully we were able to sleep in till 2:30 on Sunday. I am so grateful that the church we were going to didn't start till 7:00 pm.
We are still going to english institutes about 3 times a week which has been so much fun. Each institute has its own personality. Last night we were at one where there were a few people who had lived in the U.S for 13 years. It basically was just a get together with them, talking and answering questions. The Argentines were so talkative and are always interested in how the U.S really is. They watch a lot of American movies and a lot of Simpsons. One of the questions they had was do people really go around swearing all the time and they started asking about which words were offensive. We tried to steer out of that conversation so we didn't have to explain much. During the class we actually talked a little bit about religion. Weston actually explained the Gospel to the class and no one wanted to fight back or debate. Everyone simply listened and took it for what it was. It was really nice to discuss faith in a classroom setting and not experience anyone being defensive. The director of the institute chimed in with an interesting observation. She said that she could really tell that the protestant churches here worked in community and helped each one another while She felt it was missing in the Catholic churches. It is nice to know that these churches have an impact. :)
Thus far it has been a great learning experience. I feel like even after a week I could have returned home having learned a lot. The people here are a lot more blunt then at home which is challenging at times but enjoyable as well. Martin is a wonderful leader and I love his honesty with the team. He has shared with us some amazing experiences he has had with God and his laugh just takes over an entire room. It is so hearty and sudden that it just makes me want to join right in!
Yesterday him and Marisol made us do a team exercise. We had to make a living statue that represented the team and what role we feel we play in the team. It was very interesting. At first we just thought of generic ideas for the whole team to do that represented us needing each others support, but others on the team didn't agree. Me being a very task oriented person wanted each person to share how they were feeling about the team so that we could then work together to create the statue. I asked a lot of questions of each person and I think they thought I was overanalyzing the task. In the end we just kind of settled that each person would do what they wanted. After creating the statue we sat together for about 30 minutes and talked about the statue, but mostly about the process. Much of the team did not really care about the actual statue making cuz they knew they would just end up explaining how they felt afterward. Me on the other hand focused only on the task and wanted us to discuss how we were feeling during the actual making of the statue. Two very different takes on the process-guess that's why I'm the engineering major and not psychology. But it was a good chance for our team to understand each other better.
For the English class we split up into several different groups based on ability. Jon and I had a group of 5 students all around 18 years old. They were really proficient in speaking and writing so we played some more advanced games. One of the games we played is called telephone pictionary. Each person gets a stack of papers with as many papers as there are people. Everyone then writes a sentence on the first sheet, i.e. The cow jumps over the moon. Then everyone passes their entire stack to the person next to them and now everyone draws to their best ability what is said in the sentence. Every other time you write or draw until your stack is returned to you. It is really funny what some of the outcomes are. After this game we made them split into two groups and do skits in English. They did really well but made us make up one on the spot as well. There's was definitely bettter-but I blame it on the fact that they had five minutes preparation and we didn't have any time to prepare :)
The class ended around 10 o'clock and no one stuck around afterward. But we ended up playing soccer with a bunch of guys from the seminary that is right behind our house. It was a blast. The first game it was the Americans vs. all of them. We actually tied and had to go do penalty kicks, and lost during that. But after that first game we switched the teams up. By the end I felt like I improved a bunch, making 2 goals and 2 assists. We played till around 1:30.
The next day, saturday, we planned to have people over at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to play some games and watch a movie. Only a few people showed up at the beginning but by 8 or so we had about 15 people here. We played signs and talked for a long time. Some of us watched transformers in Spanish as well. It was really a good time of getting to know people better. Oh and I almost forgot... we introduced Argentina to the pizza cookie-pizzookie. They loved it! Though most of them thought I was crazy putting the ice cream on top right after it came out of the oven. But it was fun sharing this treat with all of the people we have met thus far. Such a Blessing! About three of our contacts ended up staying really late. Martin had told us that it is not very nice to kick people out of your homes so..... the last people left at 5:30 am! It was a long night but so worth it :) Thankfully we were able to sleep in till 2:30 on Sunday. I am so grateful that the church we were going to didn't start till 7:00 pm.
We are still going to english institutes about 3 times a week which has been so much fun. Each institute has its own personality. Last night we were at one where there were a few people who had lived in the U.S for 13 years. It basically was just a get together with them, talking and answering questions. The Argentines were so talkative and are always interested in how the U.S really is. They watch a lot of American movies and a lot of Simpsons. One of the questions they had was do people really go around swearing all the time and they started asking about which words were offensive. We tried to steer out of that conversation so we didn't have to explain much. During the class we actually talked a little bit about religion. Weston actually explained the Gospel to the class and no one wanted to fight back or debate. Everyone simply listened and took it for what it was. It was really nice to discuss faith in a classroom setting and not experience anyone being defensive. The director of the institute chimed in with an interesting observation. She said that she could really tell that the protestant churches here worked in community and helped each one another while She felt it was missing in the Catholic churches. It is nice to know that these churches have an impact. :)
Thus far it has been a great learning experience. I feel like even after a week I could have returned home having learned a lot. The people here are a lot more blunt then at home which is challenging at times but enjoyable as well. Martin is a wonderful leader and I love his honesty with the team. He has shared with us some amazing experiences he has had with God and his laugh just takes over an entire room. It is so hearty and sudden that it just makes me want to join right in!
Yesterday him and Marisol made us do a team exercise. We had to make a living statue that represented the team and what role we feel we play in the team. It was very interesting. At first we just thought of generic ideas for the whole team to do that represented us needing each others support, but others on the team didn't agree. Me being a very task oriented person wanted each person to share how they were feeling about the team so that we could then work together to create the statue. I asked a lot of questions of each person and I think they thought I was overanalyzing the task. In the end we just kind of settled that each person would do what they wanted. After creating the statue we sat together for about 30 minutes and talked about the statue, but mostly about the process. Much of the team did not really care about the actual statue making cuz they knew they would just end up explaining how they felt afterward. Me on the other hand focused only on the task and wanted us to discuss how we were feeling during the actual making of the statue. Two very different takes on the process-guess that's why I'm the engineering major and not psychology. But it was a good chance for our team to understand each other better.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
All the things we have been doing
So I just wrote a huge long post and then it got erased cuz the internet cut out :( :(
Let's see if I can sum it up in a shorter message :)
So this past Saturday was Faith Day. We split into two teams each with a couple locals with us as well. The goal of the day was to go to The Capital (ie the city) with nothing but a bunch of out dated Christian literature and the clothes on our backs and sell enough books to be able to eat and return home by 6 o'clock. We weren't allowed to bring any of our own money and we had to save 30 percent of the money we made. It was an interesting day but God provided immensely. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing and thought we would be desperately begging people to buy these old books and not have any luck doing so. But it was quite the opposite. The entire day was really relaxed and we were able to eat (and eat enough) and we got back home at 5:45. My team consisted of two locals and my teammate Tim. I partnered up with a guy named Pipi :) and when we were selling he was extremely calm and did not feel rushed. It was a great time to practice patience and also my spanish since he didn't speak a word of english. My brain was fried though by the end of the day, and my spanish was not very good that day for some reason. But all in all we had a great day talking and getting to know each other and we sold 39 pesos worth of books. We were able to spend 22 of that on food and 5 for the trip back. Plus God provided an extra treat from a guy selling Pan Rellenas (bread filled with ham/cheese and also ones filled with Chicken). He didn't have enough to pay for the books he wanted so he gave us some bread instead!! It was a gift from Heaven :) :) He was such a great man with so much joy and love in his heart. After chatting with him we got some Panchos (hot dogs) and a 7 Up to share and headed home. We were exhausted but i feel like my faith was definitely strengthened through the experience. I think it was a lesson in trusting God to provide. "You will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You" Psalm 26:3 :) Exactly what happened that day.
Well that night after the faith day Jon, Mary Clare, and I met up with one of the girls we met in an English institute last week. It was fun to hang out with her, her boyfriend, her best friend, and her best friend's boyfriend. We stayed out pretty late, but that is normal for the young people here- a lot of them go dancing till 8 in the morning. Not sure if we'll do that while we are here but maybe :)
Sunday we went to church and then to a concert downtown. One of the directors of an English Institute here has a son who was in the band. We went with a bunch of the teacher's from the English institutes and had a blast listening to the Inmaduras (inmatures). They were a really good band.
Monday was a holiday here in Argentina. I think it was their flag day. So we had an Asado-Argentine BBQ. I ate more meat than I think I have ever eaten in my entire life! And I tried Cow Intestines :) chewy and not very appetizing. After the Asado we played soccer with about 30 young guys who we invited to come. I played for about 10 minutes and then quit to hang out with some of the other people who came. I was the only girl playing for a little while :) The rest of the day we tried to learn a card game called truco but it has a ton of rules! It's a blast though and I hope to get better at it while here. We met some more people which was fun. We definitely are making a lot of contacts! The other week when we went out for pizza about 30 people showed up :) We definitely have been blessed in meeting people.
Tuesday was our day off but Mary Clare and I met up with the same girl from saturday night. Her name is Jimena. We went shopping and then went over to her house. I ended up staying most of the evening. Mary Clare left to go see another friend, so I sat and chatted with her family. They had a lot of questions about Americans-politics, movies, family, etc. We talked forever but it was great. They invited me to eat dinner with them and so I didn't get home till about 11:30 pm. They were a very welcoming family and I think I helped change their opinion about Americans a little bit- I realy should say United States since this is technically America too. They had a wonderful dog named Tommy that I got to play with as well :) I hope to go over to their house again to converse and work on my spanish some more.
Yesterday was Weston's Birthday and the poor guy was sick, he stayed home most of the day. But I don't think he minded to much. We bought him a cake and celebrated a little bit with him. In the middle of the day I went to lunch with a girl name Mikaela. Her mom owns a restaurant in San Martin (another neighborhood). We had pasta filled with cheese and ham in a tomato cream sauce and Tiramisu for dessert. Oh my goodness was it delicious!!!! Plus I spoke with her in Spanish for 2.5 hours and it was really easy for me to understand her. She is a really great girl and she's going to come to our spanish class that we will be having tomorrow night at the house! I am excited to get to know her better :) We also taught an english class during the evening. This time it was just Jon and I teaching but we had a great time talking about Halloween and New Years in the States. They think it's so funny that we dress up and go to peoples houses asking for candy. Plus Jon and I had a great time talking on the way there and back. I'm really enjoying to get to know my team better.
Now it's thursday :) I'm feeling sick now so please lift prayers for our whole team and health. It seems like everyone here is getting sick! Everyone on the trains and busses are coughing and Martin's daughters are both sick :( :( It's not very helpful for us cuz it drains our energy so much. And please lift up all the people we are meeting up to God as well. I truly feel blessed with all the friendships we are making and I'm having a great time learning about their lives and the differences between their culture and ours.
Well I think I'm going to get going. Hopefully I can give more updates soon. Maybe less words and more pictures :) :) Be looking foward to a picture of me in these awesome pants that I bought. They are really popular here but they are pretty ugly-but sooooooo comfortable :) :)
Well anyway love you all talk to you soon
Let's see if I can sum it up in a shorter message :)
So this past Saturday was Faith Day. We split into two teams each with a couple locals with us as well. The goal of the day was to go to The Capital (ie the city) with nothing but a bunch of out dated Christian literature and the clothes on our backs and sell enough books to be able to eat and return home by 6 o'clock. We weren't allowed to bring any of our own money and we had to save 30 percent of the money we made. It was an interesting day but God provided immensely. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing and thought we would be desperately begging people to buy these old books and not have any luck doing so. But it was quite the opposite. The entire day was really relaxed and we were able to eat (and eat enough) and we got back home at 5:45. My team consisted of two locals and my teammate Tim. I partnered up with a guy named Pipi :) and when we were selling he was extremely calm and did not feel rushed. It was a great time to practice patience and also my spanish since he didn't speak a word of english. My brain was fried though by the end of the day, and my spanish was not very good that day for some reason. But all in all we had a great day talking and getting to know each other and we sold 39 pesos worth of books. We were able to spend 22 of that on food and 5 for the trip back. Plus God provided an extra treat from a guy selling Pan Rellenas (bread filled with ham/cheese and also ones filled with Chicken). He didn't have enough to pay for the books he wanted so he gave us some bread instead!! It was a gift from Heaven :) :) He was such a great man with so much joy and love in his heart. After chatting with him we got some Panchos (hot dogs) and a 7 Up to share and headed home. We were exhausted but i feel like my faith was definitely strengthened through the experience. I think it was a lesson in trusting God to provide. "You will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You" Psalm 26:3 :) Exactly what happened that day.
Well that night after the faith day Jon, Mary Clare, and I met up with one of the girls we met in an English institute last week. It was fun to hang out with her, her boyfriend, her best friend, and her best friend's boyfriend. We stayed out pretty late, but that is normal for the young people here- a lot of them go dancing till 8 in the morning. Not sure if we'll do that while we are here but maybe :)
Sunday we went to church and then to a concert downtown. One of the directors of an English Institute here has a son who was in the band. We went with a bunch of the teacher's from the English institutes and had a blast listening to the Inmaduras (inmatures). They were a really good band.
Monday was a holiday here in Argentina. I think it was their flag day. So we had an Asado-Argentine BBQ. I ate more meat than I think I have ever eaten in my entire life! And I tried Cow Intestines :) chewy and not very appetizing. After the Asado we played soccer with about 30 young guys who we invited to come. I played for about 10 minutes and then quit to hang out with some of the other people who came. I was the only girl playing for a little while :) The rest of the day we tried to learn a card game called truco but it has a ton of rules! It's a blast though and I hope to get better at it while here. We met some more people which was fun. We definitely are making a lot of contacts! The other week when we went out for pizza about 30 people showed up :) We definitely have been blessed in meeting people.
Tuesday was our day off but Mary Clare and I met up with the same girl from saturday night. Her name is Jimena. We went shopping and then went over to her house. I ended up staying most of the evening. Mary Clare left to go see another friend, so I sat and chatted with her family. They had a lot of questions about Americans-politics, movies, family, etc. We talked forever but it was great. They invited me to eat dinner with them and so I didn't get home till about 11:30 pm. They were a very welcoming family and I think I helped change their opinion about Americans a little bit- I realy should say United States since this is technically America too. They had a wonderful dog named Tommy that I got to play with as well :) I hope to go over to their house again to converse and work on my spanish some more.
Yesterday was Weston's Birthday and the poor guy was sick, he stayed home most of the day. But I don't think he minded to much. We bought him a cake and celebrated a little bit with him. In the middle of the day I went to lunch with a girl name Mikaela. Her mom owns a restaurant in San Martin (another neighborhood). We had pasta filled with cheese and ham in a tomato cream sauce and Tiramisu for dessert. Oh my goodness was it delicious!!!! Plus I spoke with her in Spanish for 2.5 hours and it was really easy for me to understand her. She is a really great girl and she's going to come to our spanish class that we will be having tomorrow night at the house! I am excited to get to know her better :) We also taught an english class during the evening. This time it was just Jon and I teaching but we had a great time talking about Halloween and New Years in the States. They think it's so funny that we dress up and go to peoples houses asking for candy. Plus Jon and I had a great time talking on the way there and back. I'm really enjoying to get to know my team better.
Now it's thursday :) I'm feeling sick now so please lift prayers for our whole team and health. It seems like everyone here is getting sick! Everyone on the trains and busses are coughing and Martin's daughters are both sick :( :( It's not very helpful for us cuz it drains our energy so much. And please lift up all the people we are meeting up to God as well. I truly feel blessed with all the friendships we are making and I'm having a great time learning about their lives and the differences between their culture and ours.
Well I think I'm going to get going. Hopefully I can give more updates soon. Maybe less words and more pictures :) :) Be looking foward to a picture of me in these awesome pants that I bought. They are really popular here but they are pretty ugly-but sooooooo comfortable :) :)
Well anyway love you all talk to you soon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
