- 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.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Prayer Requests
Some prayer requests
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
An email I sent a few days back
Most of this is from an email I sent a few days back but I thought it'd be good to post here as well...
Things are still going well here in Argentina. Something I have realized while being here is that it's not like a mission trip where you go and work on a project or build something for someone and put all your time and energy into that (which is all I have done in the past). It is a lot less structured and basically we are just living life among the Argentines for 2 months. We do go to the schools and teach English but in our time not at the institutes we are expected to call people and go hang out with them and show them Jesus in our actions. We are making friends right now and it has been good, but it is a lot more socializing then I am used to :) so I definitely would appreciate prayers for the energy to reach out to people.
We are definitely not lacking any of the comforts of home which when I usually go on a mission trip I'm used to not showering for days in a row, etc. Here we have wifi in the house, lots of food, and way too many sweets! Every morning we have coffee and danishes.... but we exercise afterwards so that's good at least. So it's almost like i'm still in America but now everyone speaks spanish and greet each other with kisses on the cheek. There are definitely other cultural differences but it's still fairly similar.
We had a Bible study this morning on John 15 where Jesus is talking about him being the true vine. It was good to go over this because of its emphasis on where we get our strength every day of our lives. One thing that was mentioned by my teammate Weston was that we also need to take care of ourselves so that we can be effective in our time here. This includes eating well, getting time alone and with God to renew our energy, and exercising. One thing I am having a hard time doing is resisting all the delicious pastries they have here. I noticed this hindered me yesterday when we hung out with some kids at an orphanage. After all the sugar I had I did not feel very good and this didn't allow me to enjoy being with the kids as much. So as ridiculous as this may sound please pray that God will help me eating so much Dulce de leche (basically caramel) and cookies and pastries, etc :)
Yesterday we had a 3 hour time in a coffee shop by ourselves to spend time with God and we have been playing Dodgeball in the mornings. Martin, our leader, is so good at dodgeball it's as if he was 15 years old it's amazing. His rules are completely different, but it is a blast and a great way to get out frustrations.
I love you all back at home and please send me any questions you have about our time here in Argentina :) I would love to hear from you all and the encouragement would be greatly appreciated especially as we start going to the English institutes more often and are meeting people.
Things are still going well here in Argentina. Something I have realized while being here is that it's not like a mission trip where you go and work on a project or build something for someone and put all your time and energy into that (which is all I have done in the past). It is a lot less structured and basically we are just living life among the Argentines for 2 months. We do go to the schools and teach English but in our time not at the institutes we are expected to call people and go hang out with them and show them Jesus in our actions. We are making friends right now and it has been good, but it is a lot more socializing then I am used to :) so I definitely would appreciate prayers for the energy to reach out to people.
We are definitely not lacking any of the comforts of home which when I usually go on a mission trip I'm used to not showering for days in a row, etc. Here we have wifi in the house, lots of food, and way too many sweets! Every morning we have coffee and danishes.... but we exercise afterwards so that's good at least. So it's almost like i'm still in America but now everyone speaks spanish and greet each other with kisses on the cheek. There are definitely other cultural differences but it's still fairly similar.
We had a Bible study this morning on John 15 where Jesus is talking about him being the true vine. It was good to go over this because of its emphasis on where we get our strength every day of our lives. One thing that was mentioned by my teammate Weston was that we also need to take care of ourselves so that we can be effective in our time here. This includes eating well, getting time alone and with God to renew our energy, and exercising. One thing I am having a hard time doing is resisting all the delicious pastries they have here. I noticed this hindered me yesterday when we hung out with some kids at an orphanage. After all the sugar I had I did not feel very good and this didn't allow me to enjoy being with the kids as much. So as ridiculous as this may sound please pray that God will help me eating so much Dulce de leche (basically caramel) and cookies and pastries, etc :)
Yesterday we had a 3 hour time in a coffee shop by ourselves to spend time with God and we have been playing Dodgeball in the mornings. Martin, our leader, is so good at dodgeball it's as if he was 15 years old it's amazing. His rules are completely different, but it is a blast and a great way to get out frustrations.
I love you all back at home and please send me any questions you have about our time here in Argentina :) I would love to hear from you all and the encouragement would be greatly appreciated especially as we start going to the English institutes more often and are meeting people.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Some Updates
Since I last wrote we have been downtown twice, to an Argentine birthday party, riding the bus a lot, learned how to cook a pasta called ñoguis, and taught our first english classes.
On saturday we had a big scavenger hunt through downtown Buenos Aires which was a blast. We rode the subway and the buses and had some amazing pizza for lunch. It was a tiring day walking all around the capital but it was really neat to see some places that I had heard about in my Spanish class. I really enjoyed seeing the Plaza de Mayo. Every wednesday a group of mothers from the Guerra Sucia go to the Plaza to remember the victims (It was a time I think in the early 70s where a bunch of people "disappeared" but were actually killed by the government). Originally they came out as a protest to what had happened and for the government to admit to what it had done but now it is more of a thing of remembrance. We went on saturday so the women weren't there. It's exciting to get to know the city. We live about 40 minutes from the downtown area by train, the last stop out of town.
After the day downtown we went to the birthday party of a woman who is in the same classes as our leader Martin. He brought us to meet people and try to make friends that we can hang out with while here. Some of us were succesful at making contacts but it was hard with the music blaring. Interestingly enough when we walked in they were blasting Michael Buble :) They really love American music here-they play it everywhere. But it was a good night, but since a lot of people smoke here indoors it got a little bit overwhelming. It was nice to be among the people here.
Monday we had our first day teaching at an english institute. This was definitely a highlight because we are dying to make friends here. We did a few skits and talked about ourselves for a little while with everyone. We had three classes of three different levels. The second group really understood and it was fun interacting with them. One of the guys named Steven that we met was very blunt. He asked us if we thought the city was dirty and we said that it wasn't too bad and he just was so surprised. His reply was "YOU DON'T, I think it's filthy." It was a great time to interact with some Argintines. We invited them to come eat pizza with us this friday so I hope that they come and we can start making friends that we can hang out with on a regular basis. So definitely be praying for this friday night! We have another class tonight at an english institute so if you read this before then definitely pray that we can meet more people there.
One woman here that I love is a friend of our leader whose name is Fernanda. She's like a big sister or another mom here. She comes over and helps us learn how to cook Argentine dishes. She taught us to make Pasta on monday for lunch and we had a great time throwing flour around and chatting. She is a wonderful woman whose love for God shines brightly :) She is great to have around.
Last night I met a woman on the train who wants to learn English and invited her to the classes we will be teaching here at the house on Friday nights. We had a great conversation and hope that we will be able to talk again. She was telling me how so many people here are stressed out with working all day and then studying at school. Pabla (that's her name) said while she was in school all she wanted to do on the weekend was sleep. She said that this isn't how life should be. I definitely agree. I really hope that she will come to our classes and that we will be able to talk some more and that I can show her and share with her the hope that Jesus can give to our lives. I pray that Jesus will be able to come into the lives of those we meet and give them a full life :) One of joy, love, hope, and forgiveness.
All of us at the house are anxious to start making friends with the Argentines. It's been a week and a half and I think some of are frustrated that we are at the house a lot. But now that we are starting to teach opportunities are going to present themselves. Sometimes God requires us to be more patient then we desire to be. It's a strange place to be, feeling like we need to be really going out and meeting people and at the same needing to take time to get situated, pray, and reflect.
On saturday we had a big scavenger hunt through downtown Buenos Aires which was a blast. We rode the subway and the buses and had some amazing pizza for lunch. It was a tiring day walking all around the capital but it was really neat to see some places that I had heard about in my Spanish class. I really enjoyed seeing the Plaza de Mayo. Every wednesday a group of mothers from the Guerra Sucia go to the Plaza to remember the victims (It was a time I think in the early 70s where a bunch of people "disappeared" but were actually killed by the government). Originally they came out as a protest to what had happened and for the government to admit to what it had done but now it is more of a thing of remembrance. We went on saturday so the women weren't there. It's exciting to get to know the city. We live about 40 minutes from the downtown area by train, the last stop out of town.
After the day downtown we went to the birthday party of a woman who is in the same classes as our leader Martin. He brought us to meet people and try to make friends that we can hang out with while here. Some of us were succesful at making contacts but it was hard with the music blaring. Interestingly enough when we walked in they were blasting Michael Buble :) They really love American music here-they play it everywhere. But it was a good night, but since a lot of people smoke here indoors it got a little bit overwhelming. It was nice to be among the people here.
Monday we had our first day teaching at an english institute. This was definitely a highlight because we are dying to make friends here. We did a few skits and talked about ourselves for a little while with everyone. We had three classes of three different levels. The second group really understood and it was fun interacting with them. One of the guys named Steven that we met was very blunt. He asked us if we thought the city was dirty and we said that it wasn't too bad and he just was so surprised. His reply was "YOU DON'T, I think it's filthy." It was a great time to interact with some Argintines. We invited them to come eat pizza with us this friday so I hope that they come and we can start making friends that we can hang out with on a regular basis. So definitely be praying for this friday night! We have another class tonight at an english institute so if you read this before then definitely pray that we can meet more people there.
One woman here that I love is a friend of our leader whose name is Fernanda. She's like a big sister or another mom here. She comes over and helps us learn how to cook Argentine dishes. She taught us to make Pasta on monday for lunch and we had a great time throwing flour around and chatting. She is a wonderful woman whose love for God shines brightly :) She is great to have around.
Last night I met a woman on the train who wants to learn English and invited her to the classes we will be teaching here at the house on Friday nights. We had a great conversation and hope that we will be able to talk again. She was telling me how so many people here are stressed out with working all day and then studying at school. Pabla (that's her name) said while she was in school all she wanted to do on the weekend was sleep. She said that this isn't how life should be. I definitely agree. I really hope that she will come to our classes and that we will be able to talk some more and that I can show her and share with her the hope that Jesus can give to our lives. I pray that Jesus will be able to come into the lives of those we meet and give them a full life :) One of joy, love, hope, and forgiveness.
All of us at the house are anxious to start making friends with the Argentines. It's been a week and a half and I think some of are frustrated that we are at the house a lot. But now that we are starting to teach opportunities are going to present themselves. Sometimes God requires us to be more patient then we desire to be. It's a strange place to be, feeling like we need to be really going out and meeting people and at the same needing to take time to get situated, pray, and reflect.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Unas Cuentas
So it is our fourth day here and after a few days just hanging around the house we are finally out and about.
On tuesday we went to this large shopping center called Jumbo (u pronounced like 00). It was pretty big with tons of nice clothing stores and one big store like walmart and another similar to home depot. We went there for a cultural assignment. Our team had to observe the people and then ask three people three different questions about Argentina. At first it was nerve racking but I found that I can speak pretty well with the Argentines. But I asked them at what age they normally get married? If religion played a large role in their society? And just what they enjoy doing in their free time? Many said that religion played a role but none of the people I talked to considered themselves religious. The average age of getting married was around 20 (or they just move in together at this age). Sports, shopping (there are a ton of clothing stores), going to movies, and basically the same things that people do in the U.S. It was really fun and a great way to finally get out and learn about Argentina.
We have drank a lot of Mate, which is a very traditional tea here. When people have guests over they drink Mate together. However, you only have mate with people you care about. It is a sign of affection. There is a certain way that you serve mate and you pass it around the circle and drink from the same bombilla (straw, pronounced bombisha). We also learned how to make tortas fritas, which are similar to sopapillas or fry bread. There are a lot of people here and in general I would say that it is a modern city. Of course there are a lot of old buildings but the people are definitely eager for modern things.
The accent here is very distinct. They drop the "s" from most words so instead of mas o menos (which means more or less), it is said like ma o meno. All y's and ll's are pronounced with a sh sound. People said that also it is harder to understand people from buenos aires because they speak with a different accent. It is similar to the Boston accent in the U.S. Well the computer is about to die. Can't wait to share more stories :) :)
On tuesday we went to this large shopping center called Jumbo (u pronounced like 00). It was pretty big with tons of nice clothing stores and one big store like walmart and another similar to home depot. We went there for a cultural assignment. Our team had to observe the people and then ask three people three different questions about Argentina. At first it was nerve racking but I found that I can speak pretty well with the Argentines. But I asked them at what age they normally get married? If religion played a large role in their society? And just what they enjoy doing in their free time? Many said that religion played a role but none of the people I talked to considered themselves religious. The average age of getting married was around 20 (or they just move in together at this age). Sports, shopping (there are a ton of clothing stores), going to movies, and basically the same things that people do in the U.S. It was really fun and a great way to finally get out and learn about Argentina.
We have drank a lot of Mate, which is a very traditional tea here. When people have guests over they drink Mate together. However, you only have mate with people you care about. It is a sign of affection. There is a certain way that you serve mate and you pass it around the circle and drink from the same bombilla (straw, pronounced bombisha). We also learned how to make tortas fritas, which are similar to sopapillas or fry bread. There are a lot of people here and in general I would say that it is a modern city. Of course there are a lot of old buildings but the people are definitely eager for modern things.
The accent here is very distinct. They drop the "s" from most words so instead of mas o menos (which means more or less), it is said like ma o meno. All y's and ll's are pronounced with a sh sound. People said that also it is harder to understand people from buenos aires because they speak with a different accent. It is similar to the Boston accent in the U.S. Well the computer is about to die. Can't wait to share more stories :) :)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Explanation
so I wanted to explain the pants thing again in case it didn't make much sense. It means opening up to people and being honest to who you are. It is like what you would do with a good friend who you trust to share things about yourself that not everyone knows. Hope that makes more sense :) :)
Aprendemos
It has only been one day but we are busy learning about the culture and what we will be doing while here. A phrase that I think is quite funny here is "pulling your pants down," it means opening up to people and being vulnerable :)
I am really excited about the ministry we will be doing here. We will be forming relationships first and meeting people through the English classes we are going to be teaching and then if the Lord opens the door to speak about him we will be able to do so. But first we must build up trust with the people we meet, which makes sense. I am learning a lot about the Argentine ways and I'm excited to start making friends.
And the food is fantastic! Delicious meats, empanadas, and pastries.
Can't wait to have more stories to share
I am really excited about the ministry we will be doing here. We will be forming relationships first and meeting people through the English classes we are going to be teaching and then if the Lord opens the door to speak about him we will be able to do so. But first we must build up trust with the people we meet, which makes sense. I am learning a lot about the Argentine ways and I'm excited to start making friends.
And the food is fantastic! Delicious meats, empanadas, and pastries.
Can't wait to have more stories to share
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