First 2 weeks
Yay! I´ve finally managed to get to an internet cafe and to get on to this site!
Well, the first two weeks in Buenos Aires have flown by. My induction week with my host family was fantastic. The couple me and another girl stayed with are pastors of a church, and were very outgoing and crazy! They couldn´t have been more welcoming or done more to make us feel at home. We had a couple of days recovering from jet lag and just relaxing in the house while they were at work, and a couple of days out in the city centre. One day (the celebrations for the first day of Spring) we followed around a very cool young group of breakdancing and hip hop dancers called the Jesus Warriors, who performed in 3 big public parks in Buenos Aires. I can now do one simple breakdancing balance and thought I was quite impressive until I saw a picture someone took of me doing it!! Maybe I won´t be posting that on this blog!!
We spent the weekend with the girl who lives with our host family. She spends her weekend ministring to and feeding the homeless who live in the train station, and visiting transvetites in their homes on a Saturday. She works so hard during the week and then basically totally gives up her weekend to serve other people. It was amazing to see the way that she and her friends show God´s love to these people.
The first week at the ´Discipleship Training School´ in Ituzaingo has been pretty busy. To be honest, I didn´t enjoy it very much because I, possibly the lightest sleeper in the world, have found myself in a room with possibly the loudest snorer in the world. Combine that with having a heavy cold and light streaming in from the window onto my face, dogs barking outside, and bunk beds that creak very loudly, and you might say the environment is not exactly sleep-inducive! For the first two nights I literally watched the clock, and felt too exhausted and cold during the day to take anything in... but I´m learning to adjust and relying on the power of prayer and earplugs!!
The nice thing is that I´m the youngest person in my room. Given that since my quarter of a century birthday is approaching in 2 days´time, I´ve been feeling quite old as there are a quite a few 18-20 year olds here. So being the youngest in my room counter-acts that a bit! We are the smallest room too, with 8 of us in there. It´s pretty cramped but i´m getting used to dancing around other people! Apart from a Swiss and an American, the rest are South American, so it forces us to speak Spanish.
The lingo is coming on gradually, though I did unwittingly suggest that a couple who had just met each other get engaged yesterday, when in fact I was trying to suggest they reach a compromise about what they were discussing!!!
A typical day involves studying in the morning, and then service duties (cleaning the base etc) in the afternoon. A couple evenings a week max are free, the rest of the time there are evening workshops or language classes etc. We will also be doing practical things in the community (such as helping at an orphanage down the road) some evenings, but we kind of take it all as it comes and don´t get much warning about what we´ll be doing or when!
The workshops sound like great fun. I have chosen to do tango and folklore, and a Bible studies class. Our usual days off in the week are Sunday and Monday, though there will be weekends where we´ll be doing outreaches.
All the people here are really lovely and it´s great meeting people from all over the world.
I´m still terrified of the dogs, but at least it amuses other people when I jump a mile every time one barks. Mate I have now developed a taste for, and even like it without sugar, which most Argentians don´t find palatable.
Thankfully there are lots of fitness freaks around to keep me company ... we´ve been on one jog so far, and have an ex-military guy from Chile to lead us in our press ups and sit ups as we try to work off the huge portions of pasta!!
That´s all for now. Hopefully I´ll get the chance to update once every week or once every couple of weeks!
Hasta luego.
Well, the first two weeks in Buenos Aires have flown by. My induction week with my host family was fantastic. The couple me and another girl stayed with are pastors of a church, and were very outgoing and crazy! They couldn´t have been more welcoming or done more to make us feel at home. We had a couple of days recovering from jet lag and just relaxing in the house while they were at work, and a couple of days out in the city centre. One day (the celebrations for the first day of Spring) we followed around a very cool young group of breakdancing and hip hop dancers called the Jesus Warriors, who performed in 3 big public parks in Buenos Aires. I can now do one simple breakdancing balance and thought I was quite impressive until I saw a picture someone took of me doing it!! Maybe I won´t be posting that on this blog!!
We spent the weekend with the girl who lives with our host family. She spends her weekend ministring to and feeding the homeless who live in the train station, and visiting transvetites in their homes on a Saturday. She works so hard during the week and then basically totally gives up her weekend to serve other people. It was amazing to see the way that she and her friends show God´s love to these people.
The first week at the ´Discipleship Training School´ in Ituzaingo has been pretty busy. To be honest, I didn´t enjoy it very much because I, possibly the lightest sleeper in the world, have found myself in a room with possibly the loudest snorer in the world. Combine that with having a heavy cold and light streaming in from the window onto my face, dogs barking outside, and bunk beds that creak very loudly, and you might say the environment is not exactly sleep-inducive! For the first two nights I literally watched the clock, and felt too exhausted and cold during the day to take anything in... but I´m learning to adjust and relying on the power of prayer and earplugs!!
The nice thing is that I´m the youngest person in my room. Given that since my quarter of a century birthday is approaching in 2 days´time, I´ve been feeling quite old as there are a quite a few 18-20 year olds here. So being the youngest in my room counter-acts that a bit! We are the smallest room too, with 8 of us in there. It´s pretty cramped but i´m getting used to dancing around other people! Apart from a Swiss and an American, the rest are South American, so it forces us to speak Spanish.
The lingo is coming on gradually, though I did unwittingly suggest that a couple who had just met each other get engaged yesterday, when in fact I was trying to suggest they reach a compromise about what they were discussing!!!
A typical day involves studying in the morning, and then service duties (cleaning the base etc) in the afternoon. A couple evenings a week max are free, the rest of the time there are evening workshops or language classes etc. We will also be doing practical things in the community (such as helping at an orphanage down the road) some evenings, but we kind of take it all as it comes and don´t get much warning about what we´ll be doing or when!
The workshops sound like great fun. I have chosen to do tango and folklore, and a Bible studies class. Our usual days off in the week are Sunday and Monday, though there will be weekends where we´ll be doing outreaches.
All the people here are really lovely and it´s great meeting people from all over the world.
I´m still terrified of the dogs, but at least it amuses other people when I jump a mile every time one barks. Mate I have now developed a taste for, and even like it without sugar, which most Argentians don´t find palatable.
Thankfully there are lots of fitness freaks around to keep me company ... we´ve been on one jog so far, and have an ex-military guy from Chile to lead us in our press ups and sit ups as we try to work off the huge portions of pasta!!
That´s all for now. Hopefully I´ll get the chance to update once every week or once every couple of weeks!
Hasta luego.
posted by Karen Tigar @ 11:08 PM
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