Tigar Travels

Missing people

2007-03-08T13:25:00.000Z

Missing someone is like waking up on a dark, bleary winter's morning, reaching for your favourite pair of warm, comforting socks, and realising that one of the pair is missing. You put on another sock and then tread through the frost of the day trying to avoiding "exposure", trying to not to reveal that underneath you are odd, mismatching, incomplete.

I forgot to mention....

2006-07-12T03:28:00.000+01:00

My other blog address is: www.aboutlife.com/ktigar
There have been many more posts on that one recently!

The new me

2006-07-12T03:20:00.000+01:00

Utterly fearless...
... even of dogs a bit bigger than the cute puppies above!

I actually cried when I said goodbye to all the dogs in Mendoza... what a difference from when I arrived and nearly cried when I saw the size of them!

Mendoza YWAM base

2006-07-12T03:17:00.000+01:00

Ah, isn't it beautiful?

My old room in Mendoza

2006-07-12T03:10:00.000+01:00

Friday friends

2006-07-12T02:54:00.000+01:00

A bit of singing on the streets!

Me with a couple of our faithful Friday friends (see entry below)

El Comedor

2006-07-12T02:44:00.000+01:00

Every Friday YWAM give out food to people living on the streets. Usually between 25-40 people turn up. This was taken last Friday - what glorious sunshine for a winter's day!

Weekend activities

2006-05-07T22:58:00.000+01:00

I only have a few minutes to write so I´ll be brief. On Friday I ended up getting sent over to help out with the Outreach team (Outreach=second two month practical phase of the Discipleship Training School) who had come from South Africa. The really cool thing is that our Outreach team met them when we were in South Africa and they were just starting their school. So having bade the farewell thinking I´d never see them again, it was a lovely surprise that they came to Argentina!

On Friday we did the El Comedor feeding programme for the homeless, which was fantastic. After they had all eaten the team taught them African songs and dances and we had a great time making a noise on the streets!

Then we headed off to a small town called Lavalle where we have been working with a church. The team have had to completely lead the service last night and two today (one is about to start hence my lack of time). My role has been to help with translation and I´ve had to translate people´s testimonies and things INTO Spanish!! I think by the grace of God people were able to understand despite my grammatical errors.

Tomorrow we are off to the desert first thing so my next internet connection time will be at the weekend.

Bye for now!

Summary and Santiago

2006-05-03T23:32:00.000+01:00

I´ve just got back to Mendoza and am taking advantage of internet at the airport to do a quick blog entry since I´m going back to restricted access.

The conference was great fun. A quick debrief: There were over 350 delegates from different countries all over Latin America and spanning the range of denominations. Our team worked flat out (so did the host team) but it was so worth it. I was hopping round doing slides for the talk one minute, translating filmed interviews the next (not sure how good a job I did of that one!), manning the resources desk, and just generally doing anything else that came up. By the end, the delegates seemed to be really excited about the course (having come along knowing very little) and they had enjoyed themselves, which is great.

It was funny to me to see HTB´s immaculate punctuality, efficiency, order and structure meet Peru´s laidback-ness. It wasn´t unusual for people we were meant to be meeting to go off shopping just minutes before we were due to start, or for pre-arranged taxis not to turn up! Needless to say we spent a lot of time waiting but it´s all part of the cross-cultural experience.I loved being back with some of my old colleagues, too, and meeting lovely new ones - a very unexpected surprise in the middle of the year.

I woke up at 3am this morning to get to Santiago, expecting that I would spend the day waiting in the airport for the 5pm flight to Mendoza... but at the airport they let me loose so I had a couple of hours walking round Santiago city centre -- what a bonus!! It´s great, really really hectic (as much so as central London) but with magnificent buildings.

Now I am going to go and collapse in bed....

Till next time!

2006-05-01T00:41:00.000+01:00

My fantastic team on the Niko survival camp in the mountains a couple of weeks ago. Below you´ll see us trekking through snow...

2006-05-01T00:38:00.000+01:00

2006-05-01T00:31:00.000+01:00

I´m uploading Lima photos but taking advantage of having found a computer that lets me upload to show you a bit of the desert... the first photo shows their system for extracting water... pretty cool.

2006-05-01T00:25:00.000+01:00

Snapshots from a Peruvian festival we went to last night, ´Brisas de Titicata´- it was a colourful display of folklore dances, tremendous!

2006-05-01T00:21:00.000+01:00

This wasn´t taken in Lima but it´s proof for all those sceptics who have their doubts about my newfound love for dogs!

2006-05-01T00:17:00.000+01:00

The famous Peruvian INCA KOLA... this drink rivals Irn Bru!

2006-05-01T00:15:00.000+01:00

2006-05-01T00:10:00.000+01:00

A glimpse of Lima from our mini-bus

Alpha Conference snaps!

2006-04-30T23:42:00.000+01:00

Conference

2006-04-29T05:16:00.000+01:00

Just time for a quick blog to say that today has been AWESOME. We have had the first day of the conference and amazingly only finished one hour late though running on Latin time. The talks have been fantastic and we´ve met great people. Hardly anyone at the conference has run Alpha before and it is exciting to be at the brink of something new, which could really take off with the Latin passion and enthusiasm... Early start tomorrow so I`m going to retire.

Lima - first day

2006-04-28T03:56:00.000+01:00

Our first day in Lima has been terrific. This is quite a city. Very big, sprawled out it seems and quite run down, but I love it! I think I´ve become used to quite a few things, such as chaotic driving and complete disregard for lanes, which are surprising my companions who´ve just flown in from England.

Today we went to visit a maximum security prison called Castro Castro. It was pretty grim but fascinating to see that they had a whole variety of workshops for the inmates, such as ceramics, art, literature, language classes and produce a lot of high quality products which they sell. They don´t yet run Alpha but are planning to after the conference. We could not believe that one of the inmates had made each of our team a mug with the Alpha logo painted on it and our names printed on the other side. I will treasure it!

It is so wonderful to see another South American city and I´m pleased to discover that I can still understand the Peruvian accent, although the pronounciation of a few words confuses me! It is also brilliant to be reunited with some of my old colleagues from Alpha. Tomorrow is the first day of the conference... I can´t wait.

For now I´m off to bed, so goodnight!

From one extreme to the other

2006-04-22T17:20:00.000+01:00

Hello!
The last couple of weeks have taken me to extremes... from a survival camp in snow-capped mountains to the heat of the desert. As a result I now have dirt ingrained in my fingers that I can´t seem to wash out!! The camp, Niko, was intense but lots of fun. When I got to the end I exprencienced the same sensation as when I crossed the finish line of the London marathon a couple of years ago... I was just glad that I had survived and was still alive. I can´t say much about it because the way it runs depends upon people who´ve been on it keeping it a secret so the next lot have the same experience.

Suffice it to say that it involved lots of walking, not too much sleeping, and freezing cold conditions. I had no choice but to toughen up quite a lot and found myself doing things I never imagined I would or could! The whole thing was run in Spanish, which was fine except for the odd moment when urgent instructions were yelled out at top speed shortly after I´d woken up, and my brain was not quite alert enough to figure out why people were running around frantically in all directions!

We got back in the evening on Easter Sunday, I had a day of serving at the base on Monday, and then at 10 minutes notice the following day packed my bags (of mainly dirty clothes) to head off to the desert. We went round visiting families and talking to people, encouraging them, and drinking plentiful amounts of the obligatory mate in every house. It was a fantastic experience, seeing how people live there. They are very isolated, and live very simply... eating the animals they breed and drinking water which they haul from the ground... it made me realise how much we complicate life!

Nevertheless I must admit I´m glad to be back in the city today. Next week I´m off to Peru for the first-ever Alpha conference in Latin America. I´m extremely excited about it and will be working there as a volunteer.

Please keep in touch... will post again as soon as I can!

My new home

2006-04-08T16:39:00.000+01:00

Hola todos!

It has been an interesting couple of weeks, getting adjusted to the new surroundings, but I have now found my bearings, made friends (even with the dogs, can you belive it? -- For the first time in literally years I am experiencing fond feelings for dogs!!), and found out more of the specifics of my role here. I´m glad to report that despite all the warnings from the Buenos Aires folk about how cold it would be here, it has been shorts and t-shirt weather pretty much every day - though I don´t know how much longer it will last.

So, my role involves helping with all the mercy ministries (outreach to the community that live in the desert, work with Aids patients, and a feeding programme for the homeless), as well as being on a ´mini-DTS´ team, where we will take teachings and dramas that we learnt during the DTS to other churches, schools etc in Mendoza and to other provinces. This will probably happen about once a month. They also run sports camps for the community here every so often, and hopefully I´ll be helping on those too. Next week (Weds up till Easter) I´ll be participating in some kind of extreme camp in the mountains, which should be challenging but great fun.

Other very exciting news is that this weekend I´m moving out of our underground rather cramped basement into a tiny wee trailer, which I´ll be sharing with just one other girl. It will be fun to have a mini-caravan as my home for the next little while!

I´ve had the chance to explore a bit of the city at the weekends, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The streets are all lined with trees and there are four lovely plazas. On a Saturday one of the plazas is filled with different live acts and performers, and has a great atmosphere. To my joy there are coffee shops on nearly every corner!

So, I will wish you a HAPPY EASTER now in case I don´t get to the internet beforehand. Eat lots of Cadbury´s chocolate on my behalf! Photos may follow, with any luck....

Mendoza

2006-03-25T16:53:00.000Z

I arrived in Mendoza yesterday, shattered after a sleepless overnight bus ride but happy to be in a beautiful place surrounded by mountains. I was really sad to say goodbye to my friends Buenos Aires, and the reality of my new home for the next few months only hit me when I arrived at the base here and realised how different it is.

The base is in the country, and in terms of open outdoor space it is massive, in terms of building space very small (back to sharing a room with 8 others again... have already banged my head a few times on the bottom bunk bed!) We are a 45 minute bus ride from the city and buses come about once an hour! There are horses, pigs, and, to my great delight and joy, plenty more dogs (they keep getting bigger and better). I felt like such a city girl as I approached the pigs with great suspicion!!

When I arrived it was FREEZING, even with two jumpers and a jacket on, but today it´s really warm. I´ve arrived for the weekend so am now in the city (which is beautiful), getting my bearings, and next week begins training/orientation, so by next weekend I´ll be able to post a clear idea of what my work here for the next few months will be.

There is no internet at the base, so I will be limited to once a week posts and replies to emails! Hasta next week...

To the end of the world and back

2006-03-17T20:48:00.000Z

First of all a quick update on where I´ve been... after the DTS I spent a couple of weeks exploring the south of Argentina. The DTS is fairly intense so they recommend you take a bit of time out before the next stage. It was a great time, 5 of us were travelling together, mainly on buses for many many hours, and it was wonderful to get to see some more of this country.

I have just completed a week of staff training here back in Buenos Aires and am now set to head northwest to Mendoza, where I´m likely to be helping out with various things, but the main one is "El Projimo", which is a ministry for children with AIDS. (Website: http://www.jucummendoza.com.ar/ - I´m afraid it´s in Spanish).

Here is a post I started writing whilst away, but I got zoned out of computer land before having time to press ´post´´...

We have spent a HUGE amount of hours on buses so far... I´ve lost count of how many. This is a very, very big country, we have realised! But the buses are good and reclining seats make it easier to sleep over night. Our first stop from Buenos Aires (after tearful goodbyes to many fellow students from the school who are heading back to their own countries) was Puerto Madyrn. It is a small, sleepy little town on the coast, and is stunningly beautiful. We saw sea lions but have yet to spot penguins, or penguinos. Rather ambitiously, we took off on a 17km bike ride the other day, thinking we could do it in the 3 hours we had, whilst doing a bit of penguin spotting on the way, but the gravely, stoney, rough roads, and the bikes with ínteresting´ gears and chains that fell off every half an hour soon put paid to that (notice I haven´t mentioned anything about our levels of fitness getting in the way of the goal!) idea! At least it was exercise...

We arrived in to El Calafate today and after 24 hours on a bus are shattered, but looking forward to a day or two here before heading to Ushuaia, the southern most permanently inhabited tip of the world. It´s getting colder and colder the further south we go, but it´s stunningly beautiful, surrounded by mountains and blue lakes...

Ushuaia turned out to be great, though the standard of the buses went downhill the further south we went, so that by the end we found ourselves on a 17-hour journey on a fairly small and cramped bus! But it´s all part of the experience and the places we saw made the journeys worthwhile...

Please forgive my recent lack of correspondence and news of late. Hopefully photos will follow on soon.

Still alive

2006-03-17T00:55:00.000Z

Just a quick post to say I am still alive and well although I haven´t been able to enter blog world for a while. Tomorrow I´m hoping to have time to write an update of what´s been going on... but in the meantime, just so you know, I´m still running away from dogs, and am now drinking more maté than coffee! Hasta mañana!

Back in Argentina

2006-02-21T00:58:00.000Z

I´m back in Argentina! The first thing that hit me on coming out of the airport was the stifling heat... I´m not complaining as I realise that the team that went to England have come back pale and pasty while we are all either burnt or brown, but I don´t know if I´ve ever been so hot in my life as right now... Mosquitos are also out in full force, I have lost count of how many bites on my leg. I just say that so that all of you who are freezing cold right now feel better!

The last week in South Africa was great. We got to go to the beach on our day off and swam in the sea and enjoyed the waves for hours.

We worked quite a lot with a church that had a feeding programme for homeless people in our last week, and visited a ´shelter´ one day which was horrific. As soon as you entered you were blasted by the smell of urine and drugs, and it was incredibly sad to talk to people and hear their stories. There were kids of 10 years old who were sniffing glue and the living conditions were just horrible. It is encouraging to hear that the church we were with have stories of many people they´ve been able to help but we were all pretty shocked by the whole experience.

Despite apartheid being officially over, we were still surprised by the extent of segregation between black and white, although it is obviously much better than it once was. There is also a massive divide between rich and poor - in our time there we were in Estates with houses unlike anything I've ever seen - huge and beautiful - as well as in squatter camps.

I've also never been in a place where your average person on the street speaks at least 3 languages (English, Afrikaans and Sotho or Zulu, for example), and it is not uncommon to meet people who speak 6 or more languages. As a result I didn't pick up too much more than the greetings in Sotho, Zulu and Afrikaans, because it was too confusing! I'm still a bit confused between languages because yesterday when someone in town spoke to me in Spanish I was so confused, staring at her and wondering why on earth she was speaking in Spanish, before I remembered that I was in Argentina!

We finish the DTS on Friday this week, and during the week I'll be deciding on the next step, so will post up the decision as soon as it's made! It is really nice to be back here and to see the rest of the students... another team have just arrived and no we are only awaiting 3 more.

Hasta luego!

Wedding Bells

2006-02-10T14:29:00.000Z

My brother is getting married!! I'm so happy and excited! Have you ever received really good news but had no one to share it with in the moment? That happened to me as I got the news by email when alone in an internet cafe and wanted to run around screaming but couldn't!! I'm going to have the nicest sister-in-law in the world and going to be a bridesmaid. Thankfully they are going to wait till I'm back in the UK to get married. Oh happy days!

Lesotho

2006-02-06T12:16:00.000Z

I have just had possibly one of the strangest weeks of my life. It turned out that I did get shipped off to Lesotho, along with another girl from my team, to give teachings to pastors in the area. Lesotho is only about 1.5 hours away from Free State Bethlehem but is another country landlocked within South Africa. It's extremely beautiful, surrounded by mountains and rich green vegetation everywhere you look. There are also horses and cows roaming around and it is very peaceful. But it's also extremely poor with a lot of people living in very humble conditions.

We are now in Durban for the last two weeks of Outreach...

Second week report!

2006-01-30T13:35:00.000Z

So the prison trip proved to be our best audience yet. Needless to say, the tango performed by two members of our group went down a treat with the inmates, who demanded an encore. They were definitely the most interactive audience during our drama, too. We do one called 'The Cross' and it starts with me getting violently beaten up, before someone comes in to take my place and get beaten up instead of me (representing Jesus), and while I was being beaten up they were all shouting in Sotho 'Stop, stop, you're going to kill her'!! We are going back to another one tomorrow.

Apart from that this week we've been to more schools, a clinic, the same townships and done various other things but a bell has just rung saying I have to get off the internet. Quite frustrating since it took me 15 mins to log on! I'll end by saying that on Sunday I had to preach in a church - can you believe it, me? And i may have to go to Lesotho next week (another country)to give teachings with another girl on the team. All a bit crazy but fun! Better go!

Our first week in Bethlehem

2006-01-23T11:30:00.000Z

This week has been great and very varied... we've been to a school, an orphanage, a very poor township, a single mother's clinic, and done more construction work. We've performed dramas and dances - tango and folklore (traditional Argentinian) and given testimonies. There has been another YWAM team from Los Angeles here so we've been doing quite a few things with them, but they are leaving tonight.

In one of the townships I ended up playing rugby with about 50 little kids. I tried to explain the rules of touch rugby hoping we could have an orderly match, but before I knew it there were piles of kids all over the place engaged in scrums with or without a ball!! Lack of the Sotho language meant we had to resort to other less violent games!

The little kids here are the cutest children I've seen in my life, and I'm amazed by how well they can all dance and sing. I've no hope of ever dancing as well as even the 2-year olds. Tomorrow we are off to prison, so hope to be able to report on that in my next entry! Having an awesome time... and the fact that they have Cadbury's chocolate here is helping ease the pangs of homesickness!!
Sorry this is so brief, we only get to come into town once a week and there is one computer that works with internet, which about 20 of us fight over! Also very slow connection even when you do get on!)

South Africa!

2006-01-12T11:25:00.000Z

Yay! I'm finally on internet... I have been dreaming about this moment and having computer-withdrawal systems! South Africa is awesome. We've been in a place called Pretoria (near JHB) for the past 2 weeks and will be leaving for Bethlehem tomorrow. The work we've been doing here is with an organisation called Pop-Up (People Upliftment Development project), which has a number of ministries with all sorts of people from children to drug addicts, but their aim is to give hope to people who have no hope. We have been helping them out at their HQ, getting stuck into cleaning, painting, sanding walls, organising extremely dusty storerooms, packing food boxes for distribution etc.

Surprisingly enough it's been raining and storming here most of the week and is set to continue till Sunday, though this is a good thing as there has been a severe lack of rain for the past 4 months (ie. none, I think.)

Our accommodation and food are brilliant. An Arts Ministry base have let us stay with them for free and we get 3 massive meals a day each for the equivalent of about 3 pounds. Considering that we arrived preparing to really slum it, we have been pleasantly surprised!! I feel like I'm part of Fame Academy too while we're at the base, because we are surrounded by 80 all-singing, all-dancing students. I'm desperate to join in one of their dance classes but know I couldn't quite keep up with them.

The black people we've met here are amazing as they all speak about 6 languages. South Africa itself has 11 official languages, so I'm just trying to decide which one to invest my energy in learning!

As a team we have become like a little family and haven't yet killed each other yet despite spending all day, every day together! There's still 6 weeks to go...

So, the next update will be from Behtlehem... hasta luego!

Last Latin entry...(for a while)

2005-12-26T19:49:00.000Z

Christmas here was awesome! Very different, as predicted. The party began on the 24th and very much resembled a New Year´s event in the UK, with the complete absence of any kind of firework regulations. They were set off about 2 metres away from us and then sparks would go flying around in all directions, causing general hysteria. I spent a fair bit of time hiding for shelter screaming "It´s Christmas and we´re all going to die." It was all great fun though, especially making a meek attempt to keep up with the Latins´ salsa dancing. We got to bed in the wee hours of the morning and got up pretty late the next day. Christmas itself was spent lounging around in the sun - which is definitely a first! I also more or less got my packing done for South Africa, which feels good. Any fears of lack of food were allievated as there were plenty of leftovers from our Christmas dinner the night before (which was a deliciously odd combo of chicken, tuna pizza, potato, and cookies and cake!)

Funny how when you are far from home at Christmas you suddenly get the urge to watch the Queen´s speech. Well, I´ll speak for myself, anyway. I borrowed someone´s computer and watched it in the morning and it brought about a reassuring connection with home.

From here on out it is going to be full-on getting ready to leave. Tomorrow will be our last full day at the base. Internet use looks likely to be more limited than it has been here, so will update the blog when I get the chance to! See you in Africa!

Happy Christmas!

2005-12-24T19:43:00.000Z

Happy Christmas everyone (and Happy Birthday Mum!)

Christmas this year will be slightly different as it starts with a party at 9pm, and apparently people dance all night and sleep through tomorrow... We were casually told that after tonight we wouldn´t be getting any food here over the next three days so Christmas turkey tomorrow is out and Empanadas are in!! It was a bit of a surprise to us Westerners, but apparently Christmas day celebrations aren´t the same here.

Apart from that we have finished the theory part of the school now and are getting ready for Outreach. The school ended on such a high note with the National Director of YWAM South Africa teaching us all week on ´God´s Heart for the Nations´. He was one of the funniest and most inspiring people I´ve ever met, and spoke a lot on forgiveness - which he as a black South African growing up under apartheid has had to exercise a lot of.

It´s pretty sad realising that the people who´ve been my family here for the past 3 months are all going to be parting ways in a few days´ time for 2 months. I kind of want to capture time in a bubble but change always gets in the way.

Having said that, we can hardly wait to get on the plane to South Africa. Due to different reasons, only 6 of us are now going... so a revised picture of the team will hopefully appear before I go. We are going to be spending the first 2 weeks in Pretoria near JHB, then off to Bethlehem and then Durban.

Hope you like the pictures below, finally managed to find a computer that would let me post some!

I hope you all have an AWESOME Christmas. Goes without saying that I miss you!

Photos

2005-12-18T15:02:00.000Z

Ale and Laura rocking out to some of Alejandro´s Chilean tunes

More photos

2005-12-18T14:49:00.000Z

More mate...

Andrea, Adan and Mate

2005-12-12T21:10:00.000Z

How will I live without Mate in Sud Afrika? We sip this throughout the lectures and the afternoon and the evening...

Bienvenido a Uruguay

2005-12-12T21:08:00.000Z

A glimpse of Uruguay

2005-12-12T21:06:00.000Z

At our 'Cena de Amor'

2005-12-12T20:58:00.000Z

Every month we have a 'Cena de Amor' or 'Love Feast' (very Latino-language) for the students on Sat night. This was the first one, where we glammed it up. The second one was beach-themed, where flip flops were the order of the day.

A place called Moron - seriously!

2005-12-12T20:54:00.000Z

The name of this place might appeal to some...

Our YWAM base

2005-12-12T20:52:00.000Z

Buenos Aires Pink House

2005-12-12T20:51:00.000Z

Buenos Aires

2005-12-12T20:48:00.000Z

The Street Where I live

2005-12-12T20:46:00.000Z

Return of the blog

2005-12-12T14:22:00.000Z

This blog has been so sadly neglected for so long that I don´t know what to write any more!

I´m currently in a shopping mall on my day off and thus am in a place where there are Christmas decorations and even the odd Christmas song playing out... my first taste of Christmas approaching! It´s quite refreshing to be away from the usual hype and commercialism surrounding Christmas, and I´m certainly not complaining about the fact that it´s T-shirt weather! At the same time, though, I do miss the aura and build-up to Christmas...

My mission to get photos on this blog continues, and continues to fail. One day, I´ll find a way...

Preparations for South Africa continue, only 3 weeks to go now...about to get zoned out so will write more soon.

Outreach destination

2005-11-16T01:21:00.000Z

So, you can all breathe a sigh of relief... I´m not coming back to England just yet!!

We found out our Outreach destinations today and I´m in a team that´s off to South Africa. All we know now is the country and who is in the team - details on what we´ll be doing are to follow. I´m so excited and have been smiling all day!

At the moment we´re a team of 5 girls, 4 guys (with possibly a female leader to be added to the group), and between us we represent six countries... Britain, Bolivia, Columbia, Chicago, Argentina, Canada. Only 3 of us are native English speakers so there´ll still be a necessity to keep speaking Spanish. Ages range from 18 to about 40 so there´s a good diversity of ages too.

Will post up more details on the project as they come in!

Weekend away

2005-11-07T13:55:00.000Z

Hola amigos,

We got back yesterday from our ´mini-outreach´ weekend. All the students split into groups of 8 and went off to different places around Buenos Aires for the weekend. While some groups had to perform about 3 dramas, dance choreographies, do street evangelism and lead the Sunday service at the church where they were staying (including doing the preaching), our group were given a slightly less packed schedule, which mostly involved being with kids! However, the church had asked for someone to teach the children on Sunday morning and to my dismay the leaders put me forward for the task! However, thanks to God despite my nerves and hardly any time to prepare it seemed to go well and we had a lot of fun.

Now that we´re back, we are enjoying our free day off but getting ready for 400 people to descend on our base here as we are hosting the National YWAM Argentina Conference, so we´ll be off our regular classes and activities this week. I can´t quite imagine where they will all fit... I´ll be moving rooms to the younger, larger, colder and nosier girls room from the week (but I don´t mind as I think there are less snorers!). We´ve all been assured that the week is going to be absolutely hectic but great, but apart from that don´t really know what to expect. I think my after-lunch kitchen clear up duties are going to step up a gear... from washing up for about 50 to washing up for 450!!

Still no news on Outreach locations... and no news on when we´ll know either! Hopefully soon...

I´m going to have another go at posting photos... let´s see what happens...

Weather report

2005-10-31T14:33:00.000Z

So, it was a big mistake in my last entry to talk about how sunny and hot it was, as the weather swiftly took a nose dive and we have shivered our way through the week! The wet and cold certainly intensifies the experience of living in community - in our room there are eight of us constantly tripping over each other. I have got so used to having no personal space whatsoever that I don´t know what I would do now with a quiet room to myself. I also seem to becoming more Latino by the day and seem quite unable to spend any amount of time on my own before having to sniff out where the crowd are!

The exciting news is that we now know our 6 possible outreach locations. They are: England (!!), South Africa, India, Chile, Bariloche (Argentina) and Cordoba (Argentina). We had to pray and fast a couple of weeks ago about where in the world we thought God wanted us to go before the Outreach locations were decided on. We are now continuing to pray and then will tell our leaders tomorrow morning... there will be about 12 people on each team, so watch out, I may be back sooner than you thought!!

I´m getting zoned out of my time here once again and have tried once again to post photos but it´s not working!

Love hearing from you all and sorry again for the lack of time to send personal emails.

Ciao!

Update!

2005-10-23T16:37:00.000+01:00

Time here is flying by and it is harder than I think to find time to get online and send emails! My last time online I had planned to post up lots more photos but it takes ages so only one made it onto the blog!

Am still having a great time out here, learning heaps, coping with the dogs, eating lots of dulce de leche, and enjoying the sunshine!

George Verwer, head of a missionary sending organisation called Operation Mobilisation, came to speak to us last week - or the week before... It was not a planned visit and was a huge privilege to have him speak to us... he was awesome -- very inspiring and challenging and had so much energy for his age!

Then last week we mainly had teaching on worldview and culture. At the beginning of the week we did an exercise where the Latinos had to write down three things that came to their mind when they thought of Westerners and vice versa. The Latins all had comments like -- cold, structured, not good dancers, closed, don´t share, while we´d put down that they were all warm, open, friendly and good dancers!! It actually caused quite a lot of offence at first but has resulted in much more unity and it was very eye-opening to see how we are perceived!!!

This week has been a fairly intense week of teaching on Deliverance/Liberation. It´s quite hard to summarise and put into words what we´ve learnt and seen - but let´s say it has been extremely eye-opening!

We still don´t know about Outreach locations yet (due to go in two months time) but will hopefully be hearing about that soon. The weather is getting hotter and hotter as we enter summer, and those amongst us used to colder cultures are visibly starting to wilt! I think it won´t be long till we are jumping into the small pool here every break time to cool off.

Generally feeling very happy, at home and settled here! Will do my best to update a big more regularly and to email too!

Photos! - Host family

2005-10-12T01:21:00.000+01:00

My lovely host family in Week 1 of my stay in Buenos Aires (we stayed with the Ale and Laura for a week to get a feel for Argentinian life before heading to the YWAM base).

Quarter of a century

2005-10-06T00:19:00.000+01:00

I´ve had such a cool birthday!! The day started with everyone on the base here singing happy birthday (the Spanish version is very funky, makes our version sound super-naff) and praying for me, and then throughout the day people have been so sweet and given me chocolate (yes, my reputation as a chocolate freak has already spread).
I have been feeling very joyful the whole day, even while cleaning the loos in the afternoon (which were flooded with water and mud - nice!) :) Then in the afternoon meeting they presented me with a big hand-made signed card and sang again and prayed again!! Have also never had so many hugs in one day! Feels very strange to feel at home and surrounded by friends even when I´ve only known people for 2 weeks.
The good news too is that I´ve now adapted to the snoring and light in the room, though I am still flying into a mild panic every time a dog barks (actually they growl here!!) A bunch of us went out for a run in our afternoon break today, slightly pacier than our last run, so I feel a bit more justified in eating the vast amounts of chocolate.
Thanks for all your birthday greetings, miss you all very much!

First 2 weeks

2005-10-03T23:08:00.000+01:00

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.

The weekend...

2005-09-07T19:39:00.000+01:00

On Sunday, with less than two weeks before I leave, I discovered that I live fairly near an area of outstanding beauty - that is, Richmond Park. It was such a glorious day that all 'tasks' got thrown aside and I hopped on my bike and couldn't stop cycling. And I discovered that there's loads of people cycling round the park, and running round it, and walking - it's a little community of exercisers - my idea of heaven!! Why is that it takes till we leave somewhere to start appreciating what is on our doorstep?

Saturday night I had a little combined (premature) birthday and farewell do in London - it was so much fun to have lots of people from different walks of life all in one room, and my bruv (scroll down to see Dave and his hat) and his mate played music in the little section they'd set aside for us. They did a great job! Hopefully I'll be able to post one or two pics of the night up soon.

Second last day at work today...

Pointless Nostalgic

2005-08-30T22:27:00.000+01:00

I was reflecting on the Tube home today (in the rare sedate moments!) that memories have such power and influence. They must be a good thing, because what would we be without memories? And yet it seems sometimes they are frustratingly inescapable. They can pop into your head so randomly and be hard to shake off. I hadn't come across this Jamie Callum song until tonight, but it sums it up perfectly:

Aint thinking about love today, lost in the sunlight walking down memory lane
Aint thinking about you today, people from the past that I knew were slowly slipping away
Seems so long ago, since we were carefree
Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic - that's me

Thoughts running 'round my head today
Times from the past popping up, where they're from I don't know
Reminiscing my cares away
Wishing I could go back and change the points that were low
Till I realize that life's meant to be
Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic - that's me

He comments on nostalgia in the album cover:
Nostalgia takes hold dishing out its rose-coloured glasses to watch the show that is past as you remember it. This is the show I love to watch, pointlessly, again and again.

3 weeks to go

2005-08-26T00:44:00.000+01:00

It's only 3 weeks till I'm off. Feels quite surreal. I can't quite picture Argentina or what it'll be like, exactly. Everything here seems fairly final. Final phone calls to friends, final goodbye to my bro and Lyndsey (tomorrow!), final clear out of my room. Only 2 more weeks at work is so hard to believe. And I've just remembered that tomorrow morning I have my final injection (which means I better get to bed....)

Karaoke crisis

2005-08-25T00:10:00.000+01:00

Have you ever been forced to do karaoke against your will? Then you will know how I felt tonight singing 'Wannabe' with four others who clearly didn't wannabe on a Wednesday night in my living room in front of all our parents either. The song seemed to go on forever and before long the colour of my face matched my red shirt and my glass of Rose.

I love the idea of karaoke. I even quite like listening to others. But as soon as a microphone is thrust in my hand I panic. Of course, karaoke without an audience is a different matter altogether. You can go wild, dance, sing out of tune, pretend you are a rockstar - without the reality check of seeing your audience clutching their ears and begging for mercy.

I will never forget an ex-boyfriend's initiation into my family. On one of his first - if not his first - visit to my family home, the karaoke machine came out and he was invited to sing. Unfortunately he picked the longest song on offer - 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'. You would have thought the family would have had mercy and erupted into a round of applause halfway through or something - but no, he was forced to sing right to the very end. Needless to say, after that effort he was accepted into the family forevermore.

I don't quite know what the fascination is with my family and karaoke, but I do know that it's one thing I won't miss in Argentina! Not even at Christmas... well, at least I'm saying that now.

2005-08-24T00:49:00.000+01:00

Me and Carola (and the back of Hannah's head) at Al's BBQ... giggling - for a change!!

Dancing in the Streets

2005-08-24T00:25:00.000+01:00

Tonight I saw 'Dancing in the Streets' - a Motown musical. "If you came here to see the 'Woman in White', you are going to be sorely disappointed... there ain't a single white woman in this show." Great line. Shame the narrator used his best gag first. It was downhill from there.

The glamorous female singers as the Supremes and others were the highlight, but I wouldn't have cast a single one of the male performers. One actually seemed to go to sleep during a dancing routine. They were all insanely annoying, smug looking, and highly unwatchable. Stevie Wonder was, frankly, disturbing.

There was no story line holding the musical together (not even a really naff one as in Mamma Mia), and if you're not going to have a story line, the performance needs to be exceptional. Otherwise you are neither at a musical, nor at a concert - but a mediocre halfway house that qualifies as neither.

I thought it might warm up in the second half but my yawning only increased. About halfway through, they predictably enticed us on to our reluctant feet. So it looked like we were all having a good time. But really, there's something about having to be cajouled that isn't quite the same as spontaneously jumping to your feet of your own volition to dance with unbridled enthusiasm.

The most enthusiastic dancers in the audience were definitely the middle-aged women, and watching them go for it was possibly the most entertaining part of the evening. Especially the voluptuous woman a few seats down from me who was the first out of her seat and had clearly taken to heart that saying 'dance as if nobody's watching'. I was just so glad that she wasn't my mother.

So the curtain went down - and came up again. And suddenly the singing and dancing became brilliant. If only it had been like that for more than all of the final 10 minutes.

Hannah

2005-08-24T00:20:00.000+01:00

Lovely pic of Hannah (with me and Carola in the background).

Memories

2005-08-18T21:02:00.000+01:00

A kind friend googled me today and emailed these photos that he found online! Don't you just love that blazer?

The sport that rules

2005-08-18T20:59:00.000+01:00

Touch rubgy - the love of my life. This girls team was actually the best in the world!

Elvis the King

2005-08-16T23:32:00.000+01:00

Elvis aka Ben, Jenny's fiance!
This photo reminded me that I watched footage of Elvis last night, spurred on by my mate who recently saw the DVD and is now a big fan. I thought she had lost the plot a bit, going on about Elvis in this day and age... but it turns out he is AMAZING!
I feel like I've just discovered this cult personality, whose talent, for me, up till now has been clouded by his fame, reputation and impersonators. Encountering the real Elvis is something else altogether. Seeing him perform has made me feel ashamed I ever religiously watched Pop Idol or bought the Hear'say CD - and it has taken quite something for me to turn my pride in those things to shame! Are there any other Elvis fans out there or have I lost the plot?

That hat

2005-08-16T23:27:00.000+01:00

My little bruv Dave. He wore that hat for about a year. Honestly. He was even spotted coming out of the shower still wearing it. He's in Thailand now, successfully winding up the family by saying he's going to get a 'tiger' tatoo.

Hammersmith

2005-08-16T23:21:00.000+01:00

Mike, me, Jamie... a night out that ended up with a Blair-Witch-Project-like walk around Hammersmith till the early hours. These guys are not the best to go out walking with if you are at all jumpy! The fact that I'm off to Argentina with YWAM is largely due to Jamie, in whose footsteps I'll be following. And being from Argentina himself, Mike also played a big part in persuading me to go... maybe they just wanted rid of me?

Journo Joe

2005-08-16T23:16:00.000+01:00

My mate Jo the Journalist. Not only can he write, he can sing too - as the photo proves... (just as well no video clips were taken!) His website is wicked: hambahamba.co.uk

Starry-eyed

2005-08-16T23:09:00.000+01:00

Some friends I will miss, pictured here after a 'Stars in Your Eyes' evening (except, on reflection, I'm the only one visibly in costume!). Of course there are lots more friend I'll miss, but I don't have digital pics of them all!

Ouch!!

2005-08-16T22:29:00.000+01:00

I would just like to advise anyone who is thinking of having a filling in their teeth done without an anaesthetic.... DON'T!!
It is absolute agony.
Especially if the hole is much deeper than the dentist thought.
My trip to the dentist this evening didn't get off to the best of starts. First of all I couldn't find them because they had relocated (not due to my usual direction dyslexia, I hasten to add), then they kept me waiting for ages, then the patient in front of me walks out of the dentist clutching her mouth and moaning 'she was so cruel to me today....'
That's when I started to feel nervous.
The dentist reassured me that if the pain got too much, just raise a hand... I raised a hand, and added in a few squeals to the bargain, all to no avail.
I have vowed to never again drink fizzy drinks, eat sweets and to floss every day -- I never ever ever want to have another filling again!! And definitely not on the NHS!

Grampa Tigar

2005-08-14T22:36:00.000+01:00

Me with my Grampa Tigar at my parents' silver wedding party. Dad in the background!Do I always look that moody?

Sing it in the valleys...

2005-08-14T22:03:00.000+01:00

My colleagues from the Web Department where I used to work, 'singing it in the valleys'!

Argentina... one month to go!

2005-08-14T20:45:00.000+01:00

It's almost exactly a month till I leave for Buenos Aires to take part in a Discipleship Training School with a charity called Youth With a Mission (http://www.jucum.com.ar/jucum/_index.htm).
So I'm hoping to use this blog to chronicle a bit of my experience out there and in the meanwhile to publish random thoughts, and a few photos to remind me of home.

Pastorate rugby tournament

2005-08-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

We got through to the finals but were pipped to the post! Amazing how competitive 'friendly' matches can get!!

Alpha UK Team

2005-08-05T21:55:00.000+01:00

My lovely colleagues - exhausted after hosting our Strategy Day in February.