Week Four: What Exactually Am I Doing in Argentina?

So I realized the other day that I never explained what this blog is about and why I am in Argentina. I have this amazing opportunity that started August 18th which is to be a part of the ELCA’s Youth Adults in Global Missions program. I was assigned a placement in Gran Buenos Aires, Argentina where I will be able to use my majors of Spanish and Studio Art by teaching art and soccer to youth for 11 months. Five other young adults will also be serving in the Argentina/Uruguay area and will be placed with Lutheran churches that have sister congregations in the USA.

Our goal is to support and encourage these local churches and their communities in the work they are doing. I am really looking forward to this experience because I know it will be life-changing and push me to my limits. I will have the opportunity to grow and reflect on my own faith, help others grow in faith, and learn about a whole new rich culture, among many other things.

Our group will be living in various housing situations depending on the site – home stay, shared housing, apartments, or on-campus housing. I am living in an apartment on my own for the year that is near the church.

I want this blog to be a place where I can share with people at home what I am seeing, feeling, and doing. It is going to be very informal and probably a little cheesy at times. So prepare yourselves. I also hope to share with the people who cannot be here this "journey" (hence the title of the blog) that I have started. This is a journey of discoveries through: self, culture, economics, social, faith, history, language, norms, etc. I know now at the beginning of this amazing opportunity that things will be added to that list that I expected and other things that I never would have guessed. I do not know if this is too high of an expectation but I hope that this year will change me (in a good way).

Along with this blog I will be sending out a monthly newsletter that I hope will make you think (maybe, hopefully). I will also attach it to the blog :)

So for now peace and love to all my readers! Stay tuned because I am sure this will be an interesting year full of highs and lows. Hopefully I can figure out the right words to write to communicate what I am experiencing!