Week 11: Spring Concert!

I was lucky enough to be invited to my country coordinator's children's spring concert this past weekend.  I had a great time getting to see the kids preform and enjoy themselves.  It was also interesting to see how a private bilingual school operates in Argentina. 

In Argentina it is very common to find bilingual or even trilingual schools.  In the community that I live in there are at least three schools close to me that include German, English, and Spanish in their academic programs.  The Argentine public schools only have half days of school due to lack of resources such as funding, teachers, etc.  Due to this there are many private schools and they are mostly bilingual; having classes all in Spanish in the morning and the afternoon classes all in English.

As a potential future parent I would love to be able to find so many bilingual schools around.  To me, at least where I live, it is not common to find private bilingual schools.  Most of the middle to upper class citizens can speak more than one language in Argentina.  My coordinator's kids can speak flawless Spanish and at the same time are able to maintain perfect English.  It is interesting to note some of the differences between Argentine and American education systems.  I could go a lot deeper into discussion of the positives and negatives of both systems but I will just leave you with some cute pictures of the concert instead :)

The concert's theme was "save the environment."  Each class had special costumes relating to topics such as: air pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution, and danced a coordinated dance they planned.   

Emily is in the purple, the girls in her class were dressed up as a rainbow.

Matt was part of a pollution clean up crew of the ocean as his costume

Emily dancing her part

 
 

Week 10: Church Weekend Conference and San Telmo

This past weekend I spent the whole weekend at a conference of the IELU. The main idea of the conference was to discuss service that is happening in the church, define some abstract aspects of what service means within the church, and how we can continue to include it in our church's plans for the future.

It was a fun weekend because it was nice to have a change from the normal schedule and I got to see 4 of the other 5 volunteers (3 of which I have not seen since September orientation). People can from all over for this weekend event. Some traveled over 18 hours by bus.

Opening worship...washing of the feet. We discussed this theme/idea throughout the conference and how it relates to service.

During the seminar

Many churches gave presentations on what they are doing that involves service in their congregations.


My discussion group

After the seminar, Emily (other volunteer that lives near me) came to my apartment and we traveled into the center on Monday to visit the barrio of San Telmo. It is a very old neighborhood that still has many of the fancy Gothic-style houses from the late 1800s. It is now know for its cute antique shops and a antique fair on Sundays.

Emily enjoying our walk around the barrio


One of the cool buildings


One of the streets with rain clouds forming in the sky

Close up of building facade

Week 10: Church Celebration with Tango and Belly Dancers

I had the opportunity to celebrate another semi-nearby Lutheran Church's 50th anniversary on Sunday.  This is a larger church than the one that I am working with and it was interesting to see how a bigger Lutheran church functions in Argentina.  

The Lutheran Church in Argentina (United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina and Uruguay (IELU)) is small compared to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) (Main church my home church is a part of) in the US so it feels like a very close group.  The IELU is connected to and is a sister church to the ELCA.  Around Buenos Aires there are only about 2 handfuls of Lutheran churches connected with the IELU so I am getting to know some of the main people involved with the church. 

I guess one interesting thing that has been happening to me while in Argentina is that no one really explains things to me.  This trip to the other church is a great example of this.  The only thing I knew going into this little excursion was that we were going to a church's 50th anniversary celebration of its existence that included lunch.  I had no idea how we were traveling there, how long the trip would take, what time anything was happening, if I needed to pay for my meal or what the meal even was.  In the past I would have been trying to find out all the answers to these questions but now I have learned to just go with it.  I find the little surprises to be fun...it makes it more of an adventure.  So we ended up traveling by bus to a train stop to catch the train to the location of the church.  Then we walked an odd number of blocks arriving around 1 hour later at the church.  

This is Allen (president of the IELU) preaching at the celebration service

After traveling to get to the church in sweltering heat, we sat in on a very interesting service filled with people and music.  There was live music consisting of a guitar, an accordion, drums, among other things (I was in the back and could not see the musicians) that I really enjoyed.  The service ended up lasting from 11am to 1:30pm...I have never been in a service that long it was crazy!  I came with youth from my church and they we SO antsy (and maybe I was a bit too...it was really warm and difficult to hear). 

During the service

Tango dancers at the celebration lunch

So after the LONG but enjoyable service everyone flocked to the gym of the church's school (or what I assumed was their school?).  It seemed to me that a lot of people appeared out of thin air and it was sort of a struggle to find a table.  After establishing "our" table we decided that we needed to figure out how to get our food.  As the youth hung out at our table we went to figure out how to get tickets and eventually our food.  

Turned out that we had to wait in this INSANELY long line to get tickets.  Then once we got the tickets we had to wait in an equally as insanely long line.  Also we found out that we had to rent eating utensils and pay extra for drinks.  It was SO hot in the gym and I was starving so waiting in the lines was a difficult task but in the end we did it and had some delicious chicken and empanadas with veggies.  Turned out that they had some interesting entertainment planned.

Band of young boys (I know at least one of them is a member at the church that was celebrating its anniversary) to warm up the crowd. 

Our table

Fake cakes for decorations (I wished they would have been real...I love cake)

Traditional Argentine Dance and after this there were belly dancers but I did not get a good picture of them (sorry)

After the celebration we decided to treat the kids to ice cream because it was so hot.  We went to a local ice cream shop and shared a huge tub of ice cream.  Man was it good! 

Enjoying our ice cream before heading home

A local dog also enjoying ice cream :)

Week Nine: Visit to Tigre

On Monday November 1st, Emily (other volunteer) and I got to travel to Tigre a city about one hour North of the city and we had quit an adventure!  Tigre is a delta region full of mazes of lush green islands separated by rivers and streams.  The area has an interesting feel to it.  To me, it felt like a mixture between the Florida everglades and a tropical jungle.  It has become a place where many Buenos Aires citizens escape to during the summer.  We took the train and then got tickets to take a boat to one of the many little islands.  We ended up going to the island of Tres Bocas.

So basically we had no idea where we were going when we got to the Island.  When we got off the boat a nice lady was standing there and she handed us a map of the island with a trail that circled the island.  She made it sound like it was a small trail that would not take a long time to complete.  Emily and I decided that we would walk around this path and then return to the city center.  Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into as you will see.

Old ships we passed on our boat trip to Tres Bocas

Man was the water brown!

The start of the path on the island, not many people were around.

We found this cute chapel and decided to eat our bag lunches on its porch

Saw lots of little streams like this one

This is the type of boat we traveled on

Example of one of the nice summer homes on the island that we passed on our path.

This is where the path started to get interesting.  We saw that the path turned into a nature trail of sorts and we were excited to see some nature.

This part of the trail was really like a hike, which we were not expecting.  And we could tell that not many people had been on it.  It was difficult to know what way to go because there were no trail markers.  At one point we had to cross one of the little water ways without a bridge! I found some trees we could use to cross!  Man was it fun!  Here is a picture of one of the many little man-made bridges we used on the trail.

View from the trail

View from the trail

The trail :)

So after feeling lost in the woods for a while, we found our way back to the residential area.  The map was really difficult to follow and we really had no idea how to get back to the boat dock.  We had also at this point been walking for 2 hours straight (a lot longer than we thought the trail would be haha).  We continued walking and many of the locals tried to give us directions and one local told us to keep going straight and not cross the bridge.  We ended up walking for another 1/2 hour before the pathway stopped altogether.  A man there told us that we should have crossed at the bridge...so we walked back and crossed the bridge finding the boat dock just around the corner of trees.

After our long but fun day at Tigre we decided to make empanadas

They turned out well (maybe a little dry but now we know) for our first try!

Overall it was a fun day and man did we sleep well that night!

Week Eight: October Newsletter

Failure and Vulnerability:

Stuttering, stumbling over words, grammar mistakes, miscommunication, mispronunciation, and just flat out not knowing words have been accompanying me the last few months. When living in a foreign country and not knowing the native language there are bound to be times where you look like an idiot and other times when people think you are stupid even when you understand what they are saying. They insist on explaining the simplest of words because they think you do not understand.

I find that in general people are trying to help but there can be this sort of arrogance and degradation tied in because you do not comprehend the simplest of words making you defenseless. You seem a fool because to them it is so obvious and easy. Of course right! It’s there native tongue. Other people will not hide this feeling (especially children) and will just flat out laugh at you and make you feel like a dunce. It is an easy way for them to feel better about themselves by putting you down.

For the longest time this situation scared me, frustrated me, and made me angry. I felt this way because I had no control of the situation and I was vulnerable. I would avoid it at all costs; but now I embrace these situations and I do not let them get me down. Part of my job here, in Argentina, is to be humbled and to let it happen. I am not here to be the big woman in charge who is always right. I realize now that I cannot let little failures like this upset me. If someone feels better at my expense I will let it happen over and over again. It does not matter. It does not cost me a thing to be the butt of a joke because I will learn something and become stronger.

This is especially true here where the children I am working with has seen and experienced things that I could never imagine a child would have to deal with let alone an adult. Their lives have been filled with difficult times and situations that force them to grow up faster than they should need to. I want to help them have fun and just be kids for once. I wish for them to be able to forget the countless horrible things they might have experienced and just play. I am not saying that it is good to put others down but for these children maybe it is one of the only ways for them to feel better and for once feel in control of a situation. As I said before I do not mind being the stupid foreigner for a little while.

One advantage of culture shock and feeling like an outsider is that it causes us to think about the world that we come from. I have had time to reflect on my apparent weakness in speaking Spanish and how that difficulty applies to my life. I feel that in the United States, failure and vulnerability are not an option. These words are viewed as pathetic and they will severely prevent us from “getting ahead in the world.” Many people in our world today have become obsessed with chasing greed and power. We are so focused on the future and climbing the social and economic ladder that we sometimes forget the true purpose of life or the simplicity of being kind to others instead of stepping on them to get ahead.

I think failure and vulnerability are a necessary part of life, we cannot prevent them and we should accept them as something positive not negative. It is ok to fail. It is ok to be vulnerable. These situations can be constructive because they remind us and that we are human beings and that we are not perfect or kings of the world. The true king is Jesus Christ and only in remembering this will we know how to live life and understand what it is really all about.

Failure and vulnerability shows us that we are weak, broken, sinful, and dependent, which is something we need to acknowledge. It then becomes evident that we need the grace of God to survive in this world. Thankfully God gives his grace without any loopholes or tricks. Through God’s grace we see that all that matters in this world is love. Though we are broken vulnerable failures, God loves us no matter what we do. God first loved us by giving his only son to die on the cross for our sins and therefore, by his amazing example, we are called to live a life of love.

This month’s quote for thought:
“Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt

This month’s scripture quote for thought:
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5

Week Eight: Santo Sacramento

So I finally took some pictures of a typical Sunday at church! Enjoy!  Hopefully you can get a better sense of what my new church is like!  Feel free to comment or ask any questions if something is not clear!

This is what the inside of the church looks like. It is pretty small and can probably only hold about 40 people at most.  It is more of a chapel I would say.

Here is one of a few piano players who play the music for the service.  Santo Sacramento does not have a choir or any other music programs. 

Here is Pastor Angel preforming the service.  The service is similar to any Lutheran service in the US.  The liturgy is word for word similar to what we use in at my home church (except it is in Spanish haha).  The only thing that is different is the music (they do not use the LBW or WOV here).  The music is from a small book that looks like someone in the congregation printed out.  I do not recognize any of the songs we have sang so far but I like them!  

Congregation worshiping (the family in the middle is my country coordinator and her family (L to R: David, Emily, Matt, and Kate).

Reading of the Gospel.

Blessing the bread for communion. 

Sharing the Peace.

Communion

Communion

Communion

After church activities with the kids.  Most of the kids do not attend church but come for the after church lunch and program for youth.  Most of the children live in a nearby poor neighborhood.  From what I hear, life is/can be difficult there.  The children that come to the church program are not any of the same children that I spend time with at MAMA during the week but come from the same type of living situation.

Some of the boys I usually play soccer with on Sunday afternoons.

Lunch enjoyed on the patio in the beautiful sunlight on a wonderful spring day!  Typically the meals consist of homemade pizza and tang juice to drink.  I usually help prepare the food the day before.  It is a all you can eat type of meal.  It might even be the only meal some of these kids get to eat for the day.  Today we got to have hamburgers!  Then at 3pm before they all leave to go home they get some kind of desert.  Today we had flan (custard-type desert). 

Some girls playing on the swings.

 

The Sunday schedule goes a little like this:

 

1. Church starts around 11am.  Typical 10-30 people attend.  The congregation has about 200 members but only a few families/people come regularly. 

 

2. During the service the children leave and have Sunday school until communion where everyone comes together and takes communion (or if they are too young get blessed).

3. After (around 12:30) church more children come and we all play (soccer, cards, board games, crafts) until lunch is ready.

4. Lunch is typically ready at 1:30.  All the kids come together and we sing a prayer and eat.

5. After lunch there are more focused activities planned for the kids.  They can choose to do whichever one they want.  They can choose from learning the guitar, learning to cross stitch, playing soccer, and sometimes arts and crafts.  So far I have been the soccer person.  

6.  At 3pm the after church program is over and the kids get their desert before they set off for home.  

This program was set up so that these kids would have a place to go on Sundays.  It helps get them off the dangerous streets that they might be living on or near.  They get something to eat and they get to (I hope) know that someone cares about them.  They also get to learn that we should respect others and treat them with kindness.  These are just a few main goals among many others that I think the members of the church that set this program up want to try and reach.  This after church program is also some what new (around a year old) so they/we are still trying to figure out what is best.