Leaving Argentina

This past week seems like a blur and I cannot believe I am leaving tomorrow! My feelings are conflicted because I feel like a) time went by too fast and there is still so much I want to see in Buenos Aires and b) we have been here a long time because we have crammed so much in such a short amount of time and I am already comfortable here and have a daily routine. It is definitely a weird feeling and I am probably going to be feeling like this for the next four months.

I am going to try and recall the events of the last week: (I'm sorry I don't have any pictures on this blog. The internet connection is not stable enough, but I have uploaded more pictures onto my Facebook page)

Last Saturday, August 21, we took the kids we are working with to the zoo! Some of them were there for a photography class so we had groups and helped them with their assignments of taking pictures. The two kids I was taking care of, Lucia and Zacarias, are two of the most independent individuals I have ever seen in my life. Neither of them would listen to me and they both wanted to go off in seperate direction. I only lost them once haha. It was frustrating, but overall it was fun. One thing I noticed was that the animals looked sad and they looked dirty.

Then on Sunday, August 22, we went to an interesting church with a woman pastor...that's all I have to say about that. After that, we went to El Tigre and had an interesting boat ride with brown/black water, countless amounts of dead fish floating around, and a lot of shipwrecks. I felt like I was in Georgia or some southern state because the river seemed like roads and there were houses right along the river. It was interesting because there were really nice houses right next to abandoned run down houses. I've never seen anything like that, usually nice houses are together and they are separate from the abandoned houses.
That same night, we also had tango lessons in our hostel and it was extremely fun! We learned a lot and got to know each other better.

Thursday, August 26, was the best day ever!! I played hide-and-go-seek with Jack and Naomi (Dr. Norton's children) in the morning. In the afternoon, all the girls went to the park and had a girl's day out where we had an affirmation circle and told one person what we loved about them. When we got to the hostel, all of the guys had a surprise waiting for us. They had a home-cooked meal made for us on a candle lit table with romantic music playing. It was soo sweet! They had salad, rolls, spaghetti, wine, ice cream and hot chocolate. Then Aaron played us a song that he wrote and Sam did the same. We are so blessed to have these guys on this trip with us. That night, we met with the son of Tomas Eloy Martinez (the author of one of the books we are reading). First off, we walked in totally the wrong direction and we had to jump in cabs to meet him on the total opposite side of town and when we got there we tried to talk about his father's book and he had not even read it! Haha. He was also a little tipsy so that was very interesting! Hands down, it was the best day I can ever remember!

On Friday, August 27, we had class inside of the Water Palace!! What an amazing experience! I cannot believe that I get to do this! I am blown away...
And volunteering that day proved to be the last time I would see those kids on this trip :( At first the kids were mean to us, but now we have personal relationships with this children and it was hard to say goodbye. One of the little girls wouldn't leave my side until we got to the bus. I hope they have wonderful lives.
We also had SHOUT that night which is a worship service and it was amazing! I am utterly astounded at how obviously present God is making himself on this trip (as I am going to talk about later) and it was great to just all come together and give him the praise and glory He deserves.

Today, August 28, was a relaxed day off and some friends and I decided to go to San Telmo where we bought souveneirs from vendors, ate a nice lunch, and took pictures by La Casa Rosada (Evita's palace where she gave one of her speeches).

As I stated previously, God is working in our lives and it is so amazing! After we left our meeting with the author's son, a few people were walking back to the hostel and they met these three girls who were a little drunk. They got to talking to them and learned their life stories and one of the girls, Natalia, was saying that she never opens up to people but that she felt comfortable opening up to them because she felt something emanating from them-a good presence. She was saying how because of the trials she has been through it is hard for her to believe in God. Then some of our team gave their testimonies and it broke down her walls. I don't really know all that happened there because I left earlier, but I just know it was awesome. There were so many times that our team could have gone a different way or taken the subway or stayed on the other side of the street, but God obviously directed them to that spot and I think that is just astounding. He put them there for a reason and I believe that He definitely planted a seed in her through us. She also came to SHOUT on Friday night and I know the Holy Spirit was there that night as well. Also, from hearing stories from other team members about the miraculous wonders God has done in their life in order for them to go in this trip is just comforting and it gives us assurance that this is clearly God's will. This past week I have been overwhelmed with God's presence and it makes me want to glorify and worship Him.

La Recoleta Cemetario

This past summer I wandered the streets of Buenos Aires from Google Earth so that I could get more acquainted with the city. One of the places that I stumbled upon was the cemetery in Recoleta where the rows of tombs are beautifully carved and above ground for all to see. Today we had the privilege of having class in the cemetery! It was breathtakingly beautiful! After class, our assignment was to go off on our own in the cemetery and find something (anything) to write a story about. At first I was unsure of what I was going to write about, but then something caught my attention. There was one tomb where the glass was broken so I took a closer look inside and saw a disheartening display of vandalism such as broken glass, empty containers, ratted newspaper and just complete filth. It looked like a storage closet with a coffin inside. I was not phased by being in a cemetery all day, but this view suddenly made me feel a sort of pain in my heart. Who would do such a thing in what is considered, to some, a sacred place?

Only a small portion of the beautiful Recoleta cemetery

Inside the tomb I chose to write my story on. (The screen is leaning against the coffin)

As I stated in a previous blog, we are volunteering with the L.I.F.E. Argentina organization and helping kids get off the streets. I also vented in the past about how hectic it was to work with these children. Today; however, we went to a new location and things seemed to run more smoothly this time. It seemed that the event was more organized which allowed for less amounts of snapping at each other. I fell in love with this location and I just wanted to stop and take it all in. The area was a maze of dirt-paved alleys consisting of colorful clotheslines and unfinished brick houses. It is a perfect place to have this kind of an organization where they can help the children get an education and make something better of their lives. I am just filled with awe as I am thinking back on this opportunity. Especially thinking about how little they have and how content they are with their lives as well as how much can be done to help them. These children are precious and they deserve much more.

You can kind of get an idea of what this area looked like from behind a fellow peer.

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Coloring with the kids

Beautiful Buenos Aires

One thing I have noticed here is that the beauty of Buenos Aires can be seen from the second story up. All of the buildings have such beautiful architecture because it has that European influence mixed in. It is another story on the street level, though, because it is here that the poverty of Buenos Aires is shown. The graffiti is everywhere and it is interesting that most of it has to do with the government. There is also trash on the sidewalks. It just boggles my mind how contradicting the two parts of the city are.

Beautiful architecture in the Water Palace

I'm sorry. I can't always get what I want!

The people here are also very different from home. I find that they are either excited to hear about where we are from or they are annoyed (either because we don't know how to speak their language or because they just don't like Americans). An interesting difference that we have also noticed is that people don't usually talk to each other when they are walking down the street or riding in a bus. I could tell you all the stories just from the past two days about the experiences that I have had with the people living here but that would take too long so I will save that for another time :)

During our stay here, we are working with a group called L.I.F.E. Argentina and yesterday was our first experience with them. This is a service that works with kids to help educate them and get them off the streets. Yesterday we celebrated all of the kids' birthdays in the month of August and let me just tell you--it was hectic! The kids have grown up in a home where there is no discipline and we were the ones that were paying for it. I had to continuously argue with the kids over the same thing...in Spanish. It was pretty difficult to try to get my point across and once I did, they wouldn't listen. But this wasn't true with all of them. I felt really special when these little girls made nine birthday cards for me! I told them my birthday wasn't until October, but they didn't care. They were so cute :)

So precious!

One of the birthday cards the girls made me. I think that is supposed to be a picture of me lol

Today we went to La Boca which is an area known for its celebration of the Tango. The handmade artwork in the forms of jewelery, paintings, pottery, and clothing were sold up and down the street in little "farmer's market" stands. The restaurant we ate at for lunch/dinner had a tango show and they called a few of us up there to dance and take pictures with them. We all had so much fun! I also loved how every part of the city was covered in color! One building was painted multiple colors such as red, yellow, blue and green. It was truly an amazing sight to see and I cannot believe I am lucky enough to experience the world in this way!

La Boca :)

I know this picture is a little crazy, but this is how the tango dancers made me pose

My camera does not do this picture justice

The Adventure Begins!

Initial thoughts when I wake up: "It can't be August 16th already!" "I still have another month of summer left!" "I'm not ready" "I still don't know what to expect from this trip."

So after some sad goodbyes, we are off! I am feeling much better now that the goodbyes are behind me and I only have the trip to look forward to. At the airport we are given some time to go off and eat by ourselves but we are not told where and when to meet up. After eating for a while, three of my friends and I notice that we don't see anyone from our group around. We have to stand in a long line to go through security and we still don't see anybody.  This is a great way to start off the trip! We were late to our first test! But we were able to take it without a problem and it was easier than I expected. The 12 hour plane ride to Peru was long but there were no problems. I got to know a fellow traveler, Jessica, better so that was good :) Then after our hour long layover in Lima, Peru we began to experience our first setbacks as a group. We were just miles away from Buenos Aires when we were informed by our captain (who was an inexperienced english speaker) that the weather conditions in Buenos Aires were not adecquate for landing. And so the adventure begins! We circled around Buenos Aires five times before he decided to fly the plane to Uruguay. That is three countries in one day! So we sat in the airplane in Uruguay for two hours before we were allowed to enter Argentina. It seemed like forever, but we were finally getting off an airplane for at least 2 weeks!!

After this, we discovered another little damper on our plans. Apparentally, the American government charges citizens of Argentina $140 to enter America so the Argentinian government charged the same reciprocal fee. This was unexpected but at least this fee is good for 10 years in case I want to come back! Once we got all of our luggage out and figured out the ride situation we were feeling a little bit better. I still didn't feel like I was in Buenos Aires; though, because it didn't look any different from Los Angeles. My viewpoint changed; however, after we got closer to the heart of Buenos Aires. We could see slums on the left side of the freeway and beautiful architecture on the right. We also saw the Water Palace and the Congress building.

Slums in Buenos Aires

Water Palace

Congress building



It was finally time for us to check into Hostel Milonga...and it was even cuter than the pictures online! We roamed around looking at each others' rooms and going on the roof looking at the view. After that excitement was over, our hunger kicked in so we ventured down the street in search of some food. We found this little restaurant right next to our hostel that served the best empanadas!! It was interesting because, at first, I was the most fluent in Spanish amongst the people in our small group. It was an adventure and an experience and I could tell the bored guys working there got a kick out of my attempt at their language. We were glad we got our point across; however, because the food was muy delicioso!!

Hostel Milonga

Delicious empanadas

The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Last semester I was one of about 30 students to get chosen for an amazing experience. It truly is an opportunity of a lifetime. This is a study abroad program where we will study in ten different countries over a period of four months and stay in each country for about two weeks! We will travel to Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, India, Indonesia and China. I can't wait! We are going to experience so much and learn things that we don't even know we need to learn yet. I have to give all the glory and credit to God. In the beginning I have to admit that I had the mindset that I was going to make this trip happen for me no matter what God had planned for me...I know I'm a horrible sinner. But He made it happen for me even though I was so selfish. I still can't believe how much He has shown Himself during the preparation of this trip! There was the $4,400 payment that was due in a short amount of time and He miraculously provided for us, the shots were going to be around $800 but they only cost about $200, and the list goes on and on. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that He wants me to go on this trip. I am normally a worry wart, but through this experience He has shown me that everything is in His hands. Whatever He wants to happen will happen. He has definitely proven that to me. And I don't think this trip is only for my enjoyment. I have a feeling it is going to be something bigger than that. But we shall see...

I am almost completely ready to go. Only eleven more days until I leave. I only need a few more things to buy and I will be on my way! I will miss everybody but I can't back down on this opportunity of a lifetime.

Catherine