We must have been quite a spectacle, singing on the subway station floor. There were 5 norteamericanas and maybe 8 street kids, some pregnant teenagers and some toddlers and everybody singing at the top of their lungs. Minutes before, they had been huffing glue, and the smell was still strong. But at least during the songs, they were clapping and belting out lyrics and laughing instead. We played guitar down there for a solid hour or so. Quite a few Argentinean passers-by stopped to ask who we where and what we were doing; a couple stopped and sang with us. And as we sang 'cambiare mi tristeza, cambiare mi verguenza', and as we sang about seeing things change, I knew things were changing. In the middle of alcohol and drugs and dirty skin and clothes, I think God was there, somehow.
God's in the villa, too. After class on Friday, one of my students' mom made us this traditional paraguayan cornbread, and sat and talked with us for a while. She has 6 kids, and has lived in the slum for a while now; she goes to the Esperanza church, sings with the music team, takes English classes with Jeremiah. (The pastor's wife, Sarah Chang, calls him 'misionero Jeremias' and we think it's hilarious, so we all call him that too). She wants so badly for things to change in her villa. It's pretty bad: people from the outside usually never go in because they'll get robbed, kids will sell what they rob for pasta base (this drug that's essentially a cheap and more toxic version of cocaine), addicted to drugs and violence their future looks pretty dim. But talking to her was more hopeful than depressing. She writes theater, and it's theater about living a different way. She shared with us about times when they performed her plays in parks, the emotional reactions that people had. She's got six kids in a slum, and she still believes that creativity can change things. She still takes the time to share her food with us. I may be teaching the kids here action verbs in English, but these families are teaching me what true faith & generosity can look like. I'm humbled, to say the least.
And I'm also learning a lot from my church. The Iglesia Bautista Evangelica de Constitucion (I don't think I've actually told you guys the name of the church! My bad.) is a pretty eye-opening place. I'd say between about 1/4 and about half of the committed members are homeless, or have been homeless in the recent past. We eat together after church every week, and I'm always amazed by how much they know. Most of them are oldish men, and I'm often surprised when they have more insights on American politics than I do; a lot of them are really bright. They've been through a lot more than me, and have a lot to teach. In Sunday morning bible study this week (I used to sleep through them, but apparently since I'm living at the church I have to go. Whoops.), we read in James: "Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?" Laura (who lives in the room below me and who is becoming a wonderful friend to Megan and I) spoke up about what it was like for her to sleep on the streets, and how she could only sleep for an hour or so at a time during the day to make sure she wouldn't get robbed. Everyone then talked about different ways that it can be easy to 'exploit' and show prejudice, and how maybe we can live a different way. The bible talks a LOT about poverty, and it makes so much more sense to read through it with people who have lived that experience.
So basically, I'm learning a lot.
Prayer...
Gratitude because I'm HEALED! I went from vomiting to snotting to coughing, and now my cough is slowly but surely dying away. And gratitude for Nacho Libre--some of you know that it's my favorite movie ever, and we watched a bootleg copy from peru the other day. We only watched the first half because the second part, from the party scene on, kept freezing. Oh well.
Pray for hope. In individuals lives; seeing them huff glue at the train station was hard for me. Pray for us to be able to share what hope we have with them when they don't have any.
One of the families we've gotten really really close to is about to have a baby, this Thursday in fact. Pray for all to go well with that! It'll be the third kid, a baby boy. A whole lot of responsibility. Especially when their job is selling newspapers a voluntad in the train station.
Pray for depth. It's kind of vague I guess, but I feel like I'm experiencing some really amazing community with the staff and volunteers, and I want to grow that community to fully include the kids on the street, and the families at the villa. It's happening already, but prayer doesn't hurt.
Thank all of you for reading this. :) I want to put up pictures, but someone accidentally deleted all the pictures from my camera (everythings in English, and most people here don't speak any), so I'm now starting from scratch. Sorrry...
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
One Month In
During these initial days down here, I think I carried a good amount of naivete and idealism with me. True, loving relationships can break down cultural and socioeceonomic barriers and create reconciliation, and I still think it's true that God helps us do that... but there are a lot of walls that still need to be broken down. Earlier this week, one of the guys was sitting with Megan and Fiorella and I in the church (Fiorella is a Peruvian environmental science student who is also living there with us), and he asked for some music, so we played guitar and sang for a bit. After a couple of songs, the tone switched, and got pretty serious. He started to talk about his strong dislike of everything that was affiliated with the United States, his deep mistrust of Yanquis, his disdain for immigrants and foreigners and anything that wasn't from his own nation, Argentina. He talked about how strange it was for him to get to know us, and to see that our faith was sincere, and how he has slowly come to realize that there are good people who live in the States, and good people from Peru, and good people from Bolivia too. It was an intense conversation, and eye-opening for me to see just how much mistrust and resentment has been built up between nationalites over years of economic exploitation, immigration, and inequality. But it was cool to see how something as simple as friendship and music could begin to break those down.
A lot of conversations I've been having lately have revolved around those issues. Racism is pretty rampant in Buenos Aires, it seems, as those with darker skin claim that white Argentineans are the ones with money, and that the standard of beauty clearly favors white skin over dark skin. Immigration is pretty big as well; 'Boliviano' and 'Peruano' are common insults, and Argentineans will take offense if they're associated with those immigrant communities. Just like any big city, it's a complicated place, and there's a lot of baggage behind relationships here.
Which is why the retreat last weekend was particularly amazing. The theme was social inclusion, and a lot of the people who went weren't necessarily church-going people, so lots of fruitful conversation came out of it. 6 of the people from the streets ended up coming, along with three other guitarists and hundreds of empanadas. We spent the first night watching a movie about an Ethiopian refugee growing up in Jerusalem (the film started at 1am and ended at 3:30, so I was pretty sleepy while I was watching it, but it was really good. In Spanish the title is Ser Digno de Ser, if any of you are interested in checking it out), and spent the next two mornings talking about what a truly inclusive church could look like, and how to affirm self-identity in the middle of marginalization, and how to serve not just through handouts but through genuine relationships. On top of the 'charlas', there was lots of time to just hang out. I was hoping there would be music, and there definitely was. I'm trying to learn Argentinean songs--turns out a lot of them speak about social realities in the country, and abuses under the dictatorship, really deep stuff. One of the songs I brought with me, something I had learned in the Dominican Republic called 'La Niña de Tus Ojos', turned out to be especially well-received. It fit well with the theme of the retreat...the words are pretty simple:
Me viste a mi cuando nadie me vio
Me amaste a mi cuando nadie me amo
Y me diste nombre. Yo soy tu niña, la niña de tus ojos
Porque me amaste a mi...
You saw me when noone saw me
You loved me when noone loved me
And you gave me a name...I am the apple of your eye, because you loved me...
For me, it's a basic concept in my faith: God is love, God loves us, we are valuable. But the people at the retreat, especially the people from the streets, really really loved it. The Retiro kids kept asking me to write the words down for them; one of the guys learned how to play all the chords on the guitar; we even sang it as a group in the trains on the way back to Buenos Aires. It was pretty cool to see music used to encourage and affirm people in that way.
I also brought the guitar to the train station for the first time this week. It went really well. I think I'll be bringing it more often. There seemed to be a lot of younger kids there (10, 12, 13) recently; going to the train station is always a bit of an adventure, since we never know who we're going to see.
And for those of you who like to pray...
Pray for the Encuentro this week. The big slumber party at the Church, from Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon. It's a pretty nice chance for everyone to hang out in a safe (and drug-free) environment, so pray that it would be good.
Pray for the 'servant team project'. Each volunteer has the chance to develop and express a new idea and make a concrete contribution to the work here during these four months, and the possibilities are wide-open. I think I'm going to be spending more time on it soon; I'm thinking about visiting other organizations in the area that work with poor families and homeless youth, to get a grip on the work that's alread being done among this community and to look at ways that Word Made Flesh could partner more concretely with them. So I'll need a bit of guidance on that :)
Keep praying for the villa! I think I'm getting better at teaching, which is great; the kids are actually retaining information, AND I think they're having fun. Its a really cool thing that they get to participate in something like this, so pray that we can keep doing the best job we possibly can.
And pray for me. Ive been a bit under the weather these past few days, throwing up everything I eat and staying in bed. I'm feeling a lot better today, but I'm definitely not at 100% either, so throw up a few prayers for that.
And hit me back with prayer requests from you! I also care about what's going on in your lives, so email me back :)
TINA
A lot of conversations I've been having lately have revolved around those issues. Racism is pretty rampant in Buenos Aires, it seems, as those with darker skin claim that white Argentineans are the ones with money, and that the standard of beauty clearly favors white skin over dark skin. Immigration is pretty big as well; 'Boliviano' and 'Peruano' are common insults, and Argentineans will take offense if they're associated with those immigrant communities. Just like any big city, it's a complicated place, and there's a lot of baggage behind relationships here.
Which is why the retreat last weekend was particularly amazing. The theme was social inclusion, and a lot of the people who went weren't necessarily church-going people, so lots of fruitful conversation came out of it. 6 of the people from the streets ended up coming, along with three other guitarists and hundreds of empanadas. We spent the first night watching a movie about an Ethiopian refugee growing up in Jerusalem (the film started at 1am and ended at 3:30, so I was pretty sleepy while I was watching it, but it was really good. In Spanish the title is Ser Digno de Ser, if any of you are interested in checking it out), and spent the next two mornings talking about what a truly inclusive church could look like, and how to affirm self-identity in the middle of marginalization, and how to serve not just through handouts but through genuine relationships. On top of the 'charlas', there was lots of time to just hang out. I was hoping there would be music, and there definitely was. I'm trying to learn Argentinean songs--turns out a lot of them speak about social realities in the country, and abuses under the dictatorship, really deep stuff. One of the songs I brought with me, something I had learned in the Dominican Republic called 'La Niña de Tus Ojos', turned out to be especially well-received. It fit well with the theme of the retreat...the words are pretty simple:
Me viste a mi cuando nadie me vio
Me amaste a mi cuando nadie me amo
Y me diste nombre. Yo soy tu niña, la niña de tus ojos
Porque me amaste a mi...
You saw me when noone saw me
You loved me when noone loved me
And you gave me a name...I am the apple of your eye, because you loved me...
For me, it's a basic concept in my faith: God is love, God loves us, we are valuable. But the people at the retreat, especially the people from the streets, really really loved it. The Retiro kids kept asking me to write the words down for them; one of the guys learned how to play all the chords on the guitar; we even sang it as a group in the trains on the way back to Buenos Aires. It was pretty cool to see music used to encourage and affirm people in that way.
I also brought the guitar to the train station for the first time this week. It went really well. I think I'll be bringing it more often. There seemed to be a lot of younger kids there (10, 12, 13) recently; going to the train station is always a bit of an adventure, since we never know who we're going to see.
And for those of you who like to pray...
Pray for the Encuentro this week. The big slumber party at the Church, from Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon. It's a pretty nice chance for everyone to hang out in a safe (and drug-free) environment, so pray that it would be good.
Pray for the 'servant team project'. Each volunteer has the chance to develop and express a new idea and make a concrete contribution to the work here during these four months, and the possibilities are wide-open. I think I'm going to be spending more time on it soon; I'm thinking about visiting other organizations in the area that work with poor families and homeless youth, to get a grip on the work that's alread being done among this community and to look at ways that Word Made Flesh could partner more concretely with them. So I'll need a bit of guidance on that :)
Keep praying for the villa! I think I'm getting better at teaching, which is great; the kids are actually retaining information, AND I think they're having fun. Its a really cool thing that they get to participate in something like this, so pray that we can keep doing the best job we possibly can.
And pray for me. Ive been a bit under the weather these past few days, throwing up everything I eat and staying in bed. I'm feeling a lot better today, but I'm definitely not at 100% either, so throw up a few prayers for that.
And hit me back with prayer requests from you! I also care about what's going on in your lives, so email me back :)
TINA
Thursday, September 3, 2009
slumber parties and fiestas and lessons learned.
'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God...But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.'
I had read that passage a bunch of times before. It's part of the Beatitudes according to St. Luke, and the first half is one of Jesus' most famous quotes. But yesterday morning was the first time I've read through those verses with a group of people who live on the street. The words became much more real to me in that particular Bible study. We read 'blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied', and one of the guys commented on being denied bread from a local panaderia time and time again. We read 'bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you' and they reacted with shock, claiming that it doesn't make sense to let people walk all over you if you already feel taken advantage of as it is. I listened as they talked about what it even looks like to treat one another in a different way, 'do to others as you would have them do to you', rich and poor alike. Looking at Christianity and at Jesus' teachings down here, alongside people who aren't able to give their children baths and who work begging change for a living, definitely puts this message in a different light. I'm learning a lot down here so far...for now more questions than answers, but when I have some more words I'll for sure try to share all my thoughts with you all.
Tuesday and Wednesday was the bimonthly 'Encuentro', where Walter picks up a group of people from the train station and brings them to the church, where we eat dinner, watch movies, play games, sleep, and have a group discussion the next morning over yerba mate before lunch. This time, around 13 or so people came, mostly guys and girls in their late teens, with three toddlers in tow. It's so good to be able to get to know them all better. One of the highlights was definitely seeing the little girls take baths, and watching them play without the dirt and muck of the streets. Those kids don't have very much stuff, just one dirty Barbie backpack full of plastic spoons and toy dinnerware between the three of them, but they certainly have plenty of energy...None of them went to bed before 12 or 1am.
The Friday before, the church had a fiesta at Pastor Juan Jose's house, a sort of outreach to prepare for a young adult retreat that's happening this weekend where people can come and get to know each other. Now I've been to church parties in the states--there's some line dancing (if it's southpoint), some talking and laughing, and it's over at 11, at the latest. This party started at 11, and we weren't done until 5:30 in the morning. The people here don't sleep! And they don't stop dancing. Cumbia, salsa, quarteto, I dunno what else they danced but it was a lot. Afterwards, a bunch of us sat in a circle and played guitar, sang, and talked until the pastor went to bed at 5:30. The culture here seems to put a lot of value on conversations and spending time relating to people, talking to one another. I love it.
More tidbits about Argentina... So far I've learned that a lot of young people here really seem to like rock music, and all of their favorite songs sound like stuff from the 80s. I've learned that the Argentinean version of scattergories is the BOMB--it's called TuttiFrutti, and all you need is a pen and paper; I've also learned that they're not as receptive when I aim for 'creativity points' and that I'm much less talented at scattergories in castellano. I've learned that 'piola' means cool, 'laburo' means work (they mix Spanish with Italian a lot), and morocha (which is apparently my name now at the train station) means brown person. I've learned that the police officers don't do much--we went to a cafe for some meat after a morningtime meeting, and we played guitar and sang with a group of about 8 police officers for like 2 hours. I'm including a picture.
The time here is definitely full of more than just parties, though. Teaching English is going really well; a lot of the kids at the villa are very smart, and are picking up the language a lot quicker than I'd expected. Meeting with Nico, Margi and my tutor, is also pretty amazing--he's a graduate student in theology, but he knows everything there is to know about latin american history, and he's got us reading and discussing a good 50-odd pages in Spanish every week, about poverty and the church and the nation. It's making me use my brain, and it feels like school again, which is great because I really do love homework. Megan and I are now officially taking cooking lessons from Christian (who still works selling diarios at Retiro but also lives at the church) in exchange for one-on-one English tutoring. I now know how to make 'fideo con tuco' (read: spaghetti with sauce, haha), and he now knows how to say 'I like to cook with Tina'. Among other things.
For those of you who are praying:
Pray for the church retreat this weekend. A few of the kids from the train station are going to be there, and the theme is on Inclusion. Pray that we can build some solid relationships there, be a support to the people leading the retreat, and that people can really contribute to what is said and what we learn. Most of the people going never go to church, so pray also that we can learn from them, and that the church can be practicing what it's preaching and helping people move from feeling marginalized to being included.
Pray for opportunities to use music! I've started bringing my guitar around sometimes, and everywhere I've went it's turned into a jam session. At the villa and the train station so far, I've just been getting to know people so I haven't brough it, but I might start soon. I think good things can come from it, so pray for that por favor.
Christian is going to get an operation sometime soon on his throat--He almost drowned a few months ago, and has this tube in his throat that they're going to take out I'm not sure when, but he's pretty nervous about it, so pray in advance that it goes well.
For open eyes, and humbleness always.
THANKS for reading :) I'mma try to put some pictures now...
ciao
I had read that passage a bunch of times before. It's part of the Beatitudes according to St. Luke, and the first half is one of Jesus' most famous quotes. But yesterday morning was the first time I've read through those verses with a group of people who live on the street. The words became much more real to me in that particular Bible study. We read 'blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied', and one of the guys commented on being denied bread from a local panaderia time and time again. We read 'bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you' and they reacted with shock, claiming that it doesn't make sense to let people walk all over you if you already feel taken advantage of as it is. I listened as they talked about what it even looks like to treat one another in a different way, 'do to others as you would have them do to you', rich and poor alike. Looking at Christianity and at Jesus' teachings down here, alongside people who aren't able to give their children baths and who work begging change for a living, definitely puts this message in a different light. I'm learning a lot down here so far...for now more questions than answers, but when I have some more words I'll for sure try to share all my thoughts with you all.
Tuesday and Wednesday was the bimonthly 'Encuentro', where Walter picks up a group of people from the train station and brings them to the church, where we eat dinner, watch movies, play games, sleep, and have a group discussion the next morning over yerba mate before lunch. This time, around 13 or so people came, mostly guys and girls in their late teens, with three toddlers in tow. It's so good to be able to get to know them all better. One of the highlights was definitely seeing the little girls take baths, and watching them play without the dirt and muck of the streets. Those kids don't have very much stuff, just one dirty Barbie backpack full of plastic spoons and toy dinnerware between the three of them, but they certainly have plenty of energy...None of them went to bed before 12 or 1am.
The Friday before, the church had a fiesta at Pastor Juan Jose's house, a sort of outreach to prepare for a young adult retreat that's happening this weekend where people can come and get to know each other. Now I've been to church parties in the states--there's some line dancing (if it's southpoint), some talking and laughing, and it's over at 11, at the latest. This party started at 11, and we weren't done until 5:30 in the morning. The people here don't sleep! And they don't stop dancing. Cumbia, salsa, quarteto, I dunno what else they danced but it was a lot. Afterwards, a bunch of us sat in a circle and played guitar, sang, and talked until the pastor went to bed at 5:30. The culture here seems to put a lot of value on conversations and spending time relating to people, talking to one another. I love it.
More tidbits about Argentina... So far I've learned that a lot of young people here really seem to like rock music, and all of their favorite songs sound like stuff from the 80s. I've learned that the Argentinean version of scattergories is the BOMB--it's called TuttiFrutti, and all you need is a pen and paper; I've also learned that they're not as receptive when I aim for 'creativity points' and that I'm much less talented at scattergories in castellano. I've learned that 'piola' means cool, 'laburo' means work (they mix Spanish with Italian a lot), and morocha (which is apparently my name now at the train station) means brown person. I've learned that the police officers don't do much--we went to a cafe for some meat after a morningtime meeting, and we played guitar and sang with a group of about 8 police officers for like 2 hours. I'm including a picture.
The time here is definitely full of more than just parties, though. Teaching English is going really well; a lot of the kids at the villa are very smart, and are picking up the language a lot quicker than I'd expected. Meeting with Nico, Margi and my tutor, is also pretty amazing--he's a graduate student in theology, but he knows everything there is to know about latin american history, and he's got us reading and discussing a good 50-odd pages in Spanish every week, about poverty and the church and the nation. It's making me use my brain, and it feels like school again, which is great because I really do love homework. Megan and I are now officially taking cooking lessons from Christian (who still works selling diarios at Retiro but also lives at the church) in exchange for one-on-one English tutoring. I now know how to make 'fideo con tuco' (read: spaghetti with sauce, haha), and he now knows how to say 'I like to cook with Tina'. Among other things.
For those of you who are praying:
Pray for the church retreat this weekend. A few of the kids from the train station are going to be there, and the theme is on Inclusion. Pray that we can build some solid relationships there, be a support to the people leading the retreat, and that people can really contribute to what is said and what we learn. Most of the people going never go to church, so pray also that we can learn from them, and that the church can be practicing what it's preaching and helping people move from feeling marginalized to being included.
Pray for opportunities to use music! I've started bringing my guitar around sometimes, and everywhere I've went it's turned into a jam session. At the villa and the train station so far, I've just been getting to know people so I haven't brough it, but I might start soon. I think good things can come from it, so pray for that por favor.
Christian is going to get an operation sometime soon on his throat--He almost drowned a few months ago, and has this tube in his throat that they're going to take out I'm not sure when, but he's pretty nervous about it, so pray in advance that it goes well.
For open eyes, and humbleness always.
THANKS for reading :) I'mma try to put some pictures now...
ciao
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