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