Recent happenings

so, whats been happening lately in this side of the hemisphere?

besides 70 to 90 degree temperatures, a few rainstorms, going to church, starting Spanish tutoring with the Call kids 4 days a week, practicing music to play at church on a few Sundays, looking forward to VBS planning that starts this week, spending time with the Richlines on their recent return (giving back up all of the household and cooking responsibilities I spent a good month practicing), I have been getting to know the folks at IPUY a little bit better. I will copy my best friend's recent blog post by sharing a travel quote to kind of sum up what I have been learning about:

" A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." - Tim Cahill

how true. This was something I had not actually expected. I was looking forward to the adventure and challenge of being in a different country that in my anticipation I seemed to have bypassed thinking about the people. I know, how selfish, but I am learning my lesson. The past couple weeks I have been spending a lot more time with the recently mentioned gem, Veronica, and we have many more outings planned for the next couple weeks. There are so many other jovenes (young people) at this church and I want to really get to know them all! I really crave and cherish the time spent at church now with these people. It is an amazing feeling to be able to communicate and laugh even a little bit in another language. That is something I am grateful for, the semester of language learning that God gave me before this experience to be able to get by enough to form relationships with Uruguayans, or Peruvians, or Argentines, or whoever happens to be visiting our church from some other south american country. I have such a long way to go in language learning, and forming these relationships at even such a basic level is inspiring me to want to learn more. 

Besides finally being able to have potential solid friendships with Spanish speakers, I have only been getting closer and closer to both the Richline and Call families since I have been here. Family dinners and car rides and talking through the culture and experiencing some of the same things and being so far away from my own parents and siblings has really attached me to these people in a way that makes me want to stay here with those whom I could now consider extended family (don't worry mom and dad, i haven't forgotten the past 20 years of my life, and I wouldn't be here or who I am if it weren't for you <3). 

Although I know it needs to happen eventually, I literally cannot imagine leaving this place and I hope not to treat the relationships as temporary even though there is only a little over a month left of this summer in Montevideo.  

   

         

the holidays

La Navidad, El cumple de Daniel, el año Nuevo, Día de los tres reyes magos

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a few more celebrations!

Much of the time spent here in the last few weeks has been preparing for one celebration after another. First we baked a lot of Christmas cookies, went shopping and decorated a small, fake, but precious tree in the Call's house. Christmas is not as big of an event here as it is in the US. Its more a family thing than a huge, commercial thing. To give an example, there was only half an aisle of Christmas decorations in one of the bigger supermercados close to our house. I really enjoy the attitude towards the holidays, it has been showing me how important time spent with family is here in Uruguay. This Christmas Rebekah and I went to her family's house overnight to have a pretty American Christmas, with their family's usual traditions in a Uruguayan setting. We found what ingredients we could for the food. Everything took a lot longer than it does back home, probably because it is a new place for all of us (the Call's just moved into their new house about two weeks ago). I missed my own family a lot, but it was time well spent and nice to be around the kiddos.  One of my favorite things about how they celebrate Christmas here is the fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve. Everyone stayed up until midnight playing games and we all climbed up on the roof to see the spectacle. We were surrounded by fireworks on all sides, booming and flashes of light. Since you can see pretty far across the city from their rooftop, we could see a plethora of fireworks. the feeling is kind of indescribable.

 The next big event was Daniel's 8th birthday on December 30th. We had a party with the family to make it special. For this Rebekah and I attempted making a lego ninja looking cake to match the lego theme.

     

The most recent was the new year celebration. Again, they Uruguayans rang in the new year celebrating with fireworks at midnight. This time we watched them from the street (the big heavy blind on the balcony had broken and we couldn't get to the roof). This worked out fine though, because we popped some of our own fireworks and got to meet the neighbors for a brief moment. These encounters are incredibly important for the family. We have been learning that many people in their neighborhood have lived there their whole lives and their family members live nearby as well. Pray that these connections and encounters would keep developing for the Calls as well as the Richlines when they return. 

Also, for the New Year, a member of the church came over after her night nursing shift to spend the night with us. Veronica is originally from Peru, but came here to Uruguay for school awhile back. In her nursing classes she met Sandra, the wife of Mauricio, the pastor of IPU. In return for fixing her computer the family invited her to come to church one Sunday. She felt she owed them something, showed up, and there Christ started his work in her. She is a bubbly, happy personality and so fun to be around. Her joy for being a follower of Christ really does radiate through her. Veronica has been a huge help in understanding the "quirks" of Uruguayan culture. Living thousands of miles away from her family, I know she understands some of where I come from too. She faces many of the struggles that a Christian in a very secular country is bound to face, getting mocked and not understood by coworkers for example. Her attitude through all of this and desire to grow and ask questions has really affected me. I hope to call her a close friend by the end of the time here!

"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 ESV

across the river/cruzar el río

well, about a week ago I arrived in the home of the lovely Richline family to begin what is officially called working as a Missionary Associate through the OPC church. Reflecting on how I ended up in this place at this time shows me God´s providence and planning. In this post I hope to give a little context on how I ended up here in Uruguay and what I hope to be doing here.

The Background: I had run into a scheduling conflict sometime last fall while planning my study abroad time and found a way to spend as much time in South America as possible following a suggestion from the lovely French professor at Grace to start looking for some sort of internship during the summer break. The subject came up at church and my pastor suggested applying to work as a missionary associate in Montevideo, Uruguay, right across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires.

map credits:
south america: http://espanol.vacationstogo.com/cruise_port/Isla_de_la_Plata__Ecuador.cfm
rio de la plata: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_de_la_Plata



Soooo, I applied for the position and by the grace of God, the Richline family and the OPC Foreign Missions Committee, was accepted.

I had the opportunity to visit the family for a weekend around the end of October, and this just fed even more my excitement for living with them. You can read more about that in previous posts.

The Characters with whom I will be working: (pictures to come)
-The Richline's (American Missionaries - OPC): Mark and Jeni and their kids Sabrina, Josh, Julia and Isaiah
-The Call's (American Missionaries - PCA): Ray and Michelle and the kids Rebekah, Jeremiah, Ana Grace, John, Daniel, Christina, Peter
-The Rolim's (Brazilian Missionaries) : Mauricio and Sandra and the kids Calebe and Ana Tereza
-And finally, the members of La Iglesia Presbiteriana del Uruguay or, the Presbyterian Church of Uruguay.

The Job:
To give a broad idea... I will will be attending the church functions, possibly teaching a few Sunday school classes in Spanish, house and dog-sitting for the Richlines with Rebekah Call my awesome roomie while they are on vacation in the US for four weeks, celebrating Christmas with the Calls and helping them settle in as they just moved into a new house, tutoring the Call kids in Spanish, doing some basic cultural observation and processing that information, and helping plan VBS which is in February, among whatever other odd jobs my bosses give me. It will be a workload, but I am pumped to have the opportunity to be of use here in Montevideo. I'm really hoping for a few solid beach days thrown in there too, as the city is surrounded by playa (beach).

Prayer Requests:
- for safety in many travels, the Richlines in the US for a month and the Rolims going back to Brasil on furlough until March.
-for safety, wisdom, responsibility and trust in God for Rebekah and I as we learn how to clean, cook and shop for ourselves and basically take care of a house and dog, thankfully we have Flechita (the dog) to scare off any potential trespassers.
-for the growth of a sister church plant in Mercedes, about a 3 hour drive from Montevideo
-for the church members here in Montevideo, for their growth in the knowledge and grace of God, their kindness has already made a huge impression on me!
-for me, that I would learn dependence on God conducting a lot of stuff in a second language and in doing some things I have never done before, as well as continual perseverance in learning the language.
-for the Calls as they settle in, that they would quickly learn the culture and how to get around and how to speak the new accent
-for the future church plant in Montevideo that the Call's and Richline's will be starting, and trust that this is the plan of God.
-for two things that I am learning to be very important in the church and am excited to see taking place here: humility and unity. (John 17, Jesus prayed that the church may be one so that the world would recognize that Jesus was sent by God - vs. 20-23 and Philippians 2 putting others needs before ourselves following the humility of Christ)

La Comida

                                                             

This entry is going to be solely dedicated to one of my favorite things: food. Since I don't really know how to describe or share the smells of every amazing food I have tasted I figured I would just share a bunch of pictures and a few short descriptions with you all.

I already told you a little about mate in the first entry, but here is something new! Tereré. It is a Paraguayan drink. The real stuff is the mate yerba (tea leaves) with ice cold water and a little bit of mint leaf. My host mom showed me a new way to do it that I cannot get enough of on hot days: with juice. so refreshing!

with medialunas 

Milanesa, something very porteño-thankfully it exists in Uruguay too. Milanesa a la napolitana is the best, it has ham, cheese and a tomato sauce. riquisima! I actually did learn the story behind this one in school the first week I was here. Apparently a man at a restaurant ordered a regular milanesa and the chef´s assistant burned it, so he covered the mistake by adding the toppings and served it to the costumer, who loved it! (photo credit: google images - http://ar.letsbonus.com/buenos-aires-centro/milanesa-napolitana-fugazzetta-o-capresse-p-2-213789)

Medialunas, aka sweet crescent rolls, perfect for any time of day, but i have them every single day for breakfast with dulce de leche (a wonderful concoction, like the south american version of nutella or peanut butter but with a flavor of its own)

the cafe´s here are beautiful, there are so many and each one is unique if you get outside of the chain one´s like Havannah, Cafe Martinez and Starbucks. 

 

Pastafrola and Sopaparaguaya, two Marí specialties that get me drooling. Pastafrola is a sweet pastry that you can fill with plum, apple, or sweet potato type fruits. We eat this for breakfast or Merienda. Sopaparaguaya is made with eggs, vegetables, cheese and flour. I really can´t compare it to anything in the US, but she taught me the recipe so hopefully I can do it justice when I return! 

Here´s a fun fact: apparently Buenos Aires has the only Kosher Mcdonald's outside of Israel. I don't know if that's true or not, but after passing three Mcdonald's and eating at one of them plus a kilo of ice cream for four, we didn't have room for another meal once we finally found this hidden treasure. I plan to return and actually eat something that follows all the dietary rules of the Torah just to say I did it.

welp, that is all i got for now! there will probably be more to come...

parent's visit

hey everyone!

I guess its about time to update this thing....

This is the last week in Buenos Aires before stage two of this adventuring thing. Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of class, an oral final that will only last about 4 minutes, Saturday is a ballet performance by Gulia, José and Marí´s grandaughter, Monday night I take an overnight bus for Montevideo, Wednesday night Laura and Victoria fly back to the US. It really doesn't seem real. The truth is I spent the entire afternoon practicing for the final and watching Spanish youtube videos to practice my pronunciation and learn what the youth are saying these days, It was kind of pathetic.

OH! One pretty sweet thing, my parents visited last weekend for a few days. Dad was only able to stay for the weekend, but Mom and I enjoyed the easy life sitting by the hotel pool and walking around and just catching up on life and being friends. That's one thing I like about growing up. The first night we went to a wonderful restaurant called El Establo and my parents got to experience the inconsistency of nighttime public transportation matched with my lack of any sense of direction, but, in the end, we made it there and enjoyed wonderful food and probably the best service I've had at a restaurant. The waiter was actually from my neighborhood, which was kinda cool. (Ever since serving this summer I evaluate every restaurant I go to... watch out world. :)

Saturday we went to La Boca, one of my favorite neighborhoods and actually quite touristy where we went which is called El Camino.  It is full of colors and art and has a really relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed our time chatting with Laura and Victoria. La Boca has a history of Italian immigrants and one of the two opposing soccer teams (River and Boca are the two mortal enemies of Buenos Aires futbol.) Because of this, you can just taste the passion in the air <- how poetic. But its true. I want to get to know better the people that live and work there, what life is like outside of the touristy hours.
 

One of my favorite parts about their visit was Sunday night when they came to the apartment to have dinner and I got to play the part of translator. I LOVED doing this. Something about helping people understand each other, who wouldn't be really able to know much about each other's lives otherwise is freakin' awesome. I loved having the chance to explain cultural things to both sides and practicing thinking on the spot of translations. this also showed me how much more I have to learn in Spanish. It was  a lot easier to take the Spanish idea and turn it into English than the other way around. The other thing about translating that I realized is the responsibility to do it correctly, to get across exactly what someone wants to say. You are influencing one person's perception of another based on what they say. This is crazy to think about. It inspires me to want to improve my Spanish even more. Besides this, it was also sweet to be able to see the love and respect that both sets of parents had for each other without really saying it. My parents left a little more assured that I was in a good place and my host parents got to know a huge part of my life at home.

 

The whole idea of this thing we call FAMILY is actually pretty special. Nothing is perfect but I am SO thankful for what I have.

Amigas

Sorry it has been forever folks!

I will try to write about a few different things in the next few days to give you all an idea of what has been going on.

In this section I want to share how thankful I am for my fellow adventurers Laura Dewlen and Victoria Gimben. We are the three musketeers from Grace College in Buenos Aires. Experiencing life here with them has been an incredible blessing. We are sharing similar struggles as well as similar joys. It's amazing what relationships form simply from sharing the same moments. There are feelings and experiences and language/translation jokes that few people here or at home would understand, and their support and friendship has been irreplaceable.

Victoria has been here about 3 months longer than Laura and I. Seeing where she has been in language learning and how she has grown and what she has experienced in the 2 months we have been together has helped me a ton. She is so transparent with her life and language learning struggles, and that has been a huge blessing to me. I know when I feel depressed or like I have not learned anything that she went through the same thing, and she survived. Seeing how far she has come gives me hope when I feel down. Besides this she has been a huge help in the student visa process, as well as much needed comic relief. :)

Laura has been my classroom buddy through all of this. We have been going through intensive grammar courses, 3 hours a day 5 days a week, along with our class of 10 other Americans. This girl has been with me step by step, studying and helping and pushing and watching over me, basically being responsible in all the areas where I am not. I would have been quite lost without her many times, literally. Thank the Lord she has a better sense of direction than I do. As part of our requirement for being students for Grace we are supposed to be speaking only Spanish all the time, and Laura is a pro at being disciplined and keeping our conversations in Spanish.

Vic and Lau, you are so loved I could not have made it this far without you.

Weekend in Montevideo

Last weekend I made a visit to Montevideo, Uruguay to meet the family that I will be staying with during the upcoming summer break (or winter break up north). This was a wonderful experience. For one, it was my first time really traveling alone internationally. I took an omnibus from Retiro, BA in an 8 hour overnight drive to Montevideo, the capital of neighboring Uruguay. I had been emailing pastor Mark for a few months before this weekend but had not actually met the Richline family. I had no idea before coming just how good and how eye-opening it was going to be.

I arrived smelly and exhausted Friday morning at the bus station and the first thing I saw was Jeni with a sign with my name on it and welcoming hug. Accompanying her were the two youngest kids Julia (12) and Isaiah (10). There had been a little confusion about the time difference (Argentina doesn't have a time change, as opposed to the majority of the world) and they had been waiting there and hour extra without any contact information or knowledge of what I even looked like. As she was recounting to me all that she had done to find out about where the bus, I knew it was going to be a good weekend.

Because it was reformation day and the kids all go to a christian school, they had the day off and I was able to spend Friday getting to know them a little bit. Sabrina (16) and Josh (14) are the other two. Sabrina and I hit it off pretty quick and I soon began learning about some of the struggles and joys of being a missionary family completely removed from a normal suburban life in California and transplanted 6400 miles south to what has been called the most secular country in the world. To read a little bit about their story in more detail you can find their blog here: richlinesrock.blogspot.com

One of the things that amazes me the most about this family is how united they are in their purpose of being in Uruguay. They know that they were called to give up their life in the US and as a family they serve God in their church in Uruguay. Another thing that really made me happy to be with this family was when I heard about their method of getting involved in the culture change. When they first arrived it would have been very easy for them to be comfortable, live in a more wealthy, American-like neighborhood and get help from other expatriates from the US. Instead, they chose to rely on the family of the other pastor of the Presbyterian church in which they would be working. Mauricio and Sandra are Brazilian and speak Portuguese and Spanish, but little or no English that I know of. Mark and Jeni decided to take the harder route and live in a Uruguayan house and neighborhood instead of an expat neighborhood and got to build a strong bond with Mauricio and Sandra by asking them for help in the new culture, despite only a year in Costa Rica of Spanish language training. This amazes me. It also lines up with so much that I have learned in my intercultural studies classes at Grace about how to immerse oneself in the culture of the people with whom you are working and serving. When in a new culture it is so important to identify oneself with people so better feelings of trust and codependency can be established. This kind of immersion is also the goal of Grace's study abroad program. As students we live with only Spanish speaking host families and try to only speak Spanish with each other, as well as eat and do other daily life things with and like our host families.

It was almost like a vacation to spend a weekend with an American family like this. We spoke English (sorry Profe!) and reflected on and joked about all the cultural differences between life in the US and life around the Rio de la Plata. Saturday morning we also had waffles! (the first breakfast besides medialunas that I have had in months... they even had syrup that a new missionary family had brought!) The connection I felt with them was amazing. It was also indescribably awesome to have psuedo-siblings after spending 2 months as an only child living with grandparents. While I absolutely adore Maria and Jose, I didn't realize how much i missed sibling interaction. Two weeks before I visited the Call family had also arrived in Montevideo, They had spent a few years in Mexico and a southern California border town before coming south. I am looking forward to getting to know them better as well.

Sunday I was able to witness the baptism of one man and three people officially becoming members of the church. This was really cool to watch. I have no idea what my role will be in this church when I return, but I am pumped to have the opportunity to serve them.

Sunday night came around and I was not ready to leave this beautiful family yet. Thankfully, God had other plans as well, and because of a mistaken date on my bus ticket, I got to surprise the family and stay another day hanging out in their house doing homework that I would not have had time to do had the original plan happened. This extra day was such a huge blessing. I already love this family so much and feel so incredibly welcomed and loved by them too.

During the three months that I will be in Montevideo, the Richlines will be spending 4 weeks in the US (the first time in 2 years) and Mauricio and Sandra and their family will be leaving for furlough in Brasil. This leaves the members of the church in Montevideo, me and the recently arrived Call family. This is a huge prayer request, that God would make it clear what my role, and the role of the Call family is going to be in this church while they two original pastors are gone. Please pray for God's grace in giving us humility and clarity in this situation.

Thank you everyone for all of the little notes of encouragement, I even received a few birthday cards from halfway around the world! Your prayers and thoughts are so appreciated!

Besos,
Allison