Thoughts on Week 1

So it has been exactly one week that I have been in Argentina!! It took a plane ride from Raleigh to Atlanta then a ten hour plane ride to Buenos Aires. After that we went throught the passport line and customs line. With 31 people, the process took a little longer. It was also a new expierence traveling internationally, very overwhelming. Immediately we met the Stinters(people who live here for a year or two) and figured buses out. To sum it all up, it was hectic and to much to take in. Project is staying in a hotel, I have three roomates from SC and TN. It is in the middle of downtown, near public transporatation and a restraunt we requent called Scuzi. But all of these details are unimportant compared to the big picture of why we are here. As a project, our vision is to reach students on campus and build relationship with them. Also in this, reaching people who will continue on and carry our vision once we leave. This has been difficult in the past, so we hope our team can do better at building sustainable relationships. All of that being said, I want to talk about the first week some to put some background in. The second day we were here we walked around the city some and practiced some safety things. Here, they wear their backpacks on their front so that people cannot rob them. Riding trains and buses is never a comfortable expierence because there are so many people on them. Walking aruond in large groups you have to be careful about how loud you are. Stuff like that, and then we went to an Asado. This is like a barbeque but with a variety of beef and some chicken. It is a dinner where the beef is brought out tray by tray until you are full. There was also salad at ours, but generally bread is the only accomplanyment. The third day there was some more breifing time where we went of social behavior and history of Argentina. This was a learning expierence because the people hold onto their past. They internalize the events and it becomes a part of who they are. In America, the population often does not value the history and finds their patriatism in sports and other activities. After that we went and got transit cards, I include this because it feels so unreal to me. I have a subte carta and I use it everyday. How incredible this expereince is! The group went to Cuidad Universidad in the middle of the week. We met the Argentine students there and paired up with them to go sharing. This was a new expierence because 60,000 students is a low rough estimate of the size of the student body. Sharing, which was going and asking student about their life and how they got to where they are, was an awesome expeirence. The students were so willing to share their stories and their culture with us. They wanted to include us and get to know us as well. Even the other students in Vida Estudiante(what Cru is called here) were so excited to build friendships with us. That day was a gift. Four students ended up accepting Christ that day, but the biggest accomplishment was seeing the team work as a group in traveling and supporting one another for the first time. The whole expierence has taught me so much already. That I can only rely on God, He is the only source that will bring me through. I am in a different country, getting used to Castello(the dialect of Spanish), traveling in large packs of gringos(term for Americans), all while totally clueless. He has kept us safe and held me close everyday. It is easy to get frustrated and annoyed at the situacions I am not used to or push my envelope a little bit. It is easy to want to give up already and say this is a little to hard to take. In reality none of that is true. Frustration comes from trying to control my own life plan and getting upset when it doesn´t work out how I wanted it to. Annoyance comes from not finding joy in all situacions handed to me. Yes, this expierence is hard, but in no way is it something to complain about. It is a blessing to come and talk to people and learn their culture. It is a blessing to be on a team with strangers and see how we become more like a family everday. As I am in the word and I am seeing what faith being put into action looks like, I would choose no other life plan. There are many other choices that are much easier and many paths that would bring me to crossroad where I could look my own strenght. But what is the point in that, where is the growth? Currently this spanish keyboard is making typing this difficult, but what a learning expierence to figure it out.