Second week in Argentina

Second week!

This week we started our building project, however unfortunately due to a lack of materials and some rain, we didn’t start until Thursday.

However, this meant that we had a few more days to settle in. Indeed, on Monday me, (Jakob) Tim and James played some football with 2 new Argentinian friends we met at the wedding the previous week called Maxi and Brandon. They also introduced us to a different type of maté (as explained in the last entry) but with cold orange squash instead of hot water. Also, that evening our project supervisor Marco and his wife Noelle, kindly took us out for ice-cream.

It was on Tuesday where it started to really rain, which was a welcome break to the heat. Therefore we stayed at home all day playing various card games and we all enjoyed spending time with each other. That evening we all went to a prayer meeting at the church, which I am sure was interesting, however due to the language barrier, most of us didn’t understand what was being prayed for…

Wednesday was a similar story, it was raining so we once again played card games, and watched ‘Pitch Perfect’ on James’ iPad! In the evening this time, we went to a different smaller church for a service. Like the other church they had the cool dancers at the front with tambourines, while we sang the songs.

On Thursday it was project time! Our project involves building classrooms and a kitchen to extend the church. Luckily for us, the building had already been started by a previous team, so the foundations were all put in place, and the walls half built. However because the site hasn’t been touched in two years, we spent the first day chopping down small trees with a machete, and weeding. Tim particularly loved using the machete!

We also spent Friday morning at the building site, where we started to construct the scaffolding. Marco took us to a pizza restaurant in the evening which was really good, and a nice change to our home cooked meals, which to be fair have been pretty good.

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of meeting some kids at a club. We sang a song (Our God is a Great Big God), did some colouring in, and then some of us played a big game of football, and the others brought out a parachute and played games with that. It was a wonderful experience, and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves.

For Easter, we went to the morning Church service, where Rosie gave a small talk in Spanish. We then went to Marco’s for lunch where he cooked some delicious meats – chorizo, chicken and beef. And in the evening service we performed another song, and made an attempt at a drama, upon returning home we played some Jungle Speed which eventually turned into an indoor water fight (don’t worry we cleaned up).

To summarise, I think we have had a very successful and productive week. We have further bonded as a team, and have gotten started on the project work, even if it was delayed, along with other activities with the church, so thank you for your prayers so far.

It would be AMAZING if there could be prayer on continuing the project, sourcing the materials, keeping energy levels high as it allows us to continue enjoying the new culture and meeting new people!

¡Gracias!

Jakob, Tim, Catherine, Rosie, Izzy, Natalie and James.