Week 8

Monday –  Our final day off was relaxing before the busy week in front of us. As it was the last week we invited a small amount of people to try scones and for them to teach us how to make emps. This small gathering ended up being half the church in our small living room. It was really fun being able to host for all those people but at the same time very tiring and chaotic going from 7 of us at home to about 30 or more.

Tuesday – boys had a haircut – girlies went to café. Boys went to play 5 a side football with students from the English school on an fancy astro-turf pitch.

Wednesday – this day was quite normal at the project and we started constructing a new wall for one of the bathrooms, Tim felt ill this day though he refused to admit it and still worked. He went home to sleep in the evening while the rest us went to our last annexo church, questionable singing even after 2 months of practice together we still can’t sing without Laughing (plus Natalie snorted down the microphone, which made everyone giggle).

Thursday – Tim went for a run with Maxi and woke up at 6:30 am. Got Daniel to prank call Catherine which woke the house duty team (the team were not happy at their interruption of sleep). As a treat to our builder we took Daniel to Wonber (lads favourite restaurant – cos burgers) Tim and James had mega burgers which were so messy that they gave us gloves to eat them 🙂

It was Marco’s brothers birthday, we invaded their house to eat all the cake and pizza. To end the evening we sang karaoke until they could stand it no more. Catherine and Nat screaming down the mic to timber was a highlight of the evening (they hit every note…. Along with a bunch of other notes I’ve never heard before).

Friday – last day at the project, the boys didn’t wake in the morning and thus were rudely awaken by girls! James flew his  drone along the river and then INTO the bridge – don’t worry, the drone is still okay. There were many builders at project and lots of work done apart from team members who started a massive water fight, at the end of the working day Rosie, Izzy and Jakob came along to gift Daniel banana cake in the evening we ventured to Tartagal fun fair which made everyone nearly sick, but Catherine loved it. Left eating candy floss yum! Went to asado restaurant, where we had AMAZING STEAK seasoned to perfection!!! Went home to sleep after big meal.

Saturday – Meridero in the morning, gave children 60 pastries, did drawing of prodigal son parable played football. Me and Jakob went shopping, while rest of team started packing and cleaning. Me and Jakob bought flowers for Paula, Mati, Marco and Noellia. Me (Tim) and Jakob cooked dinner (which was delicious) whole team went visit the project, which was finished and had the roof on!!!! Took many photos Mati and Paula Marco and Noellia arrived and were very pleased! Did project evaluation questions with Mati and Paula. Wrote testimonies of our time here in Tartagal went to church, spoke in front of church and sang ‘Hay Liberdad in la Casa Dios’ – which is my favourite song, church played an emotional video on the big screen about the past 2 months of us being here. took photos with the whole church, surprise food party with lots of meat yessssssss carne carne carne!!!

Sunday – Woke up early-ish, went to Anglican Church of Mati’s parents, met one of our first English born Tartagal residents and had a lovely chat. Played table football, girls won. Went home to do a bit of packing. Went to Marco’s house for lunch, had chicken and ice cream! Back home to speed pack and clean the house, some friends for church came over (with 2 small boys) which created some fun havoc to make our packing afternoon even more chaotic 🙂 Maxi came over to help up clean and wash up! Went out to eat take away milanesa, hot dogs and chips. Then church in the evening, but we were 5 minutes late and there were not seats!!! So we sat in the balcony which meant we got to talk to the men from the rehab centre, we were joined by some children from the merindero. We had communion at the church which was very different to what we were used to, as they would tear a small piece off their bread, sharing the blessing. After the service everyone wanted a photo with us all and it was quite emotional saying farewell to everyone we had the privilege of spending the last 2 months with. We had to leave church early unfortunately as we had to catch a 1am bus to Cafayate and still had lots of packing still to do. It was a miracle we all had our bags packed in time for us to be dropped at the station. At the station we were met with many friends and our STC’s and Marco and Noellia where we said goodbye and a prayed before boarding the bus to Salta ready for our holiday. Our bus was semi cama and very nice to sleep on, and Route 68 is one of the most scenic and beautiful roads in northern Argentina so most of our time was spent looking out the window instead of sleeping.

Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers for us all throughout our time in Tartagal.

We are currently on our holiday in Cafayate, Tarija, and Talcara before we travel to Trinidad for the next 2 months.

Prayers for safe travels the group to continue to grow with one another in faith would be lovely and that we’d be able to settle into our new project in Trinidad, Bolivia.