Happy first day of Spring!

This post will be brief as it's after 1 am already and there's been some lack of sleep in my life for over a week now. I've been traveling in Cordoba and Baradero and then the Delta, and I've got some great pictures I hope to post soon.

Tonight I'll just write about today. Ezekiel is an 11-year-old boy who came to an children's event at church a few weeks ago and has been enthusiastically coming to church ever since. I met him that first Sunday since he rode to church with Bill and Annie and me. This Sunday we rode to church together again and then after Sunday School went out to Maximo Paz, a campground, to celebrate the first day of Spring. This is a big event here and is also called "Students' Day." There were about 3000 young people at the campground. Bill and Annie had lots to do, so I hung around with Ezekiel. He eventually found a group of people who would let him join their soccer game, and I'm no expert but think he's really good. In one of our conversations he was explaining the school system, and mentioned that after high school there's college but he wasn't going to go. I asked him why and he said that he was going to be the goalie for River (one of the top two Buenos Aires rival soccer teams)! :-)

He asked me to photograph him while he played, and at the end of the day asked if I would print some of the photos and be sure to include one of myself (make me cry!). The Sinatra tune, "I fall in love too easily" is going through my head, but I have just met so many adorable kids here. Ezekiel is living with his great-aunt and some cousins. I don't know what the rest of his family situation is like, but I do know that he is a precious child of God and I had a wonderful time playing "Auntie" today.

Call

Boys in the Delta hamming it up for the stranger's camera (when Anne, the Canadian, was visiting with my supervisor)

I started my last blog with a quote from "The Office," since that's sort of how I was feeling before my supervisor's visit. Thankfully, she re-directed me to being aware of my sense of call and knowing who I really serve (not a mission board or a church or a supervisor, but the Creator of all things, slightly different focus).

I've been having some emotional and spiritual "good times" lately -- you know, those times that are like mini-deaths in that they require more release and giving up and sacrifice and death to personal dreams but which are really excellent because they take us closer and closer to seeing what is really real and worth living and dying for. I've been in Philippians 3 and 4 and Ezequiel 16 and Hebrews 12: 1 - 24 and Revelation 1 - 3. I've also been listening to some Alanis Morissette songs, and particularly enjoy "Head over Feet," "All I Really Want," "Everything,"(warning, there's a swear word in it) and "Thank U." (These links take you to the lyrics, the videos/music are all on YouTube.)

So, besides super-deep spiritual reasons, why am I here? It's a change in profession (again), geography (again) and friendships (again), but here's someone I've fallen for:

The other day in the Delta there was a boy, Jose (not his real name), who was really sweet during our Bible story, but the other kids said he couldn't write yet (he showed me a paper of his that had mock letters on it). Then later he was ornery, sitting alone at lunch and using an orange as a ball. He didn't respond to me telling him to stop with the orange, and Daniel went to talk with him, but he still was just ornery.

His mother was helping out in the kitchen that day and was really helpful, cleaned the kitchen of the feeding center amazingly well. Later on over mate tea Monica tells me that she doesn't know which came first -- Jose's learning disability or his mistreatment at home. She says that his mother once tied him to a tree outside and left him in the rain.

It's just incredible what these kids go through, and what the parents probably went through before them. God, shine your light here!

Visitors

"Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it's not like this compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised." Michael Scott from The Office (but actually swiped from Gabe VanD's Facebook profile).

My supervisor was in Argentina for the past week, which was great. I learned a lot from her and have more ideas and understanding and increased vision for what to do the next several months. I was also really just encouraged by her presence, her passion, and 20+ years doing similar work, primarily in Haiti, then the Dominican Republic and now also in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil among others.

I'm off to Baradero - Cordoba - Baradero this afternoon. Baradero is 100 miles from here (3 hours for me) and it's on the way to Cordoba. I'm starting to go to Baradero weekly to accompany the team there. In Cordoba I'll be attending and speaking at a missions conference in addition to leading a workshop with some young people on planning "seed projects."

So, I don't have much time so I'll just write some random thoughts:

• Spring in Buenos Aires means that no longer to I get to enjoy seeing the little neckerchiefs worn by the very Latino men here. Very sad.
• Speaking of Latino men, the other day I was called "doll" and "beautiful." The first time was when I walking through the downtown central train station at 6:00 am and a man with a cigarette between his lips and his arms full with a mate gourd and thermos said (in Spanish), "Hey, doll." Can you picture it? The second was at the fruit and vegetable stand I go to. You can't pick the produce by yourself most places here, and one of the guys there always says, "'Bye, beautiful," after he helps me. :-)
• Argentina's a late night kind of place. I knew this, but it was still surprising to see how empty (almost completely) the train was going downtown at 5:15 am on a weekday. Once I got downtown and was outside the train station there were plenty of people. It was still dark, but some of the vendors had fires going in cans or coals in grocery carts which they used to heat up the bread products they sell. And everyone was carrying a mate gourd and thermos. Horacio tells me that poorer people drink a lot of mate here. They add sugar to it which, along with the caffeine, takes away some hunger pains.
• And, speaking of night time, the picture above is from the finale of a tango show I went to with my visitors on Saturday night. It started after 10 pm and finished about 1:20 am. Shortly after 2 am we were on a main street in my neighborhood where there were people walking, waiting for buses, and hanging out.
  

Spring has sprung!

Going out to the Delta on Saturday it was obvious that spring is here -- the weeping willows have beautiful light green leaves coming out and there are more flowering plants and trees than before. Winter was still relatively green here, though -- the hibiscus and bougainvillea stayed flowering and the eucalyptus trees keep their leaves.
An ideal moment in the Delta -- the older kids helping the younger ones. The latest youngster to come to the feeding center is little Alex, 20 months old. Of course, ideally they would actually be eating this lunch at home with their families, so we've got a ways to go to see lasting development rather than relief projects here.

Little Kevin (no longer the "baby" at the feeding center) and Erica, with whom I put together some puzzles.

This is Anne, who went to high school with my supervisor's husband back in Nova Scotia! She stayed with me this past week and took the photos of the kids you see above. She's off traveling for awhile but will be back this week.