Empezamos

Penne the gatini (kitty cat) and I finally made it to Argentina. Our journey was a little rough after being hit early on with a delay in New York. Our flights got completely shifted and instead of going to Atlanta first, we went to Sao Paolo, Brasil. We left nearly four hours later than our original flight. We were excited though and just getting out of the airport was good enough for us. Penne slept on my lap most of the flight. When I would doze off, he ended up clawing on our neighbor's blanket a little as he tried to stretch out. I was embarrassed. We arrived in Sao Paolo in the morning and expected to wait three hours for our next flight. That was a mistake. Even though I knew the language of Brasil is Portuguese, I did not expect it to be as different orally from Spanish as it turns out to be.  This made listening for flight changes very intense and frustrating. Penne and I ended up being delayed another hour and a half. Finally we crossed the gate and took seat between two men. Nearly three hours later we landed in Buenos Aires.

We were greeted by the Country Coordinator for the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program. She and a driver from my future congregation guided me to our temporary housing in Buenos Aires, the home of the Vice President of Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unidas (IELU) and her husband a pastor and seminary professor. This family opened up their home to me because of Penne 'el gatini misionero.' I am thankful. They offered me a nice room with two spare beds. They have two full bookcases with libres en spanish, italian, french, and german. How impressive. I aspire to have a library like this.

My hosts speak to me in spanish. The world now speaks to me in spanish. My only break is when I am with the country coordinator. It's demanding and exciting. It feels good to know those five years in high school did not go to waste. Very quickly did my ear tune in to spanish enough for me to understand most conversations. In the same breath I become easily tired trying to explain myself. You realize very quickly what is important to you when you have a limited vocabulary and and audience of an attention span as small as your own. People are very patient and the reality is, after a while your opinion is not AS important (and that is totally Okay). When I get home or in a wifi area, I google more words so I can try to use them more often in conversation. Sometimes if I feel really silly about a conversation from earlier, I look up the words I could not translate. Por ejemplo, last night I was trying to explain the struggle of being a millennial in the U.S. trying to discern between ministry and other vocations. Clearly I made the ministry decision but for some, entering a job in a declining market is too unstable for them. I wanted to say "investing in an education for a career without a stable return on interest is crazy" or "to pay for an education for a job that can't pay you is silly." I did not know how to say invest, pay, career, or stable. That statement looked like me pausing a few times, retracting my words, and closing with "Como?" like "How Sway?" (<---U.S. Hip Hop culture reference)

This week so far my days have looked like me going to the Church Headquarters, spending my day with the YAGM coordinator, drinking cafe con leche o matte, and eating with my hosts. By the evenings, I come back to lay down with Penne and forget about the day. For a few minutes I am still speaking to him in spanish. Then I finally tune back to english. By this time I do not want to do anything. Estoy cansada. Just enough to be exhausted just looking at a computer or any of the books I have brought with me. Maybe next week? Penne sleeps all day but still finds a way to nestle around my toes and sleep with me. By the middle of the night, he moves for the end of my bed to the pillow and under the blankets with his tail in my face. Somehow he makes his way back to the edge before the sun creaks through the classic glass windows that face the street. This is definitely not what my term will look like all year. Rather, this is me becoming immersed into the cultura. I am practicing my Castellano and meeting important people of the church. Buenos Aires is slowly becoming familiar. It is feeling less like a vacation and more like a lifestyle.

Tomorrow the YAGM volunteers arrive. YAGM is a one year commitment for young people between 21-29 to serve overseas. Argentina/ Uruguay is one of the thirteen or so sights globally. This year there will be seven young adults serving this region. Unfortunately none or too close to me. I do look forward to training with them this week and starting this journey with others unaccustomed to Argentina. 

I am still in the midst of processing a lot of information, especially that of the history of IELU and its relationship with big sister ELCA. It is my hopes that in the near future I can properly describe this history to those unaware of it. After having an understanding of who both parties are will create some interesting components to what it means to be a missionary in Argentina. For now, abrazos from Penne y yo.

#ReclaimMissionary