They Welcomed me with Pizza

Greetings, friends!  I have just moved into what will be my home for the next eleven months.  After a week of orientation with the four other YAGM volunteers (Kjerstin, Emery, Andrea and Kevin) and our country coordinator Krystle in the federal capital of Buenos Aires, we departed for our respective destinations last Thursday.  Kevin had the farthest to go: a 14 hour bus ride to Oberá, Misiones, in the northeast near borders with Brazil and Paraguay.  Emery departed on the “buquebus” (ferry) for Montevideo, Uruguay, across El Rio de la Plata.  We three girls are staying in the province of Buenos Aires.  Kjerstin in the federal capital (the city itself), Andrea in Jose C. Paz, San Miguel, and me in Villa Ballester, San Martin.  Andrea and I are in what I would describe as first-ring suburbs of the city, but where I live is fairly urban in comparison to the suburbs of the Twin Cities.  Everywhere I look I can see high-rise apartment buildings, and I am just a few blocks away from the train station.  I will be frequenting that station in order to commute to El Arca, which is located in San Isidro, another suburb or “municipio”. 

I am living in a residence for women owned by the Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unida (The ELCA equivalent in Argentina).  The church offers the residence as an affordable housing option for single women of all ages, most of whom work, study, or both.  The residence is located right next to the church I will be accompanying this year, Santo Sacramento.  This morning I met some women from the congregation and helped them make the pizzas that the congregation always shares on Sundays.  They prepared a special small pizza for me to eat today.  It was scrumptious!

During my time as a volunteer here, I will help prepare for and carry out the activities that take place each Sunday at Santo Sacramento, with a focus on outreach work with children.  I am considering the possibility of forming a children’s choir, which does not yet exist.  I have no experience whatsoever in choral conducting, but I sure love to sing!

I learned today that the children who attend Sunday School here experience difficult circumstances at home.  They live in “villas,” or slums located something like a 10 mn train ride from the church.  The homes in the villas have been constructed with materials scavenged from the garbage such as tin and plastic, which makes it impossible for inhabitants to stay dry during the harsh winter rains.  The pastor’s wife told me with a heavy heart how sometimes the children arrive soaking wet, some of them without shoes.  For this reason, one of the church’s methods of outreach is to hold clothing drives.  The church also offers a free meal to the whole congregation on Sunday afternoons (the pizza I helped to make!) after worship, which has been a significant attraction for children from the villas.  Over time, however, Santo Sacramento has developed a much deeper significance for these children.  The congregation has fed them not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.  This church has offered them love and encouragement to pursue their dreams.  Of course, I am saying this based only on what I have heard second hand.  I hope to have a more genuine conception of the relationship as I gradually get to know and love the congregation.  

I would like to teach you an Argentinian table prayer/song that we have learned:

Bendice Señor nuestro pan

Y da pan a los que tienen hambre

Y hambre a justicia a los que tienen pan

Bendice Señor Nuestro Pan

Amen

Bless o Lord our bread

And give bread to those who are hungry

And hunger for justice to those who have bread

Bless o Lord our bread

Amen

When I reflect on this prayer, I find that it summarizes nicely Santo Sacramento’s mission.  They seek to feed the hungry and to inspire members of the congregation to promote justice, all under the auspices of God’s love.  Not too different from Mayflower’s philosophy, all things considered. 

When I’m not helping out at Santo Sacramento, I will be volunteering at the home and workshop of El Arca Argentina.  But I will leave those stories for the next post.  

¡Chao!