The Earth is His: Hogar de los Niños

Sandi, Brandy, and me with Pedro and a shy Nahuel.

After my first day at El Hogar de los Niños, which was Tuesday, I decided to walk part of the way home instead of taking a bus or subte (that’s what the subway is called here) the whole way. During my 25 block walk, I listened to a song called “The Earth is Yours” also by Gungor. I am one of those girls who listens to a song on repeat until I can’t listen to it anymore.
(Can you tell I am on a Gungor kick these days?)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4EPnM62O8A

I think my mind comes alive as I listen to music and I feel like God speaks to me often through song. I liked sharing “Beautiful Things” and the thoughts that it provoked in me a few posts ago…so I thought I’d give it another go.

Back to my walk home from the children’s home the other night…as I walked and listened, I people watched. I thought about the stern faces of people rushing past me. I thought about the homeless man with his dog, pleading for a few pesos. I thought about the reckless taxi drivers and the strangers I had been forced to be pressed against on the overstuffed subte. And I thought about the boys at the children’s home who I am just beginning to get to know and already love. I have only been here, in Buenos Aires for a little over 3 weeks now and already my heart for this place and those people has begun to be changed.

A halfway crowded and muy calor Subte...yep they pack em in like sardines. During rush hour there is literally no room to breathe. Eeek.

The neighborhood where I work that the children's home.

The lyrics to “The Earth is Yours” include:

“And now, it’s rising from the ground, hear us crying out…Holy holy, Holy holy Lord…the earth is yours.” Psalm 65:5-8 is a beautiful picture of what I think this song is trying to depict too.

Psalm 65:5-8

New Living Translation (NLT)

5 You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds,

O God our savior.

You are the hope of everyone on earth,

even those who sail on distant seas.

6 You formed the mountains by your power

and armed yourself with mighty strength.

7 You quieted the raging oceans

with their pounding waves

and silenced the shouting of the nations.

8 Those who live at the ends of the earth

stand in awe of your wonders.

From where the sun rises to where it sets,

you inspire shouts of joy.

Not only is the earth with its trees and oceans His, but we…THEY are His as well. I know that seems like a no brainer, but for me it was a beautiful and much needed revelation on Tuesday night. When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I was terrified. I quickly learned that I am not a big city girl and after hearing about some sort of scary safety issues, I walked with my teeth clenched, my eyes hard, and with my hands tightly gripping my belongings at all times. I didn’t want to be the naïve one that got robbed or taken advantage of. I was a little bit angry at, scared of, and assumed the worst of people that I did not even know. As I walked and listened Tuesday night, my hardened and cautious heart slowly began to soften toward the porteños de Buenos Aires. I locked eyes with several strangers and could not help but flash big smiles in their direction...(I think it startled the majority of them). I feel like it is easy for me to subconsciously think about and pray to my Jesus or the Jesus of the United States. But the ENTIRE EARTH belongs to Him. Every person that I have encountered here, no matter their current situation, is a child of the same God that I worship. We all deeply desire and are crying out to the same God, whether we know it or not. I so quickly forget, as I worry about my own well being, that my existence here on His earth is for the sole purpose of living a life that glorifies Him, sharing Him with others.

Brandy and me with one my favorite niños, Nahuel. Nahuel is 13 and gave me a sweet bracelet today!

SO, I am praying that God will use my time with the boys…who are more like teenagers than children…at El Hogar de Los Niños to bring glory to himself and that he will continue to soften my heart toward every porteño that I come into contact with during the rest of my time in B.A. I'm seriously blessed to be here.

Sending love from rainy Buenos Aires,
Katy

Alpargatas.

Look familiar?

These are Alpargatas.

If you are a TOMS lover, I’m sure you know that Blake Mycoskie is the guy who started the movement that is TOMS Shoes. You probably also know that he was abroad when he came up with the idea to create a company that would sell shoes, 1 for 1 in an effort to supply shoes for impoverished children. BUT did you know WHERE he was when he came up with his brilliant idea?

You guessed it! ARGENTINA!

The TOMS design is designed after the shoes worn by los hombres del campo (men from rural working class areas) in the olden days. Now these Alpargatas are sold at ferias (artisan fairs) and zapaterias (shoe stores) all over Argentina. They are still worn by many in el campo and become a big city trend too! Here you can buy them for about 12-15 US dollars!

Today I went to the Feria de Mataderos in a suburb about 45 minutes away from where I live in bustling Buenos Aires. I was so pumped when I found these shoes and though they aren’t TOMS, they are a really cool piece of Argentine history.

Other pictures from the Feria de Mataderos:  

Sweeeeet Traditional Dance. Today was the...125th (?) Anniversary of the Feria de Mataderos.

Candied apples with palomitas dulces stuck on. They sell sweet, almost kettle corn like popcorn at the movie theaters too! (I went to see Que pasó ayer? a.k.a. The Hangover 2 last week and tried the popcorn.)

 Coming up soon...My first day at the Hogar de los niños is on TUESDAYYYY! prayers!

Sending LOVE from the land of the TOMS and really cool ferias,

Katy

"You Make Beautiful [interesting] Things..."

This is a post about some of the downright interesting things that I have seen and learned since arriving in Buenos Aires.  The title is inspired by the fact that I’m listening to a little Gungor (“Beautiful Things” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7VOKQ0xJY) right now as I write this post and because a lot of the things I have seen and learned are interesting and different than what I am accustomed to, but undoubtedly BEAUTIFUL in their own way.

The first couple of interesting beautiful things are just sort of funny.

1.       My keys.

I have a skeleton key to get into my house! SO beautiful. But I have 4 separate keys for 4 separate locks to get into my house every time I come home! A lot to remember!

2.      The elevators in my apartment.

Super old school. It has got two manual doors one like a normal door and one that you slide open and closed and it is SO jerky!

3.       Palomas en UBA…pidgeons INDOORS at my University.

“Hey! How did you get in here?!”

  

4.       Estampillas…SO big and cool. I just like them!

5.       Dog walkers. 

Whaaaat?! Can you imagine walking that many dogs? Man, if I walked that many dogs in my neighborhood at home where you HAVE to pick up the poop…I don’t know what I’d do. Bibi told me that one of the exchange students she had for a semester in the past started her own dog walking business. I’m only here for 6 weeks or else I might follow in her footsteps.

6.       Pesos to dollars in Uruguay. 

Check out that bill! $302 for LUNCH?! The pesos in Uruguay and 18 pesos to 1 US dollar. You do the math.

And getting a little more serious…

7.       PDA. Public Display of Affection.

Worse that Portugal, AP 10 friends. No lie.  Everyone kisses here as a greeting, women and men alike!

8.       Brutal honesty.

Over dinner the FIRST night we met, Bibi’s niece (who is probably about 55 years old) pointed out that I have acne. She’s a nice lady…but in the US that just isn’t nice.

Ok the reason those two interesting beautiful things are a little more serious is because Bibi and I had a real talk over dinner about our cultural differences last night and I’ve been thinking a lot about it. I mentioned how I am not a fan of the excessive PDA and how in the states, being as honest as they are here is normally taken as just being kind of mean. Of course, I said these things making a strong attempt not to offend her and she wasn’t offended at all. But she did share with me some of the reasons why people in Argentina act that way and do those things. She said that they live life with vigor. They speak their minds and share what is on their hearts freely. They are honest because they care. They love to the full and are unashamed to show their passion for the people they love. She kept saying that  "todos vibran” which means to literally shake with emotion. Tonight she told me that we have this one life to live and that the ones we love will not always be here. NOW is the time to love them and to SHOW them we love them. She kept saying a little rhyme…

“Hecho son amores, y no buenas razones.”

Which basically means, according to Bibi… that love produces actions and there need not be any other good reason to show love but love itself. What is love if you are not moved to take action for the sake of it, if you cannot live without it?  

How BEAUTIFULLY interesting is that? You better watch out Mark…I might be down for some PDAAAA when I get home…eh, probably not. Haha.

But anyway, having talked about those things with Bibi, I got to thinking…what if, I loved Jesus that way. What if the way that Jesus loves me, loves us, fueled us to SHOW it in every aspect of our lives? What is love if we don’t SHOW it? If there is ANY love worth showing, it is the love of Christ; our lives should mirror it. We should love so recklessly that everyyyone can see it. PDA for Jesus, for real. 

This is from one of the grave sites at the BEAUTIFUL world-renowned cemetery in Recoleta, Buenos Aires.

Loving you for the sake of Jesus who makes beautiful interesting things,

Katy

  

An Uruguayan Blast from the Past:

This past weekend I went on a grand adventure to Uruguay. I visited two different cities, Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento. Both were so different than Buenos Aires and so beautiful. I took A LOT of pictures and I wish I could include them all here but this entry would go on forever! I much preferred Colonia del Sacramento over Montevideo so I’ll focus on the time I spent there in this little post! But quickly, Montevideo is one of the biggest cities in Uruguay and you wouldn’t know it because on Sundays it looks like a ghost town. I took the picture below to show how Montevideo literally STOPs on Sundays.

Ghost town Montevideo

This is the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. From the front of the bus from Montevideo to Colonia...I chatted it up with the bus driver.

  

[Back to Colonia…Picture yourself in a quaint colonial town in autumn. There was a light morning rain and the day is now overcast yet the air is cool and crisp. The brightly colored yellow, red, and orange leaves that crunch under your feet on the cobblestone streets make up for the lack of color in the sky…]

Ok now that we have set the scene, we can dive into the beautiful city that is Colonia. We kept referring to it as Halloween Town, like from the Disney original movie. It felt like it was time to carve pumpkins and drink pumpkin spice lattes…a personal favorite. When I asked for one at a coffee shop, I got a very strange look. 1. Because I didn’t know the word for pumpkin in Spanish at the time (calabaza in case you were wondering) and 2. Because pumpkin spice lattes just don’t exist in Uruguay or in Buenos Aires for that matter. I’ve found it interesting that I associate specific things from the states with types of weather. Even though it FEELS like fall/winter here, it is still June and July and Halloween and Christmas are far away.  

Anyway, we arrived in Colonia on Sunday night and stayed in a beautiful Radisson in the middle of town. Showering and sleeping in a hotel was quite a treat. We went to a restaurant called The Drugstore (shout out to Dad). It was such quirky, eclectic place with fun things decorating the walls. Dinner was delicious and frankly the amount of food was a little overwhelming. We had planned to go out after dinner but we all suffered food comas and crashed soon after returning to the hotel. 

Montez, Delaney, and Kenny across the table at The Drugstore.

Janet, a little bit bummed about the rain.

The next morning it did rain a little bit which was a bummer, but we made the best of it. I, being the rebel that I am (hah.), opted out of taking the walking tour around Colonia with our program and my friend Janet and I decided to take a tour of our own. We spoke with some natives in stores and restaurants and gathered some cool information that way. We took lots of pictures of the antique cars that decorated the streets and even had our own funny little photo shoot with a couple of the beautiful wooden doors paired with stone buildings. I wondered why Colonia gave me such dejavú and after talking to a waiter outside of a local restaurant I learned that Colonia del Sacramento is the only Portuguese colony along the Rio de la Plata. The houses are built in Portuguese style and resemble old Lisbon. I only spent a short amount of time in Lisbon, Portugal last summer during a layover, but this community reminded me SO much of the Island of Terceira that I fell in love with last summer. 

Check out those pensive shots...and the really cool houses of course! WAY more fun than a walking tour con un guia que no entiendes!

 

 AH! Forgot to mention some interesting cuisine that Janet and I tried in Colonia. It is called Tortas Fritas and it is just a big delicious piece of fried dough. You can only buy them from street vendors and they are SUPER cheap. 1 Torta Frita only costs 10 Uruguayan pesos. The Uruguayan peso is 18 to 1 to the American dollar, so it only cost about 55 cents give or take.  

YUMMM.

I was sad to leave Colonia and return to the big city on Monday night but Buenos Aires is where I belong for now. Colonia is only a 45 boat ride across the Rio de la Plata…so maybe I’ll go back! When I got back to Buenos Aires, I put my big city girl pants back on and ventured out to find a bus (there are probably about 300 hundred or more DIFFERENT bus lines to choose from) nearby that would get me from the port to somewhere close to my apartamento. I was successful in doing so and am now safe back in Buenos Aires.

Gracias por leer mis amores,

Katy   

The Cure for the Buenos Aires Big City Blues

Ayer fue un dia terrible, horrible, no bueno, y muy mal.

Just kidding...I'm not going to write in Spanish, though I REALLY need to practice. I kind of stink at it...eeek! But to translate, yesterday was a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" (to quote the title of the childrens book about Alexander and his very bad day). I won't go into the details but I will say I cried for an hour and a half with mi madre (Bibi). I was just exhausted, very very scared of Buenos Aires and the things that happen in big cities like this after the first day of orientation and I think I was missing home a good bit too.  I didn't realize that I'm kind of a small town girl!

BUT TODAY WAS SO MUCH BETTER!! Three great things happened today that cured my big city blues (for the time being):

1. I bought un teléfono!!
It is terribly important that I have one here, Buenos Aires being such a big city. Bibi wants me to be able to call her and tell her where I am...just like any mom does. And I want to be able to connect with students from my program so that we can explore together. Isn't it strange to think about the world before cellphones? How did people communicate? Danggg...we're SO fortunate to have that luxury! Anyway, I bought a pay as you go phone and only paid 100 pesos (25 dollars)!! That's the best deal that anyone in the program has gotten yet! Wahooo!

2. THEN, the craziest thing happened. I was walking home by myself 14 blocks (still scared of "el colectivo" or bus), when I ran into my friend Gabby. Gabby goes to UNC and is in Tri-delt! She has been studying in Buenos Aires since February and I didn't even know she was here. We ran into each other on a street called Santa Fe and as you can imagine, we were both really surprised to see each other. She asked me to go to a coffee shop with her and we sat and chatted for almost 2 hours. She gave me all kinds of tips, showed me how to read a map and how to get to where I need to be tomorrow AND the next day! We sipped café con leche and ate sandwiches; it was faaabulous. I told her today that she was truly a gift from God. In my terrified state, I needed a friend who knows the ropes and could speak to me in English about this place. I don't know why I worry and can be so impatient with the Lord. He has me in the palm of his hand and wants what is best for me and boy does He work in mysterious ways.

For the past few days I have been praying Psalm 86 and have been really encouraged by how God is constantly loving, PROTECTING, and pursuing me. The beginning of the Psalm says:

"1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need you help.
2 Protect me for I am devoted to you.
Save me for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God."

Whew...AMEN!

3. And the last piece of the cure for the big city blues? Gabby took me on el subte!!
El subte is the subway and you know how scary it can be to venture down into those subway tunnels in New York! We only rode from  one stop to another but that cut out 8 blocks of walking and after walking probably about 6 miles today while wandering, I needed a break! Now I'm not quite as scared of and confused by the subway AND I bought an extra ticket to use the next time I need to ride the subte so I can pass go! That will definitely come in handy!

Anyway, thanks for reading! I love you guys!
Praising God for a better day,
Katy

 

Mama Bibi and the House of Many Treasures

I'm here nowwwww...I made it to Buenos Aires safe and sound! In the taxi cab with driver Victor (who got a couple good laughs at my first attempts to find my linguistic footing) my heart was pounding out of my chest. I didn't know what my home stay was going to look like, how I was going to get inside, and exactly who would be waiting for me there. We spun around corners nearly sideswiping numerous other drivers, stopping and starting abruptly (and you know how I get a little car sick just riding around in Chapel Hill....eek). We pulled up in front of my apartment building and I clambered up the front steps and looked back at Victor, wide eyed. There was a big gold panel with a buzzer and lots of buttons one of which would call Bibi's apartment. But being a  relatively small town girl (compared to the ciudad GRANDE)...I've only seen those things in movies. Victor did his thing, called for Bibi and before I knew it I was shoved into a tiny elevator headed up to the 7th floor.

Then, I entered the house of many treasures!

Sidenote: I just told Bibi the title of my first blog post...she looooved it. And insisted that I say "tesoros antiguos" to let you all know these are ANTIQUES and this stuff is reeeal.

Here are a few pictures:

 According to Bibi, these beauuutiful, intricate pieces on the left are handmade from the colonial era in Argentina! And on the right are antique botellas. (Mom: they reminded me of the ones at the Seagate store...should have brought her one!)



This is a poster from New York during the time of Coco Chanel. Bibi has a few of these pieces and is fascinated with the fashion.

 This is una abanico antiguo (antique handheld fan) and Bibi says it is more than 250 years old!



Anyway, Bibi took me to my room and I got settled in as she whipped up some pasta with daaaank homemade sauce. We sat down to lunch together and she told me stories about all of the pieces on the walls in her sweet little home. She served me lots of food and I'm thinking that's going to be a trend. She looked dejected when she asked me if one piece of bread would be all that I would be eating...so much for shedding a few lbs. meh.

Going into this adventure, I felt very alone and prayed that the Lord would prepare my heart to be ok with that and to press into him amidst my lonliness. I'm normally not afraid to take a leap of faith but for some reason my nerves were getting the best of me and a cried so darn much before leaving the US...(i guess that's no surprise really...). I pleaded with God to help me to trust his divine purpose for me here.

I know He sent Bibi.
She has a warm presence and has welcomed me with open arms already. I'm excited to explore and make friends my age of course but if anything I know that I have a home away from home to return to. As she and I walked home tonight, arm in arm, I thanked God for the sweet new friend I have in Bibi and her house of many "tesoros antiguos".