Tucuman

On thursday we got off our bus (of 14 hours) and made our way to our new home for the next 5 days. The province of Tucuman has recently been flooded, and we came here to do what we could to help. We have been to different communities bringing bread and milk for children whose homes have been ruined. Its been quite an eye opening experience. Our hosts have been incredible, the hospitality, generosity, and kindness that we have been shown truly overwhelms me. Its so hot here that everyone takes a siesta from 1:30 - 4:30 in the afternoon...it is sooo great! we then usually eat supper at around 10 or 11pm. So, speaking of supper...In Latin America food is a form of love - what I mean is people show their love to you by preparing you food, and it is considered an insult not to eat what is set before you. Yesterday a hearty bowl of stew was placed in front of each one of us, and it did not take long to realize that somthing was very wrong...the stew contained massive amounts of meat which we learned was none other than ...cow stomach...I almost cried, it took me ten minutes to even pick up my spoon. But did I eat it? you bet I did!! can you say "character building"?¿?¿!! To be completely honest I am considering becoming a vegetarian once I come home!
that is all for now
ash

Outreach

The outreach phase of my school has finally begun, the adventure has started, and this means a number of things...I will be forced to live out of a backpack, sleep on floors, take many siestas!, use the little spanish I know, and meet new people everyday. Our team will be travelling around argentina for the next two months, volunteering, working in local churches, staying with families, and working alongside a group called "storytellers," helping them out with a documentary.
I cant even begin to explain how excited I am for this time...living in our apartment here in Buenos Aires reminds me a lot of the reality TV show Big Brother...I am with the same people all day long, and alliances have been made and broken...haha
Last weekend we stayed at a church and got to know some of the young people there, the three guys in the picture showed us around the city and we drank mate in the park!
On Monday we leave the city for good and will not return until the end of February for our graduation...
What are my plans after this??? Who knows! haha I know that doesnt give my parents peace of mind, but I am not too worried, I am sure I will figure somthing out in these next weeks.
I dont know when I will be getting to a computer anymore, I may blog, and I may not - but I still for surley would love emails!
ciao for now
ash

Uruguay, Christmas, and the zoo of course!

About two weeks ago my friends and I hopped on a ferry for three hours and found ourselves in Uruguay. We are all living here on tourist visas which means we have three months to live in the country, and in order to renew them we must leave the country and enter again. Uruguay was incredible; colourful, hot, and lots of beaches...in regards to a question I was asked before coming here...yes, YWAM does have a beach. haha.
so we all got very burned that day...and be "we all" I mean everyone except for me, I simply got golden brown, what can I say?...good genes I guess.

This is a Christmas photo taken in this super huge mall called Abasto...sigh, its one of the few places where one can find a Christmas tree...

On Christmas morning, which is the 24th here, a bunch of us woke up early and went to church. An english church to be exact, and well, I was shocked when everything was over and done with an hour later...definately wasnt a latin church!

On Christmas evening a few of us went to our leaders house for dinner...it was pretty good, but definately not a meal at Grandmas. People in this city eat dinner at 10pm or later...after dinner we went up to the roof of the apartment to watch fireworks. Everyone seemed to buy fireworks and were lighting them from all the apartments around us, it was quite the experience. The 25th however was kind of lonely, everything seemed to be over and done with...and I was left with nothing to do...my mom did send me the Little Mermaid dvd though, so that got me through...

Yesterday I went to the zoo...for the second time. Why? I do not know. I have never been an animal lover, never had a favorite one...but yesterday I think I may have found a creature that I could grow partial to...sheep. Yes, sheep. I think I stared at them for 20 minutes. They were so dirty and noisy and lazy and fat, well they were probably werent really fat, but needed their wool shaved....but I love them. My favorite animal.

Thats all the exciting news from my world...

Whats happening in yours?

ashley

HOT Hot hot

Wow. things have been C R A Z Y. My school went to this conference for the past two weeks...it was super hot, and super fun...There were over 600 people there, and over 28 countries represented...sooo amazing.

Here is a quiz.
have you ever....
slept for two weeks without a pillow?
taken a shower without a towel?
found a coakroach in your bed?
I HAVE.

So picture this...hottest day of your life...hundreds of people around a pool...

I got baptised last friday!

it was incredible.

I made lots of new friends in the past few weeks...the girl next to me - her name is Jenny. She is the funniest person i have ever met, i am absolutely serious. jenny jenny jenny...

Well...Christmas is coming, and im not too sure what i think. It definately doesnt feel like Christmas...and im going to miss going to Grandmas house. But I truly am having the best time of my life. I am learning so much about who I am and about this world we live in.

so as always, email me.
its so good to hear from home!
-ashley

Two blogs in two days

I would like to introduce you to a drink called mate (pronounced "maw-tae")...it's this funny tea that everyone, and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E drinks around here. Let me explain...there is a small round cup and a long metal straw, as you can see in the picture. The mate tea goes in the cup, then hot water and sugar goes on top and you suck it through the straw. This drink is for sharing - the person with the mate drinks it, refills it from their handy thermos and passes it to the next person...this process can go on for hours, or until the hot water has run out. It's more of a social event than a simple cup of tea. You can see people almost anywhere with their cup and thermos...people working in stores have their mate behind the counter, people sitting on the subway sharing a cup, people in the park...and believe it or not I saw two police men sitting in a police car drinking...yes you guessed it...MATE!!!!





I often find myself in coffee shops these days, and I must say that getting a cup of coffee here is quite exciting. I had this cup today, all I ordered was "un solo cafe" it cost four pesos (a little over $1)...so the waiter guy brings: two cookies, water in a pitcher, a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice, AND my coffee!...What and experience! and you get all this stuff everywhere you go!!!


P.S................................

My baby brother matthew turns the big ONE SIX on novermber 22...be sure to wish him a happy birthday! Love you matty!!!

Ashley

The Good Samaratin

Okay...this is lame, I havent posted a blog in almost a month!!! sorry...so much has happened and I never seem to get to a computer. Well I have a story...
So my leaders, Helen and Christian were walking home from our base one night when they ran into this man…He looked frightened and exhausted and he asked them for help…He told them how he had never been in the city before (buenos aires)…he had been working in the jungle for 3 months…12 hour days for only a few pesos…his employers decided to pay after six months or something….so this man had NO money.
He was travelling back home because he had just received news of his sons death, he had been bitten by a poisonous snake and didn’t make it…
Carlos, this bewildered man was trying to find his way through the city – he had never even seen a taxi before…he had no money and was not sure how he was going to get to his home in the country….All day he had been asking people for help, but the streets of Buenos Aires can be very cold.
Helen and Christian knew that they were to help Carlos….so they got a taxi and took him to the bus station and bought him a ticket, they also sent him some money and contact information (they couldn’t get his phone number because he doesn’t even have a phone)
A few weeks ago Carlos called again, he was once again in Buenos Aires, he had been in the hospital because of a heart attack, the stress from his sons death most likely caused it…..he had once again no money and no place to go…We as a school prayed about what we should do, we weren’t sure if this man was really in need of help or if he was now using the generosity of Helen and Christian to his advantage…in the end we decided to put together any money or clothes or things we felt we should give to Carlos and once again sent him on his way………This poor man seems to have one bad thing after another happen to him, if you could keep Carlos in your prayers that would be great.

Ashley

School...

People have been asking me “how are your classes?” “What are you learning?”...Well this blog shall explain all of that. I didnt really know what to expect when I came here. All I knew was that I was enrolled in a dts (disciplship training school) that was focused on mass media communications. Now that might not mean anything to you, so I will elaborate. YWAM´s slogan is “knowing God, and making Him known”...So everyday I go to lectures...a lot of them are kind of like a bible study...we have a different speakers daily. Some of the speakers have worked in the media before...Veronica spoke to us last week, she used to work for a newspaper in the States...She talked about how important it is to know who we are in Christ before we can become effective communicators to others, it was a really interesting perspective. Along with these times of study we have times of evangelism. I always thought evangelism was handing out flyers on a street corner about how much YOU need Jesus....and I hate that. But that is not the case at all... In Buenos Aires there are over 3,500 street children. They have to make money anyway they can.....on Friday nights we go out to some common areas and bring food and clothes and just play with these kids. I was really intimidated with the fact that I dont speak the same language. But Ive been learning that the language of love is somthing everyone understands. Ya, so along with these two components of my school there is finally the Media aspect...in some ways we do everything with a media focus, whether its photography, writing, projects, etc...in Januray and February our team goes on outreach, our project will be making a documentary...yes, a real documentary! So we`ve been taking classes focusing on that as well...anyways, thats all I have to say for now. Email me! I love emails!...and if you have any questions, just ask!

ash