A 23 hour bus ride, making an old Mendocino friend on the bus who works in agriculture, and several Argentine provinces later, I arrived in Tucumán. I left my heart here last year and I came here to pick up the pieces. ; ) Pablo Lopez, Yanina, Pastor Jorge y Josué came to pick me up. Pablo greeted me with a bag of cookies and a hug.Pastor Jorge dropped me of at Victor and Norma's home for the night because they were still renovating and fixing up their home for my arrival. Their two daughters were into making bracelets, so I joined in on the fun and made one for myself. And afterward I helped them make empanadas because Norma sells empanadas on the side. I think it is a common way for people to make some extra money.
That night I also went to IBM's midweek Bible study at Doña Maria's house, where I saw a bunch of people from the church (~30). It was the funniest when Virginia arrived, and greeted everyone one-by-one, giving the Argentine kiss as usual. When she got to me after about 15 people, she kissed me and then did a double take upon seeing me. She was rather shocked that I suddenly showed up at Wednesday night Bible study. It was a sweet reunion :)
Norma invited me to go to the women's Bible study for the new believers of the church. She taught at someone's house and the woman's hubby was such a gentleman as he made juice for us and poured it for us. Juice in Tucumán is like the Chilean stuff--sold in powder packets. Mmmm artificial and processed. One thing I missed about USA was definitely the fresh juice sold in the markets. Anyway many people from the church also knew of my arrival in Tucumán, so the 20-something-year-old girls of the church, Mariana and Eva, invited me for Grido Helado. =) Marta accompanied me for safety after the Bible study for the new believers. Afterward, I insisted on taking the Tucumán bus for the cultural experience, and they thought it was hilarious how badly I wanted to take it. We originally were going to get off after one stop, but we still had a lot of time so we took the us all the way to Centro, downtown Tucumán and walked around and window shopped. I saw a lot of Floggers, which apparently is the Argentine version of the Chilean Pokemón.
I arrived the next day at the Ahualle house. I had never been there before, so I was surprised at the cleanliness and coziness of their home in Yerba Buena. I gave them a tapestry I had bought in Punta Arenas from a Ecuadorian Quechua (I struck up a conversation, and he gave me a good deal. Woo hoo!). Norma was so happy to receive the gift and told me God knows the petitions of our hearts; she had been hoping to buy a tapestry herself but couldn't because it's expensive...and in came me with a tapestry for her home! =)
My first day at casa Ahualle.
And they entertained me with some songs =) That bookcase is what Pastor Jorge calls his library. They're mostly books LBC gave to him during the missions trips.
Pastor Jorge agrees with my jersey.
Then Pastor Jorge took me, Norma, and Josue to San Pablo, a villa of Tucumán for a children's program at Virginia's house. A villa is a shantytown, and the one in San Pablo is nestled between sugar cane fields and a dirt road with the mountain range closeby. After the children's program, we walked some of the children home and there were houses that didn't even have electricity. LBC evangelizes there too and I went there my 2nd year. Here are some of the kids from San Pablo. I think the girl in the pink is so cute. She looks kind of Asian.
Me and my very good friend Pablo!
Virginia, a very warm woman with a huge heart for evangelism. She opens up her house for 40 kids to hear the Gospel during the children's programs.
Then, the Sunday service was at the new IBM site! There was a run down structure in the front that needs to be destroyed. I wouldn't feel safe in it. Also, church usually starts at 10:30, but being in Argentina, we started at 11. Yay! Anyway, this is Aldana, one of the beloved girly princesses of the church. She's already 3, and speaking in complete sentences. It was weird.
Dario leading worship. Then Pablo (Natalia's husband) preached a message on the importance of influence. It reminded me of what Pastor John preaches telling us about the importance of discipling the younger generation.
Then, after the church service, a group of us stuck around at the church to chat and eat empanadas and sandwiches for lunch!!!! I forget who made it (well, I forget her name...the older lady with clear blue eyes) but they were the best empanadas I'd eaten in Argentina!
Norma wanted to take a pic of me alone with the empanadas...giving a false illusion that I'm an endless pit of empanadas. Nooooo! But man did I miss Argentine empanadas...regular Chilean ones off the street are really bad...
Darío and his 6 children came by church to chat and hang out, and Darío and his Von Trapp singing family sang for us :) I like Eunice, this little girl right here. She's so stinkin' cute and she sings even though she's about 4 years old. Or older? I dunno.
Tucumán that week was HOT. I would wake up in the morning in my own sweat. It also didn't help that during the night I was eaten alive by mosquitoes and other unknown creepy crawlies. When I talked to people, I'd be scratching at my legs until they bled or until the skin was scratched raw. And the bugs worked their way to my thighs and hips too! (My formerly blemish-free legs are now scarred with bite marks. It looks pretty bad like I had some skin disease or something so I'm reluctant now about wearing skirts or shorts. Uhh...could I live in Tucumán like this? Pastor Jorge kept on joking that the mosquitoes like chinita blood. Jaja.) Couple this with Tucumán summer=baaad. But God was gracious and that Sunday, the wind started blowing really strongly sweeping up dust and papers...and then RAIIIIIIN! It poured and showered and it was glorious. This is me and Josué in the back of the car leaving church after it started raining.
We went to Doña Maria's house again. That was probably the 3rd time that week I was there. We sat in the back patio, Pastor Jorge playing guitar and me recording the show on my camera, and Josué's cousins were around too. In the back of Pastor Jorge is Lucas, who asked me a lot of questions about USA.
I also discovered that Pablo Lucero (middle) was taking English classes at a language institute! So I was the English convo leader as I led conversations with Pablo y Pablo so they could practice speaking and listening. : ) It was fun! Who would've thought a chinita could be an Engrish teachuh? What a funny sight to behold.
And this little girl, whose name I do not know, is learning English in school too. She got to speak some, which was cool to know that Tucumán schools are implementing English education at a young age.
Really bad picture of me and Cristian, but Marcelo and Silvia's family invited me over for an asado to celebrate 3 things: 1) Return of Pablo Espeche 2) Fabiana's boyfriend was staying at their home 3) My visit. I helped Marcelo make chimichurri and I cried cutting the onions. I ate too much asado and was full the entire day.
On the 23rd, church was having a Christmas service followed by a potluck. I wanted to contribute something so I made arroz primavera. I didn't know how to do a lot of things, such as cooking rice in a pot and stuff, but Norma helped, and this is our wonderful result.
Chop chop! I miss Argentina supermarket prices, especially on beef. It was $3 a pound. That's hard to find in USA. I spent in total only $11 on the entire arroz primavera. Norma also accompanied me to a verdulería to get the fresh veggies. A verdulería is like a vegetable store that operated from a home in the middle of the 24 de septiembre neighborhood. Norma said she liked that verdulería because they have really good quality veggies. It's a tiny little shop, so being a non-Argentine I stood out quite a lot. The veggie vendor asked me about where I was from, etc. etc. because I'm just so gosh darn interesting!
Looks great, no? I think the red serving bowl really brings out the colors of the veggies (all fresh ingredients!). It was kind of icky though when I suggested we buy paper plates so that everyone could have their own eating plate, bu Norma told me that everyone was bringing finger foods an that it wasn't necessary to buy it. In the end, she brought a few plastic spoons, stuck it in the bowl, and people just took turns eating out from that spoon. Shuddddder...germs...See? Even I have some hygienic standards.
Norma made some sanguichitos (little sandwiches). The bread is this huge sheet (bigger than 8"x11") of white bread with a hard crust. Norma just spread mayo, cheese, and ham and cuts it up into smaller pieces. They're simple yet addictingly tasty, los sanguichitos argentinos.
Since I had been in Tucumán randomly hanging around, I think a lot of people at church who did not know me were wondering why I was there. During church service and Bible studies people kept on mentioning that I was here and welcoming me. I decided to take this opportunity to share about my reason for being in Tucumán and how I love the church, my time in Chile, and a little about Lighthouse.
Then, after sharing and some time singing as a church, people went up to sing and perform. The night before the Ahualles took me to Darío and Claudia's house for a visitation. We had pan dulce (kind of like fruit cake, but spongier) and mate. We sang (something that usually happens when there are a lot of people hanging out together) and Claudia and Darío taught me a chacarero, a typical Argentine song, but this one I sang was with Christian lyrics. Kind of like Argentine country music, I suppose? I hate singing in public, but I wanted to encourage the church and humor them by seeing a chinita singing a chacarero argentino. Since I have no sense of tempo, I needed Darío to signal to me when the next verse started. The church indeed was humored, encouraged however I'm not sure...
Pastor Jorge made a joke afterwards about our chacarero singing trio, saying that our website name was "Chinita punto com punto turco medio punto Dario"=chinita.com.turco(medio punto)Dario because I am a chinita, Pastor Jorge is a "Turk" (although Pastor Jorge this is a racist term because he has Syrian and Lebanese heritage...but he don't care) and medio punto because Dario is short. Pastor Jorge also joked after the song that he and Norma had been praying to adopt another little girl ("little girl" in Argentine Spanish="chinita"), but God sent them an already grown one--ME! HAHAH.
Christmas Eve dinner the next day. More sandwiches! Norma made the main dish, which was matambre...juicy delicious oven-cooked beef. With roasted bell peppers and onions. DROOL JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
I took family portraits for them. Hehe. Josué's such a funny kid. He liked to make a lot of jokes at the dinner table. I needed a lot of explanation of the jokes because I didn't understand.
Then at midnight, the entire neighborhood set off fireworks. Josué set some off and I was a bit afraid that someone would blow off their fingers. Afterwards, we went over to Doña Maria's (again) where there were ~25 people sitting on her front yard in a circle just chatting and drinking soda (gaseosa in Argentina, bebida in Chile). Pablo Lucero and I talked about his school and what it's like, bad teachers, teenage pregnancy, what he learns, and what his academic passions are. The party ended at 2 or 3 a.m. Argentines stay up LATE. On the streets people set our their dining tables and chairs and ate al fresco on the sidewalk, drinking wine and playing loud cumbia music. What a Christmas experience to behold!
The next day, we went to a river with the youth group and the families from the church. I've never been to a river on Christmas day, and I sure wasn't used to not celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day. But hey, when in Argentina, right? So this river didnt look the cleanest, but the dudes went in anyway. Haha look at Pastor Jorge's face! The river was an interesting place to be with a conservative church; lots of drinking, young people in swimwear, loud cumbia music (I think it's cumbia; I hear it a lot in the neighborhoods just blasting). It was a very popular place (popular in the sense of common) so I was a bit conscious of my Taiwanesey self. But strangely enough, I barely got any attention in Tucumán like I did in Chile. Even in the supermarkets no one stared, whispered "Look! Chinese!" to each other, looked at me like a sideshow, or went up to me to ask me where I was from. It was kind of nice to be left alone.
We played movie charades in Spanish. It was hard since I only know movie titles in English! So when I had an inkling, I would yell it out in English or do a rough translation of the title.
Monica...what a woman. She and her family all moved to Buenos Aires to study at Word of Life Bible Institute so they could be more equipped leaders in the church. I don't know how they're doing there or if they've found a job, but I'm praying for them and their children!
On the drive back from the river, Pablo Lucero rode with us and we saw a 12 year old riding a motorcycle. So illegal. And dangerous! Anyway, after an exhausting and hot day at the river, Pastor Jorge and Norma kept on talking about a surprise for me when we got home. I was really confused but they wouldn't tell me anything. I guessed that we were going up on the mountain by their house, but they refused to tell me. After going home and resting up a bit, Norma said, "They're outside!" I said, "Who?" and she told me to go outside and look. And lo! A van of about 15 people from IBM pulled up front to pick us up and take us up the Cerro San Javier! It was such a lovely surprise, and I can't believe that planned it all for me, since they kept on talking about how I needed to go up the cerro and see it. At the top of the hill was the Cristo Redentor statue, one of 8 in the world, the most famous one being in Brazil.
Tucuman looks like it's on fire at night.
Fun fun cerro fun! The view is beautiful, but getting up is a drag...so many winds and turns got me really sick. Up on the cerro, we saw a group of gringo tourists, so I whispered to Norma, "I see gringos!" she joked that I should've waved my hands up and say, "Hellllo gringos!" It was cute because Norma actually attempted to speak English, as she had been all week. Her English is pretty bad haha. So is Pastor Jorge's. I think that's what makes it so much fun though ; )
Josué is very talented. Aww. My lil hermanito argentino.
The Von Trapp singing troupe! Have a listen. It's cute how the sis is playing with Eunice's pigtails.
The Christmas service at a rented building. Singing Ante el trono celestial (Before the Throne of God Above), which they learned from LBC just 6 months ago.
I really like this song Pastor Jorge sang; it's about someone whose heart is for the people of Argentina and wanting to see them know the Lord. He sings that he wants to go to the pampas and the cordillera (of the Andes). Perhaps this song can apply to Chile too then! : )
Josué singing the chacarero I sang at the Christmas concert! I want to sing this again some day. Someone learn to play it!
Josué's drumming is so cute in this video : )
Well, readers. This is my final post on GMW Abroad. It may have taken me 2 months to finish this post, but I wanted to finalize it and close this chapter of Grace Mao Wu's travel adventures in South America. It was an eye-opening 6 months of being a patiperra (one who's always out and about) and I'm thankful to God He let me fulfill my goal of visiting the church in Tucumán at the end of my trip. I hope this won't be the end of my South American adventures! And next time I travel, there definitely will be updates on this website. : ) ¡Chau!
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