Greetings and happy advent!
True to the season, I have hung up an advent calendar in my classroom at
Santo Sacramento, and the characteristic crown of advent candles has been
displayed in the Santo Sacramento sanctuary and in the humble living room of
the El Arca home. In both volunteer
placements, we are preparing for Christmas by doing Christmas crafts
(ornaments, mostly), and students of all ages in my communities are eagerly
making plans for their imminent summer vacation.
That’s
right, summer. A time of year that we
Minnesotans associate with skiing, ice skating, and sipping hot chocolate in
front of a fire is for Argentineans a time for camping, going to the beach, and
soaking up sun. My Minnesotan mind is
seriously struggling to grasp this concept.
As we count down the days until Christmas, the weather here gets hotter
and more humid, which sometimes makes me forget that we are in the month of
December. It will certainly be difficult
to celebrate Christmas so far away from my family and home, but I also feel
blessed to have the opportunity to experience the festivities immersed in
another culture and surrounded by my new friends.
It has been
a few weeks since I last wrote, so I have a lot to tell you about! Most of all, I want to tell you about celebrations.
¡Tantas Celebraciones!
(So many celebrations!)
During the
past few weeks, I have been a part of many birthday celebrations. On November 14th, Dani G.
celebrated his 50th birthday with the El Arca community! Dani has been with El Arca Argentina since
the workshop’s doors opened nine years ago, so it was special for the community
to celebrate another, monumental birthday with him! He is truly an integral piece in the El Arca
puzzle. Here are some photos:
Dani (back towards us) receives a birthday hug from his good friend Osvaldo. One's a "hincha" (fan) of River, the other an hincha de Boca, but they don't let their differences keep them apart.
Dani blows out his candle with Barbi and Rocio (a volunteer) looking on.
On November 17th, my dear mother, Sue Ann
Rawlins, celebrated her 54th birthday. The day before, a Friday, I called her on
skype after lunch at El Arca so that everyone could wish her a happy
birthday. We sang happy birthday in
Spanish and English, and I clumsily translated back and forth as my friends
from El Arca tried to talk with her. I
can’t wait for her (and Dad and David!!) to meet them in real life in March!
On Thanksgiving, while I was in Uruguay, I unfortunately
missed Dani the French Priest’s birthday celebration (not to be confused with Dani G, who also had a birthday). By the time I had returned, he had left for a
one month stay in a villa (very poor neighborhood) where he is working as a
priest. On the 22nd there
will be a farewell party for him, he will spend Christmas at the home, and then
on the 26th he returns to his homeland after three years of
dedicated service at El Arca Argentina. We
already miss him, especially the people who live in the home, who had a very
close relationship with him. At Maxi’s
request, Maxi and I are practicing a song that we will perform at the farewell
party. It’s an original song of Dani’s
former band, “Dragon’s Dream”, which although made up of Frenchmen, sings in
English.
It has been difficult both emotionally and logistically (now
there is only one assistant who lives in the home) for the community to adjust
to Dani’s absence, but we are managing, and it is probable that a new assistant
from Colombia will come in January. In
the meantime, every night someone has to spend the night along with Romina, so
I have been doing so at least once a week.
It has been interesting to be a part of a routine in the home (evening
prayer, dinner, bedtime) that was previously a mystery to me.
Since my return from Uruguay, we have celebrated two more
birthdays at El Arca. On December 1st,
Barbi, the director of the El Arca workshop, turned 32! Maxi and his occupational therapist Maria
Jose worked together to create one of the most beautiful birthday cakes I have
ever seen. They used a special kind of
frosting that you can mold, and the finished product looked like it was covered
in clay or play-doh. The texture
reminded me of marzipan, but it didn’t have almonds in it. Here it is:
Barbi receives her cake from Maxi, with some hesitation . . .
. . . . and makes her birthday wish! (Luis, Dani G., Maxi, and Julio look on)
Later that week, we celebrated the 50th birthday
of Claudia, an El Arca volunteer. While
she’s not volunteering, she acts! For
the most part her passion and expertise is theater, but she recently played a
small role in an apocalyptic film that will premier sometime next year, and she
is also featured in this music video (she plays the woman in the blue dress and
rosary with the gambling problem). Our
friend is famous!
The Sunday after I returned from Uruguay, we celebrated all
of the November birthdays at Santo Sacramento with the traditional cake and
birthday song, and this Saturday, I am attending one of the Santo Sacramento
teen’s birthday/graduation party! I’m
looking forward to it!
El Casamiento ~ The Wedding
In addition to all of these birthdays, I had the great honor
of attending Ayelen and Daniel’s wedding this past weekend. I met Ayelen and Daniel during my first week
in Argentina when my fellow YAGMS and I attended a church service at Krystle’s
church in Belgrano, a neighborhood in the capital. Ayelen and I kept talking on facebook and
started to meet up with each other on the weekends to chat and eat delicious
food!
Here in Argentina, a couple needs to have a civil ceremony
in addition to a religious ceremony in order for their marriage to be
legal. Of course, a couple could choose
to only do a civil ceremony, but Ayelen and Daniel chose to do both. The civil ceremony took place at a “registro
civil” on the same day as 5 other ceremonies!
Before we were able to enter, we watched several other couples emerge
from the building, greeted by cheering friends and family members who threw
rice at them mercilessly. It was amusing
to watch the hovering pigeons waiting to take advantage of the situation- they
perched on the awning above and flew down one by one as if they were diving
into a synchronized swimming routine. It
worried me, though, because I’ve heard that raw rice is bad for birds.
I was surprised to see that one of the couples getting married that day was a lesbian
couple! As a supporter of GLBT rights, I
was happy to see their right to this symbolically and legally important covenant granted. I was also surprised
when I learned about a month ago that same-sex marriage is legal throughout
Argentina! In many ways Argentina is
socially more liberal than the United States- another surprise for me.
For some reason, before arriving in August I had the preconceived notion that Argentina was a relatively conservative, Catholic country. In reality, Argentine society is fairly liberal and secular.
Ayelen and Daniel’s civil ceremony was brief. The judge explained their marriage rights,
asked them if they accepted each other as man and wife, and then asked them and
their two witnesses to sign. And then
afterwards we too threw rice. The church
ceremony the next day was more poetic.
Ayelen and Daniel gave their wedding a few signature touches, such as
serving communion to their guests and asking Krystle and me to light candles for them and speak out loud our wishes
for their marriage. After the ceremony, there was a party at
Ayelen’s parents’ house. Her parents had
laid out a red carpet bordered with lit candles for the couple’s entrance, and
when they arrived they were greeted with confetti! The night unfolded with delicious catered
food and dancing. Before I knew it, it
was 2 am, and they still hadn’t cut the wedding cake!
Before . . .
. . . and after! With rice and all!
Los novios have arrived at the party!!
There they are!
The wedding cake
Wow, that was a lot of celebrating! Uffda! I'm now going to transition into a different topic, but I'm afraid I can't come up with a smooth, clever, or logical way to do so.
ANIMALS!
If you know me well, you probably know that I love animals,
especially dogs. For this reason, I was
so excited to learn that the El Arca home had a dog! Mia is so affectionate, but because of Maxi’s
allergies, she unfortunately cannot enter the house. The poor thing gets so disappointed when we
leave her outside. In addition to being
a faithful companion to the community, Mia has served as our doorbell ever
since the doorbell stopped working about a month ago. For some reason, I do not have a photo of Mia! I will have to correct that soon, and then I will share it with you.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of stray dogs in Argentina,
which breaks my heart. But sometimes not
even having an owner can guarantee a decent standard of living. For example, every day on my walk to the bus
stop after El Arca, I pass a house with a dog who is constantly lying down in
the yard. It has such a glum expression
on its face and is terribly skinny. I
have tried to communicate with it, but it seems really apathetic. My interpretation is that it is so depressed
that it has become numb, thus reacting to everything with apathy. The other day I decided to do something about
it. I bought a kilo of dog food and
started giving it handfuls when I could.
I also published a photo of the dog on a humane society-type page on
facebook called “Amores Perros Argentina.”
They will decide if an intervention would be appropriate. To me it’s clear that this dog is being
neglected. Either that or it has some
serious health problem. But I guess I’m
not a veterinarian.
Speaking of health problems . . .
NO ONE LIKES BEING SICK :-(
On Tuesday I got really sick for the first time in
Argentina. I had a nasty stomach flu,
but luckily I have recovered pretty quickly!
I am so grateful for Cristina, the director of the residence, and
Xiomara, my neighbor and friend, who spoiled me in my ill health. They made it less lonely to be sick away from
home.
After two days of resting, I was anxious to return to El
Arca! When I did return, everyone acted
as though I had been gone for years!
Everyone told me how much they had missed me and that they had worried
about me and gave me huge bear hugs. It
was the most amazing feeling to receive so much love. I wondered what I had done to deserve it, but
then I realized that true love isn’t about “deserving,” true love is
unconditional.
I think this is a perfect example of the seemingly limitless
capacity that people with disabilities have for love. They love more easily and more deeply than
“normal” people. They don’t make
judgments, assign labels, or hold grudges the way “normal” people do. In fact, Jesus would probably say that their
way of loving is a model for true Christian love. They remind me of the bible verse that Ayelen
and Daniel featured in their wedding:
“Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the
right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
In a scary world afflicted by
senseless violence (today’s nightmarish school shooting in Connecticut for
example), pernicious diseases, discrimination and oppression, the positive
vibes flowing through El Arca give me hope.
The people of El Arca challenge me to follow by their example, to love
fully and unconditionally, to forgive, and to have faith.
Lisa
No comments:
Post a Comment