Well after a crazy three days travelling
including two night buses and ferries and crossing the Chilean/Argentinian
border twice, we ended up back in Santiago, Chile. Most of the team stayed with the church who
had hosted us before but a couple of us went back to the base where our
vehicles were to do a grand clean. As
one of our ‘homes on wheels’ had been visited by little rat friends everything
needed cleaning…so my passion for therapeutic cleaning came into action! As a team we also had to ‘downsize’ our bags
as some peoples (read: some girls!) had been added to and this was beginning to
impact our vehicles and fuel consumption.
Having added two new girls to our
team, we then drove to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We arrived late at night to find that the only ‘camp ground’ available
to us was actually a piece of grass outside somebody’s house (the owner gave us
permission!) so we set up tents whilst some slept in vehicles….to wake up the
next morning to the police standing over us telling us that the neighbourhood
was very dangerous and that we could have been killed during the night (I think
there may have been some exaggeration there but it was funny or concerning
depending on your view point!)
Later that day as a team we felt
it was right to go to a well known church in the city centre, Rey de Reyes,
which has seen amazing growth over the last few years. So we went to an afternoon service and when
the leadership heard we were with Iris Ministries they invited us up to be
prayed for…and when they found out where we had slept the night previous, they treated
us to two nights in a nice hotel…sheer bliss!
It was also great to be able to eat a couple of good breakfasts….there’s
only so much oatmeal on a tight budget a girl really wants to eat!
As a ‘thank you’ to the church,
we worked with their homeless outreach which was a special time. The team helped prepare and serve food, clean
toilets and chat and share with those whose home is on the streets. I loved chatting with the guys and learning
from them…even if Argentian Spanish sounds quite different from other Latin
countries!
Our last few days in Argentina
were spent at the YMCA base outside the city centre which lots of the team used
as a retreat time. I also took the opportunity
to do some sightseeing…Buenos Aires is described as the ‘Paris’ of South
America and I can see why..stunning architecture although no Eiffel Tower!
Just as I was feeling pretty
tired having been a big sister/mum to many of the team, I got my own little
treat. You may remember that last
October I accompanied Dianne from my team to Costa Rica, where her daughter in
law Rhiannon had drowned swimming.
Dianne’s friend, Judy, flew to Buenos Aires for a few days to have a
break with Dianne…and as a thank you for my support to Dianne, Judy invited me
to their hotel for a night complete with an Italian meal. So I got to have my own pamper time, eat some
of my favourite food and use fast wifi including watching the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee Thames pageant online, watch my nephew Edward play and speak to my god daughter Niamh through skype! Thank you to Daddy God and Judy for such a
special and well timed present!
Thanks for reading and God bless
you lots!
Next stop: Uruguay….
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