Eine Kleine Update

So, what has Kevin been up to this week, you ask? Well, I´ll tell you. For starters, I´m learning German, and by learning German, I mean making Dorothea teach me useful phrases to combine with my completely un-useful German vocabularly knowledge. My longest sentence formed thus far: "Ich habe eine fledermaus unter mein haus!" Translation: "I have a bat under my house!" I can also say, with confidence, "Ich bin ein affe" (I am a monkey), "Mir schmeken die Bananen; schmeken Dir die Bananen?" (I like bananas; do you like bananas?), and can interchange Bananen with multiple other fruits, which I can also tell you that I have. I´ll be reading Hegel and Bultmann and whatnot in NO TIME at this rate!

My work week was pretty normal, except for Friday. Kirsten and I have been putting together a (very nice, if I do say so myself) powerpoint en español about the major cities in the U.S. for geography students learning about them in class, so much of my work this week in the centro de estudios revolved around that. I also translated a story for a student from castellano to English. Work with the niños in the afternoon was fairly "normal" (if normal can ever describe working with kids), except that, shock of all shocks, the little ones BEHAVED during homework time. I could hardly believe it. On the way home from work, I ended up taking the same bus as Fabrizia (the music teacher), and she and I had a chance to talk and get to know each other better. Friday was the monstrously huge planning meeting for the next two months at La Obra - three hours of discussion about projects and whatnots. Fortunately, lots of sweets were involved - cookies, chocolate-filled wafers (with more chocolate than wafer), and best of all, a DELICIOUS birthday cake for Dorothea involving dulce de leche and mocha icing. It tasted like tiramisu, but even better.

Church work, however, was not anything resembling routine this week. Wednesday night Bible study was uproariously wonderful; we discussed the first three chapters of Genesis, and predictably, heated conversation about science and faith, gender roles and relations, sex, and how people relate to God ensued. The congregation at Nuestro Salvador is very heavily comprised of people without much prior church experience or Christian education, so for most of the people in the Bible study, this was their first time to read and talk about the biblical creation story. These are the most exciting Bible studies I´ve ever participated in because, quite frankly, they´re the only ones I´ve been to where a majority of people DON´T already know the scriptures being looked at, and consequently spend the entire study time looking bored and waiting for coffee and snacks to be served afterwards. Thursday involved making a 3-D version of the logo for the World Day of Prayer function for women at the church on Saturday, and then came the weekend....

SATURDAY: World Day of Prayer women´s gathering at Nuestro Salvador, and the first time my two job spheres have really overlapped. The women´s group from La Obra prepared the lunch for the gathering, so most of the social workers, Milton, and (duh) the women were there at the church. I got roped into playing guitar during the morning for the couple of songs that were used. The afternoon, however, was my favorite part of the day. Kirsten and I went with Karin (Wilma´s daughter, if I haven´t mentioned her before) and Fafre (another friend of ours from grupo de jóvenes) to participate in Un Trato por el Buen Trato, a campaign against child abuse and domestic violence. Now, that doesn´t sound all THAT exciting on the surface, but factor all this in: 95% of the people who participate are teens or twentysomethings. We all painted up our faces, put on silly hats, made balloon animals (new skill acquired: making a balloon dog), grabbed colorful banners, and walked down Avenida 8 de Octubre, "vaccinating" people willing to stop and talk with us against being abusive with caramelos de miel. We made our way back to the church like this, just in time to vaccinate many of the women after the day´s events wrapped up. It was a beautiful experience.

SUNDAY: Fiesta de Canto in Colonia del Sacramento. Here are the highlights:
-Getting to see the southern Uruguayan countryside in spring conditions
-The assemblage of choir directors. One of them looked like Jack Nicholson´s character from The Departed and Salvador Dali had gotten together and had a love child. He was also suitably overdramatic, rolling his eyes back in his head in ecstasy a few times, making the "spirit fingers"-esque choir director gesture, etc.
-Singing, with 150 other people, a choral version of "Blowin´ In The Wind" (or as it was pronounced by the announcer, "Browing in de Wind" ("wind" as in winding a clock, not the breeze), en español, with cheesy horn accompaniment.
-Playing the goat toe shaker in front of hundreds of people to one of our songs, a little Zulu ditty.
-Enjoying the incredible Valdense choral tradition, and the equally important Valdense tradition of filling you up with empanadas, tarta de pascualita, triples, queso, alfajores, and vino afterwards - FOR FREE. Except the vino; that was 10 pesos (45 cents) a glass, and by "glass," I mean "water glass that the average family in the U.S. has on the dinner table."
-Conversation on the way back about the history of the Valdense (Waldensian) church, Uruguay, the U.S., and all kinds of other stuff.

Heck of a week, I must say. However, all the empanada talk has made me hungry, so I´m off to track down some grub, and them maybe head to Parque Rodó with a book for the rest of my day off. Chau!