Megan cant keep her mouth shut!

Well my poor room mate has informed me that i´ve started sleeping talking in spanish this week. An epic story as she described! although we´re even as she snores like a train! we work well together!

Boca Vs River...

Football, football and more football! Very conterversial topic here in Argentina! well 2/3 of the country support either boca of river. apparently the ratio is 32% Boca, 30% River. so yeah, if someone asks you if you support football you have to be generally careful what you say! many of times ive had people "thats it your not a friend of mine anymore". so yeah you can imagine, megan standing there rather blushed in the face. Ive been warned by Cecy that I support River although i have no idea even what theyre like! Last week i was walking down the main street and seen hundreds of people standing outside a tv shop watching the match, bit strange i thought. then it dawned on me "Megan your in argentina!" But if you know me, i generally hate football so its a topic i try to stay off!

Its funny, when you meet an argentine for the first time, there is generally 3 questions you get asked as a "gringa(o)"
1. Whats your name and your american right?
2. Boca or River?
3. Do you have a bf, depending on what you say, generally the conversation ends there.
This is definetly a nationality that are very blunt and to the point. They have a general thing of calling people either "negrita(o)" or "gordita(o)" literally fatty. Thankfully so far my name is generally Ché which is fine with me.

Generally settling into the new culture has been fantastic, although the people here generally have strange eating habits. The other day i helped make the traditional food called "empanadas". well yeah, an experience and a half! they are a bit like a cornish pastie but supposed to look pretty! well it looked like a dogs dinner as my mum would of said!

Finally, thought id share a little about my church. Its called "El Redentor" and on a good day about 70 people would turn up. sunday morning normally is a cell group in different ages and in the evening is the main service. The church love to sing and clap! yes your hands are sore by the time your out! the culture here is to kiss everyone on the cheek to say hello and again when leaving. so generally this means your in church for over three hours. Going to apoligise now just incase when im home i kiss anyone forgetting! differences in culture...

Please just pray for the families within the church that have many problems. One main issue is that this is a culture where men dominate, meaning that if the man of the house hold isnt christian and the family are, generally it means the family cannot go to church. please pray for this.

Well hope you can understand a little bit more about this amazin place!! thinking of you all!
Besos, Adíos!

Noami my room mate!

Naomi is the girl
with the rangy changy hair.
She’s really quite a hit
with her head free of nits.

Now concerning all the boys
She’s a huge,enormous noise.
For be they tall or small
She’s attractive to them all.

When it comes to saying ‘Hola’
Some advance a bit too close-a.
And as for speaking proper
Well…Naomi’s more a bopper.

Bopping to the Monkeys
she looks so very funky
And the wine…it’s by the bottle
My that girl - has she got throttle!

She’ll sing her way to fame
Yes, Miss Francey’ll make a name.
Hear her song about ‘My Pancake’
and you’ll know that she’s sure no fake.

She’ll sing even to a wall
On her own out in the hall.
Or jump an octave higher
Believe me, I’m no liar.

It’s all been caught on tape
by Claudio, her mate.
Still I wait for ‘The stethescope’
…One day, that is my hope.

Now, when it comes to bathroom etiquette
Well, she just don’t seem to get it.
As her flat mates hear her cries
they find ’surprise pees’ have hit her in the eyes!

She’ll always make you laugh
Coz she don’t do things by half
So take that trip to Salta
You’ll find you just can’t fault her!

Singing, Dancing and Running

Well the second irish team leave today which will be strange not to have any other crazy irish people walking about the city. No more dancing but thanks to Harold they can now all barn dance! "el dia del Niño", The Day of the Child went really well, they had more than 60 children which is was a real blessing to be honest! we had such a great wee time with the children on the bouncy castle and just being able to share with them etc. Last night Naomi and I started our get fit programme. so we ended up in this really quite "vintage" gym and something really came obvious to me (while running on the treadmill mind you). You may not know this but Bueños Aires (the capital of argentina) has the highest figures of anorexia per capital. Last night just like home i suppose but i really could understand why there was such a pressure. imagine this, this old vintage gym, with some really old machines but the main thing was that they were surrounded with pumped up images of people and slogans that were demoralising. I suppose you could say we have that in our gyms, but not to this existent. No wonder there is such a pressure in a society to be figure conscience to the maximum where the image that is being protrayed is that you have to look a certain way and if not, your not worthy. finally what struck me was the fact that, most of the people in the gym where really skinny already and working so hard. I just wanted to share this with you as it made me really think.

Day of the Child- Hora feliz

Well i have now started to get into the swing of working during the week. The second irish team are here at the moment but we haven´t been really working with them. last night i started the one on one english classes which was brilliant! claudio and his son. was a really special time and now he has to say hello etc in english. its funny all i keep getting called now is "my english teacher". I have been working in Uzzi college with the kids doing drama and teaching english. Tomorrow I´m taking the class and teaching them about St Patrick which should be fun! We went out to see the monkeys again, they are a brilliant band! Oh my room mate Naomi is such a laugh! if any bad was going to happen of course it would have to happen to her. Last night she got into a water fight with the bidet (the wee extra thing in the bathroom beside the toilet). All i heard was scream and then she opened the door and she was drenched!!! i rolled around the floor laughing! bless her! Here in Argentina there are kids clubs called "Hora feliz" literally happy hour. probably not the type of one you may be used to. here the children meet together for like 2 hours funnily enough to play and learn about God. This happens every saturday and this saturday is also the day of the child. so of course we´re going all out with a bouncy castle and games. So my task for this week is to make puppets and write a story to go with it!! wish me luck!! i better get to it!! Ciao!! MJ xx