Corrientes!!

I went on a little break to another province called Corrientes which is about 13 hours on a bus from here in Salta! I went to see my friend and we had a great time! It was so nice to have a little break and to see another place! It was quite funny because they talk another type of spanish, well another dialect and I understood like every 10 words!! They speak even faster than the irish!! I didn´t think it was possible! It was lovely to see the river and to have sand between my feet! To be honest I didn´t really feel like I was in argentina, I felt like I was on holiday! Here are some photos of my time in Corrientes! It was quite sad having to leave to be honest as it was a really short visit but it was great to see my friends again!! Now my work starts again :D

Working In Pichanal

Last weekend a group of 34 of the church from salta headed up north to a little town called Pichanal which is quite a under developed town. we worked in the church with their youth and we had a great time!! We fixed the roof, fixed their really dodgey electricty, cleaned and painted. During the weekend we had kids clubs and I was teaching about mission and trying to encourage them that mission isn´t about travelling to another country but that you can do it in your own community! we all had a really great time although it was FREEZING!!!!! Really not funny!! I brought my sleeping bag and when I read the bottom it said from 1 degree until -6 dangerous! opps!!The weekend was great but also really challenging. Speaking in spanish 24/7 is harder than I thought. I´m loving it but its very difficult! It was amazing to see how another church functions but also quite sad to see how shy everyone was. The pastor, the main figure of the Church was so shy! no wonder people didn´t turn up to the meetings but the weekend we were able to teach them things and we learned from them. It was the first time the young people had ever went on mission in a big group and they really gained from it. I´m kinda worried about the leaders as the don´t seem very united and I know its a huge challenge for the group. I really hope they are able to forgive and learn from eachother. Please pray for this! Many thanks!

Alot of my time so far has been visiting families from the church as they have wanted to cook for me etc! In this photo you can see Marie Esther in the middle and Ana Maria in the pink. They are both legends! Marie Esther believe it or not is about 85 years old missionary whole travels the country teaching children about the Gospels! So I went to her house the other day and over dinner she blurted out... "Megan I´ve been praying that you marry a man from this church" and as you can imagine, I nearly chocked on my dinner!! She has picked out a man for me and she insisted in telling me all of his qualities and good points over and over again!! AHHH HELP ME!! Then as she drove home, I must admit it was probably the most scary moment in my life!! She can hardly see over the steering wheel and insists in looking at you while she is driving and talking!!! Well thankfully i´ve survived to tell the tale but its a little joke going around the church that i´m going to marry this man!!! I can sum it up in one word! NEVER!!

Hora Feliz - Happy Hour (Kids Clubs)

At the moment i´m pretty busy with getting materials ready for the weekend as we have our traditional, Happy Hour - Hora Feliz!! Now now.... I know what you´re thinking... not that type of happy hour!! However, I have no idea why they call it happy hour as it last for nearly 3 hours!!The kids clubs are amazing and the teams this year are even better!! We have 2 on Saturday in a local neighbourhood and then in the afternoon in the Church! Kids from all around the area come to it and its great craic! We play games, sing songs and learn Biblical texts. It has been great to see how all the kids have grown up since my last trip and to see how they are now bringing their little brother and sisters! It´s a real blessing that we are able to do this as the Church isn´t well off and the brothers in the church donate money to the clubs so that the children can eat and for the resources we use! Thankfully this time I´m actually able to understand the kids spanish, as man sometimes its difficult to understand them! It means we are able to have a better relation! However, when I arrived I recieved some sad news about 2 of our little ones from the kids club. Due to personal circumstances they have stopped coming and one is currently in prision. These kids have hearts of gold! It´s just such a pity that due to family circumstances things have ended up as they have! However, it´s great to see how the group has strenthened nether the less and to see how motivated the leaders are this year! Please keep these Happy Hours in your prayers!! Thanks!

The World Cup!

Well, well well!!! What can I possibly say about the world cup! Before Argentina lost the atmosphere was totally amazing!! I´ve never seen people soooo passionate for football!! To be honest it was probably one of the best places in the world to watch the games because of their love for the game!! I mean they consider it a religion!!! NO JOKE!! They consider Maradona to be a god! They even have a cult church in the province of Santa Fe to worship him, yeah i´m not kinding you!! Nether the less, as you can imagine, I´m not a fan of football!! Although to be honest I loved the world cup! It was amazing until the lost..... then it was crazy!! People were literally weeping! The country literally has gone into national mourning!! So now i´m trying to keep my mouth shut about the game... when they were winning, as you walked through the neighbourhoods, you could hear every single tv was on the game! people cheering and shouting at the screens! The atmosphere in the plazas was amazing! A sea of blue and white!! Ok, I know you may be shocked to hear... I´ve joined the local girls football team in the church which is a hoot!! They´ve nicknamed me "Leggy" because i´m taller than them all and generally have NO IDEA what i´m doing with my feet! I keep thinking, on the tv they made it look so easy!!

Celebrations of General Guemes

This month in Salta has been a month of pretty much celebrations and rememberance which of course means holidays! So trying to start work at this time was hard enough with the argentine attitude of "lets do it tomorrow" then of course the holidays. They celebrated the day of Guemes which was their General that died during battle and of course is seen as the provinces hero. In the photo you can see his burial place and some of the celebrations that happened in the pain plaza. The tradition Gaucho and horses symbolise they rememberance of the national hero and it was pretty cool to have seen this of course in traditional argentine style, they had traditional music to celebrate which lasted until the early hours of the morning.