Who's writing
This is my life — well, a good part of it.
Originally, this site was designed by me — Rob — only for my friends.
As it has grown and expanded it has reached a point I never expected: unknown people contacting me about what they have read. It was started when I was single, and now continues as my family grows, with some big chunks of time missing along the way — about when I got married. I'm sure some of you will understand why.
You see, this is my life. Well, obviously not all of it — but a good part of it. Together with my wife we are working as Christian missionaries in South America. I started in the north of Argentina in Corrientes, and moved south to Puerto Madryn, met my wife, and we ran a YWAM base in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, before crossing over to Chile on the other side of the Andes to continue our work with Youth With A Mission in Pichilemu.
How it began
The History
How a stack of repeated emails became GroovyGuppy.com — and, eventually, Samafas.
It was in 2003, while I was working in New Zealand, that God called me to Argentina. I packed up and sold everything in New Zealand and returned to my home in Australia, did the same thing there, then headed off around the world with the money I had in my pocket — my final destination Argentina.
There were, obviously, many questions my friends and family started asking: “Are you sure that it was God speaking?”, “Are you coming back to Australia?”, “What are you going to do in Argentina?” — and many more. I found myself writing and sending the same email in twenty different ways. Soon I was sending it to far more than just twenty people.
As more people heard about it, some of those earlier questions came up again. I found myself diving into my email records, trying to find the message that had already answered them. In the end, the idea of setting up a website — where everyone could read each of the emails I had written, and where I could add some photos of my travels around the world — seemed to make more sense.
And so was born GroovyGuppy.com.
The name was suggested by a friend who was helping me find something snappy — like my brother had with jellycan.com, or his friend with camelfish.com. It lasted only until I arrived in Latin America. It became clear that “groovyguppy” was very hard to make understood in Spanish, so I needed something more universal in pronunciation.
After some deep thought, the name “Samafas” came up. It sounds the same in both English and Spanish, and has the added advantage of also carrying a deeper meaning. I liked it, and so it stuck.
Once I had arrived in Argentina, this blog became my outlet for the culture shock I was experiencing. Every new or bizarre experience that I had was something I wanted to add. The act of writing it down helped me make more sense of it.
Now that I have been here much longer, all of the unusual things are very normal to me, and so the information here has changed once again. In all of the various forms this website has taken, the one thing samafas.com continues to be is a way to keep family and friends updated on the things that I am up to. Now that I am married, it covers kids and family, home and ministry, plus other things I want to remember or make known to friends.
In every form it has taken
Thanks for being a part of it.
The stories were written as a kind of personal on-line diary. Updates are irregular but continue. The information can be sparse at times and overflowing at others. All part of life — and in many ways this is my life. Our life.
Welcome to Samafas.com.
Read the diaryP.S. If you would like to get involved in the things we are doing, or partner with us in any way, we would love to hear from you.