Today my sister-in-law graduated from the police school for the province of Tierra del Fuego. We all went in a full car to the city of Rio Grande to attend her graduation ceremony.
Moving South
My journey here was long and slow. The bus was delayed 8 hours so instead of boarding at 7pm as expected, I boarded at 3am and we left at 3.40am in the morning. Terrible. I got no sleep until 5am in the morning as we were constantly told the bus would only be another couple of hours each time.
Who is Silvina Prado?
Well, that is easy to say… she is my girlfriend, the one I love. She is the one to whom I am engaged, whom I plan on marrying. She is a beautiful young lady of whom I had heard a lot but never met. When I finally did get to meet her, I had never encountered such an amazing woman. She took my interest very quickly, and the more we talk and discover about each other, the more we are both convinced that this is going to be a permanent relationship.
Covered in flour and eggs… an Argentine tradition to celebrate a big event
So on Thursday, the 17th of December, 2009, I got engaged to Silvina Noemi Prado.
Los Cambios de 2010
Lo que te voy a contar es algo que probablemente deberÃa haber dicho hace tiempo. No es que te va a afectar a tu vida en gran manera, o aun que te afecta. Pero sÃ, a mi me afecta a mi vida, y para mi los cambios que vienen serán permanentes.
- El primer cambio es mudarme
- El segundo cambio requiere residencia permanente en la Argentina
- Y el último cambio es acerca de familia
Ushuaia base de JUCUM – el lugar a donde pronto me voy a mudar.
The Changes of 2010
What I am about to tell you is something that I probably should have told you a while back. Not that it really affects your life in any way greatly, if at all. It does affect my life however, and for me the changes that it is about to bring will most certainly be permanent.
- The first of these changes involves moving
- The second change involves permanently residing in Argentina
- The final change is family
Ushuaia YWAM base – the place to which I will be moving soon.
Church and Buildings
Today, I wrestled with a powerpoint in the house for the morning. The electrical tubing in the concrete wall ended inside the wall and it took a while to work this out. Jorge and Isa Rios and Miguel and Olga Montt both arrived with their families in their cars. They had come from Puerto Madryn and stayed last night in Esquel, and tomorrow they head to Chile. Our evening was spent in a local church, teaching the youth and then participating in the main service in the evening, where Miguel was preaching. YWAM Bariloche is quickly outgrowing its current location so I went with a few other people to check out the new place they are likely to move to, before continuing on to the church a little later.
Patricia leading the church for the evening.
Taking the Right Step
Today was a stair day. The team went down to the local steps that climb from one neighbourhood to the next, with over 300 steps in all, to clean them up. I ended up welding a broken step in the base that had cracked, using a borrowed welder and a lot of luck. It has been a long time since I last welded and getting it right was not as easy as I first hoped. In the end, with a few practices we ended up with a workable and not-too-shabby solution.
Welding the broken step.
Clowning Around
Down in the centre of town, some of our team dressed up as clowns to help with some of their varied presentations of the gospel to the people in the Civic Centre. There were skits, music, and some funny acts all put together for the people who were present. I was busy working in the base, fixing electrical outlets and adding needed fixtures to the windows and doors. These things had been needed for a long time so it was great to be able to help them out with that, but there was enough time to race down town and check up on how the team was going…
Group photo with the daughter of a tourist family in the plaza.
Fixing the Base
One of the things that all YWAM bases end up needing is maintenance. So today was a day dedicated to doing some of the very necessary maintenance tasks around the place. The rock pathway that had been laid two years ago was now covered over by grass and needed re-laying. The guys headed outside to pull out all of the rocks and then clear a pathway. This was filled with soft dirt before replacing the rocks again to make a useful pathway once again… ready for when the snow season comes back this year.
Franco compressing the soil before the rocks are replaced.
Sending Them Off
The team head off today to go evangelising in the city. They will be visiting people in the hospital also, as many there receive no visitors and so they go to spend time talking with and listening to the people who are in the beds. After this they spend a time walking around the city offering people the opportunity to know God, before returning to the YWAM base again. The day is a typical summers day… cool but not freezing, although definitely not hot either.
The team ready to head off to the hospital and then to the city.