CORRIENTES: Well it has been five days now since I moved to live in Corrientes. The place seems to have little to recommend it to anyone, and the place that I am staying with its unfinished buildings does nothing to redeem the place at all. But this will be my home for at least the next few months. So what drew me to this place to start with? Well the main reason I am here is that there is a base belonging to an organisation called JUCUM, known in the English world as YWAM. Somehow, in some way, I know that I will be working with this organisation in the future. To work with YWAM it is necessary to complete their introductory course, the Discipleship Training School. So here I am, ready to complete the DTS course in a tiny little base on the outskirts of Corrientes. Arriving There The bus from Buenos Aires took just under 11hrs to reach Corrientes, located in the far north of Argentina, very close to the border of Paraguay. Sleeping through the overnight journey made the trip seem significantly shorter than it really was, even though sleep was broken and uncomfortable. The first thing that I noticed when I arrived here was that the weather was warmer. Not hot though, but it was 7.30am on the day that I arrived, with cloud cover. My arrival coincided with the arrival of Steve only 30minutes later, who is the administrator of the JUCUM school in Buenos Aires. He was coming to Corrientes to train the staff here on the details of running a bilingual school. Because of that I received a free ride directly to the base. I had originally selected Corrientes because it was the only school that taught purely in Spanish. After studying here for the entire course I argued that my Spanish would be much better. I have just found out that this course is going to be the first one taught in both Spanish and English here as the school moves to a bilingual focus. The YWAM Base Sergio brought Steve and me from the bus station to the YWAM base, located somewhat out of the city. When we first arrived I was shocked to discover that it was only one house. After visiting the huge, well developed Buenos Aires base with many large buildings I was just not expecting this. As I learned more about the base, it turned out that there was a little more to it than the one house. Most significantly was the new building that was still in construction. This would be the location for our school. There were also several houses scattered behind the first house I had seen, which were all homes for the staff. This first house was a communal gathering place, built out of rendered hollow bricks with a tin roof. Quite pleasant inside, it was somewhat small, a patterned that followed every building here. With almost thirty people on staff now, the place was crawling with people. Many of them were involved on the larger school building, working furiously to complete it before the course started in only two weeks. Between this new construction and the communal house lay a private section of land with a house. The owner has apparently decided to remain in place and not to sell, requiring all foot traffic between the two sections of the base to go the long way via the footpath. These days I am living in the building that is still under construction. What was originally a one-level two-room building is now a two-level multi-room building. Well that is what it will be when it is completed. Each day the work is getting closer to completion in the lower levels although the upper section is a long way off yet. With so many people working on the building the work continues fast. Even the girls are in on the action, doing what they can to help complete the work faster. Once the render goes over the top of the construction work it all looks very nice, but having seen the messy looking construction techniques from the early stages I wonder about the strength of the design. With everyone else so confident about it I consider that it must be sufficiently sturdy enough. My bedroom has been up a wood plank ladder in an area reminiscent of an attic. There were four guys here in two double bunks. Next door and around the corner was a room for two girls in one double bunk, while through one of the walls is a very compact home for a couple with their young children who are working on the staff. As construction has continued, our bedroom was allocated for the girls to use. We were then shipped down into the new dormitory that had been freshly constructed. So fresh in fact that water was still rising out of the concrete, wetting anything that we put down on it. This will now be our room for the rest of our time here. Since I have been here, there has only been one shower and one toilet available for use, both in the house on the other side. Soon the construction of the toilets in our building will be complete, giving us two showers and two toilets of our own. I look forward to that moment. Until then, the girls get the local toilet and we have to wander over to the other house for our relief. The Local Area Because of heavy rains just before I arrived, the whole area around the base was covered in mud. There were great pools of water gathered up and everywhere I looked or walked was through mud. It did not look very promising. Since that time however, the sun has come out and now I am walking through layers of dust where the mud had been. The streets in this area are also made of dirt and throw out great piles of either mud or dust depending on whether it rains. This is the poorer section of town and there are areas that are not very safe to travel at night. Sometimes you can hear gunshots during the night, although most of the bangs are just fireworks. The government housing located down some of the roads provides some of the greatest areas of danger, although wandering anywhere during the dark, even for short distances, can result in unwanted confrontations. Nearby on the corner is a local shop. Local shops can actually be found all along the road and often consist of nothing more than a metal grill in place of the window in a house. Standing at this grill, you explain what you want and the shopkeeper gets it for you. Their wares here are very limited, to the point that Chris and I had to visit seven or eight shops in the few blocks near us just to find a cold Coke-a-Cola, and nobody seemed to have any small bottles. We settled with sharing a big bottle. The Buses A bus travels up and down our street with constant regularity, providing a 70 centavos ride directly into town. The buses vary in quality, probably by the date they were bought. Maintenance seems to be completed on an as-needed basis, with minor tasks ignored completely. The dirt road is rough and pot-holed, but the drivers do not slow down greatly over it. The poor bus rattles and shakes as it skips across the bumps on the way to and from town. Bolts are missing from various places, and on one journey I noticed a seat moving back and forward like a rocking chair. There were so few bolts in it I was surprised it remained in place. Sometimes there is a window missing, although with most windows covered in mud or dust, this has been more of a bonus than a problem. When sitting next to it, it feels like riding a motorbike, and only becomes a problem during the evenings when it has been cold, which has been quite a lot lately. Central Corrientes Arriving in town, we come to the main shopping street. A normal road that is closed off to traffic during business hours, it fills up with people most days. It is not a very big town and the main street only takes ten minutes to pass through. The best part of town is the food shops where some great meals can be enjoyed for a very small price. Afternoon siesta is taken very seriously here in the north of Argentina. By 1pm in the afternoon every day, virtually every shop is shut, even in the central business district. The main street is deserted and there seems to be nobody around. There is no point in arriving in town during this time as it is very hard to even find a coffee shop open. At 4pm in the afternoon everyone is starting to come back out to open up their shops and the crowds in the streets grow once again. Once open, most shops remain open until sometime around 8pm in the afternoon. This two part day applies to virtually every type of business, even our local shops run out of houses follow these hours. As a place of interest, one would get bored with central very quickly. There are really only shops to see, although there are a few parks around the place too. The park nearest to central is filled with markets everyday, selling a variety of products which could be categorised into clothing and trinkets. To find a place that is interesting, then a short walk to the Costinera is the only choice around here. The Costanera A long park running right along the side of the river provides a beautiful setting to wander beside. This fast running river is the source of the name for Corrientes, which means currents. It is filled with many dangerous currents that have claimed the lives of those who challenge it. The river acts as the separator between the provinces of Corrientes and Chaco. The park is always filled with people. Some are fishing while others simply staring out at the ever changing surface of the water as it runs past. It is a pleasant place to be, and offers a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere as you wander along. On the other side of the road running next to the park is a Casino that also houses the best cinema in town. Icecream shops and restaurants are also scattered along the way, with some of the best icecream I have had the pleasure of eating. This would probably be the most frequently visited place in Corrientes, and rightly has a reputation of being expensive and pretty. My Home This was now my home. The city and the Costinera were places that I would not see so often once classes started in my school, so I was making the most of my spare time now. The buses, the dust and mud, the dangers of my area and the JUCUM base were all things that I would get to know a lot better over the next five months that I remained here. Eventually it really would feel like home, but for now I still was feeling very uncomfortable with this place. Perhaps this would be where I will remain, perhaps it is only one stop on the way. For now though, it is my home.