Outreach – Bariloche Day 3

Today I wake with one eye stuck closed. After washing it with water and heading to the doctors I am informed that it is conjunctivitis, a common ailment here often contracted through dust entering the eye. Unfortunately, all of the pharmacies are too far away to get the needed eye drops, so I continue the day without them, washing my eye in cold tea as a home remedy to help for a while.

Our day, upon reaching the church, is to help prepare lots of food for what will be a church party to celebrate the end of 2009 and the beginning of a new year. Three of our team head out with the pastor to a neighbouring city of Bariloche, called Dina Huapi, to visit with families related to the church, while the other four remain in the kitchen to help with the food preparation for what is expected to be a very big party tonight.

Reaching Dina Huapi

The pastor with his son, me in the middle, and Miguel and Gabriela on the right.

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Outreach – Bariloche Day 2

Our second day is quite different, and we spend the morning building brick walls, cooking bread and gnocchi for lunch. All of us get to do something that we have not done before, and have fun doing it too. After lunch we then put on multiple layers of jackets for the cold and the rain that has arrived, and head out to go to a distant neighbourhood to share with the people about Jesus.

Once we have knocked on every door, or actually clapped loudly at every yard entrance (you can’t enter normally because of the fierce dogs kept in the yards), we then arrive at the house of believers where they hold a church service every week. It is here that we do a couple of skits for them, before Karley (Canada) and Tabita (Romania) lead worship. I share a reflection on who God really is, based on Revelation chapter 4 and we then bid our friends good bye and return for dinner in the church.

Building brick walls

Building a brick wall to separate the kitchen from the dining area.

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Outreach – Bariloche Day 1

On the 26th of December, Boxing Day, we gathered our team together and heading off on an 18 hour bus journey from Puerto Madryn to Bariloche. Upon arriving in Bariloche, we head out to the church with which we will be working for the next week. Our outreaches tend to be organised per week more than anything. Our goal is to help, serve, teach, and be an asset wherever and whenever we can during this time.

This first day was filled with getting to know different people, being introduced to the church and its members, and being allocated our home for the week. Miguel and I stay with Luis, in his small home, while the girls head out on the bus to a much larger house. After settling in, we all return to the church for the last service of 2009.

Sleeping on the bus

Taking advantage of the bus ride to catch up on some sleep after the Christmas celebrations.

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Christmas Night

In Argentina, it is the night before Christmas that is celebrated. Everybody gets together to enjoy the night with a large meal and times of reflection until midnight when we all take hold of our glass and toast to Christmas and celebrate this day. When the next day comes, most are either sleeping, or spend the day at the beach. Our Christmas celebrations in the YWAM Base in Puerto Madryn followed this pattern exactly.

Christmas dinner

Everybody outside at the tables, ready for Christmas dinner.

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Puerto Madryn from Afar

It was a sunny day that I decided to head out to the hills around our YWAM base in the Quintas, an area outside of Puerto Madryn city. Here are some photos that show just where the Quintas are located and some of the environs around this city that I have called home for almost four years.

Puerto Madryn from the southern route

Looking north down one of the main highways to Puerto Madryn city.

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Bonafide

Bonafide is a coffee shop in Puerto Madryn where, before we connected internet in our YWAM base, I spent most of every day building websites and communicating with other YWAM bases around Argentina. In fact, I visited this place so much over the weeks that in the end I became a good friend of the staff that worked here, and they named me an honorary staff member.

Bonafide friends

Erika, me, and the “French guy” (he always thought I was French).

Visiting Ushuaia

It was the 11th of December that I boarded the bus heading to Rio Gallegos, the last city on mainland Argentina. My bus trip was about to take 16 hours before I got there, so there was plenty of time to think.

The entire trip to Ushuaia was something almost instantaneous. Although I had been trying to get down here for the last three months, it was only after a chat on the 10th with my YWAM base director, Jorge Rios, that this trip came about. So everything happened extra quickly, and by the end of the day I had purchased my tickets needed to get me to Ushuaia.

Ushuaia over the Beagle Chanel

Ushuaia as seen from the plane while coming in to land.

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Cruise Ship Season Starts Again

Puerto Madryn is one of the main stops on the Cruise Ship ports. Every summer we receive dozens of these huge ships, filled with tourists who then flood our town for the day before re-boarding and heading off to another destination. The Norwegian Sun is one of the first of the ships to arrive, marking the beginning of the season for this summer.

The Norwegian Sun
The Norwegian Sun

Football Championship

Every year our YWAM base now hosts a football (soccer) championship between all of the churches of Puerto Madryn. Last year our YWAM team achieved third place. This year we did not even make a position, but it was a fun game and we all had a lot of fun. Here are some photos of the day…

Announcing the winners of the Championship.

Announcing the winners of the Championship.

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Going Walkabout

One day I decided to go for a wander around the local area. What I found was a local dry creek with steep edges. It seems unusual that in a place where it hardly rains there would be a creek that looks like huge amounts of water had passed through it at some point.

Heading down the creek bed.

Heading down the creek bed.

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