Eventful

Since the last time I updated everyone, there are two new girls at Maranata. And one of them is really just a girl. Ivana is a 17 year old cocaine addict with a 5 month old baby girl. She is practically bald with some hairs on her hairline. It's hard to explain, but i think this is due to the cocaine use? Can it make your hair fall out? The other came two days later, so I didn't meet her until Monday when I went. Her name is Gabriela and she also is a drug addict. I'm not sure which drugs, but Guillermo (one of the directors at Maranata) made sure to mention to me that they were, because it's a different recovery process for them. I imagine scenes from movies with the addicts either curled up in a ball and crying and wailing and crying or clawing at themselves. I saw the scabs on Gabriele's elbows. It must be a brutal recovery. But they are wonderful. I didn't get to talk to Gabriela as much because this was the first time I met her. I got to spend some time with Ivana both Wednesday (her first day) and Thursday morning. Yesterday Victoria, Ivana's baby, was there. It was kind of hard to watch. There is nothing there adequate for taking care of babies. Ivana lined a crate with a illow and a blanket and set Victoria in it. Later, I heard her crying, so I went out to check on her and found she had fallen out of the box because she was up so high and there were no sides to keep her in! I can still see her squirming little body faced down and awkward on the ground. I guess she hit her head a little, too. I arrived first to the situation and picked up the poor precious thing, just to hand her over to mother. She slept for a while on Ivana's bed. When she woke and began to cry, Ivana went to pick her up and almost hit her head against the door frame. I'm worried for that child. Everytime she cries, she's fed milk. Is that really what she wants every time? Somehow, I don't really think so.. I suppose this is why 17 year olds aren't ready to be mothers? They made a makeshift high chair for her with the frame of a high chair and a belt strapped across her body. She kept falling sideways because it didn't touch her upper body. The poor thing..

Other than all that, today was more difficult for the devotional because the two new women are not Christians and so don't really want to hear something from the Bible. I'm going to have to start doing other things. I read recently in one of my books for class (Gracias! by Henri Nouwen) about how much weight the phrase "God exists" carries. Maybe I'll talk about that with them. But that won't be a long conversation. Oy. I don't know what to do. I finally ate lunch at Maranata. They'd always ask if I was going to staying for lunch, but it was always day of and didn't tell the family I wouldn't be home. So on Thursday I told them that I need an invitation before day of. They immediately said, "Okay, Monday?" It was nice. I've seen some of what they have to cook with, so I will admit I was a little worried about the quality of the food I was going to be eating, but bit the bullet and ate it. It wasn't too bad. Wasn't the best thing I ever ate, but I'm pretty sure that was probably the first time I've eaten carrots since being here. After lunch I took a picture of them. Beatriz was funny; she kept saying she looked old and fat, so I promised her next time, we'd do makeup and such beforehand.

I don't think I mentioned what happened Thursday either.. So I'll do that. It was a hard day for Beatriz. She missed her family so much. It was the first time I'd seen any of them cry. And she completely let me, didn't try to hide anything. I didn't really know what to do, so I sat next to her and just rubbed her knee, probably like I'd do to any of my other friends if they were feeling down. Early she had shown me a book of reflections. I remembered a page of "Emergency Numbers" or something like that. It was a list of Bible verses to look at if you were feeling a certain way. So I flipped to that page and showed her. I don't think she'd ever looked at it before. So we looked at a few together. I think that helped. I also wrote down the lyrics to "Me viniste a rescatar", the Spanish version of the song "Came to my Rescue" by Hillsong United. And I sang a little bit of it to her. Then we prayed and I left. Monday, they told me they'd given the lyrics to one of the guys in the men's house who plays the guitar. They also told them I had a good voice. I think that was unnecessary and slightly embarrassing. Haha. Oh well, I had told her I'd bring my computer so she could her them sing the song. So I did and she liked it a lot, she already started to memorize it, even the melody after hearing it only a few times! I thought that was cool. She said it touched her. And I was glad. :)

I was able to do that on Thursday because I've started allowing God to be a part of my day. I have to say honestly, that I wasn't giving him much room. I kinda left him in the States. I saw him a few times here, and then didn't give him the time of day, literally. But now I've started reading that Gracias! book by Nouwen (It's about his time spent in Bolivia and Peru, trying to figure out if that was what God wanted for his life. He's got lots of challenging thoughts. Some things I can relate to, being in the same context [alone. abroad. trying to figure out what God wants from me]), and he encourages me to surrender each day to God. I've also begun reading My Utmost for His Highest daily. I received the book as a present a few years ago, but never really got into it. I definitely didn't bring it with me, but there's a site online that posts each day's thoughts. I know it's not much, but these things help to make everything better. I've felt less homesick and alone since incorporating these. I still don't open my Bible much, but that's always been a problem for me. Maybe now that I'm changing direction with devotionals at Maranata, I can continue reading on my own time.

After Maranata, I came home and had about 20 minutes to change my sheets and breathe for a moment, then left again with Mabel to go shopping briefly and then meet everyone at Plaza Pringles (I know. Pringles, right?) for the march against gay marriage. They said the reason for the march was "for the family", because children need a mother and a father (part of the pending law would be legal adoption to married same sex couples). I have to tell you I was SO conflicted about going. I'm not sure where I stand on all of this, but I thought I'd go because my family was going, and it'd be a cool thing to see here. But I wasn't prepared for it to be as hard as it was. I mean, I think I agree that marriage should be man and women. But I don't think a march is a good way to win people over on this topic. I think public demonstrations can actually alienate people because there is no personal conversation that leads to understanding. I also felt a bit as if I were betraying my gay friends by even being there. I had to hold back tears every once in a while. I finally decided that I was there as a participant observer for my learning, that way I didn't have to deal with it at that moment.

But a blog I read recently talked about how so often Christians say "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner" while not doing the same. Or bashing people over the head with the Bible, which half of them don't even care about because of these Christians who don't practice love. During the march people were raising up their Bibles as they walked, waving them around. I felt so uncomfortable. It made me sad. I could probably go on and on in circles about this and never really get anywhere, so I think I'll stop there. 

In other news, I'm changing the topic for my research project. I have yet to make contact with the Toba barrio, and there is very little material to support any research I do. That is a project best spent in years of study. It's too much to do in a month. So instead, I'm going to align my research with my internship. I've noticed that there are by far many more men than women taking advantage of Maranata's resources. Granted there are way more beds for men, the women's beds aren't even filled up. So I'm thinking about discussing the gender difference in substance abuse in Rosario. Yea? Sound good? I found a book that I was able to download for free (thank goodness) that even has a chapter specifically dedicated to the problem in Argentina. So nice. And I can use the directors and inpatients at Maranata for interviews and such. It will be much easier to organize. (And I don't have to spend time with creepy friend from church in order to use the library here.) So now that I've made this switch I just have to get on it and actually start doing it. Pray for that motivation and wisdom/discernment to know how to go about conducting interviews and such? Thanks.

ALSO, I read that the Teatro Colón is the second largest opera house in the southern hemisphere (after the Sydney Opera House). I decided we should check it out and that if there wasn't an opera playing, we (my parents are coming to visit for a week at the end of this month) should at least get the tour. Turns out Don Giovanni will be showing only one night while we are in Buenos Aires. So after briefly discussing the idea, I bought tickets for the opera! A little less than $60 a person. $220 pesos. I love the exchange rate. 3.9 or so right now. Anyways, I bought them online while talking to my mom on Facebook. She told me that, immediately, the bank called the house for fraud alert. haha. My response? "Go team." Makes me glad to see our bank system working so well.

Well, I wrote part of this blog on Monday, then Tuesday I continued it, which is why it all says "yesterday", and this morning (Wednesday) I woke up to finish it. So all "yesterday"s refer to Monday. Thank you.

Oh yea, and since today is Wednesday, I'll be going to Maranata again for the therapy session. The last one didn't actually happen because the women was sick or something? So I just got to hang out with the girls (Malisa, Beatriz, and as of that day, Ivana) and we did exercises together. That was fun. But yes. Today I will be sitting in on my first therapy session. I'll report on that soon.

Chau, amigos! Nos Vemos!