Argentina was one of the most beautiful months of the Race so far.
I will always fondly look back on the hours we spent crowded around Marcelo and Perla’s kitchen table, laughing, talking in feeble attempts at Spanglish, eating an incredible amount of bread, and sharing Christ’s love and light with one another as one giant, loving family.
Argentina, not a day goes by when I don’t think of you, what you taught me, and how much I miss your beautiful mountains and your beautiful people.
Here are 50 things about Argentina that made me feel incredibly alive.
1.) Touching down in Buenos Aires after 30 hours travel time and instantly feeling the undeniable difference between an international airport in Africa, and an international airport in South America. The final continent change before going home. Bittersweet.
2.) The overwhelming excitement at having survived our last, and most major intercontinental travel day! (3 hour bus from Nsoko to Manzini, Swaziland – 6 hour bus from Manzini, Swaziland to Jo-Burg, South Africa- 9 hour flight from Jo-Burg to Dubai, UAE- 14 hour flight from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- 3 hour flight from Rio to Buenos Aires, Argentina – 18 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to final destination, Mendoza. Phew.)
3.) Stepping off the plane and being surrounded by a vaguely familiar language, but without the advantage of English being spoken anywhere in South America. Hello, 2 years of high school Spanish, let’s see what you’ve got.
4.) Getting really ridiculously excited at successfully having ordered my first meal entirely in Spanish from the airport McDonald’s based off of what came back to me like muscle memory. It’s the little things, people.
5.) Sleeping overnight on a window ledge in the Buenos Aires airport because our bus didn’t leave unil the next night for Mendoza.
6.) The intensely freeing feeling of washing my hair in the airport bathroom sink. Again, people, it’s the little things in life.
7.) The fact that each continent seems to provide more and more comfortable bus travel. Our overnight bus to Mendoza not only came with leather recliners, spacious leg room, and charging ports, but they also gave us free coffee and cookies At sunrise and sunset. listen up, North America: we have a lesson to learn about bus travel!
8.) Watching the most incredible sunset over the Argentinan countryside with a cup of steaming coffee and a caramel cookie in my hand.
9.) Seeing a Wal Mart for the first time in 8 months and feeling a mix of shock, horror, excitement, and also fear.
10.) The glorious pink sunrise over the Andes mountains that next morning on the bus, when God said, “What if I told you I put this here just for you?”
11.) When Joe (squad leader) and I stepped off the bus at 7am and were thrown immediately into a world of Spanish, without a translator. (Jesus is alive, people, because somehow we got to our host’s home just fine.)
12.) Meeting our host Marcelo and his sweet son Andrés. Talking in poorly jumbled Spanglish with Marcelo all the way to the house about perros. (Dogs.) Sometimes those are the only kind of words you remember from your high school language class.
13.) The minute Joe and I tumbled with our bags out of the car and a jovial man came running out of the house to greet us (Our new friend Roberto); he immediately started cracking up and in very rapid Spanish blurted something out and pointed at Joe’s beard and started laughing. My head whipped up in amazement and incredulity as I miraculously understood. I bowled over laughing as Joe looked bewildered. “What did he say??” “Oh my gosh.. JOE. This man just said it must be the second coming because you look exactly like Jesus!” We knew then it was going to be a fun month.
14.) Our first day with our host family. They fed us our first dulce de leche with bread, we swapped stories of our favorite movies and told each other about our families. By the end of the day, my brain was hurting from working so hard to remember how to speak in Spanish, but it was miraculous how much came back that day. I’ll cherish it forever!
15.) The sheer wonder of taking the first shower in over 3 days of traveling.
16.) Sunlight streaming through the window, and Latin music from the neighbors’ driveway streaming in also.
17.) The gift of a real mattress. Thanks, God!
18.) Mornings with paltas (giant avocados), tortas (Round bread, about the same width as an English muffin), dulce de leche (like caramel, but not) and instant coffee.
19.) Every sweet pastry, avocado, or olive-shaped gift brought to us by our friend Roberto. He spoiled us rotten that month!
20.) Writing a daily (sort-of) pre-wedding countdown prayer for my best friend Lexi, since I wasn’t going to be able to make it for the wedding.
21.) Learning many new songs on the guitar and playing them with and for my new Argentinan sisters: Anna, Laura, Ileana and Yohana.
22.) Singing El Cordero y El León roughly 1,000 times that month for various worship services.
23.) My sweet sister Laura teaching me how to make, and properly drink, mate. If you’ve never tried it, get on board!
24.) Getting cartilage (and nose) piercings with half of my team and our sweet new sisters and then going out for tacos afterward. Such a sweet memory.
25.) The sweet, gentle hugs that Yohana would give us every morning.
26.) Family friends, Analia and Miguel. They had the most wonderful family and hospitality. We miss you guys!
27.) Perla (our host mom) and her sweet mother, our new abuela. Abuela’s family had fled Germany during WWII to Argentina. She had dementia, and would suffer very traumatizing flashbacks sometimes. Sometimes she would laugh for no reason, or cry for no reason. She was always ready to hold our hands, and would often try to butter us up to give her more juice or soda. She was the sweetest, funniest, most endearing little abuela ever, and she brought so much joy to our lives every day.
28.) Sweet mama Perla’s voice when she would whisper buenas dias to us in the mornings.
29.) Pizza nights. Argentinians love pizza. Fun fact: they usually just top with sauce, cheese and hard boiled egg.
30.)Painting the schoolyard play structures with fresh, colorful coats of paint, and using a janky monkey bar structure as scaffolding.
31.) Practicing English with our little siblings Anna and Andrés.
32.) Being called “Annita” all month out of sheer love. (Hannah doesn’t directly translate, so I get called Anna. Adding an “-ita” at the end is a sweet term of affection in Latin cultures.)
33.) Teaching our Sunday school kids a very particular card game in which the goal is to reach a certain number of 21, but calling it Nacho Libre (Jack Black… Black.. Jack… you get it?) instead, because sometimes, you run out of ideas for kids’ ministry. It was a hit. and also, hilarious.
34.) The funny way Abuela would randomly say, “ahhh, claro.” Which is the same as someone saying, “ahhh, of course,” Out of the blue.
35.) The unforgettable off day we booked a tour and drove through The Andes mountains and played in the snow!
36.) The endless supply of cotton candy pink sunsets.
37.) Sunday brunch at Analia and Miguel’s house. i loved their sweet boxer puppy and the amazing steak and chorizo they grilled for us!
38.) Another fabulous off day adventure in which Toni, Sam and I rode horseback through the foothills of the Andes.
39.) Game nights with our fam and their friends that included spoons and card games and reminded me of my own childhood growing up playing these games as teenagers.
40.) Bread. Bread. Bread. 24/7!
41.) Tearful goodbyes, that didn’t end once we left their home, but continued through debrief as one of my dearest Race friends returned home to the US for the remainder of the Race.
42.) Celebrating this friend’s final few days with our squad one night at debrief. We went to a cavernous, old fashioned pool hall surrounded by old men in tweed jackets smoking cigars, and played a few rounds of pool. we laughed to keep from crying, and just took comfort in the family we’ve built as a squad this year.
43.) Our squad mentor had a birthday celebration at debrief in which we were supposed to compete in a dance war. My team painted their faces with 80’s death metal makeup and rocked out in all black and it was so fun.
44.) All-consuming, all-comforting hugs from your tribe.
45.) Taking a lot of solo walks in foggy, cold, early Mendoza mornings in the most beautiful part of the city.
46.) Dinner with my old teammates, Steph and Clarissa over gourmet hot dogs and laughing until the tears flowed freely. Love those two immensely.
47.) The unforgettable graffiti art all over the city.
48.) Being woken up by the Lord at 4am one morning because He knew I needed to talk to my best friend on Facetime.
49.) Taking communion as a family with the squad. I cried.
50.) Finally, after months of waiting and speculating, finding out our return date to the States. August 21st!
thanks for reading!
