Today was our first full day in Buenos Aires. At 1pm, we had another knock at our door. We are staying in a pretty seedy hostel that I enjoy, full of transients. People had been knocking on our door all day. We had finally settled in and fallen asleep by 4am. This time it was Stephanie at the door asking us how we felt about the plans that had just been made.
We asked for an extra 15 minutes to get our thoughts together, and then the teams put their stuff in our bedroom, the only one with a working lock. Last night our teams piled into the hostel, totally overwhelming the desk staff. A blonde guy with blue eyes and two-foot long dreads was running around trying to figure out where we would all stay. When I attempted to get a private room for Linnea and I, I was surprised by his response. He immediately directed us to room 206. Jonathon and James were already asleep in this room, and we woke them up and said sorry. Sometimes I feel selfish about always pushing for this setup, but I feel it is needed. I teased the guys about staying in the Piscis room (because it is set up for couples). These rooms are named after the horoscope and have pictures from the kama sutra on them.
When we headed to breakfast, we were trying to figure out a game plan for the day. Our objective for this week is to find some ministries in the city and set up some contacts for future world race teams.
We headed out to a restaurant, at 2pm, looking for breakfast. And coffee. I ordered the largest coffee. Cafe Doble. It was so cute (by cute, I mean tiny). The other coffees were even cuter. While we were sitting there, Tana decided to talk to the woman next to us. To ask about the city. We talked for a while, and found that it was her 50th birthday today. We paid for her meal, and she wanted to help us find a map. So we walked down a street. We walked to a vendor, who had no maps, and walked from stand to stand looking for maps. No one had maps. Then we saw a bookstore and thought maybe in there. I saw the name of an author, Max Lucado, and realized we were in a christian book store. I looked around and thought that if I ran a christian book store, I would have a spot to drink coffee (or beer) and read.
At this store, we made some contacts to check out tomorrow. A soup kitchen we will look into, hopefully spend time at both sides of the line.
After that we went to another coffee shop and looked at a map with this woman, Anna Marie Medei, who is a doctor of sports medicine. She wants to go to Boston to train under Dr. Lyle Micheli, who is a doctor that Linnea refers students to. I offered her a room at my parents house (hope you don’t mind). We ordered more coffees, and a cake for Anna Marie. We made plans to meet again with her in a few days, then we prayed for her, asking God’s blessings in her life. After she left, we thanked God for that divine appointment, and the opportunity to bring joy to this woman, who was celebrating her birthday alone. She has no children, and her husband is working in Spain.
We then split into two groups of three. Linnea, Stephanie, and I went grocery shopping, and Tana, Shawna, and Amanda went to work on changing rooms.
We met in the Hostel and made sandwiches for dinner. Then we decided to go have some time to worship. We weren’t sure where to go, so we decided to meet on a roof where people hang there laundry.
As we sang, the smell of burning hash floated in the air. The rastas and hippies kepts walking by and we were joined by one dread headed guy who accompanied Shawna on his guitar. Then some others joined, and as we sang praise songs, people sat around listening, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. We worshipped for over an hour, and were really able to connect with some of the people. When we left, Amanda was discussing belief systems with a girl who said she used to believe in Jesus, but now likes it all. Allah, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus….
This is what it sounds like when worlds collide.
