El Kiwi en Sudamérica

Temuco (te-moo-co)

Well, Congreso was a fantastic time... Good people, good talks, good weather for some of it, good practice- all good (except for a few things i'll get to)
We left Friday night, at around 10:30, for a huge trip of about 10 hours... a good trip, good seats. I had a good chat to David until lights out, and then tried to get some sleep. By the time the sun got up the scenery had changed heaps; it was kinda like the Waikato with out the cows (I have no idea what they do with the land, maybe the cows have homes with all the mod cons...) so we eventually arrived at around 6.30 in Temuco very chilly (funny aye).
Took the local buses to the venue, an Anglican school for the deaf. They weren't originally planning to have it there: they had another school all lined up but for some reason they were told two days before that they had to find somewhere else. The only problem was that there wasn't really enough space for us in the rooms, as you will see in the picture, think marae style with a Latin twist and you would be right. As well most people forgot/weren't told that they needed to bring plates etc. so whoever was doing the dishes had to work during the meal so everyone could eat (quite a mission). Apart from that, all good.
Of course we were all pretty tired but at least for me the newness of the experience jolted me awake. The daily schedule consisted of two workshops, a talk thing, a study with people of the same first letter in their name (Nicolas x3 and Natalia x3 except for me duh!) and singing etc, in the main hall. I choose the Secundo Timoteo workshop, with the Youth Pastor from Viña as the speaker. I mainly choose it because Becka, Rachel and Jason wanted to go to it as well (I didn't really want to be all alone, in a little group, trying to contribute-I'm not up for that yet) And I knew that Eduardo was a good communicator. So that went real good, We started of each one with a little study kinda thing in little groups, then Eduardo would talk about what we had covered and more... It was cool to be able to understand some of what he was saying, but always with bits that lost me (I'm getting there... patience boy...). It was especially cool to understand his jokes and stories- Good times.
Unfortunately Congreso wasn't as big this year as normal-Mainly because alot of youth groups in Santiago didn't have a big showing. Me parece ellos estuveron un poco flojo! The biggest crew was from Viña by far (two huge buses full of them in fact). As well before I continue with my account Youth groups here don't stop at high school, they're more 15-plus up to early twenties thing (quite cool actually come to think about it).Even though the numbers were down it was brilliant. I found most people good to talk to with my stilted Spanish, but I still feel awkward initiating a conversation, not wanting to be a burden you know. The most frustrating thing was understanding them but not being able to put together a coherent answer (I’ll stop moaning now, there we go- that's better)
Believe it or not, I met some fellow kiwis there as well: Cameron and Rachel. They’re both here with their family, been here for 6 months so far, going to school etc. and they're from Nelson as well. I had a few chats with them and with Cameron's mates- good guys, and they were all used to speaking to an extranjero like me. So if I go to Concepcion I'll have to look them up definitely.
It was especially cool to be there with Becka, Ashlee and Rachel (The gringas) and my bilingual friends of Provi to keep me sane. They're all great fun to hang out with, and serious Christians (theological discussions anyone?) - I need some positive peer pressure now and then (ok... always). Becka was keeping us all updated about her husband hunting which was hilarious.
Another fun thing came from a comment I made about what I like to call 'Indiscriminate Hugging' (people giving others hugs with alot of affection- in a somewhat random way...like mentally linking someone being 'with' that person (these indiscriminate hugs were mainly between a chica and a chico) but lo and behold the next time you see them you see them with someone else, it's kinda hard to describe. Anyway this eventually led to some of the highlights of the week. I said that I wanted to get in on the act, so, with the others watching I approached a few random guys, walked up and gave them a hug. The best one was when I went up to one guy and said "donde esta el amor" -definitely the wrong thing to say! It translates roughly to 'where is the love' but in Spanish it's a whole lot stronger and kinda gay. The dude’s reaction was priceless: He backed off with a very scared look on his face, then I told him it was only a joke and pointed to the others with my camera. He then relaxed and I indiscriminately gave him a hug.
That's one of the cool things with my Spanish; I can get away with a whole lot. Like when we were playing games I'd sometimes make random comments like 'amazing' 'marvellous' etc. or stuff like 'rock on Muchacho's' (muchacho is like saying chaps or dudes or something).
You may recall I visited an Australian family when I arrived. Anyway Michael Charles was there as a speaker, speaking about some verses in Romans about not giving up on the gospel, not changing it etc. I found his talk quite easy to understand, probably because I’m fairly familiar with the verses he used.
So on Monday night we left, we had abit of spare time before we left so we went to a food court in a mall and looked around a real old Anglican church there (so I only saw those places, a school for the deaf and the bus station: With only the official Congreso T-shirt as a momento. Maybe next time I'll be able to see more. So we arrived back completely wasted... I was feeling pretty bad, a cough and nose thing.
After that I had to go to work, starting two hours after I arrived. At school I visited the school nurse and the next day she told me that I’d need to see a doctor (my throat was very inflamed, and I'd been sick for a few weeks and couldn't seem to shake it. Unfortunately the doctor was expensive as, like $100 bucks just for the consultation- not the kind of expense that I wanted. But I'm feeling alot better now.
I better stop this post now... I'll be posting my next instalment very soon with more 'wonderful adventures' including: Phil and Alex's farewell party, Sammy and Fern's birthday (In a MASSIVE house up Las Condes way), Futból with some from the church, a visit to one of the malls and my visit with a family.
Look after yourselves, and for you viewing pleasure here are some Photos…
Rachel, Becka, Jason and Sammy having a chat (last day just before the last talk)
Some of the Chicas waiting at the Bus Station in Temuco
Me about to hug the guy in the Puma shirt... too bad I don't have a better one so you can see his reaction!
Me with two of the 'Gringas' Becka on the left and Rachel on the right
Eduardo in action; he always sat in that pose...
Cameron on the right with some of the boys from Concepcion
And finally my touch Jersey on my messy bed...

posted by Nathan Sinclair @ 7:55 PM