Uruguay

I went to Montevideo on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and came back Friday night. It was great to spend the holiday with some ACU Study Abroad students as well of some of my friends from Brazil that were visiting the area.

Pretty much, I couldn't ask to have a better or more encouraging Thanksgiving (unless I could have shared it with my family too). Audrey and I contributed mashed potatoes to the humongous feast, and there was more than enough to go around to the students, travelers and Uruguayan guests. It was also nice to have a time off of work and away from the city for a little bit, but I'm excited to be back.

For free-flowing reflections on life in another country and what I got out of my trip, continue reading...

Audrey and I did not intend to share our Turkey with people from Brazil, but we somehow ended up in the same place at the same time. For me this was amazing because I accepted it as a divine gift. My time in Brazil in June really made an impact on me; and so, to share with those individuals again without planning to was more than I could have asked for or imagined happening. We went around the city together, looked at monuments together, told stories together, and laughed together. Together is so important. Without meaning too, they helped me realize how easy it is to be more focused on details and plans and ideas and learning and being perfect and on and on and on.... to be more focused (or should I say distracted?) on all of that that there is no room for appreciating each other or for true partnership. And I feel like by talking about it so much, I'm sort of ruining what a simple thing it truly is. So let me start over.

I feel reminded to be myself and love others as they eagerly work towards the same :-)

Viver Coisas Noivas (Living New Things)

See the men and women-
I'm living new things.
Here they work through and run
I'm living new things.
Don't worry with tomorrow,
I'm living new things.

They are hurting-try to fix-pray to help
I'm living new things.
Wanna go home
I'm living new things.
Went for it!
I'm living new things.

See the house
I'm living new things.
Receive some new things
I'm living new things.
Work outside
I'm living my new things.

I wrote this as a poem to think about specific things that happened the 2 months in Brazil. A vague line to you represented and symbolized something specifically in my minds-eye... After writing the poem, I read it again and let my mind imagine Argentina, and the poem worked perfectly to describe my feelings and what I've seen here as well. If you're into poetry, try reading it through your own eyes and context currently or from your memory. Read it through someone else's eyes too... What do you think?

Excerpts from a letter to my mommy and daddy :-)

I finally have a somewhat regular job as of about a couple of weeks ago. He knows about my trip to the states and everything, and I should be able to work for him substantially in March as well as working part-time (which I've already started doing) now. I don't get paid well by American standards... about minimum wage... but I've never made much more than that, and I've never worked much more than 20 hours a week either... So it seems like a normal amount of money to me. And compared to my peers, I'm living like a queen. I really like my job. My boss is in charge of receiving students that want all kinds of teachers, tutors, and classes. Every time someone needs an English class, I come ready and prepared. I'm not always super-well informed about the needs of my client before I show up at their house or office, so I'm always having to think on the fly and respond to the needs in front of me. It reminds me of social work. I take notes about what they already know and what they want to learn etc, and then I plan lessons. It's really fun.

I have two Korean kids as students in the 2nd and 4th grades. Whenever I enter the apartment, I have to take off my shoes and put on slippers. On the other hand, whenever I enter the business building down town I have to put my most professional attire on and speak with the most proper Spanish I can muster to arrange things with the receptionist to teach an employee there. My clients make more than all of my friends and I combined... ok I'm exaggerating. But it's interesting to see the difference. Someone the other day from church about my age said to me, "I make really good money at my new job: about 17 pesos an hour." This is a little more than U$S4 an hour, but my clients that I teach English to, each have cars. The disparity is really incredible...

Church has been fun. I got to show 2 ladies from Harpeth Hills around town the past two weeks, and now we're looking at wrapping up the Lets Start Talking (teaching English using the bible) season and trying to put various and different English students with mentors etc. It's exciting to be a part of this. I mostly just organize data and help it to pass hands, but I know this is a big help to everyone... and it's not boring to me either. (I kind of like it).

I'm still studying about the church of Christ and baptism and whatnot. As tedious as all of this is, it will be so helpful in the long-run if I will ever participate in or serve in or with a church. I'm so glad I'm in such a good position to learn how things work here even though it's hard at times.

I have lots of good friends, and I love spending time with them. Pray for my friends. Also pray for Lets Start Talking (the English program at church) and for the unity of the church.

We have a Tuesday group that is exploding with new people... and all from different faith backgrounds... several looking for a church community. Pray that we all grow up in the Lord together and don't exchange Spirit for truth or exchange truth for Spirit... as if they could be separate. I don't know... really I don't know what God wants to do with the group, but it seems significant to me the way that growth has exploded over the past month and a half. So may God be praised. Amen.

Nathan

One time David was hanging out in the Old Testament being King and whatnot and he did something really bad. He watched a man... er allowed a man to die knowing it was unnecessary. More specifically, he put a soldier in the front line and asked the rest of the troops to draw back. And that's how Bathsheba's husband died. David did this because he had the hotts for Bathsheba and had already slept with her and gotten her pregnant.

Next thing you know, a prophet named Nathan heads over to set some things straight for David. Here's the story he told.

2Sam12- ¹ The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!..."

After this, David repents and writes the famous 51st psalm (Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me) and many people look to that Psalm today to aid them in their own repentance when they see bad in something they have done or with the attitude they have done it with.

I repent a lot in general. I think it's one of my skills. Interestingly enough, being in another culture and a different religious context in some ways reveals problems in the institutions and people around me... I'm not saying that there are a lot of problems, but it's easier to notice them because I haven't become inoculated to whatever form of disease may be here. I'm in the water, but I'm not a fish; so, I can see that it is water that I am looking at.

Anyone who's done any world-view or cultural studies will tell you that we cannot see our own biases and world view as clearly as we can see those things from another society. It's easy for me as an outsider to be outraged at the flippancy with which people make racial or racist comments for example. It's also easy for me to be annoyed with the lack of promptness here in general.

But there are deeper problems as well... like the fact that sometimes amidst all the denominations and religions here there is a lot of focus on the flaws of other groups... but wait: What am I doing right now? Am I not adding to the mix and in this very blog post focusing on the flaws of others just as I am frustrated that they focus on mine? We are like David... I am like David, I mean. I can see clearly the truth when it is taken out of my context, and then BAM, apply it to my context and I am guilty as well (for all have fallen short).

I know this seems depressing, but if you know me at all you know that I'm not very depressed. It's kind of nice repenting... it seems to take a lot of pressure off. Thank you Argentina for being my Nathan! in so many ways... I can't even begin to explain here.

What's Your Name?

One time I was with my friend Tommy, and we got half-way through a conversation about something or about nothing and in my mind I got this eerie sense of Dejavu. But not fake or mystical dejavu, it was real. In this moment, I was telling Tommy a story over again that we had already talked about only a few days before. What an embarrassment. I hate to bore people, or someone with the same story twice. My mistake.

But you know what happened when I explained to him the problem? He said, “Yeah, you told me all this last Tuesday. I remember.”

“You remember? Then why didn’t you cut me off?”

Tommy said, “It’s about relationship.”

“Huh?”

“Conversation,” he said, “Conversation is less about information and more about relationship.”

He was right, in a way. Or at least the statement has been helpful to me lately. Living in South America and struggling to understand the words that people are saying to me, I try to remember what it meant to me to have a friend who listened.

When I listen, I know I won’t understand every word, but maybe I can get the main idea. And most importantly, I can form trusting relationships by showing that I care. Listening even late into the night when it costs me precious ounces of energy and brain cells that I’m trying to use just to remember which direction is up and to not forget my own name.

Today a lady sat next to me in my favorite coffee shop. We talked about something and nothing and I went my own way at the end of the conversation. She asked me for my name as I left. Why did she do that? Did she know or even think she might see me again? Probably not, because the only reason we talked was because her pizza to-go order was being prepared and I was the safe looking stranger with an open seat at my table.

My how we miss opportunities to ask questions and build connections. Social work calls it “Dignity and worth of the person,” but I call it… actually I don’t call it anything. I just believe it’s important to value people not as a means to an end as a sales man would do, but as the end in and of itself. Why else would she have asked for my name? I think it’s because relationship is more important than the information.

Later that day, thinking of her from the coffee shop/ pizza store, I went into the subway. There was a man there asking for money. Decidedly, I wanted to learn his name. With his daughter lying asleep in his lap I went to him and said, “Hi. What is your name?”

“Aylen,” he said.

“Ahh… y como se llama ella?” I said pointing to the girl.

“Oh no. Her name is Aylen,” he said.

A little flustered, I asked again…“And what is your name?” I repeated with emphasis on your so as to be more understood.

“Emanuel.”

2 pesos. 50 U.S. cents—Not a bad price to pay to learn pungently why I should listen. Emanuel is Hebrew for “God with us.”

Life in Buenos Aires, a dry introduction :-)

Time for me to get back into a rhythm of blogging. I hope to keep it updated with stories of my day to day lovely experiences, which in my opinion are far more interesting than the big picture summary. However, as an introduction to these day to day experiences, I will tell you today about the city and its culture, the congregation I’m working with, and my goals and experiences here. First of all, the city is amazing and BEAUTIFUL! You would love it. It looks like Europe or Paris, but its in South America. The buildings here were built to last and many of them are over 200 years old. In fact, where I’m staying right now (an apartment rented by a church in the States that is intended to be used by missionaries in their adjustment periods as well as by short-term campaigners)… the building is 70 years old, but still in amazing condition!

The city is also known for its education. With many amazing and affordable colleges and universities, Buenos Aires is full of educated individuals with a thirst for knowledge. This is good when it comes to studying the Bible with people because they want to know the truth, but it provides a challenge as well. When studying with smart people, you have to know the material well yourself.

The congregation I’m attending and serving here is gifted in the area of Bible knowledge and studying with people in English and Spanish. We attract many to our congregation who want to learn English, and sometimes they meet God along the way. The congregation is small, about 50-75 members but 100 that attend or are connected in total. Some of those 100 may only be participating in our home bible studies that we hold weekly in several different areas of the city. Because of its small size, my congregation here is very much a family in the way we treat one another. What a blessing to walk with these brothers and sisters every day. In my “house” where I’m staying, we have game nights, pizza parties, girls’ sleepovers, or any excuse to spend time together encouraging one another in our faith and walk. I’m blessed to be surrounded by such great company.

My goals right now are focused on the learning side of things. In the next year, I hope to be fluent in the Spanish language. I’m practicing daily and have many informal ‘teachers’ in the youth etc. I also practice reading and writing in Spanish as well and hope to find someone to edit my personal essays etc.

Similarly, I just completed a TEFL certification course that certifies me to teach English as a foreign language, but the learning continues as I take on jobs at institutes and with a few private students. Within the next year, I also hope to learn how to manage my schedule efficiently and be a very good teacher.

I’m also doing a lot of informal research constantly asking questions of church members as well as non-Christians. I’m trying to learn the societal rules so that I can be intentional about if, how, and when to break them. One “rule” I learned this week is to never leave the house without enough warm clothes. Argentines made fun of me all day when I went out in the rain wearing sandals, but I thought it was intelligent to wear sandals and thus avoid having wet socks J

Aside from learning, my other goals are developing as we speak. Options include participation in the formation of a choir here, but more than anything, I want to continue to be available to help and serve in whatever ways are necessary, needed, or beneficial. I’ll keep you updated on how some of that goes.

Pray that God works in our church in ways that are beyond our comprehension, and I will do the same. Also, pray for our leaders, Osvaldo, Dario, and Thomas: that God will give them strength and that they will be led by the Holy Spirit in all that they do.

Please write me with any questions, comments, encouragement or prayer requests. My e-mail is anm05a@acu.edu.

God bless you and all your are doing,

Ashley Musick

South American Bus Trip

Friday morning I got on a bus with my friend Carioka to go to Sao Paulo. Really good. Pap e ta bon e.... No but seriously, we had good talks and I got to meet his family and stuff. Later that day, my friend Pedro came to pick me up and give me a tour of the city. Olivia joined us. (Some of that paragraph references some things specific to my Brazilian readers. So don't worry if you didn't get all that.)

That night we had dinner at a nice restaurant, and maybe a little something with dinner to help with the sleeping... I'll give you a hint: It wasn't coffee. Ok, no but seriously, there's a famous Brazillian drink with pinga (a Brazilian liquor) and lime called a cappurinha, and I somehow managed to not try it until my very last night in Brazil. That would be like going to Mexico and never trying a Margarita or going to France without sampling the wine. It was definitely time.

On the bus I slept soundly most of Friday night, but don't be confused: It was not a nice bus. We're talking smelly bathroom with Greyhound quality seating at best. Fortunately, that night I had two seats to myself. Around 3 or 4 AM I woke up freezing cold. I noticed that everyone around me had packed a blanket in their carry-on, and I about kicked myself for not doing the same. Southern Brazillian winter in a bus with no heating. I had two coats; so, I put one around my legs and the other I wore as a jacket, and I crossed my arms. I was actually able to find a position that retained the most body heat possible and slept until just before dawn when we switched to another bus. The second bus was identical to the first but had a working heater. PRAISE GOD!

Saturday we stopped for breakfast lunch and dinner, and most of the day felt like a dream. I tried to stay awake to insure good sleep the following night, but it was difficult. I managed to meet a few new friends though, and that was fun. Overall, I do not recommend going to Argentina by bus though. There are easier ways to make friends. Sunday we arrived in Buenos Aires at 3:30pm. That means the total trip was 41 hours... WOW!!!

Not a lot to report about Buenos Aires yet. I met with the missionaries today, and I start school next monday. I'll be in my own apartment; which may mean lots of time to write letters etc... so don't hesitate to write or contact me!

In the meantime...
Ashley

Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat - Lucky (Video)

Camp Roots, and Bello Horizonte

At Camp Roots, everything was translated into Portuguese and English. Most of the campers had some interest in learning English and went to Camp Roots to practice with the American counselors that were coming mostly from Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, TX.

Hunters and Gatherers lead singer, Logan Pringle came with the group to lead worship. I was so impressed with his musical ability and ability to explain why he loved to sing. His 3 co-musicians were Brazilians, and none of the 4 total were bi-lingual. But it was great. They knew the same notes and chords composed a tri-lingual re-mix.

My task at camp was to help campers make notebooks. Here´s some background information. Each craft that campers did at camp was designed to be given away to local people who needed it. An institution for abused, or neglected children that had requested notebooks for their kids, and we found an easy method for our campers to make notebooks by hand. What a neat experience.

This is a good point to stop reading if you just wanted a rough overview, but for people like my mom and a few others who like to read, I'll keep on going.

At camp we actually did a flash mob. This means that an American dance teacher flew in to teach us choreography: 120 people dancing to the World Cup theme song meshed with a Black Eyed Peas song and a Brazilian Samba... in the mall. I mean, we learned the choreography at camp, but after camp, we went to the Itu shopping mall and surprised them with our dance. YouTube "flash mob" to see similar presentations to ours. I'm not sure how to describe how cool this actually was. Looking forward to the flash mob at the mall made it much easier for everyone to leave camp and the relationships we had started there, but saying goodbye wasn't any easier after flash mob than it would have been from camp. In other words, I really appreciated how close so many people grew to one another at camp.

The week after camp was a medical campaign in a poor area of Itu where there was a need for dentistry, optometry, and other specialists that came from the states for the community here. It was hard to help without being skilled as a translator or medical professional, but I found ways to be helpful and help waiting patients to smile. Jokes are harder to tell in Portuguese, but I managed.

On that note, I have to confess, that I am painfully eager to speak Portuguese and communicate with people. It kills me when I can´t. For example, today at a homeless lunch in Itu, I was speaking to a man, and he said in Portuguese, "Get someone to translate because I don't understand the way that you talk." I said, "Are you sure that you can't understand me?" He was sure... His response didn´t even coincide with my question. I opened my mouth and tried to enunciate and use perfect grammar, and it didn't help at all. Screaming didn´t really give him any more insight into what I was saying either... I hate that I couldn´t talk to him and wonder what is lacking in my pronunciation. Ironically, my friends that speak English understand my Portuguese just fine but confess that sometimes when I think I´m speaking Portuguese, it´s actually Spanish. I have hope though. For example, reading Twilight in Portuguese is giving me a lot of new vocabulary.

When I went to Bello Horizonte for a week with my friend Barbara, I was shocked to find that her hometown was a capital city of 8 million. It's the capital of Minas, a state in Brazil. How many of you have heard of Bello Horizonte? I mean, it can be embarrassing to be foreign sometimes and never have heard of a city that is bigger than most cities I've ever seen.

Her family was small and intimate. When Barbara invited me to Bello, I had no idea how amazing it would be to have such an insider's view on her life. I would have to say that getting to see her home and hometown has been one of my favorite things about Brazil so far. It was relaxing down to a walk through some nearby mountains and sunbathing on the roof of Barbara's house with casserole and a glass of wine.

World Cup, Dishes, and Pioneering

It seems difficult to sum up the past two weeks when every day was different and they all seem to be running together. One thing I can say for certain is that the World Cup has been a really big deal down here. Today, my 'little sister' only goes to school for a couple of hours because all of the schools are shutting down for the game. Brazil is playing in the world cup today. I told my family that United States schools do not shut down for soccer games, and they were shocked. But it's not just the schools that close; businesses, stores, and factories shut down too.

Cultural differences fascinate me. For example, how do you do your dishes by hand? If you're like me, you wash a dish and then rinse that dish. When I was doing that here, my mom looked at me like I was crazy and said that I must have a dish washer in the United States because I obviously didn't know how to wash dishes. Here you soap up all the dishes and set them soapy on the counter. Then you rinse them all. Makes sense to me, but I'd never thought of doing it like that. That is how everyone does it here.

A fun thing here in Itu, Brazil is how rare foreigners are and thus how excited people are to hear about other places in the world. Especially kids and teenagers show visible excitement and surprise to know/ meet you. Today I went with the kids I'm staying with to school, and all their friends were like "Where is she from?" and "No way!"

To highlight an activity we've been doing, we invite the homeless of Itu over for lunch every Friday. Last Friday, I managed to attract and talk to both of the men with slurred speech and mental confusion and disorientation while waiting on the beans and rice to be served. I think I am a magnet for these kinds of people and apparently even in other countries. One of them thought he was speaking English to me and told someone so, but his gibberish was nothing like English or Portuguese.

Homeless lunches here are always interesting and almost comical, but not without positive outcomes either. Every man is offered a hot meal, a warm shower, and perhaps most importantly... a sense of belonging and community. One man told me, "At 'Xig-X-Shol' (pronounced shiggy shol and is the name of the Friday lunch group... the words mean groovy, or really amazing) we are more than family." After lunch there is music and dancing and joking and laughing, and slowly people open up to one another.

According to the missionaries here, they've looked all over Itu, and there are no non-profits or churches with programs for the homeless. There are no soup kitchens or salvation army units. Fortunately, the restaurant culture allows for the men (and a few women) to beg for food in the back at closing, and they graciously pass the food out the back door, but nothing formal exists at all to help these people. The homeless are in danger of abuse from the police and have no refuge offered them by city, state, ngo, or individuals. I predict a cultural shift in the next 30 years because of the globalization of music and pop culture and the growing emphasis in the Western World on humanitarian efforts, but in the meantime, I'm a part of a group of true pioneers here. Xig-X-Shol.

-Ashley Musick

Itu, Safe Arrival, and loving family

We arrived safely in Itu on the 14th. What a crazy weekend. Josh and I were both in Justina and Marshall's wedding on the twelfth just before leaving for Brazil the next day. And on top of that, some of my friends threw me a surprise party to send me off... My friends are top notch for certain.

Itu is a city of 100,000 just like the Abilene, Texas we just left. We arrived as a group of five young adults ready to spend a month here living with Brazilian families, practicing the language, and serving the church we are already starting to fall in love with. Specifically, we are helping do projects and keep the normal routine flowing while Mark and Alli enter into an intense season of bilingual church camp preparation. We are involved with everything from helping the church organize their book collection to building a bunk bed for their house that is now overflowing with inhabitants to following up with English schools to recruit English students for the upcoming bilingual camp in 3 weeks.

I'm staying with a family that speaks only Portuguese, and I speak only English. They are a family of four with an eleven year old girl that is sharing her room with me. They also have a son that is 16. This should be interesting to say the least, but they are so warm and inviting, you wouldn't believe it. Tonight for dinner we had spaghetti with beans... and I don't mean separately. (really good though)

Mom, Itu is a relatively safe city. Because of its size, you are just as likely to run into someone you know at the mall in Itu as you are at United grocery in Abilene. But, don't worry, we still won't be walking around alone at night ;-) Itu was about a two hour drive north from Sao Paulo where we flew in; so, it really is a lot like Abilene (which is about 3 hours from DFW). We will commute on foot as much as possible borrowing rides from those we know with cars whenever we can. My "mom" works as a secretary at the church; so, I can ride in with her if I want to.