Confidence

In Spanish there is this word "confianza" that means trust or confidence... The sentence that will help you understand this word and its connotations would be "I trust that you will do the right thing" or "I'm confident that you will do the right thing"... Also you would say, "we have confidence/trust" which means that we trust one another... I like this concept. It brings out how you have to lean into people and without CONFIDENCE it can't work. One will not lean and the other will fall.

In my experience... and a lot of my contact with Argentines has been within religious circles...but in my experience it is a pain-stakingly slow process here to build CONFIDENCE. But look it's different here too. I mean when they LEAN into you, it's a real LEAN and not just with one arm orone leg, but back-to-back. It means a lot to be considered a friend here. This is the worst part of culture shock to me when I tend to open up after about 30 seconds anywhere. All it takes is the right questions and BAM! I'll tell you whatever you want to know.

But here, I was super up-tight at times. Took me a while to see why, but apparently its not easy being in a place where all your relationships are starting from ground 0.

Well, I passed through Brazil on my way home for Christmas looking to use the return portion of my 2 way ticket between Dallas and Sao Paulo.

Almost immediately, I began to relax. I let down my guard, said silly things, received compliments on my Portuguese (which is actually REALLY bad), entertained people with my laugh and worshipped with my life (including even the guitar at times).

What had happened to me? Why wasn't I living in Brazil? Was there a really strong reason to ever go back to Buenos Aires when I could find a room-mate to replace me, an English teacher to work in my place, and a special friend to take some of my church responsibilities over?

I went with friends to the Sao Paulo airport and took a shuttle to my airport a little outside the city. I slept all the way to Dallas and was greeted by 2 friends at the airport. One of them an expected visitor and the other a major surprise... I cried as Barbara embraced me and let me in... Well I didn't really cry. But I teared up a little. ha ha. A lot more things happened, but let me rush to the point. My friend Barbara will lean into you even if she doesn't know if you will lean back. I mean about the confidence thing... I give her credit for being a good friend after her heart pulled me in first. She probably doesn't make every one be her friend or anything like that but she does let a lot of people see that she's willing BAM confidence.

Enough about that because if I get too specific maybe it will embarrass her or someone else. But... ok, I'll give an example... take her friendship with her dog: She loves that dog like a son, and maybe the dog is unaware or overwhelmed, and creeped out... but she keeps on loving him anyway.

What about me and Argentina? Well maybe when I let down my guard they will lean back... And I'll love them anyway if they don't. But I'm bringing a helmet just in case.