It’s funny now, looking back on the start of last week, how calmly it started before the week descended into a bit of chaos 😂 but more on the chaos later.
On Monday Noly and I went to join the youth retreat that had started the night before. They had instigated a no phone rule and a fast from talking. Both of these things were actually really great. No phones = no distractions and no talking = a break for me with trying to speak in Spanish – not something I get very often!
The morning included preaching and ministry time, and a snack here and there! At the end of the morning, Billy, the pastor, got us all to go outside and sit in a circle and talked some more to us about self esteem and loving ourselves so we can also then love other people. We did a few exercises, like writing down three positive qualities of the person sitting to our right (always a nice boost to get compliments 😊) and things like that. Then the last exercise was to complete three sentences at the bottom. All three sentences started with “the world is..” and Billy told us to complete the sentences with something positive, i.e. the world is beautiful etc. Once we’d done that he said, now replace “the world is” with your name and see what you have. One of the boys had written “el mundo es rotondo”, meaning the earth is round, meaning Ema is round…. 😂
After that came lunch which was lush! And then after that came a boys football match, various water balloon activities and volleyball. A water fight soon ensued and I managed to steer clear of it for a long time! Though this didn’t last and actually didn’t work out in my favour as one of the leaders highlighted the fact that no-one had gone for me so then I got absolutely drenched as five girls approached yielding buckets and bottles of water 😂 it was a very joyous afternoon with the girls getting braver and braver with who they were attacking and eventually they even went after the pastor’s, which was a funny sight to see! One of the pastor’s took refuge in their car and I didn’t see them again 😂 despite it being a very hot day, maybe around 34° my shorts still didn’t quite dry off 🙄
After going back to Nolys for a quick shower and change it was time to go to a birthday party for one of Nolys cousins children. Felt v mischievous because I was never allowed gobstoppers as a child (incase I swallowed them whole) and Noly encouraged me to eat one and then text my mum haha (who urged me to proceed with caution haha). Then had to run a coupla errands which turned out to be quite complicated indeed 😂 but eventually worked it out and so afterwards went to the new crepe place with the Nolzster and had a savoury crepe this time, pizza flavoured 😋
The next day, Noly and I got the bus to Oran as we needed to sort out some visa stuff. Oran also happens to be the hottest place you have ever been to, with temperatures at the moment somewhere between 40-48° 😂 getting off the bus there was a wave of heat. Thankfully it was cloudy so it wasn’t at full power but was still baking! We were staying with some of Nolys family in Oran and it was really nice to meet them and chat to them. In the evening we had tacos which was soo yummy and such a good family meal, all sat round the table passing bits and bobs. This was satisfying to see how far I’ve come because I managed to say some bits and bobs in Spanish and in groups it’s still really hard for me. Especially so with new people! But felt comfortable and happy.
I can’t really go into details on here, but the next day we started trying to sort out some visa stuff. Unfortunately it didnt go as smoothly as we had hoped. We made the journey back down to Salta and with a lot of prayer from various different people, it was finally sorted! It was all a bit stressful as we thought I may have to leave the country earlier than planned, so thank God for his hand over everything and thank you to everyone who prayed over it. Speaking of, if you are a pray-er please pray that we’ll find the best way forward for next year – a way that meets my needs and covers me financially. Have been feeling a bit down lately as I’ve had to sacrifice pretty much everything in my life to come out here, so I think it’s important to find a way forward that I’m happy with.
So yes, that was my crazy week last week! So relieved it’s all sorted out and am looking forward to my first Christmas abroad! I can’t get my head round the fact that Christmas is coming, largely due to the fact it’s really hot here and in my mind Christmas is related to cold and dark evenings! Weird.
Nadia's Adventures 