May happenings

So it would seem that I am an infrequent blogger however I think once a month is sufficient...most of the time there is really not much to say. May - the weather has changed :-( It is now much cooler which makes me sad however it does mean hat season is well on its way so there is always the silver lining!

May is also my Bday month, thanks so much for all the messgaes, calls, cards etc...I had a great day. Had to work but spent the evening with my buddies so that was fun. Was actually a lot harder being here than I expected...I think I just missed the excessive excitement I normally receive from Emma and the Chesterfield Gardens Birthday Breakfast!! Was sad to be away but was fine!

Some friends and I went Rock climbing last week, I found it easier than I expected but we did just climb and not by a route! Brittny and I are considering taking a course next semester which would be cool....maybe!

So the excitement about coming home literally grows everyday....it is now only 35 days until I land in the beautiful country I like to call home! I already feel like I have so little time and so many people to see...I will be trying my very best to see you all. At the moment the plan is to be in London from 3rd July-8th and then again from the 23rd until I leave again on the 26th. The rest of the time will be in Plymouth although I may be making some trips to see peeps if poss! (For St.Mary crew I am going to visit school and hang out in eve on Mon 5th and Fri 23rd - I am looking forward to it so make sure you are free!!). The rest of you, let me know when free and we can arrange something! exciting!!!!

Nothing else really, spanish continues to be one of the greatest annoyances in my life (however I have started one on one tuition and have found a Spanish speaking friend to help me along the way, hopefully!) and I am still running...I actually run my first half marathon tomorrow so hopefully that will be a success story...ha.

Love you all and miss you as always,
Donna xx

Natalie comes to Argentina!!

So the past few weeks have been manic...the long awaited visit from my sister came and went in a flash but was fabulous! Was great to hang out with Natalie and for her to have a taster of my life here. I also particularly enjoyed her suitcase of goodies for me!! She got to explore the city with my friends before we went to Tandil for the weekend. Tandil was lovely, we stayed at a gorgeous little boutique hotel and walked, chilled, saw the sights...was beautiful.

Straight after this Natalie and I went to San Nicolas (about 3 hours away) to help serve at an orphanage for the week. At BAICA, the high school students all do a week of 'community service' and so I went with a group to the orphanage I went to for Christmas. It is really difficult to put into words how fabulous, sad, honoured...I felt. Our young people helped paint and clean and worked really hard as well as just making friends and hanging out. The orphanage has a lot of young guys and we took 9 young guys so they really loved hanging out together. Our students definately saw a new world, coming from rich, priviledged homes and experiencing the lives of the children at the orphanage was definately life changing for a lot of them. There is an album on my facebook titled 'Week without Walls' where you can see all the pics as Blogspot is really slow for uploading pics!

After that exhausting week which included a few cases of food poisoning (including a mild case for Natalie!) Natalie and I explored the city a bit. Natalie particularly liked Recoleta, which has a cemetry where she took a lot of pics and we saw where is Evita is 'buried'. We also spent some time shopping at the Feria and just enjoying being in the city! I love this city!

My time in Argentina so far has definately highlighted my ever-growing passion for wanting to help families in need. I am not sure how or where I can help, now or in the future but I am praying a lot for God's guidance and wisdom about how I can serve best in this area. A couple of friends of mine have a similar passion and have set up a website aimed at trying to help a local orphange near us...please check it out and if you are able to help please do, www.illuminatehope.org.

and that was it...2 weeks gone and I am left feeling great that I saw her but so sad at the same time. am so grateful that I am coming home in the summer for a bit...I miss so many of you so much...am so excited.

will update again soon...Besos xx

March and Easter.

I would apologise for my lack of Blog posts however you should be grateful because any posts would have been boring, mundane life stuff. March was one of those average months...I spent my life teaching, jogging, trying to learn Spanish and all the other everyday things life involves.

Oh, just remembered something I did...I ran a 7km race (with a couple of the teachers (above) and some of the students). It was for Unicef and was around the parks in Palermo...I loved it and love this city!! I am still in training for the half marathon and am in awe of Hel Bel who completed hers in good time and looked awesome! You will have some awful pictures to look forward to after I complete mine. That is, if I complete mine...I am running but it is tough and sometimes I think that if the race day is one of those 'crap running days', I may never make it!! ha. Hopefully my running buddy Joanna will ensure I do not fail!!

My friend Joanna has had a friend, Naomi, to stay for the past couple of weeks which has been fun. I love meeting new people and she has been a fun addition to the Espana crew. We have seen some of the city and went to see a tango show one night whoch was cool. I also liked her that bit more when she baked like a hundred cookies...it's the small things in life that make me happy, like a good cup of tea and a home-made cookie. Sweet.

For Easter I went to Mendoza, it is on the West side of Argentina and is one of their famous wine regions. I went with a friend, Christy. Was an ideal break. On the first day, we hired a tandem and biked around some of the bodegas, tasting wine and enjoying the good weather and good food. Yes, it does seem crazy that biking and drinking is encouraged. It is pretty crazy. We also hired a guide one day who took us to some of the smaller bodegas, was fabulous to learn the history of each Bodega, have a look around and taste wines. We also spent one day just chillaxing, we went for a run and had a picnic in the park. Christy has been living the high life of just travelling for the past month (jealous! apart from the bed bugs, definately not jealous of that). However, a few days of sunshine, a lot of wine, good food and a new place was just what I needed!

And for my last bit of really exciting news...I'm pregnant! Ha, not really (as if!). My sister Natalie is arriving in Argentina on the 14th April for 2 weeks so I am already way too excited about that...roll on the good times!

Miss you all as always but now only 91 days until I am on English soil again!! xxx

The Back to School Blues!

So after 7 weeks of sleeping in, exploring, Spanish, sleeping and general merriment (of the non drunkness kind) I have returned to the real world of work. To be honest I was not looking forward to it however after discovering I would have 3 new additions to my class I was actually quite excited. For you teachers out there, I had 4 children before I left for Christmas holidays and although this sounds like a dream (and sometimes it really is), in reality I found it difficult. Having had a class of 30/ 60 sharing with Gaileriffic and then just 4 it was a real challenge to know when to leave them, when to intervene and genereally I just got bored! However, my new additions have definately eliminated my boredom...I now have a 3 year old (young!) and a little boy with special needs who needs an assistant. I also seemed to have forgotten what it was like when the children understood NO english so am working extremely hard in just general communication...is all part of the dream!! In addition to this I am now having to get up at a time only birds, milkmen and postmen should be awake so feel tired all the time. Moan, moan, moan (also found out that Americans do not use moan in the context of complaining!)

On a positive note, the rest of my housemates returned and we have a new addition, Kaitlin. She is American too, she's alright :-). Have also started training for a half marathon that I will be running (hopefully) in May so am running regularly with a few of the girls. 'Running?' yes, I sometimes question my own sanity but am surprisingly enjoying it. I am also excited that 2010 seems to be the year of the half marathons - I am loving the fact that Gina, Emma, Hel and Hannah are all joining me in the running fun in England!!

Hmmm, what else? So, for the first time in 7 months I can actually report that I think I have moved from the Special Needs group to the Average (maybe top Lower Average) group for Spanish. The lessons over the hols just help to secure some stuff so am feeling a little happier and more enthused about the language now!

So honestly...I love Argentina, love Buenos Aires, love my kids, love my friends here but I miss all I love about home so much sometimes. It has been difficult recently, however I am positive that God has a purpose for me here. My friends and family both here and far have also been awesome and I am so grateful for their support. I have had and am sure that I will continue to have many fantastic times here...I am also ticking off lots of life ambitions so am thinking of some new ones...any suggestions??

Until next time...stay clean, stay safe. Donna xx

Summer Holidays

So went to the south for a week with friend Clare. Made the 20 hour bus journey to San Martin de los Andes which was not as bad as anticipated...was served food and drinks and slept enough. Can't really complain, there is genocide in the world. We stayed at a little hostel in the town and just spent our time walking, napping and eating. We hired bikes one day, not warned of the extreme steep hills (it was a mountain!!) so this resulted in me pushing the bike for a considerable distance, however the views were amazing, I got to work on my tan and the downhill was easy so overall good times! We then took a four hour bus journey to Bariloche, this journey was interesting...it was on an 'unconstructed road' along the lakes so great views however the lack of air-conditioning, the uneven road and the 'no windows open' due to the dust made it a little tiring. Love the culture tho, there were campsites along the lake and people hitch-hiking everywhere, our driver picked up 4 guys and for a small fee let them stand to the next stop.

Bariloche is a bigger town and I didn't like at first however I did grow to like it. Again, there was a lot of walking, mountains, napping, eating and a bit of swimming. I also went for a few runs along the lake which was awesome, seeing the expanse of water and surrounding mountains, I was reminded of how awesome God's creation is and how blessed I am to be in such a beautiful country. I was reminded of some of my hols in England, laughing a lot about similar times shared with Kate and Luce and with Em, Hel and Billy - I miss friends in England so much! On that note, I am defo coming home for a few weeks in July so will be looking forward to seeing you all...if any of you have some spare time, cash and wanna see Argentina, come on over!

January Jollies...

So 2010...nothing huge and exciting yet but has been fairly good so far. I am continuing on my quest to learn a foreign language and have resumed Spanish lessons, I continue to enjoy my 'listening phase' although am braving it a bit more on the streets! Highlights of my life have now become about being able to answer someone in Spanish, actually knowing what they are asking and not just guessing and going for the 80% safe 'si' answer! Clare returned early Jan so I now have another friend to fill my time with. I am slowly crossing off some of my 'summer time things' I wanted to do so am seeing more of the city and seeing more coffee shops! Went to Plaza de Mayo to the 'Las Madres de la Plaze de Mayo' (the mothers...), a group of women march for 15 minutes outside the government building in protest to the 'DIRTY WAR' where tens of thousands of Argentines disappeared.

I have also taken up another sport, I know it is shocking, not only am I running regularly (more accurately, jogging) I am now cycling four times a week. Now, do not even begin to picture me on a mountain bike, fashioning lycra, high vis wear and a helmet...oh no, cycling for me is on a old school town style bicycle , everyday wear and flip flops. Fear not tho, I am still working hard enough in the heat of the day for it to be classed as exercise...i think.

I also had an unfortunate accident in the street the other day...whilst running. I may add I was running along a main road for safety reasons. I was happily running to 'Halo' (Live lounge version) when I failed to notice a pavement tile that was sticking up (there are no health and safety concerns here). Consequently, I flew forwards landing on my front, scraping my knees, hands and elbow. I took a moment to realise what happened, muttered a quick 'ouch, that really hurt', then noticing that a lady had stopped her car and was ready to help, I promptly smiled and continued running. Injuries were minor although I do now have huge bruises and scabs to add to the multiple and evergrowing mosquito bites that are consuming all my skin surface area...I am truly a beautiful sight.

Am heading to Bariloche and San Martin (Lake district) with Clare bear tomorro so will blog again next week.

Christmas in Argentina

Christmas was really different for me this year. My friend Joy and I went to a children's home in San Nicolas (approx 4 hours away). We stayed with a lovely family, Tom and Colleen, who work at the home. We arrived on Christmas Eve and had dinner with the children and some of their families in the home. We then all went outside for 'fireworks'...this involved people just setting off fireworks in the street and throwing lit fireworks into the air, was crazy.

Christmas day we took some of the teenagers to a pool nearby. They spent the day in the pool and playing games. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great day hanging out and getting to know some of them. The mosquitos were out in force and despite many applications of mosquito repellent I was attacked, literally.

Boxing day we spent the morning at the children's home with the younger children. We got to have a look around and meet some more of the children and staff, we also gave the children some games and colouring things etc.

This christmas was so different from usual. This was my first christmas away from home and although I did miss my family and friends it was such a priviledge to share christmas with the children and staff at the Sunrise centre. I had previously visited the home and was struck by a sense of hopelessness and sadness however I feel that God really opened my eyes and heart to something new this time. This home is providing shelter, love and hope for these children. The children were so polite and welcoming and showed such a loving and protective attitude towards each other. I was reminded in each of these children that they are loved and precious to God and we are called to love them as God does. It is such a pleasure to have been given the opportunity to get to know them.

Please check out their website if you want to know more http://sunriseofargentina.org .