So...I've been working on a video to put up with this blog to show you all of the things we did in Buenos Aires, but as I was making it, new idea after new idea bombarded my mind like the never-ending drip-drops of rain ruining the shoes i left in the courtyard tonight. Ok, I'll be honest- they're going on their 3rd week of being in the courtyard. I supposed they have served their purpose in my life. Maybe later I'll put a picture of the shoes up so that you all can see why it is so hard for me to part with them. Okay, enough about zapatos. All of this to say, I have a lot of things I want to add to the video so I am going to work on it more tomorrow and write tonight. I'm already a sleepy head and I need to be up for Chapel in the morning and, not to mention, Hot Breakfast Tuesday! WAHOO! I'm already hungry and I have to wait EIGHT more hours. Unbelievable. It's the hard knock life for me, I'm tellin' you what.
Okay, this entry I am taking straight from my journal. I wrote this Saturday during our free time in Tigre, Argentina. Though it is not necessarily about the whole group or about what we all were doing there, it is inspired by many conversations I had with people on this trip and also just personal reflection upon my past and current travels. I know you probably did not get on here to read about what goes on in my head, but I had you in mind when I wrote that day. Though I cannot speak for everyone, I want to share a perspective from an insiders point of view and I'm certain that all of us here (and those in Oxford as well) relate to what was going on inside my head. I did not want to wait to blog until I got home to Montevideo, so I found a nice place to reflect and this is what the pen left behind...
"I love people watching. I'm sitting on a boat port, leaned against the brick ticket booth. Today I've heard at least 5 languages in passing: American English, French, British English, Australian English, and I'll let you guess the fifth. And yes, I realize that English is English no matter the accent, but my point is that apparently Tigre receives many visitors from all over el mundo. It does my heart good to hear all these different accents and languages because it, for one, takes me back to what living in Europe was like, and two, always reminds me of one story or another from some person or another from some place or another that i met somewhere or another.
This trip to Argentina has been great. It's amazing how good it feels just to be outside of Casa ACU--not at all because I don't like the Casa, but because I spend more time there than I do at my house in Abilene. I don't really think about the freedom I have at home until I'm thrown into a completely new setting; a new house to call home, new friends to call family, a new language to call familiar, and a completely new context in which to live. I don't have a car to use if I feel the need for a late night drive alone. I don't have a phone to call my mom when something is on my heart that I feel no one else will understand. The list goes on.
I knew all this coming into this semester. I've done this before. I knew, in part, the things I would have to sacrifice. Sacrifice, in my opinion, is measured by the cost. The more something costs, the more valuable it is. When you sacrifice things that are very dear to you, you are choosing to give up something precious without a guarantee that you will receive something back. Often times, at the point of sacrifice, all you can cling to is the hope of a beautiful return. Everything that is worth anything is worth giving something up. In other words, anything of value deserves sacrifice, even if it doesn't always demand sacrifice.
We study abroaders and our guardians (hey rents) have sacrificed a lot to come here. And I'm not even just talking about money. We have precious friends and family back home that, with the combination of our crazy schedules and an AWESOME (insert sarcasm here) internet connection, we can hardly talk to. We gave up the comfort of speaking the same language in order to have the incredible opportunity of learning another. I get giddy at the thought of being able to communicate and connect with an exponentially larger amount of people than I'd be able to if I only spoke one language. I'm excited to see how God builds on this opportunity in each of our lives. Before I left to come here, a lady at church said, "God needs you there to teach you things that you will use to live out the purposes he has for your life." I believe that language is only one of many things we have to learn by being here.
This is foundational for wherever we end up going and whatever we end up doing. For the rest of our lives."
The journal of Kara DuBose
14 de febrero 2009
Tigre, Argentina
That's all she wrote. Some days it's easy to let the sacrifice consume me. Other days, I don't even remember such sacrifice exists. How often I have to be reminded the precious worth of what the sacrifice will bring.
14 years ago
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