Catastrophe Strikes!

Thursday February 24th in the year of our Lord 2011, Garrett Douglas Bounds, John Mark Skinner, and Ben Anderson learned a very important lesson: When purchasing electronic devices, quality is worth every penny (or centavo, as is my present case).

Allow me to recount for you the events of my Thursday evening.  I noticed earlier this week that the electronics that we have in our apartment (TV, Cable Modem, Router) were hooked up to an outlet extender and not a surge protector. Being a conservative fellow, I made a note to buy a surge protector at a hardware store right next the building where we work. That evening, upon my return home, I pulled out the new surge protector, and went over to the outlet.

I noticed as I was pulling out the outlet extender (takes one outlet and provides three more) that the plastic seemed to flex in my hand more than I would have expected.  I thought briefly about pulling each of the 3 power cables out before pulling out the extender...but laziness got the better of me and I continued in my present endeavor. And then, the two plastic pieces which *held* (note the use of past tense) the extender together completely separated, enabling contacts inside the extender to short which immediately caused a bright, pulsing blue arc of 240 V electric current through the device in my hands. If I could think of a word that meant more scared than terrifying, I would use it. I was terrified.

Exhibit 1: Outlet extender as it was when it was removed from the wall...in two pieces with many exposed electrical contacts.

Exhibit 2: Evidence of the brutal force of 240 V of alternating current.

To make matters worse, my roommate, Ben, calls out from the other room: "Garrett, what'd you do? We don't have power?" At this point, the adventure began in earnest. A very quick autopsy of the outlet extender showed liquefied contacts and soot marks. No surprise there.  As it was growing dark, I was acutely aware of the need to solve the no power situation. In the US of A, houses and apartments are all equipped with circuit breaker boxes. I was certain that the events just described caused the breakers in our apartment to flip and all that was needed was to find them, flip them the other way and, "Presto!" back in business we would be.

After 20 minutes of looking inside, behind, around, underneath, through the walls and furniture in our apartment. I concluded that a circuit breaker box as I knew it was not present in 840 Rio de Janeiro apartment A. I headed out to find out portero.  A portero is a gentlemen stationed at most apartment buildings here in Argentina. His occupation involves taking care of general maintenance for the building, and being a resource in times such as these. I found him after a 30 minute search and began to recount my debacle, asking him if he knew where the circuit breakers were for the building. He replied that they were certainly in the apartments and was so kind (he's a truly excellent fellow) as to accompany me up to the apartment and aid in the search. Within minutes he identified the circuit breaker.

Exhibit 3: An example of South American circuit breakers...which look nothing like any circuit breaker I've ever seen.

Hopefully you can see from the picture why this was not so apparently a circuit breaker in my initial search. Having identified the problem, I quickly flipped the switches to see if I could get the power back on, to no avail. After some pondering, we pulled out the strange looking tube things.

Exhibit 4: "Strange looking tube thing" which can be seen in its installed position in Exhibit 3.

Curiously, a tiny copper wire ran through each of the tubes except one. In one of the tubes, copper looked as if it had erupted and sent tiny droplets of molten hot copper to the sides of the tube (I suppose that actually is what happened). I know little about electricity, but I did recognize that these little guys were serving as circuit breakers! when the current being drawn through them grows to be too much, they melt and, thus break the circuit. 

Having a much better idea at this point about what needed to be done, I set to work making thin little "cablesitos" (term my portero used to refer to copper wire).

Exhibit 5: Cablesito to replaced the one that got torched.

Exhibit 6: Inside of tubular circuit breaker showing one of the contacts and a cablesito.

I installed the cablesito in the tube, screwed it back in to the wall, flipped the switch and: "Wallah!" Power returned. After a brief chest bump exchanged between frazzled roommates. Normal life resumed, but not before leaving three young men much wiser about the perils of cheap electronic goods.

Exhibit 7: Happy electronics all hooked up to a HIGH QUALITY surge protector.

Mapuche Project

I shower very regularly. Every morning. Sometimes more than once a day if I've been running or working out. I didn't shower for 5 days during the project. Why am I telling you this? Well I'm hoping to set the stage for my post by contrasting my norm with  what the 10 days on the Mapuche Project were like!

The 80 students, staff, and professionals from Buenos Aires boarded a bus Monday morning, January 10 (yeah, I'm a little late posting about this). We had to be at the meeting point at 8 and many of us arrived from camp at 4:00 AM earlier that morning. Hence we had enough time for a very very brief nap. We boarded the bus and headed East to the province of Neuquen. The trip was great for seeing countryside....we got to see a lot of it in the 24 hour period that we were on the bus together! And we got close. Mere strangers got to know what I smell like after sitting on bus for 24 hours without air in the middle of an Argentine summer! We finally arrived in a town called Piedra del Aguila (which translates to Eagle Rock). We stayed there a night, met together for some vision casting for the week and then headed off to Mapuche communities throughout Neuquen.

One of my favorite pictures that I've taken :-)

The building where we stayed in Piedra del Aguila. Piedra = rock. Makes sense, eh?

Myself and the new roommates, John Mark (left) and Ben (right)

We took a quick Saturday trip to a nearby lake!

I greatly enjoy cliff jumping on any and all continents.

I went spent a few another couple of days in Piedra del Aguila and then went to a Mapuche community called Aucapan. Our all-star team resided in one of the local schools where we slept in mattresses on floors in the classrooms. Thankfully the school had a cafeteria and we were granted full access to use the kitchen for our meals. I mentioned not showering earlier. It was alarmingly cold there for most of our time, so showering meant emerging wet from the commode/shower combo stall into the blasting wind... so it didn't happen much in my case. Yet our living conditions were so much higher than the people we went to visit. They lived in homes with concrete floors, no running water, and few had electricity. It was as if the whole community of Aucapan (with the exception of the school which had some modern conveniences) was as it was in the 19th century.

While in Aucapan, we did several things. We helped plan recess times for the kids at the school in an effort to help out some of the teachers and give them a little extra time. But mostly we spent our time visiting people in their homes or showing the Jesus Film. 

Here's a video to try and give you an idea of the place where we were. I sincerely apologize for the abundance of wind noise... It was always windy. We would walk along this network of dirt homes until we found a house and then would ask if we could come in and visit for a while.  Most of the time the men of the home were out tending to the sheep, cows, horses, etc. But we got to talk to a lot of women who were home and were happy to have guests.

We had some really amazing spiritual conversations with people in their homes. We gave away a bible, got to encourage a woman who was a believer but lived with an alcoholic husband and father and was just discouraged about life, got to share about who Jesus was and what He has done for us with a bunch of families. It was incredible.

Here are some more pictures of our time:

The Aucapan team with a kind gentleman who drove us back to civilization.

My friend Cynthia and I with one of the families that we spent the most time with.

Lili, myself, and Cynthia with a lady who prayed to receive Christ with us!

Me riding one of their horses!

The boys of the family and I on their horse. (Sorry it's difficult to see)

The Big Decision

Ever since I arrived in this fine country, I have have constantly been asked the following question: "Sos hincha de River o Boca"? Which means: are you a fan of River or Boca? I had heard that soccer was a big deal in this country before I ever arrived. But hearing such things is just not the same as experiencing how big of a deal it is in real life. Everyone has a team for which they have an undying passion and conversations about soccer are a year-round hot topic. Just yesterday I was discussing with a cab driver about his team. This decision is a very big deal.

While there are several teams in the province of Buenos Aires, two teams command the loyalty of about 70% of the people. One is the Boca Juniors Club whose slogan is "We are the people and the party".

Boca Juniors Logo. CABJ - Stands for Club Atletico Boca Juniors 

Boca juniors stadium, known as La Bombonera (The chocolate box) which holds 49,000 die hards each match.

The other is the River Plate club, the "millionaires", whose slogan is "The ultimate champions of Argentine soccer". 

The River Plate logo. CARP - Club Atletico River Plate

The River Plate stadium, known as El Monumental (The Monument) which holds 65,400 screaming fans.

To further explain a bit about each of the teams, the Boca Juniors are considered the team of the working class while River Plate's fan base is more middle class. Both teams are good and have enjoyed periods of dominance over the other.

After much deliberation, prayer (not really, but it might have been a good idea), and thought I have made my decision.  Garrett Bounds is now and will forevermore be a fan of the Boca Juniors.

First Day of Work

I still owe the readers of my blog posts on my time during the Mapuche Project and Vacation. But today was a milestone day, so I'm interjecting a post before I get to those.

Today was our first day of "work" in the sense that we (Myself, the other 7 STINTers, and our Argentine staff leader) got together and began to plan for the coming year.  The students in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the University where we will be working, are still on Summer Vacation.  So, the month of February will mostly be planning for the year and preparing things for the arrival of students. The first day of work was great.  We meet in a building called the "Sede", which means headquarters, which is about 30 minutes from my apartment via subway. We started the day in prayer and then began to discuss our goals/expectations for the year, some needs of the ministry that we need to address, and some details about who will be working on what campus.  The UBA system has several different individual campuses spread out all over Buenos Aires. We will have a presence of the Agriculture, Medicine, Economics, and Law campuses.  I'm still not exactly sure where I will be working. We are praying about sending Tiffany and me to the Law campus full time.  She and I would be "pioneering" a movement there because there hasn't been anyone going to that campus full-time recently.

The task of planning how best to launch a spiritual movement on a college campus is daunting.  But our team is fervently praying for wisdom about how best to proceed. I'd greatly appreciate you joining that prayer! It's an exciting challenge, one that I'm so happy to have the opportunity to be apart of. I'll keep you posted about our plans as they continue to unfold.

In other news, I joined a gym today. This was the result of several things.

1) In the past month, I have consumed many of these:

Source: http://www.solodulces.com/medialunas/

Medialunas. Delicious crescent roll pastries with a variety of sweet toppings.

2) I live in the heart of an enormous city. While I am fortunate enough to live near a small park, this place isn't as conducive to running, my normal means of exercise, as lovely Clemson, SC.

Because of these two things, I will be working out. I've always been a slender fellow, so my roommate and I have determined to make this STINT year a Skinny Guy Bulk-up year.  Workouts 4 days a week, increasing caloric intake to 3,000 calories per day...the whole nine yards. 

On another completely unrelated note, today was my first rainy day in Buenos Aires. Nothing draws your attention to how much you walk like a little downpour courtesy of Mother Nature. I walk to the grocery store, the laundromat, the bus station, the subway station, the bank, etc. I walk everywhere.  I shall now learn to enjoy walking everywhere in the rain!

I'm back! Here's a rundown of Campamento 2011.

Dearest Friends,

After many many weeks away from modern day amenities, like Wi-Fi, I have returned to my lovely apartment in Buenos Aires with many stories, pictures, and videos to share.  Three big things have happened while I was away:

1. Campamento (Student Camp) of 2011
2. Mapuche Project
3. Vacation!!!

In this post I will share a bit about camp and will address the next two items in later posts.

What was Campamento 2011? It was very similar to a Crusade Winter Conference or YoungLife camp in the states - a time for students from different schools to get together, enjoy fellowship, meet new people and learn about the Lord and grow in their walks with Him.  My team and I were working alongside the Argentine Crusade Staff to help host the camp. We helped set things up, run the registration tables, etc.  The camp was held in a town called La Falda in the province of Cordoba. I like maps, so I've included one showing the Argentine provinces for your reference below.

It was a great spot! Unlike the province of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires is a Province which contains the Capital city of Buenos Aires), the area of La Falda is mountainous and green - much to this Tennessee boy's delight. We all stayed in a hotel outside the town of La Falda. The hotel had an outdoor pavilion called a Quincho where we had most of our meetings, a cafeteria where we all 240 or so staff and students ate together, several stories of rooms crammed with beds and mattresses, and a sweet outdoor pool. (We slept 6 deep in rooms that were made for 2. "Personal space" doesn't exist in this country!!)

Some of my roomates: Gabi (the worship leader), Roberto, and Hector

There was no written schedule for the camp - which blew my mind when I arrived - but each day consisted of 2 main meeting times in the Quincho and an assortment of break-out sessions in the afternoon as well as some free time.

"How was camp"- you might ask; Unbelievable is my answer. The Argentine staff spoke at the main sessions and planned the break-out sessions and they were incredible. Even with the language skills to only comprehend 85% of what was said - I was greatly challenged by the talks.  It was really neat to read and hear the bible taught in another language. And boy was it taught! These Argentine brothers know how to bring it! Here's a favorite story:

All the students arriving!

The last morning, the national director for Argentina issued a challenge to the students: "If you feel God working in your life and you want commit to serve Him with your life in some way - stand to your feet." Immediately students began standing. The response was great. I would guess that 3/4 of the students present at the camp were standing. I was so encouraged to see such a movement of people who have a desire to serve the same God that I serve. Witnessing that moment has made me so very excited about the coming year and the opportunity that I have to partner with some of the students I met to bring the Gospel to campuses all over Argentina.  It's a huge challenge but I'm excited about taking it on.

Another part of camp that was really incredible was our day of outreach. We went door to door in a town near La Falda inviting children to a time of games and hanging out in the town park and told everyone that we would be showing a movie that night as well.  We had a great turnout to our showing of the Jesus Film, and saw 17 people decide to trust in Christ that night! It was awesome!

Students and myself at the time in the park.

Our showing of the Jesus Film.

While a great time, camp was a bit overwhelming at times. I'm conversational in Spanish, but not fluent.  Immediately upon my arrival I learned that when Argentine students are in big groups, they don't take turns speaking, they just talk.  And they talk quickly. When they're excited, they talk quickly. When they're angry, they talk quickly.  When they're trying to drive home a point, they talk quickly.  Catch my drift?  As rate of speaking increases, Garrett's level of comprehension decreases. So sometimes I would be in a group listening to people talk and catch like 15% of what had been said. In such a case, if I were to be asked a question, I just smiled.  And then everyone would chuckle and continue to talk very quickly.  Because of situations like this camp was tough - awesome, but tough.

There was also much fun to be had. We were divided up into groups to make videos for the final night of camp. My group made a spoof of the most recent Twilight video. It was awesome! We also played a lot of soccer and had an entire evening of different outdoor games.  And I discovered a favorite pastime for students - KARAOKE. At 2:30 AM the last night of camp, the Karaoke party was just getting cranked up. There were some hysterical Spanish performances. Yours truly and the other gringos represented American music well with a performance of the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody".  Dance moves included.

Well, I hope that gives you a good idea of what the first 9 days of my absence were like.  Stay tuned for more!