In Part I of our story I left off with our night at El Huevo and Andrés not wanting to dance with me. Well, as I said, we left the club at around 4:30 I didn't get home until about 6:30am. I got a little bit of sleep but then I got up and was excited to go... because I was getting a tattoo!!! I mean, who doesn't go to a foreign country to get their first tattoo? It turns out that seven of us got tattoos together that day (a few weeks later two of the seven got another one and one other gringo got his first. I guess it's true what they say about tattoos being addictive), which just happened to be the 4th of July. It was my way to celebrate my independence! John was one of the gringos to get a tattoo and when he got home he showed it to Andrés and told him the names of the seven of us who all got tattoos. Andrés has since told me that although he's not a big fan of tattoos, he was super surprised (in a good way) that I was one of the gringas who got one. It's one of the things that made me stand out in his mind.
Our next big opportunity to spend time together and really where we got to know one another was a week later on our one-day mission to Colmo. La Escuela is not your average immersion school, rather it was a Catholic school for those of us who needed to learn the language to do missions in a foreign country or to do ministry with the millions of Hispanics in our own country. And so not only were we immersed in the language but also the culture and the Hispanic way of being Catholic. During our six weeks in Chile we went on two missions to learn how to do them the Hispanic way- the first mission was for one day in a little town of Colmo and the second was for five days in a little town called Lagunillas. The mission to Colmo happened when we had been there for about two weeks. For the mission we went door-to-door evangelizing! Oh my goodness, that took a lot of courage, not only to walk up to a stranger and say "Hey, I'm a Catholic missionary, can I share a Scripture passage with you?" but also to do it in Spanish!
They split us gringos into groups of two and then put a native Chilean with each one of us. I was placed in a group with my close friend Stephanie and then Andrés joined us as our native speaker. Stephanie already had a pretty good handle on Spanish but she wasn't feeling too well that day and so Andrés did most the speaking to la gente (the people) and then I got to read from the Bible! I was so excited that he made sure I got to participate even though my Spanish was pretty bad at that point and seeing the Holy Spirit work through this guy who I had thought was shy but was now willingly extroverting himself to share God's love with others was amazing. I actually wrote in my journal that he was a rock star that day, hehe. Also, as we would walk from house to house, which usually took a few minutes since we were in the country-side, he seemed really interested in getting to know me. He asked me where I was from, what the land was like, what I did for work, etc. And he was very kind to explain words to me I didn't know and to speak slowly so I could understand. It was this day that I started to develop a crush on Andrés.
We did the door-to-door in the afternoon and then we had the evening to hang-out, eat dinner, have a prayer service and then play around with the guitars and practice music. During this time I paid a little extra attention to Andrés but at the same time I was telling myself to NOT DO IT! I mean it was just a little crush at this point but I kept reminding myself that I was there to learn Spanish and be a missionary and not to find a boyfriend. But I guess my heart would just not listen to my head.
Our time in Colmo took up Saturday and Sunday and then Monday we had only a couple of hours of school in the afternoon so we could relax (also, I think half the teachers were sick). After getting out of school early I went to the sand dunes on the edge of Concon with John and my friend Kayla and then we went to the market in neighboring Viña del Mar for a little bit and then afterwards to a prayer service in Reñaca. It was a glorious afternoon/evening which would get even better. One of the great things about hanging out with John, besides that John in and of himself is awesome, is that I would usually get to hang out with Andrés and that Andrés had a truck. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the public transportation in Chile, but at night it's nice to have a ride. After our prayer service Andrés came to pick John, Kayla, Daniel and me up and instead of going home we decided to go out for completos. Yum. My yum is half sincere, half sarcastic. You see, completos are like giant hotdogs (ok) on homemade buns (yum) slathered with avocado (yum), ketchup (ok), tomatoes (yum), sauerkraut (yum), and a HUGE amount of mayo (nasty).
We went to the Sibaritico in Viña to get the completos and while we were waiting for them, even though I was wearing two jackets, I was freezing. Andrés, being the perfect gentleman that he was, offered me his sweater. I tried to say no at first but he insisted. On the inside I was saying "Don't accept it!" because I knew my feminine heart would be greatly effected by this gesture and it would grow my crush on him rather than help me suppress it. Anyhow, we got our completos and sat together talking. One of the guys asked me what the men in Wyoming were like. I replied something like there weren't a whole lot of good guys for me (please don't take offense Wyomingites, notice I said for me). Well then John says something similar to "Here's one sitting right in front of you" while pointing to Andrés. As I write this, I'm starting to think that John was possibly the mastermind matchmaker behind all of this...
In post number three learn how we picked up the pace when I realized we only had two weeks left together and how I confessed my undying love (or something like that) to Andrés.
 |
| Grimace of pain during tattoo. Thankfully I had support from Jenna and Sarah- and my rosary! |
 |
| Francisco and I showing off our awesome Marian tattoos. |
 |
| With la gente of Colmo, after Mass. |
 |
| Covert picture I took of Andres. Hehe. |
 |
| View of Concon from the top of the dunes. |
 |
| John and Kayla sliding down the dunes. |
 |
| Having fun and freezing while waiting for completos. It's hard to believe I wasn't even seriously thinking about dating him yet. |
 |
| Look at those giant mayonaise covered hot dogs. Also notice that Andres is now sweaterless. Que hombre! |
 |
| Sardines squished into the truck. |
No comments:
Post a Comment