Although the express purpose of my visit to the UAP was to attend the ADRA planning meetings, I had actually already been planning on passing through on my way to Salta so I could catch up with some people from my college (Pacific Union College). My friend Cheyenne went here last year and, as is common practice, picked up a significant other. Since I wasn't too hyped on the idea of staying with a pastor, her boyfriend Isa (for Isaiah) kindly put me up at his apartment for the week. Of course, most pastors are nice enough, but those from latinoamerica kind of have a reputation that I wasn't ready to test just yet. Ironically, I later found out that he was away that week, and after having met his agreeable family I felt pretty stupid for opting out.Still, staying with Isa was a great experience. Not only did he have a fan in his room to battle the stupendous heat of that week (made worse by the dress clothes I was wearing for half the day), he knows everyone in town. The somewhat long walk to the university from his place was made shorter by all the people we greeted along the way, and almost every night we hung out with his friends at the local futsal gym (5 on 5 indoor soccer) to watch the yearly tournament of teams from the whole town. It was especially fun to watch his team compete, as well as play ping-pong when I got a little bored with the endless futsal (the level of play for ping pong was inexplicably high—I lost every time, to multiple players). Besides that, his landlords were also extremely nice, always offering me dinner at night and terere (mate with chilled juice/soda instea
d of hot water) in the afternoons. In contrast to the typical Argentinian stereotype of self-inflating machismo, I have found no lack of kindness and their hospitality is incredibly generous. Even with the slimmest of connections, you become family in an instant. I think my only complaint I could possibly have is with their diet, which apart from an excess of meat-eating also involves a love of mayonnaise I didn't think was possible. Gross.
Another slight difficulty was that I was essentially without access to the internet except during meeting breaks. In addition to creating incredible withdrawals, this made meeting up with the people I knew somewhat of a task for the first couple days. Eventually I spotted Meagan (from my Spanish class last year) and Mike (who I mentioned earlier) in the cafeteria, and as we caught up a couple other familiar faces from PUC dropped by as well. That's when I realized how crucial a shared culture and language are to interacting with other people. People I had barely seen before instantly became friends I was hugging, and acquaintances now became hang out partners for hours on end. Yes, part of it is a chance to escape from speaking in Spanish—the 4th grade vocabulary, the same topics over and over, the feelings of stupidity—but it's also a relief from the constant struggle to understand the character and traits of the people I'm interacting with. Language is central to our ability make snap judgments about people: whether they are kind or mean, intelligent or foolish, easygoing or uptight, etc. (even sane or insane, as I found out during my time at Napa State Hospital). Without that ability, I am basically left at the mercy of what people I already know tell me about others. Usually this works, but it's obviously very dangerous to base your opinion of someone solely from the perspective of someone else.
At any rate, I had a good time in the idyllic village of Adventism. Seeing old friends is always a pleasure, and making new ones is an adventure. I can't wait to go back to enjoy cheap ice cream, bicycle shenanigans, and most of all, the feeling of being a place full of great people that you know or are soon to meet. I will definitely miss it.
