Saturday School and Kitchen Table Church

Saturday School

Estancia Jesuítica de Jesús María

This weekend has been full of new experiences and getting the most out of my time here in Argentina. Saturday the 14th (Valentines Day) was spent with my classmates and culture professor. We met up early at my university and took a bus to a Jesuit estancia about an hour outside the city. A lot of the tutors (Argentine students) came as well. We spent the morning touring the estancia, looking at artifacts and learning more about the Jesuits. This week we have had multiple classes, watched two documentaries and visited multiple historical sites to learn about the Jesuits arrival and expulsion in Cordoba. We have to turn in a paper about the Jesuits in Cordoba this upcoming Wednesday, in Spanish of course! I think I have had enough history about the Jesuits to last me a very long time. At least I can say I have learned a lot in my first full week of class!

Inside the courtyard of the Estancia 

Saturday afternoon we went to a "country club" nearby that had a pool, an area to play sports, and a large room where we were served lunch. It was fun to be able to have free time all together and a chance to hang out with some of the Argentine students. Now that we have been here for a week and a half everyone's Spanish has improved and it's easier to hang out and chat with the Argentines.

Exchange students form US, Japan and Canada with some of the Argentine tutors 

Kitchen Table Church

Late Saturday night it started raining heavily and has continued throughout Sunday. It was raining so hard Sunday morning that the roads were flooded and it was unsafe to drive. With my host family's church only having 15-20 people, they made a few calls and cancelled service. Instead of going to church my host parents, host aunt, a neighbor and I had church around the kitchen table. They sang several songs, picked a passage and prayed together. If I thought last week at church was different from what I am accustomed to, I was clearly not prepared for this week. Their expression of faith is completely different from what I have grown up around but I can benefit by learning about their dedication to what they believe.

A Glance at Faith in Argentina

A Catholic Church in Cordoba, Argentina

Depending on where you look, statistics refer to at least 90% of Argentines as Roman Catholic. That leaves about 1% Jewish, and another 1-2% protestant. While the odds were not in my favor, I managed to end up in a host family that is protestant and attends an evangelical methodist church. Prayers at meals and weekly attendance at church were exciting to me as I began to adapt to my new family.

When Sunday rolled around I was up and ready to go bright and early. Little did I know that my church experience would be one like I had never experienced before. It started by driving the neighbor and my host aunt across town to church with us, dropping my host dad off to buy communion wine along the way. When we arrived I walked into a tiny little 75 year old room with rows of wooden benches. We were the first people there and my host parents went about straightening up the bibles and getting communion together. Within the following 30 minutes 10 more people arrived. My host aunt picked some hymns and led the group while a few other extended family members played a guitar, helped lead, or beat on tambourines . Our little group of 15 people (including me and the 3 year old running around) took on different responsibilities. One woman had each person go around and read a passage, each person took a turn saying what they were thankful for, and we stood in a circle to take communion.

Part way through the service the lights went out and not a single person seemed phased by it. (I am learning that it is pretty common for the lights to go out here in Cordoba. They have already gone out twice while I have been in class at school.) I know that when the electricity went out at my church in Birmingham one Wednesday night a couple months ago it was a fiasco. Obviously it is harder to have a service without electricity when more than 15 people are in the congregation but it showed me that the people at this church were not just there for any other reason than to worship God.

Driving home from church everyone discussed what wine would be best to buy for communion the upcoming weeks. I discovered later that my host parents also take on all the finances of the church. The experience was nothing like my church at home, nor any of the churches I have grown up in. It was neither a negative nor positive experience, just different from what I am accustomed to. It was definitely one experience that I will remember for a long time and will be part of the memories that I accumulate over the course of the next five months in Argentina.

Inside the little Protestant Church