Last week we went to a lovely nursing home mainly occupied by people from British familias called BABS. We spent two day there talking and laughing with the ladies and gentlemen, most of whom had made it to the grand old age of their 90s! I think the mediterinian inlfuence in the diet here must have something to do with that if the olivio adverts were right about the health properties of food such as olive oil! We spent some of our time in a “reminisence group” where the occupational therapist (a ral glow of sunshine in the place, denise) gives a topic and everyone is invited to share their memories on this topic. When we where there the topic was dogs and horses but we heard some hilarious stories about pets of all shapes and sizes, including a skunk that had its smelly stuff removed!! This activity encourages the brain to keep ticking and the memory to keep working well.
On our second day we gave a presentation about Soul Touch to a very keen audience who were asking questions faster than we could answer. We were then invited to join them for lunch and enjoyed hearing stories of the residents many travels and adventures over dulce de leche (basically condensed milk boiled int
o caramel that they put on EVERYTHING here) flavoured ice cream. I had my lunch with a woman that was 101! I asked her and the other lady at the table for advice on how to live a happy life and they told me “be happy!” I explained I was hoping for more specific hints than that which might hopefully reslt in happiness, but they explained to me that happiness is often a choice rather than circumstances. No matter where you might end, or how different your life might look to how you expected you can always choose how you deal with the situation. You can choose to enjoy it and be happy, or you can choose not too. However since then I was reminded of a quote which I cannot for the life of me remember properly or even who said it, but it basically says that a happy life comes from a life dedicated to making other people happy. What a nice thought.
Friday morning we headed back to the Good Samaritan community centre for the final time cleaning and serving with them through non-verbal communication. The love they show the people in the community there is unbelieveble. There are no airs and graces whatsoever, everyone is a soul and everyone is treated with such worth.
After a quick stop at home to move to our third host house with a lovely lady that works in the church, Neli, we headed back to the community centre at night with Susan to translate as we gave another presentation on Soul Touch. It was a lovely night as the youth there are so active, always wanting to help and improve themselves and always making you feel wlecomed. We gave the community centre a Scotland flag before leaving and were delighted to reveice a flag from them and t-shirts.
The weekend started early Saturday morning as we headed to a Christian owned country park about an hour outside Buenos Aires for the weekend youth camp for 12 – 14 year olds that had started the night before. The next 2 days were crammed full with dicipleship lessons, games of all sorts, singing, bonfires, tree planting, lots of sweeties and general giggling. The thing that really touched me and Laura however was the patience and kindness of the children at the camp. Even the ones that didn’t know much English tried their hardest to always include us, and the ones that did know English were only too happy to translate. One amazing little girl event realised that Laura was unsure of the Bible reference being spoken about, and so as she couldn’t speak much English at all she wrote the whole thing down for Laura on a piece of paper in Spanish so she had a copy of it. They were so kind and taught us a lot about seeing a need and meeting it before being asked to do so.
The theme of the weekend was heroes. But there was a strong distinction being made between superheroes and everyday heroes. We were told a lovely true story of a boy in a wheelchair that wanted to make a difference in his community. He decided to just do something small and within his resources. So everynight before he went to his job at a checkout in a supermarket he found a nice quote or saying, wrote and cut out hundreds of slips of paper with this on it and started dropping them into the customers bags as a surprise whilst he packed for them. The manager was soon shocked to find the takings jumping up and the queue at this boys till always being much larger than any of the others.People were so touched by this gesture they kept coming back for more and more. It would seem this tiny gesture had a bigger impact than he could have imagined. We encouraged the youth to become heroes like this in their own homes and communities.
On Monday we spent the day painting a changing room in a charity shop run by a family here beside a government hospital for children with cancer. The health care here is free, but the chairty shop offers the transport fees and other costs to the parents, most of w
hom are already struggling to live in a country that we find expensive, on wages that are about half of the wages in Scotland. It’s a lovely little shop that patients or parents of patients often find comfort and friendship in. The people running this shop are real examples of love and kindness.
The whole time we have been in Argentina we have given several presentations about Soul Touch to several diferent groups. We both always finish talking by explaining the thing we have learnt the most from the trip. My experience in Argentina has completely confirmed to me the lesson I have learnt. (I promise you I was talking about this even before the hero camp!) The world doesn’t want a superhero, and we cant be superheroes anyway. They already have a saviour. All we can do is the little things that make all the difference. Having a cup of tea with someone, or taking the time to genuinely find out how they are and then listening, might not change the earth or even their country; but I promise you it might just change their whole world.
On our second day we gave a presentation about Soul Touch to a very keen audience who were asking questions faster than we could answer. We were then invited to join them for lunch and enjoyed hearing stories of the residents many travels and adventures over dulce de leche (basically condensed milk boiled int
o caramel that they put on EVERYTHING here) flavoured ice cream. I had my lunch with a woman that was 101! I asked her and the other lady at the table for advice on how to live a happy life and they told me “be happy!” I explained I was hoping for more specific hints than that which might hopefully reslt in happiness, but they explained to me that happiness is often a choice rather than circumstances. No matter where you might end, or how different your life might look to how you expected you can always choose how you deal with the situation. You can choose to enjoy it and be happy, or you can choose not too. However since then I was reminded of a quote which I cannot for the life of me remember properly or even who said it, but it basically says that a happy life comes from a life dedicated to making other people happy. What a nice thought.Friday morning we headed back to the Good Samaritan community centre for the final time cleaning and serving with them through non-verbal communication. The love they show the people in the community there is unbelieveble. There are no airs and graces whatsoever, everyone is a soul and everyone is treated with such worth.
After a quick stop at home to move to our third host house with a lovely lady that works in the church, Neli, we headed back to the community centre at night with Susan to translate as we gave another presentation on Soul Touch. It was a lovely night as the youth there are so active, always wanting to help and improve themselves and always making you feel wlecomed. We gave the community centre a Scotland flag before leaving and were delighted to reveice a flag from them and t-shirts.
The weekend started early Saturday morning as we headed to a Christian owned country park about an hour outside Buenos Aires for the weekend youth camp for 12 – 14 year olds that had started the night before. The next 2 days were crammed full with dicipleship lessons, games of all sorts, singing, bonfires, tree planting, lots of sweeties and general giggling. The thing that really touched me and Laura however was the patience and kindness of the children at the camp. Even the ones that didn’t know much English tried their hardest to always include us, and the ones that did know English were only too happy to translate. One amazing little girl event realised that Laura was unsure of the Bible reference being spoken about, and so as she couldn’t speak much English at all she wrote the whole thing down for Laura on a piece of paper in Spanish so she had a copy of it. They were so kind and taught us a lot about seeing a need and meeting it before being asked to do so.
The theme of the weekend was heroes. But there was a strong distinction being made between superheroes and everyday heroes. We were told a lovely true story of a boy in a wheelchair that wanted to make a difference in his community. He decided to just do something small and within his resources. So everynight before he went to his job at a checkout in a supermarket he found a nice quote or saying, wrote and cut out hundreds of slips of paper with this on it and started dropping them into the customers bags as a surprise whilst he packed for them. The manager was soon shocked to find the takings jumping up and the queue at this boys till always being much larger than any of the others.People were so touched by this gesture they kept coming back for more and more. It would seem this tiny gesture had a bigger impact than he could have imagined. We encouraged the youth to become heroes like this in their own homes and communities.
On Monday we spent the day painting a changing room in a charity shop run by a family here beside a government hospital for children with cancer. The health care here is free, but the chairty shop offers the transport fees and other costs to the parents, most of w
hom are already struggling to live in a country that we find expensive, on wages that are about half of the wages in Scotland. It’s a lovely little shop that patients or parents of patients often find comfort and friendship in. The people running this shop are real examples of love and kindness.The whole time we have been in Argentina we have given several presentations about Soul Touch to several diferent groups. We both always finish talking by explaining the thing we have learnt the most from the trip. My experience in Argentina has completely confirmed to me the lesson I have learnt. (I promise you I was talking about this even before the hero camp!) The world doesn’t want a superhero, and we cant be superheroes anyway. They already have a saviour. All we can do is the little things that make all the difference. Having a cup of tea with someone, or taking the time to genuinely find out how they are and then listening, might not change the earth or even their country; but I promise you it might just change their whole world.
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