Life is defined by choices and one choice can define your life.
Life is defined by choices and one choice can define your life.
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| Port of Montevideo |
Hola amigos! I know it’s been
forever since I wrote but yes I am still alive. We have not had any internet
access for a while and have had to deal with a lot of different issues, so I just
have had no time to write.
From Argentina we traveled on to Uruguay. Pretty easy drive except
the road was in bad shape and we all felt pretty sick by the time we got to the
border. There is a huge river between Buenos Aires and Montevideo Uruguay and
we crossed a long bridge to enter Uruguay.
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| Bridge into Uruguay |
I had thought it was a salt water
river, because it so large and joins to the ocean, but it is actually fresh
water (in case that was something you just really had wanted to know). The
border guards were really nice and helpful, excited to finally try out their
English. We ran into a few delays because there was a technicality with the
insurance on our van and it took a while to explain why we had musical
equipment and that yes we were allowed to on a tourist visa, and no, we were
not selling anything, but everything worked out in the end it just delayed us a while.
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| Talking to the border guards. |
Uruguay is one of the most
expensive countries in the world, gas being over 7dlrs a gallon and it was hard
to find a place to stay that was affordable. The city of Montevideo, however, is
a port city, small, old and there is a lot of poverty. We had a room at a hostel reserved but it was
really bad, dirty, full of noisy collage kids and after spending the night
there, we realized it was not a place we could stay. We spent one freezing
afternoon walking the streets trying to find an affordable motel until finally
my sister found a cheep apartment that was furnished to rent. It was such a provision,
and as always our Shepherd takes care of us. Jesus promises, if you seek His Kingdom first, He will provide for you (Mt.6:33).
It is absolutely freezing here
with a cold wind coming off the river. The apartment actually has a heater in
it which is awesome. The only problem with the apartment is that the toilet is haunted.
It would not flush, then flushes itself, runs like a river all night and breaks
often. Also the showers in a lot of these places are heated by separate units
which are connected to the shower heads. No big deal except for the problem of
combining water and poorly wired electricity. You get some bad shocks unless
you flip the breaker before you touch the water nozzle, (obviously you should
know this). Also, while we're on the note of possible death, back in Argentina, I lost a filling and had to get it drilled out and filled. I very much hate going to the dentist, hate the evil sound of the drill , hate the creepy lights and smells and would rather face an angry bear in Montana than a dentist (I know, very mature and adult of me). It was not a wonderful happy experience but for 25 bucks I can’t complain.
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| Playing soccer as the sun sank behind the port. |
When I went to the office that
runs the prisons here, to request permission to enter, the first words out of
the ladies mouth were, “Everything is a bureaucratic nightmare in this country.
It is not going to happen here. You will not be able to get in.” After having
seen the power God has to get us in anywhere, I almost laughed when she said
it. My sister and I were in the office and we insisted to talk with a director.
The lady calls the director and starts the conversation by talking him out of
giving us authorization. He ends up agreeing to meet with us and when we get to
his office, he had already printed out the email I had sent a week ago, (which
I thought had never gone through) and warmly received us. In a short amount of
time, he organized our entry into the largest prison in Uruguay to perform at
multiple patios.
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| A picture out the window as we approached the main gate. |
This prison is way outside the city
in the middle of nowhere and looked like somewhere in the Soviet Union the way
all the guards wore big black military coats, thick hats and carried machine
guns. I felt so bad for how cold the prisoners were and many having very long
sentences.
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| My brother and I waiting for the clearance to go through for our entry. A main office in the city center has to authorize our visit and then send everything to the actual prison which is usually a ways outside the city. The process can take days or weeks and sometimes when we get the the prison we still have to explain things and work it out. |
One of the patios we entered had
only a small space out side that was on a hill between some tables. Not ideal but
all the prisoners were so glad to be outside in the sun, instead of inside the
cold walls that it worked out ok. I spoke with a man inside who was an American
citizen and had no family here in Uruguay. He was in for eight years because of
credit card fraud and was so devastated and hopeless. He had not been in long
and spoke no Spanish. He was so grateful to hear English and I had things to
give him to read in English as well. Our whole performance is bilingual because
my dad does not speak English so we translate what he says into Spanish, and a
lot of our acts include English, Spanish and Portuguese.
All the men at both patios were very engaged, quick to participate and listen, we were able to teach for a while and they hung on every word. At the end, I have never had so
many of the guys come up and give us hugs and words of gratitude. One man,
whose name was Sebastian, told me that we took a piece of heaven and brought it
down to earth for him. One man named Daniel, had been in for 18 years and said
he had many more to go all though he would not say how many. He said when we came
in, he felt like he was free and we took him somewhere else. He followed us out
as far as he was allowed to go and asked my father to give him some last words
that he could hold on to. As we left, a guy call out to me by name saying, “Go
with God dancer…go with God”.
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| My sister and I doing one of our favorite magic tricks with a volunteer. |
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| Talking one on one with the men after we are done with our performance. The guy to the far left with the black shirt and the scarf on, gave me his scarf at the end and insisted I take it. I gave him a shirt in trade and will always keep his scarf, and remember them. |