Romanians Bearing Gifts, & El Kwik-E-Mart

Posted by Dominick on Dec 3, 2010 in Old Blog Posts | 1 comment

So last week my first visitor of this “Tour of Duty” in Argentina came to visit me. Along with his pleasant person, my dear friend Max, also brought along with him a large cache of goods for me. I had asked that he bring me my SLR Camera, (Not Pictured) along with a bottle of Scotch from the duty free and my favorite pair of boots.

To my surprise, he showed up with far more than I asked for. Turns out that when packing he decided he needed more stuff in his bags so that he would not have things bouncing around in their during the flight and during the excellent handling that airport staff are always known for, so he thought to bring a few more things for me. As you can see in this picture, it lead to quite a large amount of goods being brought for little ol’ me.

I will be posting some separate posts about our adventures over his 12 day stay here in BA, over the next week. Stay turned for interesting stories and pictures from La Boca, Colonia, Uruguay, and more…

Large Johnny Walker (Red), 15 year Glenlivet, 7 boxes of gum (63 packs in all), 6 jars of peanut butter, 30 bags of trail mix, one large jar of mixed nuts, about 5 pounds of chocolate covered almonds, and 9 cans of peaches (I dont know where the idea for this came from). Not Shown: One box of frosted miniwheats, one SLR Camera, 3 Lenses, and other assorted accessories, One pair of very LARGE Boots, and 3 rolls of toilet paper (I guess his mom thought I didn’t have any here…

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Dominick Learning Spanish Part I – How My Study Time Quadrupled In One Night

Posted by Dominick on Nov 17, 2010 in Old Blog Posts | 5 comments

Hello everybody,

So this is the first, in what I hope will be an interesting series here on my blog. While not my main reason for being here, one of my many objectives is to learn Spanish. As any of you who have learned another language know, this is a long and arduous journey. Full of many ups and downs, skirmishes and battles, victories and defeats. But above all else, deeply satisfying, and humorous to look back on. Therefore i hope you enjoy this series…

I dedicate this particular chapter to Amanda Wozny. For all of those times you told me how it takes you 3 hours to study your Watchtower, and then I made fun of you…and tried to get you do to it faster so you could come to soccer…

Part I – How My Study Time Quadrupled In One Night

So a few days ago I decided that despite believing that I was trying hard to learn Spanish while living here, I wasnt making enough progress. So I decided to up my game one step at a time and see how it goes.

When i first came here, I was so overloaded with things, that to save space i left out whatever I thought I would be able to get here. In my mind it all seemed so right…” Its an English hall, they will have all of the books in English there for me. So I dont need to bring my “Follower” book, I will just get one there”. Now this completely ignores everything I had previously experienced here with regard to procuring literature. So needless to say, for the last 2 months, I have been using someone else’s English book, while they used their Spanish one. (Thanks Abby)

Since I was so sick and tired of waiting for new books to get shipped to us (From Brazil), I decided to go and get a book in Spanish, and that from now on, I was going to study for the Congregation Bible Study in Spanish. I figured this would give me the chance to learn some new words, and force me to spend time each day studying.

So tonight was my first night of studying in Spanish. And to be honest I really thought it was going to go a lot faster than it did. I seem to remember that when I had a Spanish Watchtower back home that i understood a lot of it. And so it goes, that I do understand a good deal of written Spanish. But that doesnt mean that I understand all of it.

My first delay came almost right away, when after about 10 min of frustratingly trying to find the LL section in the only Spanish dictionary I have in my apartment, I became so upset that I threw the stupid book across the room, and resolved to try this another night. Only once it hit the floor and closed, did i notice that this “Stupid” dictionary that was lacking a whole letter, was a English to Portuguese dictionary (Left over from my trip to Brazil).

After resigning to myself that “at least no one saw that” I got my computer and started using an online dictionary (funny how wrong that thought was, it took almost no time at all for me to start writing this post). Now here comes the part that was quite humbling. I managed to get through only 6 paragraphs,  in about 2 hours and 15 min! So now feeling a lot less sure of myself, but strangely enough, feeling more confidant that I can learn this language, I decided that it was best to call it a night.

It is amazing how when you have to study in another language, it makes you understand the material so much better. Because it forces you to focus harder, and take your time covering the material. Now I am not saying that from now on all I am going to do is study in Spanish, but I think I learned my lesson. And have gained a valuable determination to redouble my efforts to learn this language.

Proof That Our English Group Works

Posted by Dominick on Nov 9, 2010 in Old Blog Posts | 6 comments

It seems like the last few posts I have done, have been lacking in Spiritual content. As that is the main reason I am here, I figured that it was about time to have a nice spiritual update from Argentina.

This last weekend we had our Circuit assembly here in Buenos Aires Circuit 1A. Here is the breakdown…

Pioneer Meeting = Lots of Funny Spanish Words & Cake!

So this friday began the weekend, with the meeting for regular pioneers. A great experience as always to get this special meeting with the Circuit and District overseer. We had exactly 100 pioneers at the meeting. Here are a few pictures and videos to show you what the hall was like.

Translation: Stay off the Lord’s Grass!

Reality: Not so much grass…

Why dont we get Cake at our pioneer meetings in IL 15?

My notes from the Pioneer meeting. For those of you who speak Spanish you will find this funny….

Once i lost a speaker, I would start working on this list…

I Will Never Think Its A Hassle To Go To Romoville again…
 
Saturday & Sunday both started at 5:50 AM for me. 5:50 AM! You might be wondering (If your not wondering about the stupid happenings of my life, then perhaps you are on the wrong blog!) why I got up so early just to get to something that starts at 9:30. Well the answer lies in just what it takes to get to the assembly here. 

“El Jefe” brother Daniel giving a talk, along with Seba & Lionel doing a demo.

Daniel Giving His Talk – This was one of only a few talks, where I understood almost everything he said. Thank you Daniel.

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The Assembly itself as is always the case was a delight. Even though my Spanish skills still leave something to be desired, it is always nice to be a such a large gathering of Brother and Sisters. Once again, the brothers for some reasons had enough faith in me, to make me an Acomodador (Attendant) along with the rest of the brothers from the group. Our job was basically to watch the two doors of the offices of the Superintendente (Circuit Overseer) and el presidente de la asamblea (Assembly Overseer) who happens to be our own brother Daniel (aka El Jefe “The Chief”). We joked all assembly that our only job was to take a bullet for Daniel should someone try to assassinate him…we never could think of any reason why someone would want to kill him though…

Go Ben Go!

But without a doubt, the highlight of the assembly came on Saturday, when our newest brother Bernard (Ben) got baptized. A native African, he is the first bible study to get baptized in the English group. Almost 6 years (I think) of being a group and now we have our first real success from the field. He even got a special nod during the “Needs of the Circuit” part when the circuit overseer speaking about the great growth in the foreign language fields,  mentioned him being the first African (and therefore Native English speaker) to get baptized, eliciting a loud applause from the entire 1,100 in attendance. After we congratulated him, the way Jehovah’s Organization does, we patted him on the back, said “Great Job” and then sent him off to work watching the doors for us while we all ate lunch. Once you dipped, its straight to work! Just the way it should be.

Tailgating for lunch at the assembly

Why can’t we do this in the States again?

Gilda, Abby, & Suzanne – Que Linda!

I think this guy had it figured all out…He was the only one with the guts to do what we all wanted to do

Bret & Ryan jiving about life…

1. Thats some good Mate! 2. Taking a hit off the Mate during lunch. 3. Nothing like passing “The Herbs” around at the assembly

1. Its just so hard sometimes 2. At least he was awake during his part on stage earlier.

Me and Jess

Ryan & Jess

I swear she is a happy person despite what this picture seems to convey.

My turn with “The Herbs” *Mate: the green stuff in the cup is called Yerba or Herbs hence the joke…

Interesting facts about the Assembly:

Apparently Argentina is ahead of the IL when it comes to getting spiritual programs. This weekend was the brand new Assembly, “No Part Of The World”. This is the first staging of it in the whole country, and among the first in the world, as this is the assembly for the 2010-2011 service year (If i am correct the one back home should be sometime around March or April).

What am I doing here?

This was only Half of the circuit, part A. The rest of the circuit, part B is made up of around 7 Quechua language (The indigenous language of the Mayan peoples from Peru, Bolivia, etc…) congregations.