Last night was our first concert here in Argentina. We performed at a local Baptist church for members of their congregation. They treated us to tea and churros before the concert. Then we went and performed. The Sheltons had previously briefed us on an important rule of etiquette here in South America; being on time is not expected. We started ten minutes late to a healthy half-filled congregation, but we finished the concert with a full house and standing room in the back. In Argentina, Lauren Shelton informs us, rules aren’t as important as relationships. So it’s expected that you finish whatever you’re doing and show up for a get-together, concert, or other function when you’ve politely finished with the business at hand. And our audience was certainly relational! A few sang along with one of the Argentine songs we sang. Many thanked us (in English and in Spanish) for our presence.

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Today, we spent most of the morning and afternoon helping out at a local children’s home. Our main projects were painting part of the outside of the second floor patio, and building a new set of shelves to go in one of their main storage closets. Of course, we were also there to interact and have fun with the kids, who don’t get the chance to have fun with so many “adults” at the same time very often — especially ones from so far away!

At lunch, the pastor in charge of the orphanage shared the incredible story behind this children’s home. None of us could have expected the moving and inspiring tale that followed. We will try to summarize it here, but reading our summary won’t do justice to the experience of hearing it first hand, first in Spanish and then in English.

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This is Chris, the choir’s chaplain, updating you on the Men’s Choir’s journey thus far.  After traveling for over twenty four hours we have finally arrived in Mendoza, Argentina.  As with most travel (especially flying) many flights have some sort of delay, and this situation was no different.  After being delayed for a few hours at DFW, we finally took off and flew all through the night to South America.  This morning we landed in Santiago, Chile and had most of the day to explore the airport because of flight delays.  The little shops featured lots of Chilean tourist knickknacks from onyx statues of the Easter Island “head statues” to Lapis Lazuli chess boards.  One of the shops featured dulce de leche Alfajores.  This sweet, rich, caramel cookie is unlike anything available in Waco.  These cookies combined with some Chilean food and countless games of Hearts & Spades made up the majority of our afternoon.  Around 4:00 we finally boarded a short flight from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina.  This flight flew over the Andes.  Below are some of the stunning pictures of this flight.

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Our flight last night to Santiago ended up taking off almost two hours late.  As a result, we missed our connecting flight to Mendoza.  I am writing this from the airport in Santiago, Chile, where we are staying until our new connecting flight takes off at 4:45 PM (local time) this afternoon!

Fortunately, they were able to accommodate all of us on the new flight without any trouble.  We all have our boarding passes already.  They even gave us vouchers for lunch.  No chance to venture out into Santiago, though, as leaving the airport would require each of us to purchase a $145 visa.

Hopefully, our next flight will take off on time, and you will be able to read an update from us from Argentina later this evening!

Thank you for your support!

Aaron Kelley
BUMC Webmaster

Dear Friends,

Today is the day!  I thought I would update before we leave because there won’t be another time for this until we get back to the hotel on Monday evening. 

We will be getting on a bus at 4:00 this afternoon and departing Waco for DFW International Airport.  We should be getting there around 6:00.  Those in the group that live in Dallas or Ft. Worth will be meeting us in the terminal at that time.  With passport in hand, we will go as a group through security and to our gate.  Our departure time is 9:10.  We will fly through the night and arrive in Santiago, Chile at 7:40am.  Then we will get on another plane that will get us to Mendoza at 11:00am. 

The next time you hear from us we will be in Argentina!  Thank you so much for your prayers.

Sincerely,

The Baylor Men’s Choir

Dear Friends,

Thank you for visiting the Baylor University Men’s Choir Argentina blog. The choir has been looking forward to this trip for a long time and we are waiting with great anticipation for 9:10 on Sunday night when we take off from DFW International Airport. My name is Clint Kimmel and I am the BUMC’s Public Relations Chair for the 2009-2010 school year. I will be writing daily updates and posting pictures on this blog while we are gone. We hope that you will daily look at this page and see how we are doing. (Note-if you do not see the entire post, you may need to click the “More” link at the end of the page.)

Both before we leave and while we are in Argentina we ask that you pray for us. Below, I have a posted a general itinerary to give you an idea of what we will actually be doing. Currently, please pray that we will have a safe plane ride to Argentina and throughout the trip we will be good witnesses for Christ and good representatives for both Baylor University and our nation.

Sincerely,

Clint Kimmel

Here is the itinerary. Please remember that Argentina is two hours ahead of Waco time.

Baylor Men’s Choir Argentina Itinerary

May 17^th – June 1^st

Sunday May 17^th

3:30 P.M. Meet at Dutton Parking Garage at Baylor University and depart for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport [DFW], Terminal D

4:00 P.M. Leave for Dallas Read the rest of this entry »