A peek into my last couple of days in Argentina post-closing retreat, the journey home, and what the homecoming + readjustment have been like so far!
Saying "bye" to Mischa, my flatmate!
📍 Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Luján - Luján, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Nuestra Señora de Luján (Our Lady of Luján) is the patron saint of Argentina and the venerated statue of the Virgin Mary in Argentina. With Argentina being a Catholic country, it is common to see little statues or depictions of Luján around Buenos Aires and Argentina. The basilica dedicated to Luján is 70km southeast of Buenos Aires, so I took a day trip via train to visit. It was absolutely stunning — the architecture was so incredibly detailed, and the stained glass, altar, and statues around the basilica were beautiful. I also took a guided tour of the crypt (not pictured), which featured 70 different images of the Virgin Mary from around the world — as a cultural anthropology and religious studies person, I found it enthralling and so incredibly fascinating!!
Starting the long (20+ hours!!) journey home!! Paola accompanied me to the airport, which I really appreciated, and the sunset as we drove to Ezeiza was absolutely gorgeous. I got all checked in for my flight (thankfully only one layover!), made one last kiosko purchase, and then boarded my first flight.
After passing through US Customs and Immigration, I had a few hours during my layover so I worked on the June + Closing Retreat sections of my newsletter website — it was nice to go through photos and reminisce on all that happened the last month of my YAGM year amidst being in the liminal space of a layover on the flight back "home" (what is home now?).
Reuniting with my family at the airport was so lovely (I'd missed them a ton!!). I spent the rest of July readjusting to being back in the US, back with family, in summer, and hearing + speaking English all the time!! There have been and continue to be numerous layers of culture shock and re-adjustment, which I still discover and encounter daily. Some lil highlights the first week back included finding a bilingual version of the same Bible we used at El Redentor in a Barnes & Noble on my first full day back, seeing Mt. Rainier again (oh how I'd missed seeing the mountains every day), and celebrating my brother's 18th birthday!!
Emma (one of my friends from PLU) came over one Saturday which was so lovely!! She had tons of questions about YAGM and my experience and everything in between — we talked for hours about everything (and yet still didn't touch on everything). I loved answering her questions simply because it gave me some structure in how to talk about YAGM: getting more into the specifics or (unintentionally) guiding me to reflect on specific aspects of my YAGM year. We also shared mate and merienda with some of my favorite Argentinian snacks I'd brought back with me (bizcochitos y alfajores) — sharing lil cultural things that were so central to my YAGM year (and ideas around community and accompaniment) filled my heart so much.
After being back in the US for several weeks, I finally hung up art + photos + postcards from my YAGM year. It's been both a sweet and sad reminder — a reminder of all the memories, adventures, and all my friends and community that are still in Buenos Aires, and yet also a reminder that I'm here and not there. :(
Thanks to social media and cell phones + the internet, I'm still in contact with my friends in Buenos Aires — we text almost every day (shoutout WhatsApp!) and have started doing weekly video calls to chat and play online games together. It's far from hanging out in-person and sharing mate, chatting, and exploring Buenos Aires together, but being able to stay in contact as we are has helped the end of the YAGM year hurt a little less.
Our YAGM year ended with one last retreat all together, spending a little over five days in a retreat center in Buenos Aires. We spent the majority of our time reflecting on what the last couple of months had been like, beginning to process the year as a whole, re-packing our suitcases, thinking forward about what returning to the US would be like + what our lives will look like, and soaking in the last few days together before our flights back to the US.
"The story isn't mine, it's ours shared"
We had a culto de despedida y envio (closing + sending worship) that the members of our host communities were invited to attend and participate, offering one final time and place to say goodbye and send us off — even though closing retreat took place in Buenos Aires, I had already moved out of my housing, as well as already having said "bye" to the vast majority of my host congregation and community. For the sending worship service, I was so blessed to have several of my housemates, my supervisor, and my core friend group from my host congregation attend. While it was overall incredibly emotional as we reflected on all that has happened this year and as we processed and started saying the final "goodbye's" I felt so blessed, cared for, and loved to have (most of) the people who have been central to my YAGM experience to be there with + for me.
June was an incredibly bittersweet month. Between kids' ministry at El Redentor and all the adventures and time spent in community this past month, I look back and wonder where all the time has gone (not only June, but the entirety of my YAGM year...). While I’m heartbroken to leave and saying goodbye was so incredibly difficult, I’m so deeply grateful for all the memories, experiences, friendships, and little joys that made my year here what it was. :)
June was full of activities!! Between First Communion classes and Ligas, being in the capellanía for Friday recreo, the ELCA + ELCIC companion synods visit, and celebrating the week after Pentecost as a week of prayer for the unity of all Christians, there was always something going on which made for a full, exciting month! Although bittersweet, and it broke my heart to say goodbye and leave, I am so deeply grateful and blessed for all of the joys and experiences — both big and small — that made this month, and my YAGM year as a whole, what they were. (faces censored for kiddos' privacy!)
First Communion classes were definitely one of my core June highlights!! It was so much fun to help prepare the activities and snacks every week, and then accompany the kiddos through each class. We talked about the Noah's Ark story and Abraham (the kiddos decorated stars for us to hang on the ceiling because God had promised Abraham that his "descendants [would be] as numerous as the stars in the sky" [Genesis 26:4]). We also made postrecitos (little desserts) for my last week as a mini celebration — I helped with distributing the dulce de leche and cutting fruit for kiddos to put on top of their postrecito.
One of the kiddos asked me to watch her son (the bear) while she played.
June Ligas!!
Our third Ligas of 2025!! It felt like no time at all had passed between May Ligas and June Ligas, which was wild. I helped Erika out with a ton of the behind-the-scenes prep work for the craft station — from counting, cutting, and painting toilet paper rolls, to sorting googly eyes and helping cut out all the little acessories to make the Joy and Anger dolls from Inside Out (Celeste pictured with the examples she made!!). I also found and printed all the coloring pages that kiddos could color once they finished the main craft or take home to work on later.
For Ligas itself, I accompanied a group of 20ish third graders along with Fran, another young adult from El Redentor and one of my closest friends here. It was bittersweet knowing it was my last Ligas (and the kiddos definitely knew as well — they were generally really huggy and clingy, wanting to hold my hand or just be near me, which was honestly really sweet). Highlights included randomly getting bombarded with hugs, kiddos asking me to hold their things while they played during gym time, doing potato sack races with kiddos, helping out with the craft when kiddos asked, and one kiddo sitting in my lap and playing with my rings throughout the Bible story time.
Right before pick-up, Cristina + my group of kiddos surprised me with posters they had made for me with all their handprints and names so I could take a piece of them back with me to the US. It was so thoughtful and sweet (I cried [not pictured]) and is one of my favorite memories and gifts I brought back with me. Goodbyes are hard (especially with my kiddos) but all the hugs, handprints, and photos make the memories a lil more permanent. :)
Every year, people from the ELCA + ELCIC companion synods of the IELU visit — specifically, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Saskatchewan.
This year, we had a total of 23 people from all three synods visit at the same time. It was really cool to meet so many people from the US + Canada and to have the opportunity to translate for them while they were at El Redentor + IEA — especially after being here nine months, I appreciated being able to serve and translate to talk about a place I've learned so much about and love so deeply. :)
The crochet sun, empandada, and heart (in the colors of the Argentinian flag) I made + gifted to El Redentor my final Sunday at site.
The week after Pentecostés (Pentecost) is celebrated as a week of prayer for the unity of all Christians — this was something new to me (not a tradition my congregation back in the US talks about), so I took the opportunity to attend several different ecumenical gatherings that centered around the Nicene Creed.
The first (top photos) was a gathering that El Redentor has every year with a Catholic Church in Villa del Parque (Parroquia Santa Ana) — one evening where the congregational members of both churches gather together, sing, read liturgy and scripture, and hear a sermon before gathering for dinner and fellowship afterwards. The Parroquia Santa Ana hosted this year, which was a super cool opportunity to visit the church and meet congregants, seminarians, and the Priest!
The second (bottom photos) was organized by the Ecumenical Commission of Christian churches in Argentina, and the gathering celebrated 1700 years since the Nicene Creed was formed. The liturgy, scriptures, and overall structure of the gathering were nearly identical to the gathering El Redentor had with Parroquia Santa Ana; the music was more contemporary and upbeat, and there were church leaders and pastors from various Christian denominations and churches. Hearing the liturgy again helped me more fully understand what was being said, as well as having a deeper grasp and understanding of what we were saying!
Kiddos playing with the crochet frogs I made + donated to the capellanía when I left my site placement (photo from early July).
This month was a mix of adventures both big and small, slowing down to appreciate the things and views that have become part of my norm and routine, and soaking in the last few weeks I had in Buenos Aires.
📍 Teatro Colón - Buenos Aires
I went with Gustavo and Solange (my supervisor + his wife) to a ballet show in the Teatro Colón at the beginning of June, which was such a dream come true!! The Teatro Colón is one of the most famous theatres in the world, renowned for its acoustics and architecture, and seeing their ballet company (ballet estable) was so incredibly amazing. The music + lights + sounds + choreography + costumes were absolutely stunning, and my jaw was on the floor the whole show. Growing up heavily in the ballet world and dancing for over 18 years, the opportunity to see ballet in the Teatro Colón was such an amazing combination of my joys, interests, and loves. :)
📍 Catedral de La Plata - La Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires
The Cathedral of La Plata sits in the heart of La Plata (the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, 60km south of the city of Buenos Aires) and is one of the biggest in the world! Built between 1884 and 1932, it is so incredibly detailed and massive both inside and out. Visiting the Cathedral was on my bucket list, and I made the day trip with one of my host community friends to visit. I was enamored with both the size and all the details— the stained glass windows and all the statues around the inside were absolutely beautiful and I could have stayed for hours just staring and soaking it all in. We also explored the crypt (not pictured) and got to go up the left-most tower to the observation deck that has a 360° view of La Plata. Overall, it was 100% worth the journey and sharing the day with one of my closest friends here made it all the more memorable and special. :)
📍 El Caminito - La Boca, Buenos Aires
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