The Call to Chile: Retiro de los Sexos!!!

(11/2-11/4) Well this weekend El Oasis went on a Retreat! I can’t remember the name of the place but it was about 4 ½ hours south of Santiago. Let’s start with Friday though. I woke up early to go grocery shopping with Claudia, Eli, and Amy. It took about two hours to shop for 70 people for 3 days. I think there were about 6 grocery carts full of food. When I got back I finished packing. Then I went to lunch with Amy at an empanada place. When we got back students were starting to arrive with all of their stuff. Not too much later the buses arrived and we loaded up and moved out. I slept a little on the bus, but not very much. My job was to go around and make everyone introduce themselves. I about lost my voice yelling everyone’s answers. We played a few games too and after that I sat with a student and we listened to music the rest of the trip. When we got to the place I immediately had to help in the kitchen cooking dinner. My job was dicing tomatoes and it took forever! The dinner was actually hotdogs so we diced tomatoes and smashed some avocados because that is how Chileans eat hotdogs, along with some mayo. After dinner we played a game which I don’t know the name of but my CCF plays it on retreats as well. I was partners with Carla and we came in third place. After that we had a dance competition which was very very tiring. They would play four whole songs and then eliminate only four teams…and there were 40 teams! Abraham and I got out on the second round but I’m pretty sure both of us wanted it. When that was over everyone just kind of did their own thing. I hung out with some girls who started doing karaoke and dancing. I probably made a complete fool of myself for over two hours but it was a blast. I went to bed around 4am. I woke up at 8 to go help with breakfast like I was told to do but of course it was only me. Two other students walked in pretty soon after me so we just went ahead and did everything ourselves. It was too much work because it was cereal and milk but there were only 20 bowls and we had 70 people. As soon as people were done eating we had to immediately wash their bowl so the next person would have something to eat on. It was all good. After that we had our first talk of the weekend. I’m not going to lie, it was my least favorite part. This husband and wife talked about sex which was fine but the guy talked so fast that even the students were having trouble catching what he was saying. I hardly understood anything and it lasted two hours. The music before and after was really awesome though. Then the girls got together and worked on our dance that we were going to do at the beginning of our soccer game. Apparently the boys and the girls perform a dance before the epic match. Then we ate lunch and got ready for the game, all the girls got decked out in black and pink and just started pumping each other up. Some background on this game, the competition started in 2009 and the boys have won every single time. So we really wanted to win. I started in the game and my primary job was defense. So I had to be extra aggressive. For everyone who knows me, that wasn’t very hard. I knocked a lot of guys down and stopped a whole lot of goals. Our whole team worked extra well together. I think I played 45 minutes of the 50 minute game. We played our little hearts out. You know what we got for it? EVERYTHING!!! We won for the first time! ALMORRICAS! It was such a thrill. After our celebration we all ran down to the river to cool off and have a victory swim. The river was absolutely gorgeous. I was also the first goal to jump off of this huge rock. A few boys did it and it looked really fun. You had to climb up the side of the rock and it didn’t seem very high up until you got to the top. It was crazy and a ton of fun. We all got out and took showers. While I was waiting for my shower, I found a huge spider in our cabana. I freaked out and made a boy go in and get it. It freaked me out! Then I showered and went to dinner. I was starving so I ate two good platefuls of pasta. Then we had another talk and again I was pretty lost but I did some journaling and that was good. Afterwards we split the guys and girls up and the girls got to ask the men on the El Oasis staff questions while the guys got to ask the girl members on the El Oasis staff questions. It was pretty cool hearing the questions and the answers. It got done at about 1am and then we went and made a campfire. Everyone was singing and having a great time. Then we made s’mores!! I love s’mores! It was a great time with everyone though and I stayed until about 3:30am and then I was about to fall asleep. In the morning I went to breakfast and ate eggs and an apple. Then we did music and communion. After that a student went and got baptized in the river. It was very beautiful. The band played a couple of songs and it was just really awesome. Then we packed up, cleaned, and headed out. The bus ride back seemed so long because my body was so sore from soccer and I couldn’t get comfortable. We eventually got home and after about an hour everyone had left so I did laundry and watched tv while it dried. Then I slept for a good 11 hours. It was an awesome retreat and I’m so glad I got the chance to experience it. I got to know a lot more about the students and grow closer to everyone. Awesome!