Sue Jansen, Mission Partner in Mendoza, Argentina
Sue Jansen works as Chaplain of a Methodist School in the centre ofthe cityof Mendoza and as Minister of a small Methodist Church in a "deprived area" ofthe city. She works three days a week at the School in both the Primary and Secondary sections and teaches conversational English in both sections and to parents, friends of the School and to anyone in the local community (twice a week at 6pm). She generally accompanies staff, students and parents in their daily lives. In the barrio (neighbourhood) Patron Santiago, Sue carries out all the usual tasks of a Methodist Minister.
Excerpts from letters
Well, where to start, I wonder, with news of this beautiful but bankrupt country!
The weather is very different from GB or Peru in that, here in Mendoza, the seasons have ‘stronger’ bouts of weather in them. For example, the winter is very cold and damp and most of the homes here do not have sufficient heating or ‘thickness’ of walls/roofs to make ‘the time’ comfortable for the people who live in them. Spring has strong ‘tormentas’ (thunder, lightning and rainstorms) which wash away streets and houses and flood central streets because there is insufficient drainage. Also, spring is ‘the earthquake season’. This year we are experiencing a number of tremors around 4.3 strength on the Richter scale. The tremors are strong enough to move my bed across the floor with me in it, and my chair across the kitchen with me on it! Apparently, summertime is very, very hot (more than 42ºC) and very dry. Autumn brings with it the ‘viento sonda’, a hot, dry wind which damages property, cars, trees and causes some people to have heart attacks and respiratory problems.
My hours of work, to be honest, are gruelling. I have much less flexibility in organising my day here than when I was a Minister in Glasgow. Here everything is ‘fixed’ in my work – time at school and in the barrio, and I work 12-15 hour days six days a week and often (usually) 5-6 hours on ‘my day off’. It’s not because I’m a ‘workaholic’. It’s because such hours are ‘the norm’ here in Argentina. Folk who are fortunate enough to have work tend to work in at least two jobs (15-16 hours per day) for low salaries. Folk are accustomed to taking only about five hours sleep every night. Mind you, most of them are ‘permanently wired’ on mate!! It makes them hyperactive, excitable, and emotional and reduces their need for sleep. I’m convinced that the ‘pueblo’ (the people) of Argentina would maintain better health and make better decisions if they drank less mate and slept more!!!
As you know, I’m busy teaching English Classes in School to both students and staff and to a group of 15 children (aged between 7 years and 15 years) in the barrio, and only three of them are children from the Church. The other 12 are children from RC families in the barrio which is a wonderful opportunity for me to widen my pastoral care of children and families. It’s fascinating for me to hear them all speaking English just like me – with a strong Yorkshire accent from the N.E. Coast!! I do keep telling them that the Queen of England does not speak like me, but I find it almost impossible to soften my vowel sounds, and so the children (especially) say ‘water’, ‘bath’, ‘bus’ and ‘duck’ with the hard vowel sounds of a North Yorkshire person!!!
The people of Argentina are very warm and welcoming and the country is a delight to travel in with its diverse regions and wildlife, flora and fauna. However,Argentineans are experiencing tremendous hardships as a result of a prolonged period of economic recession and people at every level of society are struggling "make ends meet". Please remember the people of Argentina in your prayers.
When I look at the beauty of the sky, the trees and the flowers (and they all appear to be extremely beautiful at the moment) I know once again that ‘our God reigns, and I believe that with prayer ALL things are possible!