Adventures in Mate

It has only been a week since I arrived in Buenos Aires, and yet I feel like it has been months.  This could be in part because of the weather.  The Southern Hemisphere seems planets away from the summer I left at home.  I've retired my shorts and t-shirts and am layering every article of clothing I brought in my suitcase.  Buenos Aires wasn't kind to me the first few days here.  It has been cloudy, windy, and rainy; however, the sun has shown its face a couple of times in the last few days for which I am very grateful (so grateful, in fact, that I have found myself stopped on the uneven sidewalks amidst hordes of people just to soak in a couple of rays). 

Still, the most vibrant source I've light I've discovered is not the sun but the people of Buenos Aires themselves.  Tuesday I was able to go to a women's Bible study in a barrio where a large population of immigrants to Argentina live.  A group of about six of us (and a few stray children) came together in one of the women's houses where we ate crackers, talked about the Bible, and shared remedies for any sickness imaginable.  We made up quite a group (Bolivians, Argentines, Uruguayans, and Americans), but I could still feel a sense of unity between us despite our different nationalities. 

I felt this unity even more when the mate (mah-tay) came around.  Yerba mate is a traditional Argentine drink made of the leaves and stems of a tree from the rainforest.  The beverage is served in a gourd-like cup with a metal straw.  Mate is a communal drink, meaning everyone present drinks from the same cup and straw as it is passed around in a circle.  The host or hostess is responsible for pouring hot water over the leaves each time someone drinks from the cup.  Each person is expected to drink until all the hot water is gone from the cup, and just the leaves are left.  When he or she is done, more hot water is added, and the cup is passed to the next person. 

However, mate is more than just a drink; it is a symbol of acceptance.  It is a gesture in Argentina that says something like, "you are welcome here."  For this reason, I was honored to be passed the gourd while spending time with my new friends.  Of course, I was also a little wary of the germs that were being passed around as well.  Still, I could  not deny that I felt a deeper connection with these women when it came my turn to drink from the cup.  Now, the flavor of the drink itself is a required taste that I am still mastering.   Never, though, would I turn down a mate.  No matter how bitter the contents of the cup might be, we are all drinking it together, and there is comfort in that.

One of the things I have learned in my short time here is that people are all different, but we share the same struggles and the same God.