Pop-culture and the naive missionary kid

Josh remembers a camping trip a few years ago:

The first time I really spent getting to know Ben was on a camping trip several of us went on… setting up in the middle of nowhere. Though I think Ben was initially uncertain of what to make of such an odd assortment of characters, to his credit he immersed himself in our camping activities-we knew his strength to be particularly impressive when he assumed the task of uprooting large sections of forest.

In those days, fresh from Argentina, Ben’s lack of pop-cultural knowledge was a frequent subject of laughter for him and us (mainly us) but with those threatening arms of his, we were sure never to push it too far. 

Midnight on the slopes

In 2005 a group of Ben and Tim's friends visited us in Tucumán to help with some building / cleaning up / repairing of the IXTUS student centre. They were a group of 7 who worked hard, laughed a lot and tried and experienced many new and sometimes challenging things. They finished their few weeks in Argentina with a couple of days at a ski resort close to Mendoza south of Buenos Aires. The snow was plentiful, the lifts empty and the weather perfect.

Laura writes:

On our last night we had some fireworks to let off. We went outside where everything was covered in snow. There was a flat space and then a steep icy hill up to another flat space. We all stumbled up to the higher bit and let off the fireworks and laughed and had good times.

When it came to going back inside…Steve was very nice to go and get me a toboggan to go down (I didn't want to go down the ice on my feet). It was so much fun on the toboggan and then everyone wanted a turn.

Tim and Ben ended up making a mound of snow as a jump and whizzing down the hill to take off on the jump and see how many of us they could leap over. Good times to watch and participate in! In this photo Ben is jumping over three of the group while three of us look on.