The Twelve Tribes Community-Argentina

At 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon Katie and I are desperatly trying to convince a bus driver that we have absolutely no idea what he is talking about, but we need to get to General Rodriguez. He believes if he yells at us in Spanish then we will miraculously understand...not so. We are frustrated to tears when a young man sitting in the front row explains that we are infact on the right bus, but we need to pay in coins, not bills. And so our hour and a half trip to the Twelve Tribes Community starts...

The bus coughs us up on the edge of General Rodriquez, a typical small city in Argentina, that doesn´t expect many tourists. Here kids walk to and from school, and men can be seen delivering produce from the backs of horse-drawn carts. Stray dogs loom the streets and with some cardboard and duct tape old cars are beaten down the road by sullen looking passengers.

My 35 lbs backpack, which starting ripping from the moment my mom put it in the trunk, is supported on my back by a prayer, a couple bungie cords and two very tired shoulders. Katie and I start walking toward town and thanks to the kindness of another stranger, found a small taxi service(la remis).

When a taxi driver has never heard of the address you give him there may be reason to worry.

One and a half miles from the center of town, down muddy roads, and past multipe homes that appeared to lack any modern convenience including electricity, I was nearly clawing my way out of the taxi to make a run for the bus stop to take me back to the hostel. But we pulled up to a large yellow, ranch-style home, identified the address and were recieved with open arms.

We were ushered into the courtyard (everyone fences in their property with gates and-or shrubbery) by a couple and introduced to the 50 person family also known as the Twelve Tribes Community´s Issacar Tribe (spellig?).

The communities are dispersed internationaly and founded on the Biblical belief that Jacob´s twelve sons established the tribes that will reign in the years of Jesus´return. The tribes happily welcome anyone who wants to live in the community and devote his or her life to Yashua (Jesus in Hebrew). Here there are many family and singles all sharing a life together.

Katie and I found this place in our Argentina wwoof book, so our job will be to help in organic gardens. The community has an organic garden, bakery and is building a cafe.