Monday, July 21, 2008

Weather has definitely turned cold and dreary again.  This morning it was about 10 degrees Celsius, which I think is about 50 Fahrenheit, but it is also really rainy which makes it seem super cold (and there is no central air…anywhere, which means never actually getting warm L )  So I decided I had to go to my comedor to see if anyone was cooking (they don’t generally cook in the rain because the roof has leaks in it that prevents them from cooking in the rain).  There was only one women there today accompanied by her two-year-old son.  I am glad I ended up going because she needed help since she was by herself.

 

My accomplishments today – I opened 15 cans of spam (which was not easy) half of them I opened the “difficult way” until another woman came and showed me the real way you were supposed to open them.  (It is hard to explain, but it is the type of cans you are supposed to be able to open without a can opener, however, if you don’t know how it works, it makes it harder.)  Then I opened several cans of peas – however, the comedor does not have a can opener.  So I used the blade of a large meat knife (I don’t know what happened to the handle) and pounded it into the tin little by little with a knife sharpener and worked my way around the edge of the can until it was open even for me to pry the top of.  As a result I know have a cut on my finger….its a wonder I only have one.  Anyway for all that work, the food looked gross…I wouldn’t have eaten it.  But I am glad I went to help since Rosa was there by herself.  I also spent some time chatting with my supervisor Marta afterward – which really just gave me ideas for more projects that could be done for the comedor, but that I don’t have enough time here to help with.

Sunday, July 20, 2008 – Friendship Day

My host sister, Florencia came home on Friday night.  This is the second time I have seen here in the four weeks I have been in Argentina.  She attends the naval academy and they have spent the last several weeks on a “voyage”.  On Saturday she invited several of her friends over, all of which also attend the naval academy, for dinner.  I assumed the occasion was to celebrate that they were done with their trip.  However, when the clock struck midnight, everyone circled around the room giving everyone kisses, saying “Feliz Día” or Happy Day, marking the beginning of “Día de Amigo”, friendship day.  The holiday is fairly important to Argentine’s.  It seems as though everyone celebrates it with their friends – even the news reported on the “Friendship Day” festivities – mostly composed of friends either having get-togethers at home or going out to dinner. 

 

Dinner consisted of hamburgers…which my new Panamanian friend commented that he missed American hamburgers (a friend of Florencia’s from school – he spent his senior year of high school in Delaware, he appeared excited to meet me and talk in English.)  The hamburgers here are definitely lacking.  They are the premade kind so they are small and not very thick.  They put them on dry buns that are too large for the meat, never include cheese, and you are lucky to find ketchup to top them with (however mayonnaise is easy to come by as is mustard.)  After dinner we sat around for an extremely long period of time waiting for an appropriate time in which we could go out – some of her friends wanted to take me dancing.  The appropriate time to go out here is 3am….so we waited awhile.  By the time we decided to leave we couldn’t find a taxi – after calling several companies where there were hour long waits, we started to walk towards a major road about 12 blocks away to try our luck. 

 

Once we made it “Quo”, we all got in the huge line outside and one of the guys went to ask how much the cover charge was – it ended up being free for ladies, but 30 pesos for guys, which is about $10.  However, that is very expensive here as most cover charges are about 8 pesos, and the taxi to get to the club only cost 10 pesos.  So we decided we were tired and all went home.  So much for my first night going out with my host sister. L

 

So Sunday was friendship day.  I woke up to several visitors in my house.  Apparently we were having another asado (barbecue) to celebrate Friendship Day.  Today we had about 16 join us for lunch – four of which were interns (me, Amber, Jennifer, and Kelly).  Of course the asado consisted of homemade empanadas (delicious), chorizo (sausage), and various varieties of other “carne”.  Luckily today I got by with just eating empanadas and chorizo and passed on the other various meats. 

 

After lunch they taught us how to play “tejo” which consisted of throwing wooden discs to see which one lands closest to a target point.  Then we got some live music and dancing from Vivi, her husband and others.  Then Vivi did a funny skit and song she had written about her friends who were in attendance.  All in all it was pretty funny.  Another long day of entertaining!

Saturday, July 19, 2008 – Vivi’s Party

Primo and interns at Vivi's party.

Last night was “the party”.  Amber’s host mom, Viviana, turned 50 on Tuesday, so they had a big blowout party for her.  “Vivi” is a super outgoing, funny, and crazy lady, so of course any party for her will be fun.  It also just happens that nearly all the host families of the interns in my group have some sort of relationship with Vivi: my host mom works with her, lives near her and they are good friends; Jennifer’s host dad is Vivi’s brother; Kristen’s host mom is Vivi’s aunt; Samiron’s host dad is in a band with Vivi’s husband.  The only person not related was Mary Andrews – but we made sure she was invited anyway – it was Vivi’s party, how could Mary Andrews not come?

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really nice party, they rented a really nice salon – food was catered and there was plenty of wine.  Dinner started with an assortment of cheese, meat, and other “munchies”.  “Dinner” itself was strange, as we were never given plates or served a complete meal.  Rather, waiters walked around every so often with a new plate of goodies serving them to each table – we had empanadas, hotdogs covered with bacon (not so yummy), pizza, chicken bites, meatballs, and a variety of other foods.  Music was played throughout the night, but the highlight was a skit put on by Vivi’s husband, brother, brother-in-law and my host dad.  They came out dancing dressed as painters then proceeded with a “striptease” each wearing a plastic “six pack”.  It was quite entertaining.  The party lasted until 3am, which I figure is not bad for being 50!  Afterwards, I went out with Javier (my “primo”) and Mary Andrews.  All-in-all a fun night!

Thursday, July 17, 2008 – Tango

Tango Cena-Show

 

The show was really fun, it was a very dramatic series of dancing and singing.  There was probably a story line, but I didn’t quite catch it.  Very entertaining overall.  I even had my picture taken with one of the dancers – not really by choice its one of those things where they walk around and take pictures with everyone….I felt bad because no one at my table would take the picture.  I even got suckered into purchasing the photo, not really a great depiction of me – but a fun memory nonetheless.

 

*Funny side note:  I have to share (I am sorry Samiron.)  So Samiron is the one lonely guy in our intern group (the group that came before us had no guys.)  He is a good sport about everything and fun to hang out with – though I think he is missing fellow male company.  Anyway, the majority of our families here overfeed us and are constantly concerned we are not eating enough – except Samiron’s family.  He lives with a young couple that works all the time and are rarely around and so he is not quite getting his full share of food.  One weekend when his “host parents” were out of town he was hungry and couldn’t find anything to eat in the house so ended up eating two containers (probably pint size) of dulce de leche straight from the jar with a spoon.  We all found the story so funny most of us shared it with our host families.  Mary Andrews host fathers now refers to him by name and constantly asks when he is coming to her house to eat.  It is just ironic  that the one guy in our group gets the only family that isn’t constantly trying to shove food down them!  Now every time my host primo (cousin – who lives with me) sees him he points and asks if that’s they guy who ate all the dulce de leche. 

Monday, July 14, 2008

I am still not feeling very well.  I went to a pharmacy in El Tigre, but it was getting dark, and when it gets dark they lock the doors, but will still let you buy things through a window.  I told the lady (at least I thought I did) that my throat hurt and I was congested.  She asked if I had a cough, which I did, and she sold me some cough medicine.  Once I had a chance to examine it better I realized it was bronchitis medicine, which I do not need since my cough is a direct result of being congested.  Of course they don’t give receipts so I couldn’t take the medicine back – and it was kind of expensive too!

 

I am still super congested and nothing I have taken has really helped much.  I couldn’t even get out of bed this morning to go work at the comedor L  I know, I am becoming super lazy.  I am going to try to find a pharmacy today and get something to help. 

Weekend, June 12 – 13, 2008 – El Tigre

My intern group minus me...

 

Saturday morning we boarded “El Tren de la Costa”, the touristy train that goes from the center of Buenos Aires to El Tigre, ending at the “Parque de Diversiones”, largest Argentine amusement park.  There are nine stops along the way that offer a variety of activities.  Our boarding passes allowed us to partake in as many of the stops as we wished.  I stuck with the group of six interns that started at the same time as me and we got off any the first four stops.  The first stop only offered a cute café, so we started to hop back on the train and try the next stop.  The second stop was at a park with a nice view of the river and another café, so we stopped and had coffee before continuing the trip.  The fourth stop was a “fería de antiguos” or an antique fair.  The sidewalks were lined with stalls with varying antique artifacts – interesting to breeze through, but not really my forte.  The next stop was San Isidro, which had the most activity going.  There were various restaurants (this is where we decided to eat lunch – it was already 2pm!), shops, and a hug artisan fair, including various live entertainment.  We stayed at San Isidro until almost five o’clock and then hopped back on the train and went straight to El Tigre.  Each train ride was absolutely packed and we ended up standing for most of it, but since each leg of the trip was so short it wasn’t really a big deal.

 

Once in El Tigre, we looked for hostel, which actually ended up being a fairly nice hostel.  We then went to the famous “Puerto de Frutos” which is actually just another artisan fair.  The thing about artisan fairs, is once you have seen one, you have basically seen them all.  I think I have had a good taste of what Argentine has to offer in terms of “authentic handmade” souvenirs. (You should all know that I only bought a $2 pair of earrings and some olive oil.)  That night we went back to the hostel and had a short “taller” or workshop, talking about what needed to be done before leaving the country (the first group of summer interns will be leaving in two weeks.)  Marcela (FSD director) and her friend made us pasta for dinner.  I crashed early.  I had a head cold which is no fun at all and was not in the mood for hanging out.

 

Sunday we went on a boat trip.  The area of El Tigre is surrounding by various interlocking rivers, creating islands all over the area.  Apparently, people live on these islands, they have some normal amenities including electricity, telephone, gas (via propane tanks) and water (filtered from river for use, potable water must be bought.)  It was pretty interesting to see, there is no vehicle access to the islands, they must be reached by boat.  However there are schools, churches and stores, including “floating” medics, supermarkets, and boat “omnibuses”.  Children also get picked up by a boat to take them to school.  It was pretty interesting.

 

We had a typical Argentine “asado” or grill out on Sunday afternoon at a park on one of the islands.  The meal consisted of meat, meat and more meat (and a little salad and some bread.)  We started out with carne empanadas, and then each were given a chorizo (sausage) and morcilla (blood sausage – which I tried but do not think I like.)  We were then give the “main course” which was meat with bones (they eat so much meat here, I am not sure what the English equivalent is), seconds of meat with bones and then meat without bones.  Luckily we had ice cream for dessert!  I am a little sick of the meat here…I can handle a little, but a meal that consists of four types of meat is not exactly my favorite.

 

We had the afternoon free, in which we went to the “El Tigre Museo de Arte” which is in the historical casino building, which was beautiful (can’t say I am much of a fan of the actual art, but the building was pretty cool.)  We then met back up at the hostel and headed home.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 – Dia de Independencia

Today was Argentina’s Independence Day – my host family had a get together to celebrate.  My host mom is good friends with another family that hosts interns through FSD, who is related to another family and friends with even another family that hosts FSD interns, so it was a huge network of friends and family that host interns – about 30 friends of the family in total at my house.  We all ate a super-extended table for the noon meal (which didn’t really happen until about 2pm, I was starving!)  We ate a traditional “criollo” (def – traditionally Spanish American) meal of Locro, which is a very thick stew like food that includes beans, rice, meat (beef perhaps), bacon, and I am sure various other things I am leaving out.  We also had freshly made empanadas that were cooked outside in a Bolivian brick oven (if I ever get around to it I have pictures of the over, it was left by the previous Bolivian owners of the house that I live in.)  The food was all delicious and accompanies by some very tasty “postre” or desserts – including of course a pinwheel cake smothered in dulce de leche!

 

Unfortunately I was super tired and all I could think of was sleeping after lunch, but everyone stuck around until after 5pm.  I did attempt to play “trucco” which is a very popular card game that they play here – I am still not exactly sure how to play it, but am trying.  After everyone left, I crashed for a few hours and didn’t really accomplish anything the rest of the night.  My throat hurt all day and I could tell I was getting sick so I pretty much lay low the rest of the day.

Sunday, July 6, 2008 – Buenos Aires Zoo

Gross...my host dad says they are good to eat :/

Mary Andrews (another intern) invited me to go to the Buenos Aires zoo today with her and some co-workers.  Marcelo and Vicky (a couple that works with MA) took me, her, and Kelly (anther intern that also works at the same place as MA.)  We road the train to Buenos Aires.  Train transportation is considered less than desirable here, it cost about $0.50 and we have been advised multiple times not to take it at night as it is not safe.  However, Marcelo and Vicky said we should take it once during the day for the experience.  We took a bus back to La Plata (larger travel size bus), which costs an outrageous $2 for the one hour ride!  The zoo was fun, (though I am not necessarily a huge zoo person).  I tried to take pictures, but the batteries in my camera died after the first 30 minutes or so.  The most interesting thing I saw at the zoo were these huge rodent things that were wandering around everywhere (like ducks would at a US zoo.)  They looked kind of like beaver but had long skinny tails like rats.  I can’t remember what she called them, but Mary Andrews says that she thinks it is an animal native to Argentina, but it was somehow brought to the US and is now infesting the swamp areas of New Orleans and people are now hunting and eating them!  Other than that I would say it was your average zoo – for all you KC people it was way less walking than the Kansas City zoo, which was nice, but also means animals were probably not given a very sufficient amount of space.

 

 

 

Unfortunately it started to rain by the end of the day so we got kind of soggy.  We took the subway or subte (short for subterrano) back to the bus station.  I mistakenly chose that we take the bus that does not take the highway but rather makes various stops and takes longer – because then MA could get off closer to her home….but unfortunately we had to wait an hour for that bus to even arrive despite the fact that three buses “por la autopist” (highway) arrived first. L  oh, well my mistake, but I will not make it again.  So my first trip to Buenos Aires was short.  I didn’t really see much of the city as we took the subte straight to the zoo then straight to the train station.  I am excited to go back and see more of the “big city”!

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 30, 2008: Starting off with family and work

I look pretty stupid next to her dressed up ready to return to school...

This weekend I met my host sister, Florencia.  Many of her friends live very far away from the school so they come to La Plata on the weekend, and Florencia’s parents act as surrogate parents for many of these students.  As a result, there are always young people around on the weekend, which is nice.  Florencia has a boyfriend, which makes her less available to hang out with me, but one of her friends, Stephanie took me downtown to run some errands.  Stephanie is very outgoing, so she is always talking (which is good because then I have to talk less) and she is also patient with explaining the things I miss in Spanish.  Another friend, Perla, said we should go out dancing sometime.  Unfortunately they all have short trips via ship in the coming weeks and no one will be returning to La Plata for several weeks and shortly after that they have two weeks of vacation in which many will return to their homes.  One girl, Patricia (Perla’s sister, but not in the naval academy), did invite me to her home in Missiones (northern province) near Iguazú Falls, which I believe is the largest natural waterfall in the world (per Claudio).  Patricia also said we could cross the border into Paraguay to go shopping because everything is cheaper there.  Unfortunately, I think it is against FSD regulation to leave the country…I am not sure what I am going to do about this yet.  (It is also 18 hours away which is another road bump…) 

 

 

 

I met my supervisor for the comedor today also.  Marta lives in the barrio Altos Hornos de San Lorenzo – which is also where I live.  However, she lives in an area that they refer to as “asentimiento”; the people that live there do not own they land.  After the 2001 economic crisis, many people came to the city (I am assuming to look for work or government help) and settled on this open land.  The houses are varying degrees of shacks.  Tin roofs and walls on concrete slabs seems to be the norm.  Marta is from northern Argentina (Missiones) but said that many of the people that live near here are from other countries – Bolivia, Paraguay, and maybe Uruguay also.  One house she pointed out she said a Yugoslavian woman lived there…I will have to get to the bottom of that, it seems like an awfully long way to come. 

 

The comedor where I will work is more impoverished than I had imagined.  All the interns had visited a comedor during our orientation week which appeared to be in a fairly normal looking neighborhood and it was housed in a solid infrastructure.  The people who came to eat looked like any other children in the neighborhood.  However, my comedor, La Estrategia de Caracol (I believe the translation is Strategy of the Snail, I am not exactly sure of the significance) is located in a fairly precarious looking building.  There are holes in the tin roof and the major wooden pillars that support the structure were salvaged from the first structure that was destroyed in a fire.  The bathroom is an outhouse in another tin shack.  The concrete floor has cracks and there are spaces between the walls and ceiling that need to be filled. 

 

After my first visit with Marta it appears as though the panadería, or the baking cooperative, has not been fully realized yet.  They have bought an industrial strength mixer, but it is sitting in Marta’s living room because the comedor is not secure enough to house such expensive equipment.  The price of flour is also sky-rocketing making it not cost effective to make and sell the bread. 

 

On Wednesday I will go to the comedor and help them transplant some plants in their garden (their first intern helped to create this garden) and I will get to meet all the women that help out at the comedor (members of the community who volunteer their time.)  After I meet everyone, I think I will then be in a position to stop by the comedor whenever I want.  I want to start talking to the women to find out the needs of their community and comedor and their interest in growing the panadería.  After learning of their needs, I will have to make a “work plan” for my internship.  Each intern has $200 available to realize a project and longer internships (which I think I qualify for) will have the opportunity to apply for additional grant moneys.  After my first visit with Marta it seems as though their major need is man power to make needed infrastructure changes to the comedor.  They already have most of the supplies, but Marta’s husband seems to be the only one available to make improvements and he has limited time.  I am not sure if this is because of lack of trust or confidence in using other man power, or just lack of available funds. 

 

The next couple of weeks I will spend getting to know the women of the comedor to realize a plan that will be meaningful and beneficial to the local community.

My Argentine Family: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

My host family, the Moya’s, picked me up at the FSD office on Wednesday evening.  They are super nice.  Miriam (the mom) is very outgoing.  She has dark brown/reddish (dyed) hair, and is actually fairly tall (maybe 5’7”) and slightly overweight (which is bad news for me cause it probably means they eat well here so I shouldn’t be expecting to lose weight anytime soon L ).  Miriam works for the “Ministrio de Educación” which I am assuming is similar to the Board of Education.  I am not exactly sure what she does yet.  She also knits and weaves scarves and shawls to sell to friends and co-workers.  Her husband, Claudio, is also fairly tall and fairly light skinned with brown/grayish colored hair.  I unsuspectingly asked him where he works and apparently he is unemployed – however, he used to work at a flour mill, but soy is taking over production so there is no longer demand for wheat flour.  So he stays at home and helps Miriam weave as part of their own microenterprise.  Claudio is not as outgoing as Miriam but very nice and “tranquilo” or calm and easy going – which is a nice contrast to Miriam’s vivacious personality. 

 

Their nephew Javier lives with them too.  He is 28 and is a hydraulic engineering student.  He is also plays the base in a rock band (which I think are practicing in the room next to mine right now – fortunately its not the loud obnoxious kind!)  He seems pretty cool also, he is a little hard to understand because he talks fast and the words seem to all mix together like he is mumbling (at least to me that is what it sounds like!) 

 

Claudio and Miriam also have a son and daughter.  The son is 22 and lives far away (700 kilometers) and studies mechanical engineering.  The daughter, Florencia, is 19 and is in the Naval Military School, which from listening to Miriam is probably similar to our military academies, it seems difficult to get into, and she seems very proud of her.  Florencia is not around during the week but apparently comes home on the weekends, so I will probably meet her this weekend.  Miriam says she is tall like me, she seems to think I look like her too, but I met a friend of Florencia’s yesterday and she didn’t share the same opinion, I think Miriam is just excited to have me here. 

 

The family seems very fun.  I think they get together with a big group of friends often – several of whom also host interns.  And friends of their kids are around on the weekends as well.  I think I will definitely get a taste of their culture living with them.