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.