Caminando por las Americas...

200 years of Argentina

2010-05-29T16:24:00.003-03:00

My last full week in Argentina, and I was lucky to be able to engage in Argentina’s Bicentennial celebrations!! 25 de Mayo an important national holiday each year commemorates the Revolución de Mayo in 1810 - or the May Revolution, which initiated the creation of the Argentine state and the denial on the part of this first of the authority of Spain. It is not the Independence Day -- which came later on July 9. This year May 25, 2010 was extra special because it marked 200 years since the the revolution. This resulted in lotssss of celebrations of all that is Argentine and lots of baby blue (Celeste!!) and white around (colors of Argentine flag).

In La Plata and In Buenos Aires, celebrations commenced the Thursday before the 25th. In Buenos Aires that had been preparing for weeks at a time, and even closed down one of the main avenues in the city - 9 de Julio - the site of most of the celebrations. In Buenos Aires, the very famous and beautiful Teatro Colon was reopened Monday the 24th after three years of renovation. Monday the 24th and Tuesday the 25th were considered holidays. You could see flags being sold all around La Plata, the main plaza Plaza Moreno was decorated with tons of flags, there were parades, musical performances, and a tent with stands representing the culture (food and crafts) of countries from which people have immigrated to Argentina. There was a stage with cultural dance performances.

Plaza Moreno in La Plata

We received a new group of 5 interns on Saturday the 22nd, and decided to take them to Buenos Aires on the 25th. It was great to be in the center of the action, but logistically very challenging with a group of 9 people among what we found out was a crowd of over 2 million people! In the morning we checked out a parade around Plaza Moreno, and then waited a whileeeeeee to get on the bus to Buenos Aires, and headed there. We took the kiddos to the famous Plaza de Mayo, talked to them about the importance of the revolution, explained the importance of the Casa Rosada (governmental palace) and the Cabildo (first city hall), and then headed to 9 de Julio, the heart of the action. All along 9 de Julio they had set up these cool stands/little houses for each province in the country with information, images, and on the other side stands that contained food from the different provinces.. However, in typical Argentine fashion, it seems as if there was little planning - really small stands in the heart of the action, free entrance, and lots of long line waiting. Thus, because of the huge numbers of people there, you had to wait hours in life to enter the stands, which we really weren’t going to do. . It was madness trying to keep tabs on everyone, so once we actually found a restaurant that was open to serve “lunch” at 4 and didn’t require a long wait. Then we headed to Diagonal Norte, a street off of Plaza de Mayo where we waited to see what was said to be an amazing parade with 19 floats that portrayed Argentine history.

lots of people along 9 de Julio

immigrant boat in parade

Of course...it was difficult for us to get close, and the parade, which was set to start at 7PM only started at 8:40 --- an hour and a half later. It was difficult to see much because of all the people around, and it was tiring having to stand for hours and wait for something to happen, and deal with pushing and shoving. But, alas, the parade DID happen, and it was amazing and very well done with lots of acrobatic dancers, etc. It started with floats on the native groups that once inhabited these lands, some fake snow which signified the crossing of the Andes of Argentina’s liberator General San Martin, a large boat commemorating the immigrants that came to Argentina, a cool tango orchestra on the roofs of Buenos Aires’ taxis with tango dancers sitting inside that would come out and dance, etc, etc. Because I couldn’t see that well, when the floats were closer to the ground, or on the street, I would film them with my camera, and then watch. Also because of logistical challenges, the floats went by quiteee slowly, and some would be in front of us for like 20-30m.

I had wondered the whole time how they would reflect what occurred during the military dictatorship, and thankfully we got to see it right before we left, and they really did an incredible job with it. It was a huge thing, with dark metal cut outs of - the Argentine constitution, a man with his hands in shackles, and the peace dove -- they lit it on fire, and then had water (signifiying rain/tears). Then came a float with women walking in a circle to signify the madres de plaza de mayo, with the white headscarves (but they were lit up) and then more rain/tears, etc. It was very well done. Unfortunately, because we had to get to La Plata, and surely had to wait a longgggg time for the bus (which we did), we had to leave before the end of the parade. There were also lots of concerts programmed for after the parade. If only it had started on time...we could have seen it all...but that is often the statement here. Oh well!

Madres

symbolizing dictatorship

It is funny, when these huge events occur and you are sitting at home watching it on TV, you wish you were there, in the action, but then when you are there in the middle of the action, you wish you were comfortable at home, and able to watch everything that was going on!

This was the first time such a large scale event was done in Argentina, and I was definitely glad I got to see it, although it took me a few weeks to recover from the exhaustion. But the good (or bad) thing is another similar event will only occur in 100 years! And...300 years of Independence in the U.S. will only occur when I’m 90 years old!!

Workin it out at the ... Gimnasio

2010-05-24T23:30:00.003-03:00

I’ve mentioned that I would write a blog entry about my gym experiences here, and haven’t...until now!

In terms of fitness - it is very easy to stay in shape here in La Plata. Not only is the city very walkable, but it is also full of parks and plazas that you can easily run/walk in. I walk at least one hour a day (30 m each way to work), and then more time to go to the gym, errands, etc. I also ran a 4k that they had here in the city just a few months ago!

There are also TONS of gyms everywhere that offer the usual - treadmills, weights, stationary bikes, etc...and also spinning, pilates, yoga, kickboxing, zumba. Also lots of places to take dance lessons - salsa, tango, etc. I took 1 whole Salsa class, and decided it was a little too advanced for me. lol

My gym - Punto G is conveniently located two blocks from my house. I find it to be a bit pricey (which of course have gone up since I started - good old Argentine inflation) I pay $70 pesos or like $18 dollars to go three times a week to use the treadmill, weights, etc - what they call “musculación”. Unlimited use is about $90 pesos. If you want to take classes (like spinning which I do for awhile and loved) you pay about $40 pesos a class or like 120 pesos ($30 dollars) for unlimited classes.

The equipment the gym isn’t too great -- it seems like it is equipment from the 80s from the U.S. or Brasil - a lot of it is in English and Portuguese. Many times it is out of use, and not working. Unfortunately they have no elliptical/arc trainer...but the treadmill and bikes do the job. They also have lots of free weights, and old weight machines. There are two TVs on the wall, usually on soccer, but there is no way to listen to the sounds. The locker room is nice, normal with showers and such. The outside and inside are painted red - which I like. It is funny - all of the advertisements for the gym that I’ve seen around the city include images of people in gyms and on equipment that aren’t at Punto G. haha Definitely no AC - but there are fans and heaters. I’ve taken a peek into some of the nicer gyms and they are as nice as the nicest gyms in the U.S. -- but probably cost you just as much as well.

one such picture

Something that is very different from the U.S. is that the trainer working there can work with you on your circuit everytime. No need to pay for trainer sessions! I am not sure how effective this is because I see that people only do about 5 minutes of cardio and like 30 of strength. Not sure those 5 of cardio will help. Anyway...When I first got there they kept trying to show me how to use the machines, and try to help me with the circuit. It was like they were surprised that I knew how to work the machines (seeing most of the other girls there - I can see why they thought that).

What are the people like? Everyone is nice enough, and as many gyms - it is mostly men that go there. They great each other with a kiss. They drink mate -- which is crazy, in between reps they go and chat with the trainer and drink mate. The water machine has the hot water for the mate. Many of the women wear their long hair down as they do their 3 minutes of cardio, and then do their weights. My view is that if you are wearing your hair down, you’re not working out hard enough! One old man insists on talking to me in English, and mentioning that I am from the U.S. I have seen some pretty interesting things there - little kids playing with weights (definitely not safe!!). The most interestiing was a little white poodle with a blue tee-shirt, who just sat by the treadmill watching his owner walk. I have seen a few other dogs in there as well.

Well - there’s a bit about my gym. Haven’t felt sufficiently stalker enough to take a picture on the inside...but I will see if I can do this before I leave!

Land of colorful landscapes...continued

2010-05-11T17:58:00.010-03:00

My third excursion was to the lovely little town of Cachi in the beginning of the Calchaquí Valley via the awesome Parque Nacional de los Cardones. It was quite a windy road, up and down the mountains. The cardón is a candelabra type of cactus…many of them were hugeeee, meaning that they were hundreds of years old. It was a pretty incredible landscape to look at, cactuses with mountains and snow in the background. Cachi was a lovely little town with colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, and a striking backdrop of snowcapped mountains. A little town on the outskirts of Cachi is full of red pepper farms, and you could see them all laying out to dry in the sun. The smell was delicious!

what a tall cactus!

charming Cachi

look at those peppers

After spending one last night in Salta, I headed to the lovely town of Cafayate. On the way to Cafayate, we drove by the incredible Quebrada de Cafayate, a landscape of rich red sandstone, and rock formations that look like trains, castles, etc. Cafayate is a lovely town/city famous for its wines, ceramics, and proximity to the Quebrada de Cafayate. Although I saw the Quebrada de Cafayate on the drive there, I want to see it up close, and I went on a tour of it in the afternoon, when the colors are most vivid. It was absolutely amazing to see up close, the redness of the rocks, and the different formations. We got to do some climbing and got some great views of the surrounding rock. One particular rock formation had some amazing colors, greens, reds, etc.

a train!

just jumping around on a mountain!

Two impressive rockforms were the Garganta del Diablo (a huge hollow space created by rain and mother nature herself) and the Anfiteatro – where you could hear lotsss of echoooingg. . I was able to tour some of the wineries my second day there, and found the white wine Torrontés that Cafayate is famous for to be delicious. It was a lovely season to be traveling up there because the weather was nice, and the leaves where changing colors on the vines. There is an ice-cream place that has wine-flavored ice cream, and I tried a scoop of the Torrontés and a scoop of Cabernet Sauvigon – it was okay, kind of weird to have wine flavored ice cream, but I'm glad I tried it I guess.

Miranda's famous wine ice cream

With its indigenous influences, the region has a cuisine unlike what is found in the rest of the country. Locro is a popular dish – a spicy stew with meats, lots of corn (I ate some yummy mote – a large corn), humitas and tamales, potatoes (I bought some little Andean papas) and empanadas. The empanadas are different in the north – they are smaller and use ingredients found in the region. I had the best empanadas I have tried in Argentina at a place called La Casa de Las Empanadas en Cafayate – at two price a pop, they were delicious, and I had them for lunch and dinner :)

Argentines are pretty phobic of spicy foods, but here in the north there were some good spicy sauces. Quinoa, a very powerful grain, was found everywhere, and I took advantage of this, eating empanadas with quinoa, and quinoa veggie burgers, etc. Coca tea, and chewing coca leaves is also popular; most of the leaves come from Bolivia, just a few hours to the North. I love coca tea, but supposedly it is illegal to transport it in Argentina, so I kept to consuming while I was up there!

My last full day and afternoon were spent in the of Tafí del Valle and the large city of Tucuman. Tafí, named after an indigenous group that inhabited the region, was a chilly hilltown with nice little craft shops and lovely mountain views. Everyone was so friendly and easy to talk to, and I had a nice time chatting with the woman who sold me some artensal cheese, and the owner of my hostel. The last afternoon I spent in Tucuman, the capital of the province by the same name before catching the bus to Buenos Aires. Tucuman had some nice restaurants and things, but it is most well known for being the place where Argentina’s independence was declared. I went to the house where the declaration was written; it was reconstructed as a museum, but the hall where it was signed is still standing as it originally was. Pretty great to see :) I ate some pizza for lunch, had some ice cream, and headed back to Buenos Aires!

cute Tafí

Tucumán

Well, this was my last trip, probably for awhileee :( But I am glad I was able to see this amazing region, and it made me realize once again just how diverse Argentina is geographically and culturally.

Just a few weeks left here in Argentina! I will try to get a few more posts in for your reading enjoyment (if it is that anyone actually reads this blog!) :)

Land of colorful landscapes

2010-05-11T17:51:00.006-03:00

It’s hard to believe that I only have a couple of weeks left here in Argentina…well actually not that hard to believe…it’s been a long year for me! But it will definitely be bittersweet and I will miss lots about Argentina/being in Latin America. When I first arrived I flipped through my Argentina guidebook and jotted down the places I wanted to see in Argentina before I left. Luckily, I have been able to see most of them, but what was left was the Northwest of Argentina, a region with an Andean feel and amazing and diverse landscapes. Taking advantage of my last week of vacation, I was lucky to be able to visit last week!

As I’ve mentioned previously Argentina is a massive country, and traveling by bus is usually more inexpensive than by plane. Thus, I took a long 22 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Salta. Most of it was uneventful, however, during a traffic jam near the city of Rosario, a bunch of passagenrs started banging on the windows saying “Abrí la puerta!” or "Open the door!" I was scared at first, thinking that the bus was going to explode or something, but then discovered that a few men had come up to the bus, and robbed a few suitcases out of the bottom storage, and ran away so fast, that no one could see where they had went. Luckily no one was hurt or anything, but some people lost all of their luggage, and it was just another example of the growing insecurity in Argentina. Robberies happen on a daily basis, and one needs to be cautious at all times. With an increase in poverty comes an increase in delinquency. It’s not an easy problem to solve.

My home base for a few days was the Salta, the capital city of the province. Known as “Salta la Linda” it is an amazing city with lots of colonial architecture surrounded by green mountains. It definitely is a very Catholic city, with a gorgeous pink (!) cathedral, and lots of churches, crosses, and such. I did a quick chairlift/hike down Cerro Bernardo to capture some great views of the city. The city boasts some pretty impressive museums, and I got to check out the contemporary art museum, an anthropological museum with artifacts and information on the way of life of local indigenous groups (Calchaquies, Inca, Diaguita, Quilmes, etc), and the MAAM (Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña). The MAAM was pretty cool, it has exhibitions on the Inca culture, focusing on what some see as controversial child sacrifices they left on Andean peaks. The craziest thing about the museum was that it displays three mummified bodies of children found on the Llullaillaco peak in 1999. The children are rotated on exhibition every six months; I was able to see the 6 year old boy mummy. It was crazyyyyy how well preserved his body was, like the skin, clothes, hair everything. Supposedly the conditions at the top of the mountain were perfect for bodily preservation. In the museum they conserve the mummies in oxygen capsules, and at the correct temperatures – the exhibition room was quite chilly. I checked out some artisan fairs and craftwares in the city. There are lots of peñas to listen/watch live folkloric music performances popular in the region, and I was able to check one out one night with some folks from my hostel.

Salta's lovely cathedral

peña in Salta

Because there is so much to see, and I only had a week, and obviously no vehicle, I went on a few excursions to get to see the amazing little towns and impressive rock landscapes. My first excursion was to the Salinas Grandes – salt flats. Although I heard that the salt flats in Bolivia are much larger, I don’t know when I willl be able to get there, and as a lover of salt (hehe) I wanted to see them! On the way to the flats we were able to see many different landscapes, including some jungle-like greenery, and the puna (3,200 - 3,500 m elevation). To get to the salt flats you cross the province of Jujuy (where many of the attractions are, but Salta seems to get most of the tourist money because of the attractiveness of the city of Salta vs the city of Jujuy). We stopped off to see the Cerro de Siete colors, a cool mountain of seven colors located in the World Heritage Site Quebrada de Humahuaca. Quebrada literally means broken, but translates as a deep valley or ravine, and this Quebrada is renown for the impressive colors and beauty of the mountains. I learned that the differing colorings can be attributed to the age of the minerals in the rock…the green color is the oldest (like hundreds and hundreds of years old) and is copper or something, the red iron. We got to see some cute vicuñas (type of camelids that produce some really fine wool.) We finally arrived at the salt flats after reaching some pretty high altitudes – almost 4,000 m or 9,000 or so feet. They are incredible to see, and kind of blinding. What was once a lake hollowed out to a crust of salt. You sort of lose all perspective and can take some pretty creative pictures like the ones below. ;)

Before heading to an excursion to see more of the Quebrada de Humahuaca I spent the night in Purmamurca, which is a lovely little town, with lots of buildings/houses constructed with adobe mud bricks, and lots of places to buy traditional woven wares, and the typical industrial sweaters and hats with llamas on them, etc. In Purmamarca you can climb a little hill to get some good views of the Cerro de Siete Colores and surrounding mountains. I stayed in a nice restaurant/hostel and was able to see a folklore performance of typical jujeña songs. The next day, we headed further down the Quebrada, to some ruins (& cactuses) in the small town of Tilcara, stopped off at the Tropic of Capricorn, and ended up in the small highland town of Humahuaca. I felt the altitude a bit in Humahuaca (fast beating heart!). It was a lovely little town with some colonial architecture, and an impressive stone monument, exemplifying the virture of native cultures that were overwhelmed by colonialism. We got to see some amazing coloring in the mountains, including “the painter’s palette” what looks like brushstrokes on a mountain next to the town of Maimara.

Cerro Siete Colores

mountain view from climb in purmamarca

A bit closer to the end of the Earth - Part 2

2010-04-29T18:02:00.003-03:00

After two days in Bariloche, I headed to the small town of Villa La Angostura. We got there via the Ruta de los Seite Lagos -- a famous drive past seven Alpine lakes. It was wonderful. Villa La Angostura was lovely, cozy, and very green with lots of pine trees. Again, the wood chalet type architecture. I arrived early in the morning, and was a bit sleepy when I got off the bus...and I left my Mamuschka chocolates above the seat :( :( I was pretty devastated when I realized it. My main reason for going to Villa La Angostura was to check out the Parque Nacional Arrayanes, which includes same amazing cinnamon-barketd arrayán trees. It was a chilly three hour hike along a really well marked trail, with some amazing lake views, and a grand finale of the part of the forest with the arrayánes, which were of an incredible color, and spectacular to see. It was pretttyyyy cold by the time I finished, and I had to wait awhileee for the ferry to get back to town...but it was worth it. The region is famous for its berries and fish, and I was happy to try both, and bought homemade berry jams and ate delicious trout for dinner that night.

Villa La Angostura

cool Arrayanes

My last stop was San Martín de los Andes, which I absolutely loved, and where I was lucky enough to spend two full days. San Martín is similar to Bariloche in its architecture, and feel, but I found it to be a lot less touristy, and a lot more charming. I loved the little wood shops, and the small town feel of it. I spent like two hours sitting in a park taking pictures of beautiful roses; all the places I had been had roses, but none as beautiful as those in San Martín! It is also a bit more green than Bariloche. I spent Easter getting to know the city, ate some pasta stuffed with trout (delicious!, and eating some more chocolate. San Martín de los Andes is located in the Parque Nacional Lanin. So, the next day I decided to go on an excursion - I usually don’t like to do excursions and rather explore on my own, but I wanted to see the Volcano Lanín. It was beautiful out, and I had a lovely time. We first headed to Junín de los Andes, capital of trout in the province; all the street signs had trouts on them. We also got to visit the cathedral in the city, which has was interesting with both Christian and Mapuche influences. We stopped for many spectacular views of the volcano and lakes. We drank pure pure water from a stream, and were able to see where the indigenous Mapuche settlements, and ate at one of their restaurants.

a lovely rose

my favorite rose picture -- quite proud of it :)

Junin church with Mapuche Influence

Volcan Lanin

love this little idylic scene!

Traveling in Argentina has gotten me used to long bus rides, thankfully they provide you with meals, and if you buy a cama bed the seat reclines so I can actually sleep. I read an entire book, watched a movie, and slept..and in (just) 20 hours I was back in Buenos Aires.

I really had a lovely trip and definitely hold that it was one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. This was the longest trip I had ever taken alone (aside from moving to Argentina and interning in Peru & Nicaragua alone - haha), and it actually wasn’t that bad. The pros of traveling alone are that you get to do what you want when you want, you have the opportunity to meet some cool people, and have a very personal experience the cons - the awkwardness of eating dinner alone, having to figure things out yourself, and it can be lonely sometimes.

The downside to traveling in the South is that it was expensiveeeee in comparison to what I have seen in Argentina. It was as if things were being charged in U.S. Dollars, but said Pesos. I found myself flinching everytime I was told a price. The National Parks and meals were quite expensive.

Stay tuned for another trip post...coming soon :)

A bit closer to the end of the Earth - Bariloche

2010-04-27T23:40:00.008-03:00

A few weeks ago during Semana Santa (week before Easter, including Holy Thursday and Good Friday) I decided to head South for a few days, to the beginning part of the Argentine Patagonia. Many Argentines (and travelers) had told me that the South, with its mountains and lakes is one of the most beautiful regions of Argentina. My roommate is also from this region, and raves about her home, so I just had to check it out!

Because its over 20 hours away from here, I took a flight down and then took the bus back. I flew to Bariloche, in the province of Rio Negro, one of the most well known destinations in this region, and the place where almost all Argentine students go for their senior class trip. It is one of the largest cities in the less populated South, but nothing compared to the size of Buenos Aires, or even La Plata. Of course, I never go prepared weatherwise, and it ended up being really winddyy and freezing, and I was forced to layer the pieces of light clothing I had brought. Bariloche is a charming city, although now quite touristy, located in the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi (the name of the lake that surrounds the city). Bariloche is famous for the breathtaking landscapes that surround it, chocolate (yum), northern european influences especially in the architecture with sloped roofs, etc. Many Swiss, German, and other Northern Europeans immigrated/live to/in Bariloche which explains the architecture and chocolate, they came from a snowy climate to another, and brought their culture. You can also see gnomes everywhere, not quite sure why!

The city is nice, though touristy and I spent my time wandering around, taking in the views, eating chocolate, looking around at shops, and people watching. My hostel was on the 10th floor, so there were great views of the lake. The central plaza is nice, but also a bit disturbing. There are lots of St. Bernard dogs around, which are known for being useful as snow dogs. However, now people just use them as a way to make money from tourists, and I felt sad seeing them being dragged around, grabbed by kids, and set on peoples laps and around their arms for photos. Poor St. B’s :( They were cute though. Being a lover of chocolate, I definitely tried a few types, including chocolate from Mamuschka, arguably the best chocolate in Bariloche, I didn’t try all the types of chocolate available in Bariloche, but it was definitely the most delicious. The place is themed on those little Russian ... dolls, not quite sure why. I asked if the founders were Russian, and they told me no. It was Easter weekend, so there where tons of people around, and lots of chocolate eggs :) I also went to a chocolate museum located in the factory of Fenoglio, a well-known chocolate company. It was interesting, they traced the evolution of chocolate and its use from the Mayans to present day with pictures, timelines, artifacts, etc. I learned a lot about the differences between types of chocolates. I also got to drink some delicious hot chocolate there.

Mamuschka - delicious!

the good stuff

poor St B :(

Central Plaza

chocolate museum

early morning view from the hostel

I went on a short hike up one of the mountains (Cerro Campanaria) in the surrounding countryside, where I saw amazingggg views of the mountains and lake. Each step I took, I kept thinking “This is the best view”. The blueness of the water is what is most incredible. It’s one of those things that looks amazing in the pictures, but still the pictures don’t capture the beauty that one sees with their own eyes. I went up to another mountain, Cerro Otto, on an enclosed chair lift thing, which was fun. At the top of Cerro Otto is a cafe that has a slowly rotating floor - so people eating can get a full 360 degree view. The cafe is ridiculously expensive, so I just took a peek to see the floor slowwwwwllly moving. The views from Cerro Otto were absoutely incredible. I can’t even describe it! It was unreal. See a taste in these pictures:

Cerro Campanario

my transport up to Cerro Otto

cafe at Cerro Otto with rotating floor

great views Cerro Otto

Soap on a Stick

2010-04-18T16:23:00.002-03:00

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires awhile back, and I saw this in the bathroom. I've seen it in quite a few bathrooms here in Argentina, and I think it is so funny, and a good idea to not lose your soap, Obviously liquid soap is probably more sanitary, but this is a good alternative, and probably cheaper.

Museos

2010-04-17T15:03:00.008-03:00

Being the nerd that I am - always interested in learning something new, going to museums is one of my favorite activities, especially when I am traveling.

Two interesting museums that I have been to recently have been Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sciences Museum) of the University of La Plata, and Museo de Evita (Evita Museum) in Buenos AIres.

butterflies! >

It was not my first time going to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales here in the city, but I was still amazed by it. It is one of the best science museums in Argentina, and recognized around the world. The collections are pretty amazing; reconstructed dinosaurs, amazing skeletons, reconstructed prehistoric animals like dinosaurs, scary turtlelike things, basically any animal you can think of (octupuses, birds, mammals, snakes etc) are stuffed and preserved in the museum. I particularly like the insect taxidermy, and the beautiful butterflies on display.

I particularly like the second floor of the museum that displays information on the human and cultural development, with information, crafts, and of the indigenous cultures of Argentina and the region of Latin America, there is even cool exhibitions on things such as the different eye and hair colors that exist, and how human develop as social beings.

The Museo de Evita is not related to Science in any way, but interesting in terms of displaying the life of an important Argentine figure. Eva Perón is a person often associated with Argentina, especially after the movie with Madonna came out (which most Argentines dislike, may I add). She is a controversial and often misunderstood figure, and people usually think she’s eithere great or terrible, or somewhere in between.

Just a brief bio of Evita for those who are unfamiliar - Eva was born in rural Argentina, went to Buenos Aires at a young age to pursue a career as an actress, met Colonel Juan Perón, married him, and then he became President. For six years, the Perons became a powerful leading couple, inspiring the masses. Eva in particular, became involved with Pro-Peronist trade Unions - promoting labor rights, ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, worked for women’s suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the Eva Perón Foundation which provided scholarships, built homes, schools, hospitals and orphanages in underprivileged areas. She was even nominated to be an Argentine vice president, but grew ill, and actually died of cancer at the very young age of 33. That’s Eva in a nutshell, sort of.

People who love Evita (and there are many) see her as a champion of women and ofthe poor, a spiritual leader, a passionate speaker, a fearless organizer, and a sort of mystical mother of the Argentine people. She was one of the first Argentine leaders who really devoted themselves to social welfare. Since I have been here, I have seen her face countless times, plastered across walls and murales, on political banners, on the walls of some of the community organizations we work with. She has become a well-known icon in popular culture.

People who dislike Evita think all or some of the following: she slept her way to the top, her and Peron robbed money in some way, she was too extravagant in her personal life, the Perons were fascist dictators (not sure about this -- but they didn’t exactly accept opposition, etc. One of the main criticisms that many people have is that the current problem of clientilism - people being dependent on social welfare and offered bribes in return for votes began with the Perons. Also the resort to piquetes (strikes/pickets) that block streets to make social demands (usually demands for more social plans) started with the Perons. I can’t even count how many of these piquetes I have seen in my year here.

I wouldn’t say I am an Evita supporter, but I thought the museum was fascinating. Of all her talk of being side by side with the poor, her and the descamisados (the shirtless - a word she often used), she had an awfully large number of beautiful gowns, jewelry, and lovely homes (the museum is housed in one of these). The museum contained pictures of her from youth to death, pictures, videos of her speaking, books on her life, newspaper clippings, and a guided tour in signs that described her political work and personal life. One of the presidential cars was also housed there.

The museums gave me some interesting insight into the natural and the political world in Argentina.

Not sure if I have included this link in past posts but here goes: http://fsdargentina.wordpress.com/ This is FSD Argentina’s blog, partially designed by yours truly :) Here you can get a glimpse of some of our projects and activities with the interns.

Never Again

2010-03-25T21:27:00.005-03:00

Yesterday marked 34 years since the beginning of a very sad time in Argentine history. In 1976, there was a military coup against Maria Peron’s presidency (1976)...which started a brutal dictatorship that lasted for more than 6 years. This is sometimes referred to as the “Dirty War”. The junta referred to itself as "Proceso de Reorganización Nacional" or "The National Reorganization Process". As a result of state-sponsored violence, thousands of people were tortured, dissapeared, and/or killed. Although the military junta claimed that their objective was eradicate guerilla activity, their repression struck mostly the general population, basically all political opposition, trade unionists, students, and other civilians.

They kidnapped, used torture as an interrogation tactic, put people in imprisonment camps and clandestine detention centers, killed with death squads, and pushed many of the "disappeared" out of planes and into the Río de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean to drown - referred to as “vuelos de la muerte”.

Children were also affected. Many pregnant women were imprisoned, and their newborns taken from them -- because the policy was “...Subversive parents will raise subversive children”. Horrific. This resulted in a large number of young people hijos de desaparecidos, raised my military leaders, or given away to be adopted, who have come out seeking their true identity and family roots. This is still occurring, a new hijo, with the help of Madres and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. discovered who his family was just a few months ago. In the Oscar winning Argentina film "La Historia Official” “The Official Story”, a mother discovers that her adopted daughter is one of the desaparecido, and displays the incredible difficulty of such situations.

The Madres and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo a founded in 1977, has been demanding the return of these kidnapped children, 77 of the (500 estimated) kidnapped children have been located. The Madres and Abuelas marched every Thursday, around Plaza de Mayo with white headscarves (symbolizing peace). Their marches were able to get a lot of international media attention - making it difficult for the Junta to touch them -- mothers and grandmothers walking peacefully in a public park. They are still the foremost human rights group in Argentina.

La Plata, a student city was the site of much repression. One such incident was the Night of the Pencils, when young high school art students considered to be subversives were kidnapped, forceably dissapered, and then tortured and murdered The students were merely involved in advocating for lower studen bus fares. There was a film made of what occured, and it is very shocking. You can see buildings and other landmarks that I see on a daily basis.

Not only did the junta engage in this state-sponsored violence, but in other activities that have had severe repercussions that are still felt today. In 1982, the Argentine military invaded the British-controlled Falkland Islands (Argentine Islas Malvinas) to rally the population behind a war and gain support. They lost miserably, and thousands of poorly prepared young men perished in the war. The Malvinas are still a touch issue between Argentina and the U.K. The junta literally destroyed the Argentine economy with its liberalization, privatization, freezing of salaries, and intensive borrowing ($30 billion) - resulting in a external debt that increased exponentially. This all resulted in the impoverishment of the population, bankruptcy of thousands of companies, and a ravaged economy that is still yet to recover.

With the return of civilian rule, President Alfonsin established the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), which researched and recorded, case by case, the "disappearance" of about 9,000 persons. However, though it was made clear that many more could exist; most human rights organizations estimate that there were 30,000 victims. The report that came out of this commission entitled Nunca Más ... it is quite graphic, with gruesome details, making it difficult to read. It can be found in English online.

In 2006 an Argentine court referred to what occurred as “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”.

Have all those responsible been tried and put behind bars? No. This is pretty complicated issue -- and I don’t want to go into too much detail here. They began to try the military leaders and those involved in the 80s, but then in the late 80s President Menem pardoned them all. Videla himself was only on house arrest until a couple of years ago. A few years ago the doors were reopened for prosecutions, and there are still trials going on until this day. Just three years ago, Julio Lopez, a key witness from La Plata, who was going to testify against a second in command police officer- Etchecolatz, was disappeared, still to be found. This is very scary, indicating that the powers during the dictatorship are still lurking in present day Argentina.

Painting of Julio in the main plaza in the center of the city of La Plata.

Yesterday's holiday Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia, established as a holiday 8 years ago, is meant to commemorate the victims of the dictatorship, promote truth, and justice for all. I went to Buenos Aires to the famous Plaza de Mayo - the plaza where the mothers marched, and many important political manifestations have occured. It was interesting to see -- but it was also very politicized, as most things are here in Argentina. It was planned by the president (Cristina Kirchner) and along with speeches contained lots of political rallying, banners, signs, etc. It was like instead of it being a day of rememberance, it is a forum for groups to advance their own political agenda.

People in the Plaza

The issue of the “desaparecidos” is still controversial, despite all of the evidence. You hear some people who say that those disappeared must have done something, “Algo Habran Hecho” and that there was a civil war going on. This may or may not be the case for some of them, but the bottom line is that the violence was state-sponsored and absolutely not democratic in any way, and human rights were brutally violated. Say some people had disobeyed the law, well then try them under the law...not disappear/torture them. It is absolutely unforgivable.

And I think it is important to remember these terrible things, and look to the future so as to ensure that they will never happen again.

The Art of Living

2010-02-21T17:53:00.005-03:00

Two weeks ago, I did an intensive course with the Art of Living -- 6 days (3 hrs/day on weekdays, 7hrs/weekend days) of breathing, meditation, relaxation, and fun. The Art of Living is the largest volunteer based, humanitarian and educational Non-Governmental Organizations . It was founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or "Urshi" (in the photo - doesn't he look happy!) with the vision of creating a stress-free, violence-free society. They are in over 140 countries, and offer the courses for a fee and free to people in prisons and marginalized areas, engage in community service, and try to change people’s lives through the power of breath, love, and physical activity! It was accredited as a United Nations Non-Governmental organization in 1996, and is one of the UN's largest volunteer-based NGOs. It works in special consultative status with the UN's Economic and Social Council

Although a bit skeptical, my co-worker Maria and I decided to do the course together, not really knowing what to expect. Maria knew many people from all different walks of life who had done the course and only spoke good things of it. It was a long and intense week, but I am so glad that I did it, and I definitely think that it will help me live life to the max!

We were a group of 30 people, and we spent the week doing some yoga (soo many sun salutations, dancing, playing fun active group games, meditating, and breathing intensely. As it was a sort of a cleansing week, we were to drink tons of water and not to drink soda or alcohol, no caffeine, no meat, no sugar, no smoking. For me it wasn’t very difficult as I rarely drink soda/alcohol/caffeine/don’t eat meat...the sugar was the only thing .. but I found that I felt good at the end of the week, especially with all the water that I drank. And talking about personal issues, and certain themes - responsibility, giving 100% to all we do, focus, the fact that we are all joined together by love, getting our mind off of things we have no control of, acceptance of others, reducing the impact our actions (such as eating meat, etc) have on the environment and our fellow man.

I have always been interested in learning about Indian yoga, however never too interested in doing it myself, but I enjoyed it, and seriously think I might keep it up. The meditation was pretty powerful...but the most powerful thing was definitely the breathing. We barely think about this -- but we can go for quite some time without drinking and eating, but breathing is so essential -- it is one of the tools that we have to control our minds -- when we are happy we have slow breaths, agitated/crying - quick. We did one mantra sudarshan kriya -- which was very long...my hands seriously were vibrating and I felt like I was in another place - I lost feeling of my body, the time, where I was -- I seemed to realize what was inside of me -- cried for things that bothered me, laughed (no clue why), remembered my childhood and family, and smiled about the possibilities of the future. I couldn’t believed that happened! We were taught a shorter version to do at home - focused on energy intake, and and an even shorter version of the breathing to use when we want to focus.

I learned some pretty important things that I knew before, but the mind gets in the way of truly accepting them. One thing -- life is so short and so volatile- so we have to do things 100% because no one else can live our dreams for us, and Also -- when our mind tells us no, when thoughts enter that get us down -- ignore them! We spend more time thinking than doing in life -- and these thoughts don’t get us anywhere. Breathing, meditation, exercise, and healthy eating can give us the pure and necessary energy to do these things. Also - we need to learn to accept others (mainly those that irritate us, etc_- doesn’t mean we have to be friends with them or have them in our lives - but recognize that they had a different life experience than we did, and perhaps not all of the same opportunities. We spend so much time thinking about the past and the future, that we fail to fully enjoy the present moments. And of course -- something that I already knew and try to live by -- the most challenging things in life/the ones which require us to take responsibility are the ones that we learn the most from and which result in the most personal growth. Don’t get me started on the impact that our actions as consumers/people have on our earth and other humans...

I swear the people that are involved with the foundation are pretty upbeat and happy, and it was definitely a space where the 30 of us grew together, and were able to share something special. Sometimes the people at the foundation could be a litttttle too obsessed with it, but I think one can take from it what will help them in their own life, and not need to get overly involved if they do not choose to.

Although I may not breathe, meditate everyyy day, I know I will definitely do it often, and try to keep the lessons learned in my head. The course definitely made me reassess my mind how I am living my life and remotivated me to take advantage of every moment that I breathe. It has seriously made me feel happier, get past things that have been bothering me, and it has made me incredibly thankful for all of the blessings I have in my life.

I actually went to their weekly meditation/surdashan kriya yesterday...and it made me feel great -- gave me energy and allowed me to clear my head and release.

About that time I went to Brasil...

2010-02-21T17:22:00.010-03:00

For quite some time I have been wanting to visit Brasil --- why? Because - it’s an incredibly diverse country in terms of its culture, with beautiful beaches & people, tasty food, and they speak Portuguese there! As I am relatively close now in South America, and have my friend Poly (who came to visit me a few months ago) living in Sao Paulo - I absolutely had to!

So a few weeks ago -- I flew to Sao Paulo to spend Thurs-Monday with Poly, and get a taste of Brasil! I could probably write half a book about my time there -- so here are some keywords with descriptions.

Rain - Unfortunately it rained almost every day -- but thankfully never downpoured. It’s a very unfortunate situation -- around New Years it rained a ton in Rio de Janeiro -- resulting in deaths and serious compromises to roads and such, and recently it was still raining in Sao Paulo - resulting in a lot of downed trees, and death and destruction. Terrible. Poly told me that Sao Paulo is a rainy city, especially in the summer. I joked with her that I could see myself living in Sao Paulo, but the rain definitely made me think twice.

Hills - Damn is it hilly in Sao Paulo! As La Plata and Buenos Aires are flat -- for some reason I didn’t even have a thought that a city could have hills. lol. I spent the weekend going up and down -- some were even kind of scary and you had to walk sideways -- once I walked down this super steep hill and then realized I was going the wrong way and had to walk all the way up. Who needs the stairmaster when you can walk around in Sao Paulo?

Huge -- Sao Paulo is HUGE. It’s the 7th largest metropolitan area in the world. Like in Latin America its definitely the hotspot for business. Poly’s lovely friend GI works in advertising on like the 36th floor, and she so kindly allowed us to head up to her office so that I could get a great view of the city. Up there I was able to see its vastness --- and the crazy amount of buildings. I also got to see many different neighborhoods and parts of the city. On drizzly Friday afternoon, I got to walk around the city’s large Park - Parque do Ibirapuera, which was nice, and made you feel like your weren’t in a huge city. Unfortunately the city was not as easy to get around in, as Buenos Aires and La Plata with their grid systems, so I ended up getting lost the times that I was alone - but never super lost. I got to walk down Avenida Paulista - one Sao Paulo’s business district, got to stay in Poly’s cute neighborhood of Vila Madalena with nice little shops and restaurants, and went to the Parque da Luz - which is a nice seemingly family oriented park near the Estacao da Luz -- but a sole women can’t go there by herself because...those that do are selling themselves. eek. Something I loved which they also have in Portugal, are the mosaic black and white sidewalks.

love the sidewalks! Supposedly each city has a distinct design

Cool bridge in Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo Skyline

Portuguese - I was pretty excited to travel to a country where they speak Portuguese. On Saturday, we got to go to a greattt museum called Museu da Lingua Portuguesa (Portuguese Language Museum) where there was a historical timeline of the evolution of the portuguese language. It focused on Brasil, but in the beginning traced simultaneously what was going on in Europe, Africa, and what is now South America. It also had a cool multimedia show and video. I loved the museum. Brasilian Portuguese is quite different from Portuguese from Portugal -- I think Brasilian Portuguese sounds sing-songy. I pretty much understood everything, but I had to pay close attention, and her friends spoke a bit fast ... so I didn’t get things at times, and just sort of stayed in my own world, lol. Also, many different words, and certain expressions that you don’t find in Portugal’s portuguese...as Brasilian Portuguese has so many influences -- African, indigenous etc. One example ananas - pineapple is abacaxi. R’s are pronounced as H’s and "te" endings are pronounced as “chi”. Some of the expressions made me giggle -- like homem camarao, nosssaaa, etc. Being in Brasil reaffirmed my commitment to improving my Portuguese -- I mean I understand it all and speak well, but there are many words I just don’t know (because my parents would sometimes say them in English -- boo!), and I would like to better my writing and reading abilities. One of my new life goals, among many others.

Timeline evolution of Portuguese Language

Shopping - Being a large business oriented city-- of course there was lots of shopping. I saw quite a few huge malls, and I walked down one shopping street Rua Oscar Freire that had a wide array of stores - including a huge Havainas store. For those of you that don’t know, Havainas are the incredibly comfortable rubber Brazilian flip flop. I still don’t understand how they can be so comfortable - but they are, and they are cute too. I wanted to buy a pair in every color, but I had to contain myself :). On Saturday we went to this little artisan market, that had really cute clothes and handicrafts, and I got a nice cloth wallet. At the beach on Sunday, I got a cute sarong-- or canga as they call them. Lots of cute nice things.

Havainas store

Food - Definitely delicious, definitely one of the highlights of my trip. I was quite impressed with the food, and probably would have an easier time eating there than I do here in Argentina. The night I arrived late - with rain and lots of airport traffic, we went to this hot dog stand where I got a vegetarian hotdog - with a mix of things -- mashed potatoes, cheese, peas, etc. For breakfast on Friday we went to this place with delicious fresh bread, kind of salty, and we ate it with cream cheese. Yummmm. For lunch that day I had a delicious salad with quinoa, and suco de acai -- acai is actually becoming very popular in the U.S. because it is rich in nutrients and antioxidants. Friday night - I was in heaven. I went with Poly and some of her friends to this place for unlimited sushi/sashimi...absolutely delicioussssss. You could order as much as you wanted -- I especially loved the grilled salmon I got and these yummy mushrooms. Don’t even get me started on the fresh fruit juices -- sucos -- watermelon was definitely one of my favorites. I ate some requeijão - a white sort of cream cheese. Saturday for lunch at the amazing city’s large indoor food market Mercadão- I ate this pastel de bacalhau -- codfish pastry, it was SOOO good filled with little pieces of bacalhau and olives, perfectly seasoned, with a yummy outer crust. Outside of the artisan fair we went to, Poly and I shared this delicious chocolate pudding type thing, and I tried on of her friend’s spicy bean soup --- soo good!! Saturday night during samba, we ate this delicious fried cheese. Sunday at the beach, we ate calamari sprinkled with lime juice (yummm), and had an amazing lunch of grilled fish, salad, rice, french fries, delicious potatoes, and beans. yumm For dinner on Sunday, we had these Middle Eastern pizza things - I forget the name, but they are like pizzas, but the crust is different. I also tried some caipirinhas. Ugh, I am getting so hungry just writing this. Take me back to that food!

pastel de bacalhau -- yummmm

Great indoor food market

Acai

Modern - Of course I know That Brasil is doing quite well write now economically nowadays, but I was surprised at the modernity of the city. Poly’s friend GI worked on the 36th floor of a really cool looking advertising agency - everything was orange with cool chairs, and bright lights, etc. The subway and buses were super nice, sidewalks were decently kept up, things seemed to work pretty well. Most people paid with their debit/credit cards, and they even had little wireless machines they brought to your table so that you could put your pin, and the receipt would come out. Seems like many people had personal checks, and change wasn’t that scarce. This was a change to me after living in Argentina, a place where there is little credit because of all the past financial issues, and very few people use credit/debit cards. There is little faith in banks, and change is ALWAYS an issue. Something else to note about Sao Paulo is that it is quite an expensive city -- one of the most expensive in the world, things really weren’t much cheaper than they are in the states. The exchange rate was about 1.70 Dollar = 1 Real.

Culture - They say that Sao Paulo is the capital of culture in Brasil, and in the short amount of time that I was there, I got to see that as true. On Friday, I went to the great AfroBrasil museum in Ibirapuera which I loved, had thousands of pieces that highlighted the importance of Blacks in creating national culture and identity. Also in Parque Ibirapuera they had a cool event going on about what we should be doing for a sustainable planet. On Saturday night, we got to go to a Samba Club and Poly’s friends were kind enough to teach me how to dance Samba -- wasn’t too hard! Samba is one of the most popular Brazilian cultural expressions, and it’s often seen as a symbol of Brasil and Carnaval. Saturday we went to the Pinacoteca, Brasil’s contemporary art museum. We were able to walk along this street with some pretty sweet graffitti, and I walked by Sao Paulo Fashion Week Something I saw that I loved were machines in the subway station that sold....books! From what Poly told me there are tons of cultural events, activities films playing, museums, all over the city.

Me dancing Samba!!

Poly and I at Pinacoteca

Estacao da Luz -- where the Museu da Lingua Portuguesa is located

Beach - We headed out early to the beach on Sunday, and luckily we had quite of few hours of sun. We went to Guaruja, on Sao Paulo’s shore to a nice beach called Praia do Tombo. It was beautiful, the sand and water were nicee. The landscapes on the drive was beautiful - with green hills. And from what Poly’s friends told me, there’s plenty of nicer beaches, but I really enjoyed it. We chilled out on the beach for part of the day, and then ate for the rest :) I also got to drink coconut water out of the coconut!

I found Brazilians to be really friendly; they have a great sense of humor and seem to be full of life. It was great to see how Poly is doing - where she works and lives, who her friends are, what she likes to do and she seems to be having a great time! I am grateful that she invited me into her life and city for a weekend! :)

Some very friendly "locals" haha. Poly and her friends who showed me a great time!

Next time I visit Brasil (and I plan on it) -- I definitely want to go to Rio de Janeiro, and maybe even the north.

Back in the Andes

2010-01-30T23:53:00.006-03:00

When I first arrived in Argentina -- I skimmed through my Lonely Planet Argentina Guidebook -- and wrote a list of the places that I wanted to see before leaving. Thankfully, so far I have been pretty on schedule and have seen many of the places. The city of Mendoza was definitely on the top of my list, and I was able to spend a few days there a couple of weeks ago!

Mendoza is famous for many things -- it's in the Andes, it produces 70% of Argentina’s delicious wines, olive oil, olives, is a cosmopolitan city, closeby is the higest peak in South American - Aconcagua, and with its climate it's beautiful all year round. It definitely lived up to my expectations and I can honestly say its one of my favorite Argentine cities!

I took the 14 hr bus ride and trip with one of our lovely September group interns who stayed in Argentina for a bit after he program ended. The bus rides were actually some of the best I’ve had -- I slept all the way through thanks to the “cama” seats which recline backwards. We even played bingo onboard!

BINGO!

The first day in Mendoza -- it was a hot one with some afternoon showers -- we ended up walking A TON - exploring the city, its shops, had some pizza for lunch (I have to try the pizza in like every Argentine city :), and also ate some ice cream in a cool cone. We checked out the modern art museum, some of the cities main plazas, and then walked through the cities hugee park = Parque General San Martin which has pretty impressive gates originally designed for some Turkish Sultan - random.

Something I learn more and more as I travel - I underestimate distances on maps -- and when one doesn’t exactly know where they are going -- you end up walking A LOT!

funny ice cream

Anyway that is what happened in the park as we wanted to get to the Cerro de La Gloria -- the highest point in the park with a cool monument to San Martin and his Ejercito de los Andes - for liberating Chile, Peru, and Argentina and a great view of the city and the mountains. After getting muddy, wondering where we were, and sweating a ton -- we arrived to the Cerro -- and the view really was amazing. It felt great to be back in the mountains -- that is one of the things I miss the most about Peru.

monumento to san martin

overlooking the city of Mendoza

lovely mountains

That night -- hoping to get a good meal - we went to a restaurant near our hostel - and were bitterly disapointed. I got a Strawberry Daiquiri which I swear was pure Rum with red food coloring - even after I told that guy it was too strong and he took it and “improved it”, ordered a vegetarian burrito that surprisingly contained beef, and had chips with guacamole that were basically tortillas fried in gallons of oil and guacamole that surely lacked lime juice and cilantro. Oh well - thats what you get for wanting good Mexican here!

The second day was a big change from the first in that we did absolutely nothing, and it was amazing. We got picked up to go to Cacheuta -- where you could find open air thermal baths -- supposedly one of the best in the country. We had been dying to go and they were out of tickets for the regular bus -- so we just went for the tour option which was a bit more expensive -- but oh well. It was really amazing there -- right by the mountains with baths of different temperatures, a cold water walk around pool thing, and even an area that was like a beach with cold water. There were TONS of people though -- of all ages -- lots of smoke from parrillas. Ali and I were amused by how many children were there -- and talked about how in the U.S. it would probably be prohibited to bring kids, and there would be signs everywhere “No Diving, No Splashing, No Food/Drinks” - of course there was none of this, with kids and people splashing and making out all over the place. Such is a society not obsessed with rules.

a view of the cold pool

lots of people

We had a nice day people watching, chilling in the warm baths, and sticking our feet in the cold one, and we had a nice picnic of olives and toasted bread, and fruit. Also due to lack of a real summer for a year, laziness, and common sense -- I put sunscreen on my back by myself --and ended up with a sunburn that looked like a Picasso painting -- which included my fingers in the areas where I did get the sunscreen on. That evening we had dinner, and ate some of the most delicious ice cream I’ve had yet strawberry and kiwi -- it tasted so refreshingly good :)

The last day we decided to tackle what is best about Mendoza -- and rented bikes to explore Maipu - the small town outside of Mendoza packed with wineries, and olive oil farms (my dream considering my love of olive oil and olives). Our first stop was the Wine Museum -- which showed the different types of grapes grown in Mendoza (such as Malbec which Argentina is famous for), what happens each season in terms of wine production, had lots of old wine making tools, and HUGE barrels! Then we went to this little house that grows olives and makes olive oil, as well as different olive pastes, jams, dulce de leches, liquors, chocolates etc. We saw the machine they used to make the olive oil -- and then were able to taste all the goodies -- the olive oil was INCREDIBLE. I ended up buying some that was made from olives that are only grown in Argentina :). The vinaigrette, olive paste, and dulce de leche (especially the one with coconut!) were delicious.

museo del vino

DELICIOUS!!

We continued on bike -- and saw some amazing views of the snow capped mountains, vineyards, olive trees -- definitely one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seeen.

look closely - there's snowcapped mountains in the background

Then the heat really got to us -- it was about 97 degrees and we did like a 10 mile total bike ride!! There are tons of wineries, but they charge you quite a bit to do tours - so we decided to just do the best ones. The town has a nice path just for bikes -- but then its on a narrow road, which was a little scary as huge trucks were racing by. We finally arrived at one of the best wineries -- a small family owned place Bodega Familia di Tomasso that has a very small production only sold there in the country - and exported to the U.S. They gave us a tour, and then we had a tasting session where the guide had us distinguish the taste and colors -- depending on the type of grape and the age of the wine. The one year aged Malbec was delicious. We had a nice lunch there of a good tuna salad and much needed lemonade -- and then headed up to an olive factory Laur. The place was cool -- but it seemed like a huge production center -- not too interesting.

olive trees

me tasting some malbec

delicious lemonade and olive oil

olive oil machine

We were exhausted and so hot by this point, and ended up missing the winery we wanted to go and were too tired to go back-- and then the other that we went to was closing soon and wasn’t letting anyone else in. So we didn’t get to go to another winery -- but we got the gist that it would all be pretty similar -- and I got to stop to take some nice grape pictures. We then headed back to the city, bought some food, then waited awhile in the bus station because the bus broke down -- and we left an hour later than scheduled to get back to Buenos Aires.

uvas

I absolutely loved Mendoza!

Two PC Alums - reunited in South America

2010-01-30T17:20:00.006-03:00

In mid November, my friend Polyana, who has been living in Sao Paulo, Brasil for almost two years now -- came to visit me in Argentina! We had studied together at PC and she was my peer mentor -- I hadn’t seen her in two years...and it was great to be reunited!

We spent most of our time in Buenos Aires, and some of the time showing her around La Plata. Thankfully, one of the September group interns stayed in Buenos Aires after the end of her internship to play polo and was renting an AMAZING apartment in Las Cañitas where she so graciously allowed us to stay.

the apartment

Although I have explored much of Buenos Aires -- this gave me the opportunity to see a different part of a city -- the uppity neighborhoods of Palermo - and Las Cañitas.

nice apartments in Palermo

We did A LOT that weekend --- some of it intended, some of it unitended (a.k.a. getting lost -- but not TOO lost). We did a lot of things that I had done before in Buenos Aires -- visited the presidential house Casa Rosada, the obelisk, the Cemetery and artisan fair in Recoleta, the artisan fair in San Telmo on Sunday morning -- where we wanted to buy almost everything, visited the multi-colored conventillos in La Boca, the cool metal flower the opens and closes with the sun. At dusk on Sunday, we walked along the boardwalk in Puerto Madero -- where I took what I consider to be a calendar worthy photo :).

Bridge in Puerto Madero which is said to resemble a pair of tango dancers (or something like that)

And...of course much of our days revolved around food. I had Poly try the yummy pizza at Pizzeria Guerrin with faina (chick pea type pizza) and Soda -- Seltzer water out of a plastic bottle thing, and I had her eat some Argentine steak at a nice parrilla while we sipped on some expensive Malbec and I had some delicious trout. We also tasted the deliciousness that is Argentine ice cream, and ate some yummy pasta at a place called Broccollino - they have tons of different pastas and sauces to choose from. One night we at dinner at this deliciousssss and pretty cost friendly restaurants Las Cholitas where I had a hugee plate of quesadillas with tasty guacamole, fries, and salad.

We also did some things that I had not done yet -- a true Buenos Aires night out with a 6AM return time at some clubs in Palermo Hollywood - one which included some cool silver confetti. Poly was able to observe that Argentines don’t dance very much (compared to Brazilians) and like to jump up and down with music. On Sunday, we went to a nice lunch and tango show at an old school cafe/restaurant called La Esquina de Homero Manzi -- it was good and cheap! We went to the Jardin Japones -- a cool Japanese themed garden in Palermo . We also saw some dog walkers in Palermo -- which I am against-- because they walk so many doggies at the same time -- and I feel that it kind of defeats the purpose of providing dogs with a nice activity. After the garden we walked the wronggg way, but then got to see Bs As’ Chinatown and some foreign embassies so it wasn’t too bad.

grr dog walker

Japanese garden >

In La Plata she visited the very interesting Museo de Ciencias Naturales, and we had a delicious dinner of pasta with pesto sauce (I’m obsessed) at Anne’s house. We did some (more) shopping, and finished off her time with a visited to the Cathedral and a lunch of panqueques -- crepe like things that you can have with veggies, meats, or sweet things. Then we ran around so she could buy some things to take back to Brazil - alfajores, facturas (pastries), and wine. Then we discovered that we both had misunderstood that her return flight time had also changed - and she missed her flight :(.

pasta with yummy pesto >

But - she got home safe -- and then I visited about two months later -- which you will hear more about!

Popurrí

2010-01-30T10:47:00.005-03:00

It's a shame – but I haven't been very loyal to this blog...but I have my reasons! I have been pretty busy lately doing things dealing with things. But I promise, from now on...until my departure from Argentina I will update on a regular basis.

Here when they are talking about a mix – they say “popurrí” (yes also the word for the mix of dried flowers). So just to give you all a little recap of some of the things I've been doing … here's a popurrí of 10 things I've been up to!

1. Studying for the GRE
– the dreaded three letters that I detest. This and number 2 took up a significant amount of my time. The Graduate Record Examination – or “An excuse to make people miserable and extort money out of those seeking to continue their education”. I had taken the GRE a few years ago but didn’t do too hot on it. I spent awhile doing an online math review course, and studying vocab ...thankfully I did better on the Verbal section which is what I needed to do -- although I still didn’t do GREAT. I’m just not a standardized test person.  

2. Applying to grad school!
I am proud to say that I have applied to 6 grad schools – American University and George Washington University in D.C. - Masters in International Development , Syracuse University – Dual Masters in International Relations and Public Administration, Tufts University – Masters in Law and Diplomacy – in Boston, Clark University – Masters in Law and Diplomacy – Worcester MA, and The New School in NYC – Masters in International Affairs. I am pushing for the first three. Applying to schools is quite the pain in the a, all the schools with different applications, statement of purpose questions, requiring different materials – some submitted online, some via mail, etc, etc. Applying abroad makes it a bit more difficult – but I got it all done ahead of the deadline. Now I just have to wait and see who gives me more money – assess the pros and cons of the programs...it is definitely expensive and funding is scarce, but I feel pretty confident about my academic standing and my qualifications ...so we will see! My heart is pulling me towards Washington D.C. though...

3. Working with FSD!
In September we recieved another group of interns who have since gone. We had some interesting projects going on - our intern working with a human rights organization got an article published on the online news portal - WorldPress - see here http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3444.cfm. And another - who I was coordinating was an experienced ProCorps volunteer and marketing expert who did some great marketing research with an artisan group hoping to maximize their sales and get them to think more of their consumers wants and needs. WIth her organization she held a marketing seminar to present the research and educate the artisans. Another intern working with an environmental organization, on strategies to influence the environmental attitudes and behaviors through social marketing within the media.

Intern at Marketing Seminar

Other than supporting the interns - I worked on developing our new bilingual blog! see here: http://fsdargentina.wordpress.com/
updating organization descriptions for our website, organization of files, meeting with potential partner organizations, reviewing new applications, translations, etc. I was also able to attend a very interesting microfinance conference in Buenos Aires -- discussing the challenges for the sector in the country, with speakers from many organizations working in microcredit/finance.

They also renovated our office over the holidays -- they replaced part of our ripped up wood floor with ceramic tiles, and also painted the walls.

Now we are getting ready to receive a new group!

4. I went home for the holidays!
FSD graciously gives us Site Teams two weeks of vacation – so I went to the U.S. during that time. Though I spent a lot of it finishing my grad school applications, I also watched some TV and movies, built a gingerbread house, stuck my foot in some snow, read 6 Glamour magazines <3, went to my sister's high school reunion, and saw some friends – including Jen who had lived here in La Plata. I was excited to eat eat some great food – shrimp, Mexican, bacalhau, salmon, Auntie Anne's pretzels, coffee ice cream, sleep in a comfy bed, and spend time with my new niece (my sister's puggle puppy!). It was great to see my family, regroup in a sense, and buy some food and things to bring back – (like two jars of peanut butter, cheddar cheese, and mexican tortillas).

two puppies!

5. Continuing to experience what Argentina has to offer!
With and apart from work - I’ve been watching movies, doing some travel, exploring Buenos Aires, La Plata - and other Argentine cities! El Secreto de Sus Ojos -- is an amazing Argentine film that came out of a few months ago..and it is now up for an Oscar! I also watched an interesting documentary on the negative role of mining in Northern Argentina by Pino Solanas - kind of an Argentine version of Michael Moore - but less controversial. With our group of interns, we headed to Tigre on the Delta of the Parana River - and stayed in a wonderful cabana called El Gato Negro “The Black Cat”. Other than our reflection activities for them - we did like absolutely nothing and it was so nice and relaxing!

loved the cabana!

the river

I explored a bit more of Buenos Aires when my friend Poly visited (I’ll elaborate more in another entry), visited the beautiful city of Mendoza, and tried new restaurants and foods here in La Plata -- like this amazing fresh pasta with pesto sauce, lots of tasty ice cream - my fav flavors together are strawberry and dulce de leche with chocolate chips. I also got to go to the “country club” of the Estudiantes soccer team and went in their amazingly refreshing pool on a stifling day.

My roomate had a birthday close to Halloween - so we had a joint Birthday/Halloween party in our apartment! It was fun to see everyone’s costumes and give Argentines a taste of one of my favorite American holidays!
My roomate and I - the gypsy and the butterfly

6. Working on my fitness.
I’ve been going pretty regularly to the gym lately. I need to write a full blog entry on my gym because its that interesting -- lets just say I’ve seen a dog and children in there. I also started spinning classes which I love! It is a pretty tough workout - but burns lots of calories and is low impact. My profe (teacher) was nice, and thankfully helped me not die when I almost passed out a few times - seriously you cannot go if you are a bit hungry, or not feeling 100%! I also ran a 4k here in La Plata with a friend! 4K really isn’t much...but I had a bad cold and it was my first race! I would like to run some more races, and felt I could have run the 8k had I not had a bad cold and trained more.

7. I've been learning what I'm made of!
I have nothing to complain of about my life by any means...but these past few months (and even the past year have been pretty intense and challenging for me). Starting off 2009 unemployed and not used to getting rejected by things, I made the big decision to move to Argentina on my own to live and work. Being here on my own, learning how to live alone in another country, working in Spanish, having to take of our kiddies (the interns), and being away has been difficult at times. The past few months have been especially trying – studying for the GREs – eek! math and studying English vocab while speaking Spanish daily, applying to grad schools in the U.S. while abroad (thanks to my sister for countless envelopes she had to send in the mail), and not having the people closest that have known me the longest around. Some insomnia issues have made things difficult - although I am sleeping nicely now! Also – a person that was a big part of my life is no longer in it – my own decision but still incredibly difficult and requires much healing– and its always unfortunate when it involves hurting someone that you care deeply about that also cares about you. Alas – I am sure it was the right decision for me and hopefully things will work out in the end for all parties involved.  

Still, I am incredibly thankful for all these challenging experiences – because I've learned from all of them – and each difficult decision and experience brings you closer to who you want to be and where you should be in life. I've learned what I am capable of, and how to deal with difficult situations on my own, and what I would like to improve on personally :).

8. Sweating.
Yup - its a Southern Hemisphere summer! After the chill and snow during my time in the states for the Holidays -- I came back to the heat of summer. It has been sooo hot. Like very humid you don’t feel like doing anything. Obviously I don’t have ac in my office or apartment, just fans which are fine -- what makes things worse is that I walk everywhere - so I shower in the morning and evening - but by the time I got to work in the morning it is as if I hadn’t showered at all! It is nice to have summer though, as I haven’t had it since being in Nicaragua over a year ago. January here - is the equivalent of July in the Northern Hemisphere -- so we still have the “August” heat...

9. Making Plans for 2010!
Since 2009 was a challenge and a bit too intense at times – I am looking forward to 2010 and making plans! I've always been interested in graphic design – so I signed up for a 6 week course that will begin next week. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm quite the nerd and love learning – so I am excited to learn some new skills and be back in a classroom again. I love being on the internet, computers, and working on blogs and print materials so it will be great! In March - new free workshops and classes are being offered at the cultural center here so I might take a Portuguese course, and maybe even salsa! As my time in Argentina is sort of winding down – I still have 4-5 months here, but still – I'm planning to and use my last week of vacation to explore the northern part of the country, and would also like to see part of the south, Patagonia. And of course -- I make imaginary plans of grad school and think of where I will be next fall!

10. I went to Brazil!
This warrants and entire blog entry which will come soon :)

La República Oriental del Uruguay

2010-01-28T00:01:00.006-03:00

Heyyy - Back from my longg blog hiatus...and making it a point to continue updating on a normal basis.
 So lets go back to say...October? lol.

As Argentina gives people three months to stay in the country as a tourist, and I had already gotten an extension - I took advantage of a long weekend to hop over the border to the little country of Uruguay to get my passport stamped again.

Uruguay is pretty close to Buenos Aires -- about 1hr on a fast ferry, and 3hrs on the slower, so as the slower was cheaper I took the slower. The ferry is rather nice inside, with restaurants, a band, carpeting and it was a peaceful ride on the Rio de La Plata -- which they reminded us on the ferry several times that it is the widest river in the world (and quite dirty, may I add). I read the entire book The Brief and Wondorous Life of Oscar Wao on my ferry rides -- if you haven’t read it -- I highly recommend it.

My first stop was Colonia, a picturesque town by the river with cobblestone streets and cute historic houses -- a place perfect to explore for a couple of hours. It was founded by Portuguese - which I was sort of excited about -- and had a lot of Portuguese inspired painted ceramics - that blue sort of painting -- although they definitely didn’t compare to some of the stuff I’ve seen from Portugual. I was able to climb up to a lighthouse and see a view of the entire city, and check out an artisan fair.

“Street of Sighs” - lined with tile and stucco colonial houses - also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After Colonia, I took a 3 hour bus to Montevideo - the country’s capital. On the ride I saw lots of farms and cows, and more farms and cows - like Argentina, Uruguay is famous for its beef, leather, and gauchos. The taxis in Uruguay were pretty interesting - there is a window separating the driver from the passenger, and then you pay the driver by putting money through a little slot in the window. I had a bit of a hostel mixup - the site that I used to book the hostel doesn’t exactly check with the hostel before making your reservation...and of course they didn’t have any room because it was a holiday weekend -- so little ole me all by myself at like 11PM in the rain had to go to another hostel. This hostel only had a bed for that night - so in the morning I had to go to anotherrr hostel - which was a bit farther away - but in a nice residential neighborhood called Pocitos.

I spent Sunday and Monday exploring the city -- unfortunately there was some light rain involved. It was a pretty easy city to get around and for a capital city, it was quite small. I did a lot of walking and took some buses. I was able to take a tour of their nice theatre - Teatro Solis, go to some artisan fairs, and a an indoor artisan fair called - Mercado de Artesanos where on an impulse buy I got a nice leather notebook cover (I know random - and it was sort of expensive -- and I then I couldn’t find a notebook that fit in it) -- anyway... I really liked Montevideo because it seemed like a pretty quiet city, it was a good size, it was clean...and it was a city that also had a beach! I was able to walk along the beach on La Rambla - sort of like a boardwalk/promenade - and it was nice. I was able to visit Mercado del Puerto - Montevideo’s Old Port Market wrought-iron building. It was filled with parrillas with lots of sizzilin meat, restaurants, families enjoying some quality Sunday time together, and craft shops. I also saw the some monuments honoring the country’s independence hero - Artigas, a talll cone shaped building, and a stone gateway that remains from the city’s colonial citadel.

Stone Gateway - can also see the monument to Artigas in Plaza Independencia and the tall building - the tallest in Latin America at the time it was built in 1927

Mercado del Puerto

Teatro Solis

Rambla

Two things --
1. Uruguays are BEYOND OBSESSED with drinking mate. People were walking around drinking it on the street, anywhere and everywhere - with their leather mate bags that hold the yerba (the actual tea), termo (thermos), bombilla (straw), and the mate (the gourd you drink mate out of). I found it quite amusing that on the buses they had these little signs that say it is prohibited to drink mate on the bus because the water can burn the drinker or someone else, and the bombilla - straw can cause injury to the mouth with the buses movement.

Funny Sign

Some youth with all their mate equipment -- i know a bit stalkerish of a photo -- but i needed further evidence of their obsession!

2.They like their meat - a lot. And leather. Everywhere you can find leather goods, and parillas (steakhouses). There is a dish called a chivito which is quite interesting and likely to cause artery blockage if eaten too frequently. It is steak, 2 or 3 slices of bacon, an egg, ham, mozzarella cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, fried potatoes and/or potatoes with carrots and green beans salad, mayonaisse, and salt. pheww.

About 20 Uruguyan pesos are 1 U.S. Dollar - so you just can imagine how the prices of things looked. Also compared to Argentina -- it was quite expensive.

Although it is a small country that isn't in the news much, it was veryy nice and had lots of sights to see, activities to enjoy, and food to taste.

Nourishment

2009-10-08T10:51:00.006-03:00

My last few blog entries have been about trips, and work and such...but now Im going to try to get back to writing posts about specfic topics related to what's going on in Argentina/what life is like here.

So lets talk about something that we all love - Food! What the heck do I eat in this meat/sweet crazed country! Where do I buy it?? What's it like?

Well the way i feed myself is quite different from the way I do in the states. There are many options for buying food here in La Plata

1. The traditional supermarket - Carrefour (French supermarket chain), Disco (Argentine chain they have a lot of imported foods - such as Starburst, nutella, tortilla chips - yum), and Coto (Argentine chain). I normally don't go to these "supers" very much, because they can bit a bit more expensive than other places, and you often have to deal with longggggggggg lines especially in the evening. I do go to get some tortilla chips sometimes when I am in the mood for guacamole.

Disco

Coto

2. almacenes/despensas - which are kind of like small supermarkets. Some of these are the "chinos" - strange that they call them that- but they are owned by Chinese people - and they themselves call them chinos. I often go to one because there is one around the corner of my house, and it is great to see people from different places, as its not as hetergeneous here as it is in the states.

"Chino"

3. Dieteticas! I love going to dieteticas - basically they are healthfood stores that sell grains, nuts, beans, dried fruits and veggies, healthy cookies/crackers, spices, usually in big bags or boxes - and you can get the exact amount you want measured out in a little baggie. I often go to them to get spices, and also do get ingredients to make granola - oatmeal, nuts, raisins. There is an Asian dietetica that I often go to to get veggie burgers.

4. Feria de frutas y verduras or what I call the veggie market. - I love to eat and cook veggies, and my friend Jen who lived in La Plata introduced me to this great market held on Thursday and Sunday mornings. They have many stands (well more like those large moving truck things) with fresh fruits and veggies - often times ingredients that are difficult to find elsewhere such as limes, and cilantro. There are also stands that sell pizza breads, cheeses, and one that sells eggs. The man at the egg stand is really friendly, and blind - he knows which eggs are which by their size and location. Many of the stands are manned by Bolivians who often run vegetable shops and stands here in Argentina - they get what you need, no self sevice. I go to the same stands each time, and the people already recognize me and know what I like to get.

Feria de Verduras/Frutas

5. Verdulerias - these are like fruit/vegetable shops which are everywhere - you go in, and again they usually get what you need - not really self service like we have a lot in the U.S. Most are owned by Bolivians, and many are open long hours everyday.

6. Kioscos - small convenience stores.

7. Meat markets

So what do I usually do? I try to go to the veggie market twice a week, go to dieteticas every once in awhile if I can't get to the market to buy my granola ingredients, go to the almacenes/chinos usually once a week to get crackers, yogurt, tuna, canned beans, water, butter, dried pasta, etc. I go to the supers sometimes to get tortilla chips, and if I'm having a craving for an American food - but try not to because its expensive. I also go to the verdulerias if I can't get to the veggie market, or have a craving for a specific fruit or veggie.

Although they do eat lotsssss of meat here - beef, ham, chicken, etc...it is possible to be vegetarian especially if you cook for yourself. However, it is difficult to go out to eat sometimes because the other options are basically pizza, pasta, panqueques (kind of like crepes but thicker that you can get cheese and veggies in) and veggie filled empanadas- which gets realllly tiring after awhile. However, there are lots of pasta options, and they are yum! There are also shops here where you can buy fresh pasta and sauces...yumm.

As food is generally not as processed here - although it is becoming more and more so...I've really been trying to eat as healthy and as little processed food as possible. In the mornings I usually eat yogurt with granola. For dinner I eat lots of veggies, sometimes pasta, with some protein - beans, veggie burger, eggs, cheese (blue cheese is the strongest cheese they have here :( ). Of course eat lots of mozarella and parmesan here - the mozarrella here is a lot different - its much softer and less white - which I think comes from it being less pasteurized. Although I do like to eat fish, fish here is realllly expensive, not that great, and hard to find. :/ anyway... Usually drink water - but sometimes I have to have my orange fanta (yum), once in awhile a Coke - or Coca Zero or Coca Light, and sometimes a glass or so of Malbec wine.
I actually make my own pasta sauce (yes, I make my own sauce!). Its really not that difficult, and it tastes a lot fresher. And...in between meals - crackers (but I need to check and make sure they don't contain animal fat as many of them do , wheat bread, fruits, etc. Although there is not as much of a variation of foods, as I have in the U.S. which is dissapointing at times ... I think I am actually living healthier here because I'm not eating much if any frozen/really preserved food, lots of veggies, usually cook myself, and no crazy portions, walking a lot (over an hour everyday), and going to the gym 4 times a week.

Anyway...maybe boring to hear about my eating/shopping habits - but hey, just in cause you were wondering... and its a big part of my life here :)

Vacaciones! Rosario y Cordoba

2009-09-22T20:13:00.007-03:00

After Misiones, we headed to Rosario, a city in the province of Santa Fe, and on the Parana River. It is a lovely city that supposedly started out growing like La Plata, but differs in that it took advantage of its river - along the river there is a boardwalk, restaurants, etc. We built Rosario into our trip because we wanted to stand in line on Wednesday to get tickets to the Argentina vs Brasil futbol game played in Rosario that Sunday.

When we arrived we explored the city a little bit. I thought it was a pretty city. We got to see the Monumento de La Bandera - quite an impressive site. Rosario is the birthplace of the Argentine flag - designed by Manuel Belgrano. Rosario is also the birthplace of Ernesto “Che” Guevara - and we got to see a mural dedicated to him, and the home he lived in after his birth. We ate lunch at a vegetarian buffet place (yes vegetarianism does exist in Argentina!) and then went to scope out the scene at the stadium so we could be prepared to stand in line early in the morning the following day. What we found were people that had been camping out since that Sunday, and there where tents and people completely surrounding the stadium, and then people already in line. I had mentioned to Domingos beforehand how difficult it is to get tickets - but we decided that it was worth a try - as we really wanted to go to the game, and it is an experience that one should have while in Argentina. hehe. I wanted to buy some sort of plastic chair/stool to sit on while waiting in line, so we searched quite a few stores and things but were pretty tired and couldn’t find anything so I ended up buying a small plastic child’s chair. hehe. We got to eat some more fish (I enjoyed and took advantage of it, because in La Plata/Buenos they don’t really have fish and when they do it’s pretty expensive.

Monumento a La Bandera

veggie restaurant

Che's birthhome in Rosario

The next day we arrived at the stadium at about 6AM and had no clue what we was in store for us. we felt pretty confident about our place in line because there were a lot of people who were getting in line behind us. It was a pretty chilly morning, and then it started raining a bit, and we were pretty unprepared for it (I ended up tying a plastic bag around my head), and Domingos and I kept switching off on the little child’s chair.

Luckily, we had brought quite a few snacks, so although we were tired, cold, and wet - we were not hungry :) Some woman came up to us at one point with a tape recorder (must of been from some paper) and asked us where we were from, if we thought we were gonna get tickets, etc. So we stood there for a while, a LONG while, and were barely advancing in a parking lot about a mile and a half from the stadium. People started saying all types of things - rumors circulating - there’s no more tickets, they are only selling 4,000, they are driving here with 10,000 more tickets from Buenos Aires, no one could get their facts straight despite family members and friends calling them. Vendors were selling things to hte people in line, flags, jerseys, rain ponchos (but only after the rain stopped, coffee, sandwiches, pastries choripanes (basically a sausage on a bun). At about hour 6 (yes HOUR 6!!!!!!!!!!) they told us that we had to step back a little bit. After that for about an hour we did not move at all. We were miserable. We started seeing people walking out of the line saying “Go - people its a waste of time, there are no more tickets” but I needed!! to hear that from the mouth of someone official. It was so annoying (but in typical Argentine style) that noooo one knew what the hell was going on, no one was giving us any information, and we were just waitinggg in line. So then all of a sudden we start moving really quick, and we were like maybe this is it! We still have a chance. People were getting all mashed up together, and we were getting closer - but there was a fence and two police officers on horseback that people were up against and then we could see that there was no more line behind them. So we finally heard from some official that there were no more tickets - that if we wanted to we could start waiting We left - feeling taking advantage of, angry, and abandoned our little blue chair on the side of the road. We were sad that we couldn’t see the game, and I was just frustrated at the inefficiency of the system, and the little concern for people’s times - yes I try to control my American obsession with timeliness and efficiency but sometimes I just can’t. We ate lunch at Subway (at that point I was so frustrated that I just wanted something familiar and American haha) and headed off to Cordoba.

waiting in line - my protection from the rain

people demanding answers

our little blue chair that we abandoned

Cordoba is an amazing city - perhaps my favorite in Argentina from what I’ve seen so far. Beautiful architecture, great food, lots of pedestrian walking streets, a rich cultural life, and a lovely landscape. We stayed in a very hippy hostel, like the most hippy I’ve ever stayed in complete with a big mural of Bob Marley and a marijuana leaf - and staff that probably hung out with guests more than they stayed at the front desk. Anyway, we ate some good food there - including good pasta, some Middle Eastern food (yummm hummus), and some really good pizza at an impeccably clean indoor food market. Cordoba is in the provincia of Cordoba - in the Central Sierras - basically foothills. We wanted to go paragliding but the winds weren’t cooperating. Cordoba is known for its beautiful Jesuit ruins and architecture and we were able to see it. They have a great museum that commemorates the people who were disappeared during the military dictatorship, but unfortunately it was closed for renovations :( There was an amazing book fair in Cordoba that we were lucky to see as well.

delicious pizza!

lovely cordoba

Close to the city of Cordoba lies a small town called Alta Gracia - which contains Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s adolescent home which was now made into a museum. We took a day trip there, and it was quite an amazing site. I couldn’t believe all of the artifacts and photos that they had - his old bed, childhood photos, his report cards, a map of the cities he had traveled to in Latin America, an exact replica of the motorcycle he used on his voyages through Latin America, military uniforms, letters he had written to Fidel Castro, photos with world leaders, Cuban currency with his name and signature, etc, etc. Of course they also had a room with recent photos from a trip that Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez (of course) made to the museum. It was really well done and I was glad I got to see it, as Che is someone that I admire (not all of his ideas and actions - but still). There was a nice little restaurant on the side owned by a Cuban woman, and we got to eat some good homemade Cuban food :)

map of Che's travels through latin america

had to take a pic of this

famous quote - patria o muerte....

chavez and castro's signature..hmm

cuban dish - yum

By that time we were absolutely exhausted from all our running around...and headed back to Buenos Aires. Once we got there, we napped heavily, and went to Cafe Tortoni - one of the oldest, and most well known cafes in the city - also full of tourists. Some people were even taking photos of the chandeliers. Anyway, I enjoyed some chocolate con churros. We then had dinner at El Federal - an old and classic bar in San Telmo, and went to watch the game (that we should have been at!!!) and sat next to a bunch of Brazilians and watched Argentina get creamed. I’m sure if they would have allowed us to go to the game they would have won. hehe Serves them right! People are going crazy with the fact that Argentina may not go to the world cup. I guess there’s no hand of God for Maradona.

That Sunday was Domingos’ last day, and we did a little shopping at the San Telmo market, and headed over to Palermo - a neighborhood with lots of leafy parks. He departed that evening, and so ended my vacation and time with special visitors from home :\ .

Vacaciones en Misiones!

2009-09-21T23:16:00.008-03:00

During Domingos’ second week here, I took the opportunity to take a much needed week of vacation and explore a bit more of this lovely country. Be it touristy, I really wanted to see Iguazu falls, and I had heard that the province of Misiones (bordered by Brasil and Paraguay) was beautiful. So we undertook a long overnight bus ride to the city of Posadas in the Misiones province.

This trip was great for many reasons, but something that I learned is that I can actually sleep on buses - if I take Tylenol PM and sit in a cama seat...hehe. I’ve never seen bus travel as I have here in Argentina - it is definitely much better than traveling by plane. If you get a cama seat - the seat leans back almost flat, they give you a pillow and a blanket, dinner, breakfast, coffee (one even offered us champagne!), and offer movies, music, etc. Its also great because you can travel through the night and don’t have to pay for a hostel/hotel.

mee sleeping!

a bus meal - we also got a pasta dish

We arrived in Posadas - and I was instantly in love with the red earth in Misiones - I guess it is rich in minerals. We headed to San Ignacio a small city, that contains one of the best preserved Jesuit missions in the area - San Ignacio Mini. The Jesuits founded this mission (and thirty others in the area of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil) to evangelize the indigenous Guarani. It was quite impressing to see the remnants of the workshops, homes, and religious and administrative structures. It was interesting to learn that there were only two Jesuit priests among all of the people at the mission, and that it although may be a bit disturbing what the Jesuits did - basically forcing the people into a religion - as the guide indicated, it was better than what was happening to most of the native peoples at the time - mass murder. At least they got to keep a sort of community intact, and learn trades and things. We got to go to a pretty cool interesting light show at night which tried to simulate the way life was at the time.

red earth in Misiones

The ruins

San Ignacio Mini

This guy killed me! He seriously took video the ENTIRE tour - must of had like 100 GB memory for that little camera.

Another attraction in San Ignacio (something I was really excited to see), was Horacio Quiroga’s house. Horacio Quiroga is a well-know Argentine author (well he was born in Uruguay but lived most of his life in Argentina - specifically the selva (jungle) of Misiones. I read quite a bit of his work in a Latin American literature class I took in college, and even did a final research paper on some of the themes in his writing and how they related to his life experiences. What stood out most for me when I was researching and reading - was how depressing a life he had.

Seriously - when he was only two months old his father accidentally shot himself while returning from a hunting expedition. His stepfather later committed suicide, and he, Horacio, discovered the body. Then, while attempting to explain to a friend how to operate a gun, he accidentally fired it, killing his friend. He married, but his wife became really depressed by the hard work and loneliness of their life on the frontier and committed suicide. In his later life, Quiroga was diagnosed with cancer and committed suicide by dosing himself with cyanide. Both his children from his first marriage also committed suicide later in their lives. POOR GUY!

Much of his writing is based in and upon the selva of Misiones and the area around his home - so I felt really lucky that I was able to see it.

Selva surrounding his home

Casa de Horacio

this is Horacio

We left San Ignacio and headed 5 hours to Puerto Iguazu to go see the falls - the Argentine side “Puerto Nacional de Iguazu”. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu - stayed in a Hostel called “Peter Pan” with nice orange and green decor - haha, and headed to the park for the afternoon. The falls were AMAZING - exceeded my expecations - like I looked at them and asked myself - is that really water? The forcefulness of the falls was just astounding. That first day we saw a part of the falls called La Boca del Diablo - amazing! I was happy because they have seafood in the area - so we got to eat some good river fish in Puerto Iguazu.

Boca del Diablo

Our second day in Iguazu we headed to the park early, and got to see the rest of the falls - so incredible! At some points, because of the mist there is a lovely rainbow. The falls were definitely one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see that many interesting animals - we did see a monkey and some birds clinging for their lives (poor things), and some caoties - racoonlike animals that supposedly bite. The water was low so we got to a go to a little island near the falls, and hiked up to see some spectacular views and saw some vicious vulture like creatures that looked like they could tear one’s limbs right off.

look at that rainbow!

me relishing in the fury of the falls!

increible!

When I travel sometimes I can be a bit structured - in that I want to see and do a lot - and have things just I JUST HAVE TO DO. lol - it can result in annoyance and exhaustion. But I’m working on it. I insisted that I wanted to do certain things while I was there - see all of the park - check, go to “Tres Fronteras” the point where you can see Argentina - Brasil - Paraguay, - check, and take some pictures of Brazilian and Paraguayan license plates - check. Mission accomplished :) I REALLY wanted to go to the Brazilian side of the falls while I was there - and maybe hope over to Paraguay but unfortunately a pre-arranged visa and $ and then just $ stood in my way. I did enjoy seeing Brasil, and I swear I will get there someday :) Standing on one country and seeing the other two at once was pretty crazy - and just made me think about borders. The land looked exactly the same - but because of a man made line - the realities of each place are very different. hmm. I liked being there - hearing Portuguese, being on the frontera, in the warmth of the selva and with the red red earth.

3 flags

Standing on Argentina - Brasil to my right, Paraguay to my left

Paraguayan license plate

Brazilian license plate

After quickly seeing the three borders - we raced to hop on a for an 18 hr bus ride to Rosario - which continued the adventure.

Special Visits

2009-09-21T21:42:00.006-03:00

Well, It’ s been a while since I’ve updated...but here I am again! About a month ago I was lucky to have some visitors - Lisa, Michael, and Domingos! Lisa and Michael arrived on the 17th of August - straight from their trip to the Dominican Republic. Poor things not only had to deal with winter here...but also me making them walk a ton and do all sorts of Argentine activities :)

Upon arrival I started showing them around La Plata, had lunch at one of my fav places - Carlitos, tried some Thionis ice cream, and chatted with them, and gave some insight about what its like to be in the “developing world”. I made them try mate (I was proud that they drank as much as they did for their first try!), eat some facturas and some dulce de leche, had them chat it up with my host mom, eat pizza, empanadas, and pasta, drink some good Malbec, and had them visit La Plata’s Cathedral and its Museo de Ciencias Naturales. The Natural Sciences Museum is a pretty big deal here in La Plata, in Argentina, and the worldd, being well known for its taxidermy. There’s a pretty sweet fully constructed dinosaur skeleton inside.

Hermanitas in front of the cathedral
Lisa with T-rex hehe

Michael enjoying some mate

Unfortunately they, like most of us Americans, aren’t used to walking a ton - and I realized how used to walking I’ve become as I would be like 20 steps ahead of them, and think a 20 block walk is “no big deal”. So after tiring them out here in La Plata, I need to go back to work, and so I shipped them off to San Antonio de Areco - to go to the Estancia I had been to twice, and do a little horseback riding and get to know some gauchos. After that...they flew off to Iguazu to see the wonderous falls, that I go to go see just a few weeks later. They ended their time here with a weekend in Buenos Aires - we went to have dinner and see a nice tango show at Boca Tango (the place I had gone to with the GESI and SLT groups). Then that Sunday - Domingos arrived! The four of us checked out the obelisco, and had some pizza and faina from Guerrin (like the best pizza in Buenos Aires! Faina is kind of like a secondary pizza you eat under pizza - it is made of chickpea flour and seasoned with pepper, sometimes dried onions, a bit of parmesan, etc. Thennn we took a trip over to the Recoleta cemetery where Domingos and I took some creepy and not so creepy photos..hehe. Then we hopped over to take a look at the giant metal flower in Recoleta - I’m not sure how many tons it weighs, but its many -- and it mechanically opens with the sunlight, and closes at sun down. Anyway, all arond the flower there were like hundredsss of cardboard cutouts of some woman (I guess it was some sort of artistic exhibit). We enjoyed a nice dinner of delicious pasta at Broccolino.

enjoying our tango dinner

quite strange - look at all the cutouts - photo courtesy of Domingos

Monday we took a walk down Caminito in the La Boca neighborhood. This neighborhood is named the mouth because it is the place where the river flows into Río de la Plata estuary. The river, Riachuelo, is now so contaminated from industrial waste that supposedly if you drink even a drop you will die because its poison - sort of funny, but really not. Anyway, La Boca used to be an immigrant neighborhood, and the immigrant workers lived in the colorful houses called Conventillos. The Conventillos are so colorful because they just painted them with paint that was left over from the shipyards. Then we had lunch along Puerto Madero - a pretty posh area of Buenos Aires with a boardwalk, expensive restaurants, clubs, casinos, and a view of what might be Buenos Aires’ Silicon Valley. In the afternoon, Lisa and Michael got ready to go, and returned back to the EE.UU :( It was great to see a piece of home here with me, and show my good ole’ sis how I’ve been living here - be it a little too rustic for her taste :) hehe

A funny pic we took on caminito

After Lisa’s departure, Domingos and I headed back to La Plata, and I had him explore the city a bit (cathedral, museum) and catch a glimpse of the kind of work that I’ve been doing in and out of the office. We did some food shopping (consisting of going around the corner and getting fresh fruits and veggies - yes!), cooked together, tried pizza and empanadas, mate, dulce de leche of course, and yummy vegetarian Asian food from a take-out placed called Bambuc. He also got to visit one of our host organizations, Estrategia de Caracol where the community was working on the greenhouse project they had begun with one of the GESI groups.

Domingos’ week here coincided with Anne’s last week with FSD :( so we threw her a surprise goodbye party. Somehow we were able to keep it a surprise until the last moment, and she really was surpriseddd. It was a nice evening with food, conversation, and I put together a nice little slideshow with some of the photos taken during her time with FSD. Luckily, she is going to be sticking around La Plata, so even though I will be missing her at work - I will still be able to see her.

Anne was very surprised!

Everyone at the party - thanks to Domingos for taking the picture!

After spending a few days in La Plata where Domingos got to experience a little Platense life, we headed out to go do some traveling for week of vacation!

And then there were...none

2009-08-16T16:55:00.003-03:00

It's hard to believe...but all of our interns have left. The summer sessions (winter here) sessions have ended.

The GESI group from Northwestern left yesterday and these past few weeks have been a whirlwind of organization visits, reading reports, meetings, and goodbyes (Jen departed - sad!).

The three groups ended up developing some really interesting projects despite a lot of challenges concerning it being winter here, and the fact that many things closed because of the swine flu issue.

One group was at Biosfera- a well known and respected environmental organization here in La Plata. They primarily worked with a comedor (community center/soup kitchen) - that Biosfera works with in a poor migrant community. Among many different things they did a multimedia project with interviews that gave a visual representation of how the community sees their environment. Another part of the project was to construct a greenhouse -- out of plastic bottles! It was pretty interesting because it not only will be used to grow veggies and things during the winter, but also a display of what can be done with recycled materials taken off the streets and out of peoples yards. The group also worked on finishing a solar water heater project. They ended up working very closely with the community.

Another group was at Siluva - a day center for adults with mental disabilities. Its a great place with lots of love where they do lots of great and interesting activities with the "chicos" that attend daily. The girls' project was to work on constructing a large garden - or huerta. The construction of the huerta had many goals..but its primary goal is to increase the capacity of the chicos by having them engage in a productive hands on activity. Another goal was for the huerta to be a sort of microenterprise -- they could sell the flowers and plants grown in the huerta...and those funds would be for the center which is underfunded/resourced.

The third group was at a comedor (community center) called Arco Iris, which also contains a women's sewing cooperative. This group faced a lot of challenges because the center was closed basically closed for an entire month (the GESI group did 7 weeks here). The group wasn't able to do a project with the children who go to the center - so they worked primarily with the sewing cooperative. Their project focused on reorganizing the co-op -- and they did a great job with the women in buying new shelves, educative materials, developing an inventory, etc. This will hopefully make things easier in the co-op and stimulate production :) They also worked on a history of the sewing cooperative which will be really useful for future interns.

This past Wednesday we did a final debriefing activity with the group -- we attended the same tango show that we went to with the SLT group. It was a lot of fun...two of the interns weren't able to go so I invited my roomate Iris who is back in La Plata. We are getting along really well in the apartment..she is a funny and upbeat girl and we have similar taste in music which is great. Here's a pic of us:

It was a nice closing activity with the group.

So I've been here for almost 4 months now, and I feel a lot more comfortable with it...and am seeing my time here not as some sort of extension away from my life -- but as part of it. In terms of work - I've learned a lot on how to deal with volunteers/interns, oversee project work, work with groups, coordinating logistics and gained a lot of insight into non-profit work. Personally, have learned quite a bit about what Im capable of, what I need to improve on, what really interests me and how much my abroad experiences have really impacted and shaped my life so far. I find that my Argentine accent is coming along nicely-- although many improvements can be made...now other latin accents sound strange to me.

A new group arrives in September..and our new FSD director here in Argentina started about a month ago -- shes really nice and I think we will get along great..I will miss Ana though. Anyway, my darling sister and my brother in law arrive tomorrow - and Domingos arrives next week! I will be going to Iguazu with him, and showing my sister and him a bit of what my life has been like these past months. Stay tuned for more on their visits...

Campeones!!

2009-08-02T11:50:00.005-03:00

I probably should have written about this all when it happened, but its better late then never, right?

The two big futbol teams in La Plata are Estudiantes and Gimnasia y Esgrima. Its usually pretty necessary that you choose one of the teams to be a fan of, so I chose Estudiantes. Reasons: 1. I like to study and be a student so I liked the name 2. I like the color red 3. They have won more 4. Most of my co-workers/people I had met were Estudiantes fans. Estudiantes was founded my university medical students and one of their nicknames is Los Pincharratas (The rat stabbers -- as they were medical students and rats are often used in labs). Other nicknames include Pincha - shortened version, El Leon (The Lion), Orgullo de La Ciudad (Pride of the City), etc.

Estudiantes Logo

Anyway, I had mentioned in a previous post that I had gone to an Estudiantes game when they plated against Uruguay in the Copa de Libertadores -- an annual international club football competition which is the most prestigious club competition in South American futbol. So Estudiantes ended up winning that game, went on to win the game in Uruguay, played against Brasil here in La Plata - tied...and then went to Brasil to play against a team for the final on July 19. So...they ended up winning the final and became champions of America!! It is a pretty BIG deal -- the last time Estudiantes won this cup was in the 70s,

Champions

The city went WILD - like fireworks, people out screaming in the plazas, beeping horns, people went to Brasil to see the game, people waited for the team outside the airport, and then welcomed home in Plaza Moreno - the center of the city. I think there was like 30, 000 people or something - despite government warnings about being in large groups because of the h1n1 virus (priorities, people!) People were painting benches and poles red and white. On TV fans were crying -- saying that being a pincha fan was a family tradition - their great-grandfather, grandfather, father, now their son, etc, etc.

People in Plaza Moreno -- no I didn't talk this picture got it offline - I watched it from the comfort of my home :)

Needless to say, I'm lucky to have been here for such an important event, and it was interesting to me to see how crazy people are for futbol!

Gaucho Land Take 2 - -

2009-08-02T11:49:00.004-03:00

And...I went back to San Antonio de Areco!

As we enjoyed San Antonio de Areco so much the first time, we decided to take the GESI group there for their retreat last weekend. As the SLT left, Jen is no longer working with us, so Ana, Fabian and I were able to go with the group.

We got to stay in the same hostel, and go to the lovely Estancia once again!

Unfortunately it was a bit colder this time, so we weren't able to eat lunch outside at the Estancia, nor do the folklore dancing outside. I once again got forced to ride a horse -- it was fine...but really, if I never get to ride a horse again before I die - I'm perfectly ok with that. Ana had a violent white horse that was seriously kicking another. Aside from the cold, it was a nice relaxing day -- full of eating. This time they made some vegetarian empanadas (as there were 5 of us) which was tasty, and didn't give us ham on the "vegetarian salad". Of course they had the strange horse show once again -- except this time it was colder so the "indio" didnt disrobe..but this time -- he had a sidekick! He was training a kid to do what he does! And all the Argentines thought it was precious -- I still thought it was weird..

Tasty empanada

Me trying to look happy .. hehe

The girls with their horses

Weird horse show

Me and Ana at the Estancia

This time we unfortunately didn't get to see as many gauchos as I would have liked to (hehe), aside from the few at the Estancia and a couple walking along the streets. After the Estancia on Saturday, Ana, Fabian and I explored the city a bit -- I wanted to buy some typical things including a gaucho hat or boina (but they were expensive!). We tried to find a place for dinner and decided on pizza -- we thought going to the pulperia that we went to last time with a group of 11 girls might be a little too much. San Antonio de Areco is also known for making artesanal chocolates -- yummmm -- so Ana, Fabian and I went to a chocolateria and had AMAZING hot chocolate and chocolates.

Fabbie with our goodies at the chocolateria

This time - things were open on the Sunday because it wasn't election day...so Ana, Fabs, and I went to the Museo Gaucheso -- which was really interesting because it had a lot of old texts from famous Argentine writers (ex. Martin Fierro, etc), old gaucho ponchos and pictures, maps of Argentina that still indicated Indian lands, brands that were used on animals back in the day, old mates... and some really interesting things related to Juan Manuel Rosas -- a pretty brutal Argentine leader during the 1860s. They had one of his beds, and a painting of him -- saying that the oppositon to him was disgusting and needed to die. Anyway.. reminded me of the texts I read in college with my Argentine Spanish professor.

The Museum - pretty!

Some asado I saw walking through the town

After the museum - we did some walking and headed over to lunch at a cerveceria...basically a bar/restaurant that offered homemade beers. We had a nice lunch of picadas (sort of like appetizers - cheese, meats, breads, olives, etc ), and bruschetta. They had some pretty funny signs in the place.

Basically says, "Protect our Water -- Drink Beer".

Funny

After lunch we went to another chocolateria -- yummm where I probably bought way too much chocolate. We finished the trip with a nice reflection session seated outside by the river... and headed back to La Plata. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing weekend with the group, and I especially enjoyed hanging out with my coworkers. I really like San Antonio de Areco -- and hope to go back in November for their "Dia de La Tradicion" - Day of Tradition--- where theres sure to be lots of gauchos doing gaucho things!

Tierra Santa -- Jerusalem in the middle of Buenos Aires?!?

2009-08-01T20:18:00.002-03:00

So through one of my many reads of my Argentina Lonely Planet Guidebook -- I read a little box entitled "Praying for Kitsch" talking about a theme park in Buenos Aires called Tierra Santa which proclaims itself to be "The World's First Religious Theme park" roughly based on Jerusalem and the start of the Christian era. I definitely wanted to go. Despite having grown up catholic, and going to a catholic college, I'm not so sure how I feel about things anymore...but I am always interested in seeing something new, unique, and odd.

Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to visit with Jen, and let me say...it definitely exceeded my expectations. Jen isn't religious, so she was going mostly to laugh..but she ended up enjoying it...and laughed quite a bit as well.

We literally engaged in a pilgrimage to get to the park because once we got in Buenos Aires we took the wrong bus the took us in the exact opposite direction..and even to a neighboring city! But that was all part of the adventure, and we did finally arrive to our destination (after a couple of hrs -- eek!)

The park is right in the heart of Buenos Aires- -- right next to the domestic airport. This made it even stranger, because supposedly you are in the holy land, but in the middle of Buenos Aires (could literally see the skyscrapers behind), with airplanes flying directly above you. I think it was pretty well done. Everyone that works there is in the dress of the era -- even the women cleaning the restrooms!! There were monks, roman guards, and woman dressed in robes and things. They had different shows -- including the creation, the resurrection, the last supper, and the birth of jesus. We also had the opportunity to see a show of danzas arabes -- or middle eastern dance which were actually really good.

I thought it would be a bit more tacky than it actually was, the figures and buildings looked very realistic...they had Jerusalem's wailing wall, the court were jesus was sentenced, and the stations of the cross. Not only did the park seem pretty right about the religious stuff, it also showed the importance of being open minded -- with statues of Martin Luther, Gandhi, a model of a mosque and of a synagogue.

Mosque

Wailing Wall

Although people were visibly moved by the park, it was clear people also thought it was a little funny, and a bit strange. Me and Jen tried to catch all the shows, we took pictures with people (both fake and real), laughed, looked at some of the "typical crafts of the era" and best of all got to try some middle eastern food at one of the many food places they had - (names including Betlem, Arco de Noe, etc) ! Argentines aren't exactly the most open to new foods, but luckily each place offered the usuals - pizza, pasta, empanadas, meat , etc. Jen and I were excited finally eat some ethnic food, eating hummus, tabouille, shawarma, and falafel, all served oddly, by a woman in a robe speaking spanish :).

Me and a Roman Guard who kept speaking to us in English although we kept speaking in Spanish

funny picture, they gave you reasons to laugh and have fun!

It was a fun afternoon/evening -- the park was really weird -- but I think well done...and I definitely have never seen anything else like it!

Independent Living!

2009-07-14T21:21:00.005-03:00

So I finally moved into my apartment the Sunday before last and I’m really excited about it! I didn’t really elaborate much about the prospects of my new living situation in my past entries, so here goes.

I had been searching for apartments mostly via internet..and hadn’t had any luck - two of the apartments that I saw were definitely not ideal for many reasons. Anyway, Fabian, who I worked with mentioned that he knew someone through a mutual friend that wanted a roommate, and she was also open to hosting some of the SLT volunteers. So Fabian and I came by to visit, the girl seemed really nice, and I liked the apartment...she was interested, I was interested and I decided to move in. I really wanted to live with an argentine to still get some cultural insights and hopefully make some new friends! After moving out of my host family’s home I moved in with my friend Jen (who is also working with us with the SLT group) for a week, while the SLT girls were still living with Iris.

A Farewell dinner I made for my host fam -- french onion soup and stuffed mushrooms!

The apartment is really what I wanted all along. It is in an IDEAL location...two blocks away from a major plaza that all the buses go by..where the Sunday market is located...and its right in downtown close to supermarkets, stores, etc, etc. I have my own fairly large bedroom (a lot of the apartments I was looking at I would have to share a bedroom), there is a large fairly new bathroom with a bathtub, a spacious and luminous kitchen, and an argentine roommate!

My roommate’s name is Iris, she is a 24 year old dentistry student. She’s from Neuquen - in the southern part of the country almost in Patagonia! She is really friendly, easy to talk to, and very easy going. Like me, she’s really interested in getting to know people from other places, and we like a lot of the similar music, and she’s not a crazier partier which I like. She’s actually going home for a month to be with her family as she doesn’t have classes because of the swine flu. So I will be all by my lonesome for the month of July.

The apartment also has a washer and dryer...but not the type of washer and dryer we are used to in the states. The first day I got here I had a bit of difficulty. With the washer you have to insert water through a hose to a certain level, and then put some clothes in - put it washing - then put more water in - put softener in. At first I pushed some wrong buttons so It didn’t empty out the water, I didn’t put water and softener in...and my clothes weren’t that clean. So the dryer- which isn’t really a dryer. what it really is, is a little machine you put your wet clothes into that squeezes out the water - the water comes out of the bottom spout. Then I have to put the clothes on a hanger outside in the patio sort of thing...which take a long time to dry because its winter! And it is very cold here, and its a humid cold..Im getting used to not having heat anywhere - including in my apartment.

I finally get all settled in on the Thursday after the departure of the SLT my first day off in awhile - (it was Independence Day). That Wednesday I went to buy a basic desk, and dresser for my clothes, and some other things for my room. This past Saturday I went to buy some more things, like food, spices, picture frames, etc, etc. It feels great to be installed in the place I will be for the next 11 months! All in all I’m excited to be living downtown, with a young argentine, be able to eat what I want when I want, and come and go as I please!

Elections and Swine Flu? ?

2009-07-14T21:19:00.003-03:00

So Sunday the 28th, the day that I was in San Antonio de Areco was election day. They were midterm legislative elections - what would be our equivalent of voting for reprensetatives. The weeks beforehand were pretty crazy, political posters and pamphlets everywhere. The big race for Buenos Aires was between former president Nestor Kirchner (who is also the husband of the current president Cristina Kirchner (strange, yes - and not to mention how most people aren’t too thrilled about her), and Francisco de Narvaez of Union Pro. I would often hear that people supported DeNarvaez because he was attractive, and young people thought he was cool because of the tattoo on his neck. Anyway, it was the talk of the weeks before the election...my host mom saying that if Kirchner won, it would definitely be fraud, because they are always cheating blah blah. So, much to people’s surprise and delight, DeNarvaez ended up winning, which means that the Kirchner’s and their party no longer have the majority.

Kirchners

DeNarvaez

I can’t quite talk about the elections without talking about the incredible shadyness that goes on. So the weeks before the elections, the politicians do whatever they can to get the vote -- everywhere in La Plata I saw plazas and parks being beautified with lights, fountains, new playgrounds, signs... you could seriously see how fast the municipality workers were working to get things done before that Sunday...but what about the things that people really need - like jobs, food, opportunities, etc? Well, beautification projects are of course much easier! People can walk by and perhaps say wow look at what the municipality is doing! They are really improving the city! Ugh. Also as I mentioned there was political propaganda everywhere. And this really killed me - at the soccer game we went to - Kirchner dropped his political propaganda from a helicopter - and even dropped them on the field - resulting in people scrambling to clean it up before the game! It’s unbelievable.

Pics of the "before elections projects" look closely I didn't want to take photos too close hehe

So voting here is required - unless you are like under 18 - over 65 - seriously ill - or 500 km from your home. The ballot system is pretty interesting - each party or whatever has their own ballot - and you put the ballot of your chosen party in an envelope. If you don’t want to vote with any of the ballots there, you can also put a blank paper in the envelope -- but supposedly that vote goes to whoever was in the majority.

So I’m not only writing about the elections but also how they are related to swine flu. During the build up of the elections, their was little talk about the swine flu. (here they call it gripe A - I know its h1n1 but I’d rather just call it swine haha). People knew that it was here, there were some cases, but their really was no government response. Fast forward to Monday after elections... In the news: “The health minister resigns!” “Government declares a National Emergency!” “Lots of deaths related to swine flu!” “Cases increasing!” “Schools and community centers need to be closed by the next Monday and will be closed for the entire month of July!”

It was pretty crazy. Supposedly the health minister resigned because she wanted to postpone the elections in order to declare a national emergency -- but the government was not interested (doesn’t surprise me). There was so much hype about the elections, that they chose not to talk about a much more serious, and critical issue.

These are all over Buenos Aires

So much was cancelled that week, and the following weeks. There are usually two weeks of winter vacation at the end of July but they decided to start Then the university students were protesting in the streets burning tires and things to have classes cancelled. So now university classes are cancelled for the month. And just last week they decided to close all public centers - suspended all cultural activities - theatre, courses, movies, etc. They recommend that people stay at home, refrain from being in big groups... But yet people are still stuffed in buses together, shopping in stores, etc. I guess after the U.S., Argentina has the most cases/deaths of swine flu - which is interesting because it is really far away, but then again understandable because it is the start of winter/the flu season here, and Argentina is a pretty big country.

Although it is serious, people seem to be overreacting and panicking. Its really hard to find hand sanitizer and when you do its like almost 10 dollars! And you see people all over the place wearing face masks and such. WIth regards to our work, it has affected us because 2 of the organizations that the GESI group is working in have been partially closed. Also the SLT group had wanted to take the kids at their comedores to a kids theme park called Republica de los Ninos - but they closed it. Supposedly, you can’t trust and their really aren’t any official statistics about what’s going on. I guess some people are being diagnosed with pneumonia when they really the flu - just to keep the numbers down. But there is good news -- there is enough medication - and people are being treated for it immediately if they have the symptoms.

Oh well - its been pretty interesting to see the reaction to this issue...hopefully things will calm down soon.

The reasons for my blog neglect...

2009-07-12T14:31:00.014-03:00

So you haven’t heard from me in AWHILE, and its because I’ve been crazy busy with the groups of volunteers/ interns that have arrived. Finally the SLT (Service Learning Trip) from Stanford left this past Tuesday. I have seriously been working like 50-60 hours these past weeks!

So the group (15 of them!) came here to work with 2 comedores Cielo Azul (Blue Sky) and Tierra Nueva (New Earth) Comedores are community centers and soup kitchens that have many functions - including taking care of children. Along with working in the comedores, we tried to give them insights into Argentine culture and the education system here (their main interest as a group was Youth and Education).

They arrived on Wednesday the 16th, and the first few days were orientation days, where we tried to orient them to the city, have them understand the bus sysem . The group in general was enthusiastic, very young, and some were not exactly ready for the challenges that living in a different country/doing development work entailed. It was challenging (especially to hear all the complaining), but rewarding to see their work, and reactions to things.

The weekend of the first week, we did a service project on Saturday, where they helped make empanadas, work on the vegetable garden, and paint playground equipment at the comedor of a very poor community called “Altos de San Lorenzo”. Then Sunday we met in Plaza Italia (the plaza near my new apt), to have them do some shopping, watch folklore, and drink some mate. Here are some pictures from that weekend:

The next week they dived into work with their comedores and the kids -- it was quite interesting because at one comedor the children are well-behaved and their is a lot of structure, in the other almost no structures so much that they are always beating each other up... haha. We also did a group project on Thursday at another comedor - Los Pirulines -- where we worked on their garden and painted almost the entire inside of the comedor. After that project, we took them to an Estudiantes game. It was also my first Argentine soccer game! Estudiantes is one of the club teams here of La Plata. We got to experience the craziness that is Argentine soccer - and people are seriously crazy about it. I also got to learn some of the Estudiantes chants and things...for future reference :)

That second weekend, Jen and I took the group on a refection retreat to San Antonio de Areco, and we had an amazing time. San Antonio de Areco is considered to be on of the prettiest cities in the pampas (pampas is the region we are in - like the humid grasslands). It is also the place to get to know gaucho culture. Gauchos are like Argentine cowboys, quiet solitary men who work with their horses and other livestock..wear beret like hats, puffy pants, and either boots or little cloth shoes. The couple who owned our hostel were really friendly and great to talk to. We got in late Friday evening and had a nice dinner at the hostel, and got to bed early.

Some gauchos at the Estancia we went to

On Saturday we spent an amazing day at a beautiful Estancia (basically a ranch -very popular in Argentine with the culture of beef and gauchos). We had a great time, and it was a beautiful day. We all went horseback riding, I unfortunately got a not so good horse that stopped for 5 minutes - leaving us alone far away from the group - scaring me. We had an amazing lunch with all good things argentine (wine, famous asado (beef - that of course I didn’t try, salads, breads). We saw a very strange horse show (weirdly sort of sexual) of a guy with a horse - it look like he had a mystical power over the horse - but in reality he was cutting off the circulation of the horse’s neck (poor thing!!!).

Saturday evening was quite a cultural activity Jen and I finally got the nerve to go and talk to the mythical gauchos - and it was really a bit awkward they weren’t too interested in talking to us - we really made the effort though. We went to a "pulperia" or an old school bar, I think it had been there since the 1800s. They were all young - in their 20s...but most of the conversation consisted of talk of horses, their city, and answering their very simple and awkward questions. It was pretty hilarious because on of the gauchos - talking to the other gaucho was like ... es "re gaucho!" - basically they use "re" here for very or muy - and he was saying that something his friend said was re gaucho! haha

Pulperia

On Sunday we chilled at the hostel, the group reflected on their first week and a half here and Jen and I made them lunch at the hostel (tomato soup and grilled cheese). and then we There wasn’t much to do in the city because everything was closed, as it was election Sunday. After lunch, some of the kids went bike riding - Jen and I did as well. We rode around the beautiful city, and the downtown area. Then we all headed back to the city (a bit unwillingly), and were happy about the way the weekend went!

And lucky me, I get to go to San Antonio in 2 weeks again with the GESI group and Fabian! :)

The last week of the SLT was quite challenging, as they were trying to complete their project, we had to deal with some difficult issues, worked too late everyday, all the while doing orientation for the GESI (Global Engagement group from Northwestern ) that arrived that Sunday night.

In the end, the SLT group did some great projects, and we got pretty close to a few of them - especially the group leaders (we liked to complain together hehe). The Cielo Azul group completely transformed the backyard of the comedor..before it was enclosed by cement walls, and the ground was dirt -- so when it rained the kids couldn’t go out
They also bought like ground up shells for the ground, so that the kids can go out after it rains.

The Tierra Nueva group also did some great little projects, including making fleece blankets for the kids, and doing a fun day out in the park.

The last weekend of the SLT until their departure on Tuesday consisted of our FSD 4th of July party with host families, current interns, SLT and GESI kids, some representatives from the NGOs, and of course us the FSD staff. It was a great time, and we had an amazing U.S. flag cake, courtesy of Vivi - one of the host moms.

The cake

SLT Kids

Jen (friend and SLT coworker crazy wig haha), two SLT group leaders - Sergio and Christina, and Me and Ana (my coworker and friend)

That Sunday they left for their last few days in Buenos Aires. I moved into my apartment, but that evening I had to rush to Buenos Aires unexpectedly -- lets just say it was related to robbery incuding FSD money for the trip, and also illness on the part of one of the participants. I ended up staying in BA until Tuesday - they were pretty crazy days, that included hospital runs, constant phone calls, etc. However, I did get to go to some amazing restaurants - including Broccolino - like the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life - seriously like 15+ types of sauces, tons of different types of pastas. I also got to go on a great city tour of BA - and although it was pouring I got to see some things that I hadn’t seen before including La Boca neighborhood, the Boca Jrs Stadium, etc. We also all went to a tango dinner show, which was amazing and my first taste of Argentine tango. Unfortunately don’t have any pics from these things because I had to leave quickly, and didn’t realize how long I would be staying there. We dropped the group off at the airport on Tuesday, and returned to La Plata exhausted and wondering what had just happened in the past 3 weeks.

With this group I really learned a lot...a lot of things that will help me with my position in the future. I learned how to deal with issues in a calm, and quick manner, how to be aware of others and not just myself when traveling with the group, how not to hold everyone to the same standards, etc, etc!

Suga, Suga

2009-06-22T22:22:00.005-03:00

Argentines eat way too much sugar and way too many sweets!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been eating quite a bit...a lot of pizza and empanadas (sort of like calzone types of things made with a yummy dough, stuffed with various things like meats, cheese, corn, eggs, veggies). They are then folded in a lovely manner. Here I celebrating my friends birthday (2 weekends ago), helping out with the filling and folding of empanadas.

But really what I’ve been eating too much of is sweets, and they are every where. I think I’ve mentioned my love of dulce de leche --- its milk caramel --- basically carmelized milk. They put it in everything cakes, cookies, ice cream, its spreadable on crackers, etc.

Alfajores - pictured here, are basically sweet biscuits filled with dulce de leche with some coconut --- DELICIOUS. They are sold everywhere, and made in many different ways - the kind you buy in the grocery store are dipped in chocolate.

Its hard to walk a few blocks, and not see a confiteria (like a dessert shop), or see a sign that says facturas (pastries). There are cakes, pies, churros (fried dough sticks). It is quite strange, like as a snack if people are on trips or something..they eat facturas! One popular one is medialunas (or croissants) - which they sell dipped in sugar, as well as how we normally eat croissants.

Dessert shop window

Of course I have to mention ice cream - which is delicious here and is everywhere. They do have a lot of flavors -- fruit flavors, cream based flavors, and of course dulce de leche based fflavors. Thionis pictured below is arguably the best ice cream in La Plata. The thing about getting ice cream here though, is that you cant really get it in a cup - unless you buy a large amount to take it home or something so they give you a big stack of ice cream...on a tiny cone forcing you to have to sit down and juggle it and eat it with a spoon - or face dropping it.

At my friend's first of many birthday parties - she had like 3 cakes that her friend in the community had made her!! Here is one - filled with dulce de leche, peanut butter, and chocolate, and you can see the other behind it! Below is a cake they made for her at another friend's house - filled with dulce de leche and nicely adorned with a map of the Americas!

So they talk about food here, like what they want to bring to a party or something...they say algo dulce (sweet) or salado (salty - basically like normal food). When you go to the movies and even on the street - they dont just have salty/buttery popcorn - but also sweet popcorn (basically kettle corn).

The point of all this: Of course the sweets are delicious, but 1. they are unhealthy. 2. they are making me fat. 3. many Argentines don’t go to the dentist, and even fewer floss.

I’ve been pretty busy with work lately, as a group of 15 students from Stanford arrived this past Wednesday, and we are receiving another group on Sunday...I’ll update next week with the projects and things they worked on! Also -- I found a great apartment with a dentistry student, which I will be moving into on July 5! I’m excited to leave my host family’s house with my room with a slanted ceiling, and my host mom (who I love - but complains a bit and often laments on her life’s misfortunes). Sorry for the short/random post!

Cosas Platenses

2009-06-06T21:45:00.001-03:00

Platense = of La Plata

Things I see on a daily basis in La Plata:

The trash cans are raised so that dogs don't get at them!

Plazas - every few blocks there is a leafy park/ plaza

Political posters/propaganda are everywhere - especially now since its almost congressional election time (Sunday June 28th) It'll be interesting to see how it turns out, because people keep talking about the corruption of the current Kirchnerist government ... I'll describe in another post!

Lots Street dogs, and the stuff that comes out of them (gross). You really have to watch where your stepping, and sometimes the dogs bark/follow you. Sometimes I see sad things related to dogs - like yesterday I saw a dog hopping around, I looked and the poor thing had no paw on one of his hind legs !! - and it had just happened - because it was bleeding! makes me very sad.

Tall square, usually white buildings

These are La Plata's street signs! As I described the streets - they are numbers, and the city is a grid system.

This sign says "Cuidado con los vehiculos" or "Be Careful of the Vehicles" - its because there's usually some sort of autoshop in there - but taken in another way..you really have to be careful of the cars here! They do not stop for pedestrians! You often have to run across the street - stand in the middle, etc. They also drive veryyy fast. Supposedly Argentina has the highest traffic mortality rate in all of South America.

So this is an older car - but see that on the top - the plastic bottle? Here a car with a plastic bottle on top means "For Sale". The bottle signifies the car is on the market. Weird.

Buses - many people (including me!), get around on buses or "micros" and the system is a bit complicated- although I'm getting to know it better and better.

There are lots of trees in La Plata, which is beautiful...but many of the trees tear up the sidewalks with their enormous roots!

You always see people sitting and socializing (or making out - people are overly affectionate!) in plazas. Many times sipping mate.

Graffiti - there's graffiti everywhere, much of it political. I'll probably talk about Julio Lopez later on, but basically he was "dissapeared" just a few years ago.. right before testifying against someone involved in the military dictatorship in the 80s

Taxis! Taxis are also everywhere - when you don't take a bus you flag down a taxi (there are also determined taxi stops) and I always take one late at night

Argentine license plate

Me (not platense), my host mom (Born in La Plata), and Jen (also American - my friend and current co-worker - she is helping us out with one of the groups we are getting). This was taken this past Friday when we took my host mom out for her birthday ...we went out to eat at a very yummmyyy italian restaurant - where I had some delicious pasta. Then we got some ice cream from Thionis (best ice cream place in La Plata). Argentina is considered to have very good ice cream, similar to gelato in Italy.

Just a view of some of the things I see on a daily basis!

Gaining comfort, exploring the Argentine experience

2009-05-26T19:08:00.001-03:00

it’s hard to believe that I’ve been here in La Plata for almost a month!

Things are going pretty well, and it seems that each week I’m becoming more comfortable with work and my environment. I feel like I can sort of navigate the bus system - in the beginning it seemed very confusing. Its interesting you get on the bus, and there is this little box that you put your coins in, and it shoots out your ticket. I’ve been able to go to the Natural Sciences Museum in my city - its very well known - and has great animal exhibits as well as exhibits on indigenous cultures in Argentina and Latin America - which definitely interests me. I visited the city’s neogothic cathedral (picture in the last entry) and was able to go on an elevator to the top and see spectacular views of the city. I’ve been walking A LOT.

Here is a map of my city - you can see how it is a grid system with diagonal streets and plazas:

My work is going well. My co-workers, Anne, Fabian and Jen (She is helping out with the SLT (Service Learning trip - 20 days - 14 students from Stanford U working in groups with three community centers) are great, and I’m learning a bunch from each of them. I have been visiting organizations, getting to know the interns, meeting host families, learning the ropes of the reports and things we need to write on the interns’ progress, how to assess applications for new interns - do interviews, write organization placements, etc. Also of course been learning a bunch about sustainable development, Argentina, its history, current development issues, corruption (probably will write an entire blog entry on this later!!), etc. Some of the interns have been involved in really great projects, like building solar water heaters, and creating marketing materials for a women’s sewing cooperative. Right now we are getting ready for the SLT - coming in mid June - a group of 15 from Stanford, and a Global Student Exchange Program from Northwestern - coming mid July - they will be working in groups in three different organizations. I’ll talk more about this as the time comes closer to their arrivals. All in all, I like the job, although I still wondering if I’m competent.

Photos of the FSD office

I am currently searching for apartments, I want to be able to come and go as I please, eat what I want, and live independently here. I’ve look at 2 apartments so far - both sort of disasters. haha. - I would have to share very small rooms - one had stairs to the bedroom without a railing - I’d probably kill myself on those stairs, the shower was the shower head and the bathroom floor. I love my host mom - although she sometimes drives me a bit loca - she is an older woman - talks about her illnesses and life misfortunes a lot - complains about doing housework but loves having interns. Anyway, I love talking to her, she cracks me up sometimes, she treats me well, and I know how she is..but I think I’ve lived with enough host families at this time. Tomorrow I am going to see another apartment - a friend of Fabian’s - he says its a nice apartment. I would also have my own room, a bathtub, wireless internet - wish me luck!

So I’ve been seeing more and more that Argentines like to socialize. Last week we spent over 3 hours, on a host organization visit - an HIV/AIDS Health Center talking to the doctor there. We listened to him talk about millions of topics - him making me listen to Portuguese songs, the story of Jews in Argentina, the unification of Spain, the military dictatorship..all the while sipping mate.

Well what is mate? The national drink that is very ingrained in the culture - its part of socializing. Its basically a strong tea. One person (the cebador), is responsible for preparing it, putting the yerba (dried chop leaf) in the mate (the cup - gourd), and then pouring hot water into it. You drink it out of a bombilla (a straw that has a strainer on the bottom so the yerba doesn’t come up), and you pass it around clockwise, each person drinking from the same cup and straw (kind of gross- but don’t tell any Argentines that) and you need to drink all of it - pass it back to the cebador, and they will refill it, and pass it to the person next to you. It’s really quite interesting, and you see people everywhere with a thermos, their mate, and people drink it socializing in parks and such.

Mate

Although I love pizza, pasta, and empanadas...I’m realizing that I am going to get tired of the food fast - I’ve been seeing that a lot of the above things lack flavor...like the sauces lack a lot of flavor - which is important to me. Also the fact that I don’t eat meat (as meat is King here) - makes things challenging. The ice cream is good - but they don’t have coffee ice cream - my favorite! I don’t get it - they love coffee and ice cream - why don’t they put them together!

What I usually eat for breakfast- crackers and dulce de leche (milk caramel - veryyy popular sweet)

This weekend I went to Buenos Aires. I did love the city, although it is veryyy big, and can be overwhelming. I have blisters from walking so much. I was able to visit Plaza de Mayo - main plaza where many protests and things happen - where Evita often spoke, the obelisk, Puerto Madero (the port - a rich area with a boardwalk, restaurants, facing skyscrapers), a great market in the cool neighborhood of San Telmo, the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta and the famous cementary there (saw Evita’s tomb!), and the MALBA (Latin American art museum - supposedly one of the best in Latin America. I got to experience some of the porteño night life - people go out at like 1 or 2 am and come back 4,5,6! I wasn’t able to see the whole city obviously, but I know I will be back there...I’m even going this Friday to check things out for some of the summer groups.

Photos in order: Recoleta - The cementery, Evita's tomb, Puerto Madero, Plaza de Mayo, Obelisk and Argentine Flag

First week in the Southern Cone

2009-05-12T22:39:00.002-03:00

So...I’ve been in Argentina for about a week and its been quite a whirlwind.

My total flight time for my 2 flights was 12 hours - both were very smooth..when I arrived at the airport there were tons of people with masks on - and they took my picture with a temperature detecting camera - felt a little strange - thankfully I didnt have a fever even tho I was sweating like heck from lugging my luggage I arrived Sunday morning and I freaked out a bit when I got here because...the man who was supposed to pick me up wasnt there! But then I asked and realized that the meeting point we had was at the other terminal so I had to walk there lugging alll (and its a lot) of luggage, then I waited there for another half hour and didn’t see the man with my sign..so I was really freaking out because I had no Argentine money - was alone, etc. So I exchanged some money, called Fabian - my coworker and he said to wait there because the man saw that I had arrived at the other terminal so he went there...long story short - we had missed each other in the terminals - and we found each other after that so we headed from BUenos Aires to La Plata about an hour.

So what exactly am I doing here? Well, hopefully you remember that when I was in Nicaragua, the program that I did was with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD). La Plata is another site they have in Latin America - and I am going to be a program coordinator here - bascially coordinating the interns - supporting them with their host organizations and families, monitoring their projects, giving workshops and trainings on development issues/work, grant writing/project development, holding the orientations, maintaining contact with the central San Francisco office, etc. I decided to take the position because
1. I absolutely loved my experience with FSD and think they do great work with communities to promote sustainable (long lasting and healthy) development in many areas - human rights, environment, education, community development...etc.
2. I wasn’t finding a job to my liking in the states and I really want to go back and get my masters in year or so - and will have to have apps in the January - and I couldn’t stand to not be doing much to work towards my goals
3. Will I ever get the chance to live in Argentina (Latin America) ever again?!

Although I had pretty concrete reasons for coming it was a difficult decision to leave my family, boyfriend, doggie, home, again for a pretty long time...and of course there are always fears - am I capable of coordinating interns? Will I do a good job or will I suck at it? Will I make any friends or will I walk the streets of Argentina alone? Will I learn to speak Spanish as the Argentines do? Will I like it?? These fears are still very much real, even after being here a week, but I hope with time they will be quelled and none will turn out to be true.

So I am in La Plata, a university city. The city is very nice - it was one of the first planned cities in South America - its basically a grid system - cut my some diagnols that connect plazas that are every 6 blocks. So I live on street 71 between 5 and 6, and my office is on 63 between 7 and 8. Its pretty easy to orient yourself with the street signs unless you get stuck on one of the diagonals...Which I did this past Saturday evening...and it was sad because a carload of teenage girls whizzes by as I am dazed and confused on the corner wondering where I am and scream: Feliz Caminando! or Happy Walking!

The city of La Plata

There’s a lot of cultural activities in the city, shopping, movie theaters, gyms, etc. I have being trying to walk around and get to know the city these past few days. There’s a sort of complicated bus system, that you can only put coins in the little machine on the bus...but coins are like nonexistent here..I plan on walking a lot and am a bit sore from having done so..The city is a lot more developed than where I was in Nica and Peru, but FSD works with the most marginalized communities here...and after the economic collapse here in 2001 there are many.

La Plata's Neogothic Cathedral

This past week I was in orientation - reading about the organizations, interns, the procedures, etc. My coworker is great- he’s a Argentine who also teaches English, and we have another program coordinator, but she’s been in the states on vacation.. so I will meet her this upcoming week.

The Spanish is veryyy different from what I am used to - a lot of different words, the voseo - use of vos instead of 2 and its conjugations, the pronunciation of the ll not as ella but as e - ja, and the pronunciation of y as j - I hope I get the hang of it because I’ve really been trying to learn it!

I am going to be living with a host family for a month or 2 - I live with my host mom (66 yrs old) and her 30 yr old son, they are very nice...my host mom seems to always be stressed about all she has to do, lol, and she’s always talking about the corruption here in Argentina, and all the crazy stuff that goes on. She’s had many interns, and is great to talk about the issues with, and what’s going on in the world. She’s a very good cook - there’s a lot of Italian food here because there are manyyyy Italian immigrants, as well as Spanish...so Im definitely liking the food.

My House

Yes, it is fall here - and we are going into winter which makes me sad considering the terrible winter I had in the states..but thankfully it doesnt snow here.

I’ll try to update this as much as I can, and since I brought my laptop it will be easier to communicate with you all. Feel free to comment/email!

Chau.

ps. hope you like the new look of the blog, and name - means walking the americas..which is what i've been doing and will do.

Chau, Peru!

2008-11-06T17:12:00.000-02:00

Hi All!

Hope things are well. I apologize for the delay in my final Peru blog entry. Im currently back home in the states! But I will be writing this entry as if I were still in Peru - as I wrote most of it in the Lima Airport. I apologize for the delay in the entry, I've been busy with my projects, spending time with my friends and family here, gettting bitten by fleas and dogs (I will explain later), and just taking in all that Peru has to offer. Its hard to believe that my experience in Peru is over, and that my 5 months in Latin America have come to a close. Despite the challenges, frustrations, sicknesses, etc, this experience was amazing, unforgettable, and extremely rewarding. Before writing a more detailed reflection, Let me describe my final weeks here...

Work: My work went fairly well, although I often felt frustrated and of course as we are in Peru, things never seem to turn out as planned. I think I mentioned I was supposed to go on a week long sustainable tourism conference my 2nd to last week here with the womens group so they can learn about sustainable tourism and sell their products. However, crazy violent strikes were going on (which are still happening to some capacity - Peru declared a state of emergency), the roads were blocked with rocks and sticks, some people were injured and many were inconvenienced because they could not travel. There strike was pretty valid, though, the campesinos were striking against a hydroelectric plant to be built on their lands. Not having that week away kind of set me off, and that week I felt a little bored/frustrated with my projects, wondefring if I had really connected with them, did something sustainable for the groups, etc. Despite these thoughts, this last week especially, I've realized that perhaps I didn't do as much as I hoped I could, but part of the reason was the structure of the program (The fact I worked with 4 different groups). Maybe I didn't create a big impact on their lives, but I may have brightened their day with an activity or trip they wouldn't be able to do otherwise, and I I helped provide bread and reading practice for underprivilized kids, and basically reminded these women/kids, that they ARE cared about and ARE important. The brochures I developed for one of the women's groups were printed, which is something that would be difficult for them to do on their own, and we also went to a weaving co-op in Chinchero which was really amazing --- its a coop of women that wave intricately with their hands and use natural materials to dye their products. We also had some goodbye parties for my friend and project partner Carley. We played with our childrens group and read with them, I also gave charlas (talks/presentations) on leadership to the women. I've discovered I really like giving charlas and engaging in educative activities because I feel like its one of the most sustainable things to do, I see that the women really enjoy it, and they are learning things they might not have had the opportunity to learn otherwise. We also did some ENglish lessons, which I'm not crazy about because I see it as another form of imperialism (kind of), but its a necessary evil in this world.

Other activities: Other than work, I've been trying to do as much as possible before leaving. I visited some salt mines near my city, they were absolutely amazing, pure natural salt on mountains, and many differnt families have their salt pools there. I also visited an amazing local family run ceramics workshop where we got a demonstration, and bought some (well - a lot) of beautiful ceeramics. I've also spent quite a bit of time in Cusco, despite its touristyness I like it...we've gone to the black market where I bough a lot of cds for very cheap, shopped around for books, visited the catherdals and cute and unique plazas, eating Peruvian food, etc. I've also done a lot of souvenir shopping, it kind of stresses me out and I get tired of it very quickly, but I'm taking advantage of buying cheap, unique and hadmade X-mas gifts, and maybe a few (well too many) gifts for myself. The jewelery here is very pretty, So i've gotten quite a bit of that. I've been enjoying our weekly trivia nights at a cafe closeby, I've made up the questions, and enjoyed Veggie burgers, and banouffe pie (the tastiest pie I've ever had which I will learn how to make!). My friend and I met a really nice woman on a bus, so we've gotten to go to her house, and cook with her, and we've had a few picnics in a park, which has been really fun. The woman grows lots of different types of corn, and we've had a lot of fried salted corn kernels which is veryyyy tasty.

Health: I've been feeling pretty good lately, no stomach issues (thankfully!). However, its pretty gross, but I am full of flea bites - not sure how they got on me, but my host mom washed all my sheets and clothes, but I still got more this week. My host mom thinks it might be from the pigeons that fly onto my balcony. Who knows. This last week I had the misfortune of getting bitten by a Peruvian cocker spaniel. It wasn't serious or overly deep, but it caused me some trouble and resulted in a lot of time spent figuring out if the dog had rabies, and I had to go to the hospital etc. Basically, I went to my friends house, she lives in a sort of a compound and one of the houses has two cocker spaniels (the mom - 4 yrs and her son - 1 1/2 yrs - something we found out from the owner later on), we walked in asnd they were barking and sniffing, and then one jumped up and bit me on the leg - it wasn't too bad it didn't even rip my pants, but there was blood, and it did break the skin. Anyway, we clearned it up, went through some drama and found out if they have vaccines - Im not sure which bit me but we think it was prob the boy because he is younger and more aggressive, but the mom had her last antirabies shot 3 years ago (but dogs should get it every year) and the boy 4 months ago. The dogs are house dogs, and rabies is very rare in Urubamba so they most likely do not have it. The procedure for dog bites there is for MINSA (Ministry of Health) to go check out the dogs for 10 days, which they were going to do. It was quite a hassel and something I did not want to have to deal with on my last week, but oh well it happened.

My Family: My family is great, and I will sincerely miss them. This past week I have tried to spend as much time as possible with them, talking with them, etc. I talk a lot to my host mom and pretty much know every thing about her life, lol, including all of her drama (which unfortunately is a lot- poor thing is so nice but the people around cause all hte drama). I've also been watching my little 6 year old sister throw lots of tantrums, she has quite an attitude problem and is always saying people are bothering her, and she NEVER wants to eat, its pretyt crazy. Theres always little kids around the house because my host mom's sister and brother live next door and they have little kids, so its pretty fun with them. My host brother is on vacation from college (he's studying civil engineering), so I've gotten to hang out with him a bit, he is super nice and easy to talk to, and he even helped me with my leadership cfharla with the women.

My Last Week: Despite the dog incident, my last week went really well, and I felt I got to do everything I wanted to do, and really realized how beautiful Peru is, how much I enjoyed it, and how much I will miss it. I tried to take in the beautify of the mountains as much as I could. As I mentioned I gave a charla on leadership with some of the women, visited the weaving cooperative, and read and played with the kids. It was hard to leave the women's groups, and they seemed to be sad as well, and thanked me for all my work, and asked for my contact information. It was also hard to leave the children, they all made me cards, and hugged and took pictures with me, and they (with the help of the woman in charge of the center) gave me a beautiful handmade scarf. We also had a nice group dinner (we have group dinners every week where two of us cook at our office) and we had yummy mac and cheese and broccoli and watched a very interesting video on the situation of maternal health in Peru (which is not a very good one). I went to my last trivia night, and we were all preparing for Halloween because we planned to celebrate my last night (Friday night) in Cusco. They don't really celebrate Halloween in Peru, but they are starting to do so with the influence of foreignersIt actually falls upon one of their Holidays - Dia de la Cancion Criolla. It was pretty cool my last week I got to see the interesting breads that they make - dolls, horses, etc. I (fortunately) got to miss another tradition, on Saturday they kill thousands of pigs, and eat them roasted. Thursday evening I spent awhile with my family, and I bought us a pizza to share for dinner. Its strange, for us pizza is one of the cheapest things to buy out, but in NIca and Peru its one of the most expensive, so people don't eat pizza much. Anyway...Friday was my last day in Urubamba, I spent the morning with my mom int the hospital - checking out my bite situation and also seeking materials for my Halloween costume - I was a cat, and I also took a long walk around my city, sat in the plaza, reflected on my experience, and just took everything in one last time. I finished packing (I had a lott of stuff, but luckily it all fit, and I got it home in one piece), and went to my womens groups, where they had a small goodbye for me and gave me a very nice handmade poncho. I spent the evening getting dressed for halloween as a cat, helping my brother - he came out with us that night and we made his costume of a rabbit, lol. Then my little sister wanted to be a cat as well, so we helped her with that. Of course our transport to Cusco that night was late - and we had to make it to an animal costume party between a certain time frame, but thankfully my family got another transport for us. It was very sad to leave them, I cried quite a bit, and my family also seemed sad. It is just something so strange to see people everyday, have them be like your true family, and then leave and never know when you will see them
again. They treated me as their daughter, always made sure I was comfortable, we shared great conversations and fun times,and I will sincerely miss them.

Halloween night was fun in Cusco, after wiping my tears, we had a good time dancing, seeing all the people dressed up (there were a lot), and seeing how incredible Cusco looks at night. It was quite a late night - or early morning, but we slept well in our hostal ($5 a night!!), and had bagels and iced coffee that morning. It was nice to have my host brother out with us,. he was a lot of fun and is really easy to talk to...I had another tearful goodbye with my friends and with Cusco, my brother helped me to the airport, and I was off. Done with Peru, and back home.

Final Reflection: Before embarking on this experience, I admit I was nervous. I knew I loved learning about Latin America - its culture, history, and issues, but I did not know how it would be to live there, work there, not know anyone, and of course as many people who have not traveled much there, I was concerned about safety. Looking back at this experience, it was difficult at times, but it really EXCEEDED my expectations. In Nicaragua, I worked with amazing women, got to see how an NGO in the community works - its strengths and limitations, applied for and won a grant that I used to carry out an educative project for women who are victims of domestic violence. I got to really observe the problems that face Nicaraguan society, I gained a NIca family, I experienced Sandinismo, saw Nicas incredible artisan work, volcanoes, lakes, etc, etc. In Peru, I got to teach children how to care for the environment, helped them with their reading, taught women how to be leaders and value themselves, supported their businesses. I was able to see the struggles that the indigenous face, the everyday infrastructure problems (like no water), and some of the other issues Peruvians face. I lived among the Andes mountains, in the place where the Incas once reigned with their mighty empire, and I experienced the INCREDIBLE beauty that is Peru. I ate the food, enjoyed some, did not like other, loved the music, suffered the heat, and I lived with less than I live with here, but I lived well, having what I needed most. I got to experience and see with my own eyes the ugliness (poverty, machismo, violence, corruption) and beauty (culture, perseverance of the people, natural beauty) of these two countries. The two things I enjoyed the most about my journey were seeing the beautiful places these countries have, and the people. I met many amazing people, my fellow interns, my families, the people I worked with. I found Nicaraguans and Peruvians to be very hospitable and welcoming, they were very giving despite not having much, and they trrated me a lot nicer than I think most U.S. people would have treated me. Of course there are things about cultures that frustrated me (little regard for time, machismo, care on "what others think, etc), however I learned that despite some of the things I experienced, there are always things that we can share, not matter how different our life experiences have been. I feel very blessed and lucky to have been able to have this experience, to have taken the plunge. I would do it again in a second, and I would definitely recommend it to others. Nicaragua and Peru are beautiful countries, that do face a lot of problems, but are well worth seeing and experiencing, and the perserverance and liveliness of their people against the odds is something to admire.

I hope that you all enjoyed this blog, I know I should have written in a bit more, and sometimes my entries were a bit long. One of my goals with this blog is to clear up some misconceptions about Latin America. Unfortunately in this country of ours, people can be very racist against Latinos and try to generalize and say they are like this, or they are like taht. I always feel that racism and prejudice stems from a fear of the "other" or a general ignorance of other people their history, culture, and struggles. Many people think Latin America (I only went to Nica and Peru so can only attest to these countries- but I;m generalizing because I talked to many people whoi had traveled around) is dangerous, but I never once felt threatened or really unsafe - you just have to be safe, and know where to go, where not to go, at what times, not by yourself, etc. I can almost guarantee that all those who speak negatively about Latinos have never travled to Latin America, never truly engaged with Latinos, have litttle knowledge of Latin American history, its struggles, they way other countries have meddled in the,countries and how colonialism still has a negative effect today. I can almost guarantee people denouncing Latino immigration, have not seen the poverty I have seen, observed and learned about the struggles I have....If they had they would not say such things, and if they were in the positions of some of the people I met, they would do whatever they could to provide a better life for their family. In this blog, I have tried to educate on all of these topics, and tried to encourage people to educate themselves on things before they judge. I've also tried to show how amazing these countries are, how valuable it is to experience things yourselves instead of just believing some of the stuff we hear in the media. Of course this blog was written by me, and it was the way I saw things, but for some of you, you might not ever be able to visit these places, and I've tried to allow you to visit them for your computer screen (hehe). I think that what I have written has effectively described what I experienced and saw, but it could never fully describe how real it was, or how much this experience meant to me. The pictures, the words cannot truly encompass what I experienced, but they do a pretty good job.

I would definitely recommend travel to Latin America, although as I've descibed, travel that benefits the local people as much as possible. The food is great, the people intense and amazing, the music moving, the history fasciniating, the landscape - breathtaking, the issues pressing, etc, etc. Its a cheap place to travel, its easy to get around, and you will learn about a region that is often misunderstood and ignored. I promise you, you won't regret it.

Crossing Borders

2008-10-13T20:17:00.000-03:00

Hi everyone, hope you are having a happy fall, and that election mania isnt getting you too crazy. I've had some pretty interesting times lately here in Peru...I can't believe I have less than 3 weeks left here in my Latin American adventure...I am super excited to go home and see everyone, but also sad to leave...sad to not be able to speak spanish as much anymore, sad to not experience random and crazy things, sad to leave latin america, and not too happy to return to things like driving everywhere, stress, etc, etc. I'm trying to enjoy my last few weeks here.

Anyway..lets start with my last two weekends which have both been amazing and adventurous.

Last weekend, two friends and I headed southward in Peru to a beautiful lake called Lake Titicaca, its supposedly the highest navigable lake in the world - at the highest altitude, and part of it s in Peru, the other part in Bolivia. We wanted to go to the lake on the Peru side and also the Bolivian side, but one friend and I dont have a yellow fever shot - necessary to get into the country although there is only yellow fever in the Amazon, and U.S. citizens have to pay $135 to get into the country (pretty messed up). Anyway, it was a 8hr bus ride to Puno, not a bad ride except there was what we called a "window Nazi" sitting behind my friend and I, we wanted the window open because it was a little warm and claustrophobic, and the guys behind us kept trying to close it and saying that people had colds (prob isnt the best for people to be breathing the same infected air...but anyway... We got to Puno, to the city in Peru, we stayed at a pretty nice cheap hostel ($10!) with hot water, and had a nice dinner. Sunday, we headed over to something amazing on the lake - these islands only made of reeds that float! These people have lived on these islands for centuries, and they pile on reeds to live on, and also use the reeds to make boats, houses, crafts, etc. We went to visit the islands, and it was amazing and the lake was beautiful, but it sort of made me think about tourism, and the affect that tourists have, and kind of creeped me out. I just felt like it was very exploitative, like just imagining how many people visit those islands a day. Also, they did a dance for us - and sang twinkle twinkle little star (made me feel super uncomfortable. I asked one of the islanders, if they liked tourists, and she said yes, we pretty much depend on them now, to sell our products. I asked her what they did before and she said they were self-sufficient Although it is nice for us to visit where they live, and in a way I feel like that to them tourism is destructive. I know I am a tourist myself, but I often find myself aggravated with tourists...I kind of have the philosophy that when you travel you should try to integrate into the culture - like attempt to use the language, eat the food, not expect the locals to cater to your language or customs. I find a lot of tourists who want to be catered to, do not try to understand the cultural/historical environment that they are in, and make no effort to speak the language. Also tourism creates a bit of a dependence on other countries, kind of neocolonialism sort of...Anyway...after visiting the reed islands, we had a quick lunch and decided to try getting into Bolivia. We were very lucky, and had a helpful guide that was on our bus with us...basically we walked across the border - its like a little arch one side the peruvian side, the other side the bolivian side, gave the guy $40, did not get our passports stamped, told our driver we "did" go to immigration, and we were in. I am so glad that we did go to Bolivia because it was beautiful. We stayed in a small town called Copacabana (not the one in the song), right by Titicaca. Everything was so cheappp there we stayed at a pretty decent hostel for about $6, had full meals - bread, soup, salad, main dish, drink dessert, for less than $3, and we shopped and bought things that were much cheaper than in Peru. The lake was absolutely beautiful, a rich blue sparkly color, and we got to Isla del Sol, which is supposedly the island where the Sun was "born" as well as the first Inca, Manco Capac. I loved Bolivia, and it was great to experience another country. We got back safely to Peru, similarly to how we entered Bolivia...all with the help of Ruben who never let us down.

We were supposed to take a night bus from Puno back home to Cusco, but of course, as we are in Peru, something has to change with out plans...there was a strike in Cusco, and when there are strikes cars dont travel because they throw rocks, and anything they can into the roads. We ended up staying another night in Puno, but my poor friend was very sick. So, we had to go to a creepy hospital in the middle of the rainy night, for them to not to any lab work on my friend, give him medication, and have the nurse's aid tell him that when you are cold, your stomach hurts and you have diarrhea and nausea - strange. We left that morning and getting towards Cusco,and then to my city Urubamba there were tons of rocks (maybe you could call them boulders), and logs, and mud and everything in the road. The paro (strike), was against high prices, the crazy corruption there is here, and other issues. We saw a fight break out between a campesino and the cops trying to remove the rocks. We got back to Urubamba and saw that with the paro people had destroyed a building in the plaza - crazy. In Urubamba they are especially upset because supposedly the mayor doesnt do anything, and they are stealing construction materials, etc.

This weekend I finally saw Machu Picchu and it was as incredible as I hoped it would be. We had to take a pretty expensive train Saturday from a city near here - Ollantaytambo (quite a mouthful), into Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu pueblo. Walking off the train I felt like I met throw up, because it is just an ugly, exploitative city. There were tons of tourists, Andean music with screaching singing women, every restaurant or shop is geared towards tourists with the same crap and the same high prices, and everyone is just there to go to machu picchu. We really encountered people from ALL over the world. I also got a bit bothered there because people kept speaking to me in English, and I just simply always responded in Spanish. It makes me angry because I unlike many other people want to and can speak Spanish, and just because of the way I look they assume I can´t. We went to some hot springs there (hence the name of the town - aguas calientes), which were basically smelled and felt like pee in a pool, lol. Sunday we woke up at 5 AM to be able to climb Wayna Picchu - the main mountain of Machu Picchu, and there was a crazy long line. We were told that this is the low season, high season is june-august and there are tons more people. The mountains near Machu Picchu are more tropical like, we got some mosquito bites...We took a bus up to the mountains and it was pretty cool because it was foggy and misty...It was raining at first, but the ruins were amazzingg, and its hard to comprehend how the incas could have built on the mountains. My friend and I got lost for about 20 minutes, haha, and then we jumped down to try to get to a walkway but got in trouble by a guard - you arent supposed to touch the rock, and then we joined a tour group for about 5 minutes, and set off to find our other friends to climb Wayna Picchu. It was a very steep hike, but well worth it we saw the ruins from up high, and it was amazing. I realized I am pretty out of shape. We hiked down, and then I hiked some more of the ruins to see the typical Machu Picchu pic - of the mountains that look like a man's face, and took lots of pictures. It was amazing to see something in that I had seen in pictures for awhile, and it was an incredible site that is hard to imagine how it was constructed. Seeing it, I really felt that our world is full of wonders, and experiences are what make evrything worthwhile. Despite the touristyness - i loved it. One thing I did like about Aguas Calientes - i finally found coffee ice cream :)

Traveling is cool because you meet interesting people from all over the world, and get to share travel stories. We have met lotsss of Israelis here, and there are Israeli hostels and restaurants everywhere, I didn´t know this but all Israelis have to go to the military after they graduate high school - guys three years, girls 2years. After that, most of them travel, especially in South America, for a few months. I also met a Brazilian lawyer from Sao Paulo whose brother in law lives in Providence - crazy. IN Bolivia, we met girls from Germany that had started in Mexico, traveled all through Central America, and now are doing South America. It is a small, big world.

Food - well one of the things I have been missing most about home is the food, I´ve already made a list of restaurants I want to eat at when I get back. But--lets be fair, there are some foods that I really enjoy here. Cream soups, some breads - there is a bread similar to paposeco, salted corn kernels (yum!), fried yucca, trout (soo good!), all the teas - like coca tea, etc. Random though - Something else that amazes me is the variety of Pringles chips they have here in one place you have Salt&Vinegar, Ranch, Cheddar, Sour Cream and Onion, Plain, Barbecue, Pizza. I am a fan of pringles, and in the U.S. you rarely find so many flavors in one place. All my friends here make fun of me because I love salt, and am always looking for salt for my meals, and luckily we are taking a trip to salt mines on Friday!

Work - Well my work is going pretty well, I finished doing the environmental talks we finished with reviewing the difference between organic and inorganic materials, which surprisingly the kids could do. ONe class sang us some songs to say goodbye, they sang One Little Two Little Three Little Indians - a little strange. The womens groups are going well, next week we are traveling to Arequipa - 8 hours away for a sustainable tourism conference where the women can sell their products, and there are going to be people from all over Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. Its a 4 day trip, and Im pretty excited about it. I finally completed a nice brochure for one of our women´s groups which I am pretty proud of. Theres a little drama with one womens group, who is not happy about us supporting another womens group, and it just seems like very childish drama, and they are also dependant on our organization, and are not doing much to take things into their own hands. It makes me think twice about this sort of work sometimes.

I enjoy sitting in the Plaza and around the city, watching people. Ive gotten to know the people who take care of the garden in the plaza, the strange man with an ostrich, the hippies who braid bracelets (one of them gave my friend dreds in the plaza), and the little kids who I taught at the school. Its so nice to experience life here by walking around, sitting and resting, just taking it all in. My family here is doing well, they are super nice, but sometimes I feel a little stiffled because they ask me soooooo many questions, and alwayssss want to know what Im doing, and we have hour long conversations during meals, and they try to stuff me. After my time with giardia (I am feeling better now except my stomach never feels truly normal) I´ve wanted to eat less and less. They are very nice though, and I will miss them.

The more and more I am here, the more I enjoy it, and realize the incredible beauty and harshness of the mountains. It is amazing to see the sun setting on them, to wake up and look at them. However, you also realize how harsh it is to live in the mountains, seeing the tiny (they are short because they were malnourished) quechua women lugging their produce to sell market day, and the little kids with sunburned cheeks, and only sandals for their feet, and the problems with water, etc. The current situation in the country does not help things much, and many of the people Ive talked to hate the current president, and feel the government cares nothing about people in the mountains.

It is strange that some people in our group have already left, and I will be leaving soon too. Im trying to take in all the experiences that come my way, take pictures, reflect upon what I've done and what I've seen and connect with people as much as possible. This weekend Im going to do some shopping, and sightseeing in Cusco (I love Cusco).

Sorry for the long entry, hope all is well with you all. Feel free to comment/email!

Peru, Parasites, and Projects

2008-09-30T14:36:00.000-03:00

Hi All!

Hope things are going well there in the U.S. of A. I've heard a lot about the financial mess, its been in the papers here...Hopefully none of you have been affected too much.

Some interesting things to update you all about, I never quite know what will happen next...

First I will talk about the crazy last two weekends I have had.

The first weekend consisted of the jungle, getting stuck in a river, mudslides, and long car rides with no leg room. I'll explain. So my group and some students studying in Cusco, went to Occobamba - sort of jungle-like to work at a health campaign. We had to be at our program office at 5AM, but we only ended up leaving at 7AM because our combi (basically a little mini-bus made for people under 5 feet) had some problems. We packed up and left with lots of mattress pads on top of the two combis, and embarked on what was supposed to be a 4hr ride which turned into 8 hours. The roads here in Peru are pretty insane, you are driving along mountains with no railings and one slipup can result in falling off the mountain. So had to cross multiple rivers and ended up getting stuck in one of them. We had to get out in the freezing water cutting our feet up with the rocks, and push the combi out. We couldn't do it, so a big truck full of Peruvians laughing at us gringos got us out. Of course my lower legs got eaten alive by bugs (ugh i thought I had finished with them in Nica). The health campaign itself was really interesting and a bit overwhelming. I first worked with the dentist, putting flouride on kids teeth and trying not to get too nauseous seeing them pull out teeth and people spitting blood into buckets (there was no dental chair). That night we slept on the floor of an elementary school in sleeping bags which was fun The next day we also worked at the clinic. Within the 2 days and about 9 hours, we saw about 200 patients. I was happier the second day because I worked in triage, taking peoples blood pressures, figurin out why they were there. I saw some pretty sad things - a woman with a goiter, a 32 y/o mother of 7 that had never had a pap smear and wasn't family planning, malnutritioned children, kids with worms, old men who can barely stand up, etc. etc. Life in the mountains is pretty tough. SO we left that clinic exhausted, and had a 9 hr ridew back - we all propositioned to take the route with some paved road because it had rained and rain = mud on the roads. We took off took about 6 hours to get to a city quillyabamba, and found out that there had been a mudslide. So, they told us we would either have to leave in a few hours for more 8 hours of driving, or stay or the night - which really meant sleep 2 hours in a hostel 2 to a twin bed. We were all exhausted - including the drivers (a bit scary), but we drove and drove until we came upon the site of the mudslide, in which we waited three hours. The road had literally come off in a spot, and people were putting up a pile of dirt that cars, minivans, and huge buses were crossing over. A bit scary becaue they could easily fall off the mountain. Us humans had to run across the pile of dirt in case more mud fell. throughout the voyage we ate crackers, listened to music, and laughed about the ridiculousness of all that was happening to us. Thankfully we arrived home safely, sleepy, and dirty, but we thanked our driver, and our little Toyota Combi that could.

So it finally happened, parasites. I had heard that almost every foreign volunteer has had salmonella, giardia, even amoebas, but i thought it wouldn[t happen to me. This weekend we had a planned trip to see ruins in the scared valley (where I am) in Ollantaytambo, Cusco and Pisac. Bit gross - but the night before I vomited probably everything I had in my body, I attributed it to eating mayonnaise and a weird Russian salad on Friday. Anyway I went on the trip feeling weak and sick, but I did see the ruins and climbed a bit. When we got to our hotel in Cusco, three of my other volunteer friends also complained of having digestive issues and feeling stomach sick, so we decided to all take a trip to the clinic. We were quite a pitiful sight drinking our gatorade, and being pale, and sickly. I had a blood test down and some other tests, and they confirmed, I have giardia - a parasite that you get from contaminated food. The doctor gave me these heavy duty pills (1 gram each) My friends all have salmonella. So of my grroup of 7 all 7 have been ill. I was able to do a bit of the ruins in Pisac (absolutely amazing), and shop at a market. Food pretty much revolts me, but each day I am feeling better and having a bit more appetite. Its not so enjoyable, but it is part of the experience here, and now I can say I've had giardia (something new, right?)

My work is going pretty well. The environemtal talks in the school are going well. The past 2 weeks we have one global warming and ecosystems. Global warming was fun because we symbolized a student volunteer as the earth and put more and more clothing layers (contaminants) to symbolize the earth gettin warm. The kids in the school are pretty crazy though. They call us "profes" or "grigitas". We walked into one 3rd grade class and the teacher had left the kids all alone for the rest of the day with homework on the board. So we just went in to do the talks. One kid got stung by a bee, others were biting each other, etc, etc. Ecosystems grades 4-6 went better, and the kids paid attention more, and I had to yell less. I like it but I{ve realized I could never be an elementary school teacher, or deal with so many kids at the same time. The other group with children is fun also, they are very cute, some of the older ones think they are too cool for some activities, and resort to playing volleyball and throwing balls all over the place. My women's groups are also doing well, yesterday we did some yoga which they found funny, I've also done a self esteem talk, and some English lessons. The things the women make are really beautiful (I've bought a few already!) and its great to know who has made the the things I am buying are, and that it is a woman who is trying to improve her life. I am excited, I get to attend a 5 day tourism conference with some of the women in Beautiful Arequipa - Canyon Country.

I'm getting pretty tired of some of the music here. I have a plae right near my house that sells illegal fake cds/dvds, and they play loud screaching Andean music, or the same Peruvian pop songs (Grupo 5- they have nice voices, but actually more than 5 old men in the group. I'm sort of over the food as well. Before I got sick I was just eating way too much, too much bread, too much tea, and I am missing being able to eat when I want, what I want, how much I want, since I've been away for 4 months. I also miss my mom's food - like caldo verde mmm. I have been able to try some good new things - salted dried corn - machis, Inka Kola (not too good but it tastes like bubble gum), cream soups, etc.

Its pretty cool to walk in my city now and recognize people, and have kids call me "profe", and just look at the beautiful mountains and be warm during the day, and be able to wrap up in my many blankets and be warm during the chilly nights.

Doctors are on strike here, fighting for higher wages. Also, I almost neverrr have water in my house, we have it from 6AM - 8AM, maybe a bit around lunch, and maybe a bit at night, but no much more. ON the radio, they are always complaining about this, and the fact that the local gov is corrupt, and stealing, etc, etc.

Wednesdays we have trivia night here at a cool restaurant bar where the volunteers make up the questions - I did last week. They serve yummy food there, like an amazing pie - bonouffe? (look up the recipe!) and good fruit juices. Also on Tuesdays we have group dinners at my programs office (where we have 2 sheep that almost got attacked by a dog yesterday), and I made tomato soup, grilled cheese, and nachos (really hard to find tortilla chips here but I found them).

At group dinner last week, we had a discussion about development work, and came up with a thought that I think is really important to realize. Most of the world are the have-nots. Most of the world is not like the US, most people have a lack of water, worry about their next meals, don't have access to good healthcare/education, have parasites often, don't have curtains, chandeliers, decorative pillows, can't vacation, buy cars, etc, etc. So we should realize that there is another world out there, and its not all the material that matters. We should try to appreciate what we have, and watch our consumption because our overuse of resources results in much of the world, not even having the basics that we should all have.

Sorry for the long entry, I am having a good time here, but miss Nica, and especially miss home. ONly 1 month left! But it will be weird to be in our overly sanitized, rule ridden, consumeristic society! (I really do love the U.S. , though.

I will finally see Machu Picchu October 11!!

Comment! Miss you all!

Over the mountains...

2008-09-18T21:54:00.000-03:00

Hi All!

Hope things are going well, and everyone is getting ready for fall.

First real update from Peru...and theres a lot to talk about.

I am really enjoying Peru so far, and am trying not to compare it to Nicaragua

I am currently in Urubamba, which is a city in the Sacred Valley of Peru, about an hr away from Cusco, the old capital of the Incas. It is absolutely beautiful, we are 9000 feet above sea level, surrounded by mountains. The first few days I had trouble acclimating to the altitude, a little trouble breathing, and a headache but I feel fine now. I wake up looking at the Andes mountains, and there is a river around the city. Urubamba is pretty different from the city I was in in Nica, the streets are paved, there is a nice central plaza with flowers, there are bookstores everywhere,ice cream shops, restaurants, the power does not go out for the most part, its pretty safe to walk at night. I LOVE the climate. During the day, its warm and sunny - you wear a light jacket, at night its chilly, but comfy to cuddle in blankets. The winter gear here is amazing, alpaca scarves, jackets, hats, ponchos, etc.

So I really like my host family. My mom is super sweet, and pretty talkative - except its a little hard to understand Peruvian women because they have very skeaky high sort of voice. She is a very good cook, and I have been enjoying the food here after rice and beans (I do love rice and beans and tortilla tho), she makes me yummy soups for lunch, fish, potatoes with great sauce, pasta, etc, etc. The bread here is so good and there are lots of different kinds I also drink tea like 2-3 times a day, which addes to the coziness. An interesting tea here is coca, made from leaves - thousands of them can make a bit of cocaine...interesting. I have a 6 year old sister, who bothers me at times because she never wants to eat and just sticks food in her mouth, my host dad is nice - he rides around on his motorcycle, and then I have a 17 yo bro, and a 18 yo sister but they are studying in Cusco during the week. My house is pretty nice - different from my Nica house - we have a real bathroom, microwave, and fridge...I also have my own big room upstairs. However, I cant watch TV because it is in a bedroom, so I sort of feel like I don't know what is going on.

One big issue I have been facing here though is never having water. I've taken quite a few bucket showers. We have water for like two hours in the morning, and then it comes back at like 6 pm, sometimes. People are always ranting and raving about paying for a service and not getting it on the radio. Also, the water is freezing, and the way to get a semi warm shower is through an electric heater on the shower head - not the safest thing to have electrical wires and water, but it does get the water warm, when we have it. The less that comes out the more their is, so I basically shower with a few trickles of warm water. Its pretty cold in my bathroom, and it sort of smells like wet dog in there. Not quite sure why - may have something to do with not having water a lot of the time.

I am feeling pretty okay health-wise, despite having a cold and chapped lips. I am pretty much waiting until I get a parasite - giardia or salmonella, because almost EVERY intern I've talked to has gotten sick, but luckily they say the doctors here deal with that on a daily basis, and the other interns have quickly gotten over it with medicine. Supposedly my host family, and other people who are concerned with gringo health wash vegetables with a little bleach. Cool.

I've been able to go to a festival, it was a lot of fun with live music, we saw amazing dancers with traditional dress. Also, some crazyyy fireworks that shot out of some metal contraption. The funnest part was hanging out with another interns host moms brother who was very drunk and followed us around dancing and saying "I love you persons! American Persons! Dolly Parton, you know her? I love her, beautiful!" I've also been able to go to a Peruvian burial - really random. It was beautiful with the mountains in the back, and with the women with their colorful cloths. However it was very sad, and of course the daughters fainted, and oddly their was cheerful sort of drum music. Last weekend, I helped build a kitchen at a school in the mountains, I was lifting 30lb mud bricks - pretty proud of myself. A lot of houses/buildings are made out of mud bricks here. I also went to Cusco on Saturday, which is really nice...it has a beautiful plaza, and it reminds me a lot of Spain. I ate some tasty trout there, and we did a little shopping. There are a lot of tourists there though.

I like my work, although it is a little different than what I did in Nicaragua. In the mornings I teach environmental education to 1-3 graders, yes it is crazy, and yes I have noooo experience working with kids. Last week was a bit difficult because it was our first time (me and another intern)and the kids were running around beating each other up, not listening. The school is pretty diff than an American school, the kids leave the class a lot, teachers do too, recess at the same time. Last week we did a lesson on how to make compost which got really messy with little baggies of grass, sheep excrement, and rotting fruit peels, lol. The kids are super cute though, and love when we come. This week has gone a lot better with our lesson on global warming. I am pretty impressed by how much the kids know - for example a 2nd grader told me that global warming is caused by the destruction of the ozone layer, and they all know the diff between organic and inorganic. I also work with another group of kids in the afternoon, they are from a poor mountain community, and pretty much wear the same outfits all day everyday, including sandals, which don't seem to protect them from the cold. We read and play with them, give them bread and hot chocolate, yesterday we played volleyball, and they definitely played much bettter than me.

I also work with three separate women's groups. All of the groups work on knitting - hats scarves, ponchos, out of alpaca...the things are beautiful and I am amazed at how they do it. The women knit half of the time, and then the other time we do an activity with them. One of the groups is just starting out and is focused on business - getting their business plan together, and I will be working on making a brochure for them, and also a website. The other two groups are more established, and we focus more on the emotional side - we do self-esteem talks, do arts and crafts, yoga, and other activities that the women can relax with and forget about what they have to deal with at home - a lot of them are victims of domestic violence, and of course as women all of them are responsible for taking care of their home.

To go to work I have to take combis, which are mini buses. It is quite an interesting experience everytime. They pack way too many seats so you don't have any leg room, also they pack as many people as possible. You are often squished in between quechua women with big skirts, plants, and sometimes live animals. It can be a lot of fun though, and they might be a bit nicer than the nica buses, although the music generally isn't as good. They also have mototaxis everywhere, they are pretty crazy drivers, but its fun to ride in them.

Some interesting things I have noted about Peru, and just random observations - Peruvians are pretty quiet and reserved - there isn't too much noise here, they love 80s and 90s american music, guinea pig is a delicacy - ick, people have dry sunburned cheeks - (especially kids - so cute) from the altitude. The dogs here are pretty ferocious, much less friendly than Nica dogs, maybe it is because they look pretty well fed and have the energy to bark and attempt to attack you. There is a man with an ostrich in the plaza, wanting to take pictures with tourists. Market days here in Urubamba are Wed, Fri, and Sat. Indigenous women with their skirts, and babies on their back in colorful cloths are everywhere. Also here in Urubamba, there is a market and market days are Wed,Fri, and Sat - the women lay all their produce on my streeet It's a pretty interesting sight to see. - I woke up at 450 AM today, and they were already setting up. I've learned a few words of quechua! (Spanish, quechua and aymara are the official languages here). Another thing is that men pee, anywhere and everywhere, kind of gross to encounter. Also you have to kiss people when you walk in/meet them, and when you walk out. It is quite a process with some of our women's groups.

Anyway, I am off to the jungle this week to work on a health campaign, and more work and activities next week - such as making up trivia questions for trivia night at this really cool restaurant. Feel free to comment/email. Miss you all!

closing time....a new beginning

2008-08-31T18:07:00.000-03:00

Hi everyone!

So I am in Peru right now, but I will recap the last few weeks in Nicaragua - Sorry I have delayed so much, but I had been really busy with work, getting ready to leave, and getting ready for Peru. Okay so here is a recap of my final days in Nicaragua.

It is crazy that my time in Nicaragua is over. I can't believe it. Sometimes it feels like I've been there forever, sometimes like I just got there...Sometimes I felt like I wanted to leave...Sometimes I felt like I couldn't even imagine leaving.

I've got to experience a festival in my city for Santo Domingo. Its really pretty weird. They saints figures are very tiny in a glass case, in a big flower bed, and people bring them up and down the street with music, and theirs drunkards everywhere, and people try to selling anything they can - sunglasses, chica (a fermented corn drink - egh), cotton candy, etc.

So the last few weeks the mosquitos attacked me once again, especially my legs. Its also been pretty hot and rainy. It amazes me though, my coworkers are from Nica, and always complain about the heat, and I haven't been!

The power and water also went out quite often the last few weeks, its tough when it goes out at night and you can't sleep with a fan. Also, I've taken quite a few bucket showers, which really aren't too bad.

Domingos came to visit on August 21 for 5 days! He didnt get to experience much nica food because I am tired of it, but he did try some, including elote - grilled corn thats made on the street that I had been to scared to eat before. I was excited to show him what ive been seeing and doing. Quite a few things surprised him at first - the buses, people selling things on the buses, most men wear pants despite the heat. We went to the odd new cathedral in Managua. I got to have my first first hot shower in almost 3 months, we had some crazy bus rides with the driver trying to pass everyone. He also got to experience how in Nica you are just driving and oops there's a volcano. After Managua, we went to Leon, we took a truck sort of bus which took us to some far off place, but we got to the museums, Ruben Darios house. Domingos started thinking Nica money wise - but kept asking if its in Cordobas why do people say dollars?? We got to see Granada, experience a mini 10 minute hurricane, shopped in the markets in Masaya, enjoyed hammocks & abuelitas, loved the beautiful beach in San Juan del Sur. I was excited to show him around Ciudad Sandino, and introduce him to my family and co-workers. Of course the first thing my host sister asks him is - so what do you think about Nica women? lol. Anyway, it was great to have him visit, although it made me a little homesick.

Work: So I was pretty busy at work - especially with my project. I also once again realized my artistic ability when I made a box to put the charts on the doctors door, in less than an hour. I also discovered how much I now know about STDs, sexual and reproductive health in general, women's rights, etc. I had been making photocopies everyday on the photocopier we've bought - and discovered I'm terrible at doing math without a calculator (calculating how much the copies cost for clients, and how much change I should give back). Unfortunately the last week, something went wrong with the photocopier - I was not very happy about it because we just bought it and its supposed to be a sustainable income maker - however it got sent to be fixed. I also had to translate the photocopier manual, because - this annoys me very much - the sell things with the manual in English to a Spanish Speaking country ugh.

I was able to see my project in its completion! It was pretty amazing, and the women were super excited that they learned how to make the baby shoes, headbands, decorative fans and flowers. The fourth workshop I was only at for a about an hour because I had to go pick up Domingos from the airport, but the women practiced finishing the baby shoes and headbands. The fifth workshop also went well, despite tardiness on the part of instructor and the women - it always seemed to rain the days of our workshops, and it makes it hard for women to get around. The women made a little baby shoe in class that very day, and learned how to make decorative satin flowers that can go on dresses and things like that. We also took pictures of each of them with their products, the women were pretty proud of what they made. The final workshop was really nice, and made me realize that my work had made an impact on these women. The learned the final craft which was to make decorative fans, and they practiced the flowers they had learned. We presented the women with certificates of completion which they were super excited about. Another part of my project was to make and educative poster about economic independence, and display the women's final products and pictures from the workshops. I worked really hard on the poster, and the women were super excited about it, and said it came out really well. We also had some pizza, and chocolate chip cookies that I had made from those betty crocker packs - they loved them. Then we all said some words about the project, my boss was really impressed tht we had met out objectives, and said it was the first time they had tried such a thing, and some of the women said some really amazing things to me like thank you so much for bringing this project to us, its not everyday that you find a person with a big heart who wants to help others, and i feel really blessed to have had this opportunity and I've learned that us women really do have power, and are capable...and another woman said that the project had really motivated her in life. They all clapped for my work, and thanked me. It felt great, and I realized that was the reason why I came, to change lives - I know its impossible to change the entire country, but I helped a few women obtain new knowledge that can improve their lives. One of them gave me a nice bracelet, and another a nice woven cloth.

The staff at my work, and my host family gave me such a nice goodbye, it was really sad and hard to leave them. At work, they gave me a little party with pizza, balloons streamers, little desserts, and gave me lots of gifts - a typical shirt which is so pretty, 2 tee shirts from the organization, a tote bag, a book, and a small painted jewelery box for the many earrings I bought there. We had a pretty tearful goodbye, and they thanked me for all the work I did, saying that I was the best volunteer that they had had, and had done a lot of things for the center and the women of the community, especially with the project. I indicated in return, how much I had learned from them, and how lucky I was to have been placed in their organization. My host family likewise gave me a shirt, a pair of sweatpants, shampoo, facial masks (lol), and they were so excited about it. It was very hard to leave them because they treated me so well, they were so much fun, and so sweet. It was also a tearful goodbye with them, and they also seemed to be sad. I really feel like I made many new friends, and family that I will try to keep in contact with.

My last week was very busy and a little stressful, with the last workshop, going with my host sister shopping for my host family in Peru, packing, finishing the project, and writing my final evaluation. I didn't get to take pictures of my city that I had wanted to take, and I very well could have used a few more days. However, I have had time to reflect on my stay in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua is frustrating, beautiful, poverty-stricken, hot, cold, and much much more. Many times I was frustrated with the way things were - computers not working, power out, not having this, not having that, people working a bit slower,the heat, dirt, loudness, dust, working with an organization, men, etc. It is a society that faces many problems - there is a lot of poverty - half of the population lives on less than 2 dollars a day, only 30% of the pop has a structured salary, lack of infrustructure, political -corruption, theft on the part of politicians - a possible dictatorship, social issues - lacking education system, machismo, violence, and much much more. However, Nicaragua, has a lot of natural beauty - its people, its nature, its culture.

All in all, I LOVE Nicaragua. I would do it all over again in a second, I learned so much about the country, how its people fight to get by, how hospitable, friendly, and fun they are. I also learned about what I am capable of, before this experience I was really nervous, thought I wouldnt meet people, integrate into the community, support the heat, the bugs, the dust, but I did. At the end of it all, we wont remember how nice the hot showers we had were, or how the electicity worked, or how the roads were paved, but instead how amazing the things we experience are and how amazing people we met were. This has been one of the most difficult, amnazing, and rewarding experiences of my life.

So I was supposed to leave Nicaragua Friday morning...but they cancelled my connecting flight to Costa Rica - so I went to hotel for a few hours for lunch, and then to Panama City - Lima - Cusco as normal. A bit annoying because I woke up sooo early for no reason, but hey I get to add a new destination to places I've been - Panama! I am now in Peru, learning and seeing new things.

I will update on my Peru experience in about a week!

Nica Nica Nica

2008-08-17T14:23:00.000-03:00

Hi All!

Hope you are having a nice August, I've heard theres been a lot of thunderstorms up there in the Northeast. Well, I can't believe it but I have less than 3 weeks left here in Nicaragua, and then will be off to Peru! I'm excited to go to Peru, but I am pretty used to being here, and am sure that once I'm in Peru I'll get a little homesick for the U.S. and for Nica!

Here's an update on my adventures:

My work is going pretty well. We started our project 2 weeks ago, and bought the photocopier as I described in my last blog. So we had our first half of workshop on the crafts. The women learning how to make baby shoes, baby headbands, little satin flowers, and decorative fans. The first workshop went relativelt well despite some setbacks. First the instructor was about 40 min late because her husband's motorcycle broke, then some women who were supposed to show up didn't show up, and women who were not supposed to show up did. These happenings are pretty commonplace in NicaOne of the community promoters was invited to participate because she is a victim of domestic violence and lives on her own, but she brought her daughter, and another community promoter (who is not a victim of domestic violence and is with her husband). Anyway, we let them stay because its heard to keep the community promoters because they are volunteers - and they are important in getting women to attend the educative talks and videos in the community as well as important in getting women who are victims of violence to visit the center. After that the workshop went well, the instructor apologized, the women (and I!) learned how to make a braid that will be used for the headband and baby shoes. The second workshop also went well, despite the power going out for an hour and a half and having to sweat profously without fans, we learned how to stick the elastic in the braid, the women started to cut the bases for the shoes and also learned where and for how much to buy the materials. I feel pretty good about it, because they all seem excited and eager to learn, and are interested in making the things as a part of their income. The fact that I was a part of bringing the project to them is pretty cool, despite all its challenges. This past week we had the third workshop which went well, despite the rain which made the instructor and most of the women more than a 1/2 hr late because the streets were filled with water, and they couldnt catch a moto taxi. There were tons of people though, with kids, friends, etc, etc. The women learned how to make the bases of the shoes, and they also filled out a mid class evaluation - a total of 6 workshops, and it made me feel pretty good because they all said that they liked the workshops, and they said we thank god, nancy, and ixchen for giving us the materials and the opportunity to learn :)

I've also been discovering at work that I am quite an artist – sort of - I painted a sign to advertytise the photocopier with a painting of the photocopier that really looks like it, and also painted the suggestion box in our waiting room that unfortunately no one puts suggestions in. I've gotten the chance to participate in the psychologists self help groups. I took the opportunity to tell the women that they do have power, to not let themselves be subordinated to men, and to express their desires and their dreams, and that men can cook, clean, and wash, lol. I just get really angtry when I see the machismo here, that the men sit around doing nothing while the women slave away to take care of the home and children, and then still many of the men are cheaters, or they beat their wives, etc.

So I´m not sure if I've mentioned this in detail in my past blogs, but the economic situation here is pretty critical. A tragedy occured here in Managua three Saturdays ago, the main market (Mercado Oriental) in the capital, Managua had a terrible fire, about 100 million dollars worth of damage was done. Its really bad because a lot of people work in the market, and people depend on buying the cheap products there. I'm not sure the statistics but 50% or almost 50% of the population lives on 2 dollars a day. Just to give you an idea of the differences in salaries, the gynocologist at my work who works 5 days a week, 8 hr/day only makes $255 a month. The lawyer there who works three times a week, only makes $100 a month. Things here are cheap, but not that cheap, eletronics here cost almost the same as the U.S., gas is just as expensive (few poeple have their own cars, but the higher the gas prices - higher food costs, etc). Prices are getting higher and higher, and more and more people are going hungry, while the president (who I don't know if I mentioned is a rapist who raped his step-daughter) is driving around in mercedes, taking trips that cost thousands of dollars, and trying to get involved in problems with other countries (like Colombia) while his people are hungry, and dealing with tons of other social issues.

I've been pretty busy lately, all the other interns have left, so I had been trying to spend some time with them. I also got to travel up north in the country to Esteli, which was one of my favorite places, it was sort of mountanous in the background, and was nice and cool, and not crazy noisy - which was a pleasant change. I've also gotten to do a little shopping, at the craft market in Masaya, and some other fairs in Managua. Nicaragua artesan work is amazing, especially the hammocks which are hand woven and super comfortable. As always, enjoying the chances I can eat some comfort food - so I've gone out to pizza, and TGI Fridays. I've also been spending time with my host family, who I love, watching soap operas, chatting, etc. My host mom is very busy planning the special olynmpics for los pipitos - an association for disabled children, the work they do is amazing, but its hard because there are little economic resources. They have to fundraise for the athletes to have shoes and uniforms, and the event itself costs $56,000. If anyone in the states is involved in the special olympics there, and would like to help out, let me know.

The situation with the chickens in our house keeps getting crazy and crazier, they have to tie up certain chickens because they peck at each other, and you hear them fighting, etc. The big chicken - whos name is Picherulli almost killed his son black Picherulli the other day. haha. They seem like more trouble than anything to me, but oh well. Chicks are going to be born next week, and I have the honor of naming one, yay.

I've also been able to have dinner with a lot of interesting people, some donors for the programs of the interns from Cali, the director of international programs of our program, and yesterday I had lunch with an 83 year old woman, a friend of one of my professors who runs a foundation here that works with children who work in the streets (unfortunately they are everywhere here), which offers health, food, and education programs). Shes had quite an interesting life - Born and lived in Spain for 18 years, lived in cuba for 18 years, here for 15 years, and in the states - the Rhode Island/Connecticut area for the rest of the time. Despite it all, there good people doing good things here.

As well as being busy, I've had a few minor health issues. Last weekend, I made the mistake of leaving my contacts in when the entire group stayed at a hotel the night before most of the group left, and had a big issue with my eye - it was super red, and painful, and I couldn't stand to open it or be in the sunlight. Thankfully, it only lasted a day, except that day I was in bed, practically blind, with cucumbers on my eyes, lol. Also last week, randomly, I had a fever of 102.5 one night, I freaked out a bit thinking I had dengue or something, but I went to the pharmacy got some antibiotics and antifever, and it went down almost instantly. The pharmacy system is pretty different here, you don't need a prescription,you just buy what you like, which isn't the safest, but it is easy. Also they love using injections for everything, I refused the injection, because there was another option.

So, things are going well, and I can't believe I have less than three weeks here! I'm preparing myself for Peru, which will be a lot colder, I think quieter, and just different in general.

Feel free to comment/email - miss you all!

The land of no streets

2008-07-28T19:52:00.000-03:00

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't updated lately!

So there's a lot to update about...

Let´s start with work: It's going really well. I didn't talk about this last time - but I gave a talk to some women in the community, all my myself! The talk was on Stress and Anxiety - and I talked about what stress is, what it does to us, and some techniques and exercises to use when dealing with it. We did some stretches, meditative activities, etc. It was to a group of about 10 women, and they all said they enjoyed it, and what I saw from the evaluation we did, really learned a lot. I enjoyed it, and it made me feel like I was really doing something for these women. One woman said: I really like the workshop, now I know how to deal with stresses and life, and not allow myself to get to an unhealthy point" .

Finally my project is coming along. Last week was insane, trying to find the women for the craft workshops. Why was it hard to find these women? BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ADDRESSES HERE in Nica! Seriously, there are no street names, addresses are made based on blocks, landmarks, things that are, things that were, etc. For example:
From where the old plaza was, 2 blocks north, 40 steps up
2 blocks north of the large palm tree, 3 to the east towards the lake
6 blocks west of the King of Kings Church, Next to the Convenience Store Romero
Its Crazy! A lot of the addresses were wrong, and some places we couldnt find, but so far we have 8 out of 10 women.
It was also insane trying to find the photocopier. I am now an expert on photocopiers. Because money is a big issue, we had to see how many pages each toner prints, how much the toner is, etc. And there is not big store where they sell them so we had to call all these different little stores, and they gave us different prices, and it was just crazy. But we finally bought one - a Canon photocopier that makes lots of copies, and we set it up today, and everyone was super excited. Last week they also had me go to a conference - all by myself! in Managua at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on a new project for HIV/AIDS funded by the European Union. It was really interesting. My boss also had me go speak to the director at the hospital here in the city for help on a research project, and he was really friendly, spoke to me immediately, and gave me full attention. I have really noticed here that doctors seem a lot more friendly, and not as arrogant, and evasive as many drs in the U.S.

Last weekend was pretty exciting. July 19th is the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, so there wa a really big rally in the capital. I went with some friends and my host dad, and his veteran Sandinista friends from the war. One of his friends - Carlos was sporting a CVS pharmacy tee-shirt - haha. I get a kick out of some of the shirts I see - I´m not sure if they are donated, or sent and purchased, but I've seen lot of people with U.S. high school soccer team shirts, fraternity tee-shirts, and one day on the bus - a man with a mcdonalds uniform polo that said : Team Leader: Lisa. Anyway, we went to the plaza, and it was one big Sandinsta rally - black and red everywhere, people waving flags, Che stuff all over the place, it was insane like 300,000 people. With the help of my host dad and Carlos, we got up pretty close, and were able to see the current president Ortega - his wife, HUGO CHAVEZ!, the Honduran president, and the VP of Cuba. It got a bit crazy with drunkards, pickpocketers, and pushy people, so we made out way out of the crowd, immersing our feet in the mud. My hot dad and Carlos have changed my idea about men here a bit - they found a place to get water for our feet, and WASHED our feet for us! Later that night we went out to eat with the president's private press secretary (I know really crazy and random - But he is an american who met my friend's mom in NY and contacted her here), he was reallly interesting used to work for the UN, and took us out to dinner at TGI Fridays (yummmm - I try to mostly buy and eat local stuff but sometimes you need a piece from home), and then he took us to a salsa place, and his private chaffeur took us home.

Something I've noticed here - U.S. society is way too concerned with rules and regulations. Here they squeeze people into buses (althought ironically it still says capacity 66 persons from when they were in the U.S.). Here they sell pirated music and dvds on EVERY street corner, sewer are wide open, there are no crosswalks, street names, you make as much noise as you want at any time of the day, people drive around 3 or 4 to a motorcycle without helmets, seatbelts are hardly ever worn, etc. Im not saying that safety and laws and rules aren't important, but I just get a kick of out it.

Two other random thoughts/things - plastic lawn chairs are really great. Almost everywhere here, people use plastic lawn chairs - usually white ones. They are really sturdy, pretty comfortable, and cheap. Also, there is this song here that plays 585,767,575,473 times a day (not really but it feels like it). Its from a tv show called Patito Feo (Ugly Duckling - kind of like Ugly Betty), and there was a huge countrywide dance competition among young people to the song. It is catchy, but pretty dumb and not the best thing for girls to sing - It basically says "We are the divines, we rule this corner, we are cool people, ugly girls don't enter here, get out of here you ugly girl, and you ugly one over there"...LOL.

The mosquito bites are getting better, the Ministry of Health actually fumigated the streets of the city, not sure if that is healthy or not, but my legs are not as bitten up.

This past weekend was also a lot of fun, and tiring. We had a goodbye party sort of thing for the first summer group here who leaves Thurs, and only slept one hour, then took a 1 1/2 hr bus ride in the morning STANDING UP in the heat, to Leon. We ended up having two really great days in Leon, it is a beautiful city (unfortunately one of the hottest in Nica) but it has lots of old cathedrals and churches, interesting museums, a nice central plaza, yummy restaurants (including a vegetarian one with quesadillas pasta, spanish tortilla, hummus, etc.), and thought provoking murals. One mural I especially liked traced the whole history of Nicaragua, another displayed the U.S CIA as a snake that coiled around all the positive reforms the Sandinistas did when they went to power, etc. Nica history is absolutely fascinating, and we we were able to learn a lot about it this weekend.

So I'm finding that I'm enjoying my time more and more here, despite annoyances, frustrations, the machismo, etc. Nicaragua has a lot of beauty and great people, but also a lot of poverty and other problems, but its been the perfect place to really see development at work. Its pretty sad, I've already had to say bye to some of the people in my group, because I won't see them this weekend, and they leave next Thursday. I will be alone for three weeks - but Domingos will be here for 1!

Well , sorry this was a long update, I will update again next week. Please Comment and Email!!

Hard work pays off!

2008-07-16T20:11:00.000-03:00

Hi everyone! Hope your enjoying your summer!

I apologize for the delay in writing - I´ve been busy working, traveling, sweating, etc. etc. So there's a lot to update you all on...

First thing first, I've been having a pretty good experience at work. I love all my co-workers, and love to talk to them. Today was pretty strange, we had a birthday party for a former employee, with Vodka...haha. Sometimes I do get frustrated with a slower work pace, and wish I had more to do, and we could get things done faster, but I´m learning to get used to it. Referring to the title of this blog - Last week, and the week before I worked furiously on writing a grant proposal to recieve money for a sustainable project for my organization. It was quite along document - 14 pages with a detailed budget, etc, etc. It was a bit frustrating because I basically wrote it side by side with the educator at my org, in Spanish, and then had to translate it all in English, and had to deal with no power at times, a floppy disk (my thumb drive got a virus at an internet cafe and I infected the two comps at my work - oops, and also we have no internet at work, and I have no personal computer, so it was tough. Thankfully, despite the frustrations, my co-workers were a huge help. I submitted it, and thankfully we were fully funded for the project, $905 that the org didn't have before. Basically the project is for former victims of domestic violence. Many of them deal with the abuse because they are economically dependent on their husbands - something that has to do with both the machista tradition, and the economic and educational issues in the country. So with our project, we are giving the women workshops on crafts that they can sell - little baby shoes and headbands, decorative fans, satin decorative bows, etc. In order to ensure the program is sustainable and will continue after these first set of workshops, we are going to purchase a photocopier (also a need for the org for students who go there for info, and victims of domestic violence who often can't pay to make copies for the court=, so the money the photocopier makes will pay for the future workshops. I'm quite proud of the project, and can't wait to get it going.

In other news, I've been have some minor health issues - I've had a cold for about 3 weeks - strange a cold in such heat, irritated eyes, and the worst of all - tons of mosquito bites on my legs. I look like I have some sort of skin disease. Yes, I do use repellant sometimes, but I don't want to have deet on my skin every hour of every day. So I just scratch and scratch, and try to swat at the blood suckers when I see them.

I've also been spending an hour pretty much everynight watching a telenovela. Telenovelas (soap operas are huge here). There is a channel of 24 hr telenovelas, and many more channels with them. The one I watch is called Te Sigo Amando from Mexico. It's crazy, and there is so much drama and exaggeration, but I love to watch it with my host sister, while my host brother snickers and says its stupid, etc...but I tell him it's a lot better than Dragon Ball Z - which he loves to watch.

The food situation is okay. Again some of the food is really good - tortillas, rice beans, fruit juices, fruit, but other not so much. My friends and I have pretty much come to the conclusion that the issue is the lack of flavor. They don't use many spices, or variety in how they cook. Also no olive oil, which I love. It may differ in other homes here, I'm not sure. It all stems back to the tradition based on corn, and always the lack of financial resources. In the states we all complain about money, but I'll tell you, we all live in MANSIONS compared to many of the people here, so we should recognize it. Lately, my friends and I, anytime we go out or on trips, seek the most familiar food we can find, that usually consists of chips, and other junk that I never eat much of in the U.S. Strange.

One of my favorite things here so far is riding around in little moto taxis. They are basically motorcycles with cabs attached to the back, but they are fun because I nice breeze enters it. They can be painful on the dirt roads, and such. One of the most ironic things here is that there a speed bumps everywhere, but still people drive like maniacs. However, I haven't seen 1 accident yet, so I guess they know what they're doing.

So I've done a bit of traveling the last 2 weekends. The weekend before last - 4th of July for you all, we went up to the mountains near Jinotega. It was such a nice change of pace from the city. We got to slosh around all weekend in rubber boots in the mud, went to the bathroom in latrines, didn't shower, etc. The ride was long - about 6 hours, and pretty tough most of the time. It was beautiful though. We also went on the the most INTENSE hike of my life. We were trying to reach a huge waterfall, but to do it had to go through rivers, slip through trees, climb, and do half of it in the POURING RAIN. it lasted 1h 1/2 to get up to the waterfall. At one point I had pretty much decided I couldnt go anymore, and didn't care about seeing the d*** waterfall, but I pursued. Let me tell you it was worth it, it was absolutely amazing, the waterfall was huge, and we could feel its power. It was a sort of enlihghtening thing that makes you think about your life, and how you can't believe you have gotten to the place where you are at that exact moment, and makes you thankful for the opportunity. They also gave us a party, which was funny and weird at the same time, we were all dirty with our boots, and old men just kept asking us to dance pretty bad music the whole time. It was fun, though.

This past weekened was amazing. Everyone in my group went to San Juan del Sur the beaches down in the pacific. It is a more touristy place, but not really the huge hotels and stuff like there are other places. That is something that I like about Nica, since its developing it still maintains a lot of its real natural beauty, and isn't as commercialized as a lot of the other places I've been. We had a great time, going to the beach, went out dancing, eating American food at an awesome cafe/bookstore owned by Americans - I had hummus, feta cheese, olives, a !!!wheat bagel with cream cheese!!!, and at an Italian restaurant yummy pasta I've been craving. The best day by far was Saturday. We met an American living there, he goes to play with kids at an orphanage every Sunday, and invited us to go to a private beach to play with the kids from the orphanage, and eat pizza. HAlf of us went, and it was SO much fun. The kids were sooooo cute, excited, and happy. There were 30 of them all 8 years old and younger. We played in the water, ate pizza, they had two pinatas, did some yoga on the beach (another American girl there is a yoga instructor), and they got barney hats, and cookies. It was so much fun, and you could see they were all genuinely happy. The orphanage's director is an American Sister who was really friendly, and we could discovered from her that these kids are well fed, clothed, and educated. We had a great time, and just kept thinking, this is where it is at, days like this make it all worth it. We also got to meet a HILARIOUS 70 year old American woman, former Floridian, blonde hair blue eyes, two white maltise dogs - Diva and Mystique, who just moved to Nica, who a year prior didn't even know where it was on the map. It was a fun day.

The politics here are getting crazier by the minute. The prez is running around with Hugo Chavez, Correa from Ecuador, denouncing foreign aid (I've really noticed just how much stuff here is donated from Europe, Japan and the States that a withdrawal would be devastating), getting into problems with Colombia, and not doing much at all about the economic issues of the country. I am very impressed by the media, however, The newspapers seem to be pretty honest, and have no qualms about denouncing what is going on (Kristina R - I've been trying to keep up on it!).

Well sorry if this blog is super long, but I wanted to keep you all updated. Despite frustrations, and homesickness at times, I am so glad I'm here and learning so much. Feel free to comment or email. Till next time...

Ohhh just for a moment of quiet...

2008-07-01T19:56:00.000-03:00

Hi all,
Hope things are going well in the U.S. and everyone is ready to enjoy their fourth of july weekend! For my 4th weekend Im going up to Jinotega, where there are coffee plantations and such.

Well the heat is not as bad anymore, its been raining pretty much everyday which makes things a lot cooler and more comfortable. The thing that has been bothersome lately is, the noise! It is so hard to get even a moment of silence here! Its the buses, people, music, children, animals, etc. Yesterday I woke ip at 4AM, heard tons of roosters crowing, then at 5 AM the neighbor puts the radio on, then my host family speaks loudly at like 5:30, dogs are barking, cats and birds are running across the tin roof, its just all noise all the time! I talked to my host mom about it, and she said they are just all used to sleeping with noise, so I guess I have to try to get used to it myself, although its really challenging for me.

So the riding the bus situation is quite an interesting experience, everytime. On Saturday, we were so packed in the bus, I didnt even need to hold on, there is no such thing as personal space whatsover. However, I try to stay upbeat during the 45 minutes (trip from the capital Mangua to Ciudad Sandino) Im standing, sandwiched in between Nica strangers, I listen to the awesome music, and read the many interesting quotes on the inside of the bus. They also all have quotes on the outside, such as: PapiChulo, Regalo de Dios (god´s gift), and Baby. Pretty humorous. You all see some pretty sad things on the buses. People often go on and beg for money for various reasons. ON Friday it was a young man who stood at the head of the bus and, lifted up his shirt, and showed us all his feeding tube, explaining he gets fed only the little bit of milk he can afford, and he needs money to get an operation because his family is very poor. Really sad. Then Saturday, it was a man with crutches, describing he has a terrible debilitating illness in his feet, and spent 2 years bed/wheelchair ridden, and gets chastised because of his disability and can´t find work. The amount of people here begging is something seen on a daily basis.

So I´ve come to an obvious realization during my time here. We have wayyy too much stuff in the U.S., and still often complain about not having much money, or being on a tight budget, etc. My family here is pretty middle class, and still doesnt have many of the things most people in the U.S. have - like a refrigerator. So Ive realized three obvious thigns, we have so much stuff 1. Because we like it 2. It makes life easier, and 3. We can afford it. Of course I understand these comforts and enjoy them, but I dont think we realice that many are completely uncessary and so we shouldn´t complain about being broke, etc. Things that are completely unecessary that Ive noticed most people here don´t have include: curtains, microwaves (yes we could use stoves instead), 2 bathrooms, several phones in the home, the crazy amount of ¨decorative¨things we have, and the list could go on and on.
This past week I have been feeling quite a bit of homesickness. So, copying Poly´s blog (a friend of mine who recently moved to Brazil) Im going to write a list of 10 things I miss about the U.S., and 10 things I don´t miss about the U.S. This excludes missing my family, domingos, my dog lily, and friends, of course they are #1
10 Things I Miss about the U.S.

1. The food – ex: past & sauce, chips & salsa, wheat bread, normal cheese – not the salty stuff here, cheesecake, pizza, olives, olive oil, and much more! Nica food is okay, but not my favorite.
2. Air conditioning – I know high maintenance.
3. Not having tons of animals in the home – when I wake into everyone room at night I pause thinking about what I will see – the other night there was a mouse in my room!
4. THE QUIET!
5. Having a very comfortable bed/pillow
6. Being able to use the internet whenever I want to
7. Paved roads (there are some here – but in my city its only the main roads – other cities in Nica differ)
8. Not having men cat call you at every second/not having people stare at you because your a chela (pale-skinned)
9. Not having to worry about getting mugged
10. Not seeing extreme poverty, hearing about domestic violence, seeing sad things on a daily basis

10 Things I DON´T miss about the U.S.
1. Driving – although the buses can be torturous, I like walking and being a passenger
2. An overly hygenic, stressed, fastpaced and obsessive about pointless things society
3. The politics – The politics heer are much more interesting, and they actually DO talk about the issues
4. Not having abuelitas (rocking chairs) everywhere
5. The music – I do miss some, but overall I am constantly jammin
6. Working at a job that I´m not passionate about – I love my job here, and the work is so important!
7. Hearing celebrity gossip at all times
8. The lack of sense of humor of many people –many people here just crack me up, and have such a sense of humor despite it all
9. Being obsessed over what time it is
10. A consumer oriented society

Well wish I could update more, but I have a lot of work to do, as Im applying for a grant for a project at work! Please keep in touch, hope all is well!

Intense!

2008-06-24T20:12:00.001-03:00

Hi all,

I know I´ve been promising another blog entry to you all, and here it is. Sorry it hasn´t come sooner, I´ve just been pretty busy, and I work till 4:30 and it gets dark at 6:30 (no day light savings here) and I don´t like to be out at night.

Well - so much has gone on in the past week, and as the title of this post indicates, it has all been INTENSE!

So update on the heat - i am getting used to it, sort of. My favorite time of the day is the 15 minutes Im in the shower, and the 10 minutes after Im out of the shower. However, it has been cooler the past few days because there have been rain showers - its "winter here" - the rainy season, and finally I´m seeing rain. I would love it if it rained everyday because it makes everything a lot cooler. Its funny I figured that Nicas would be used to the heat, but they always still complain about it. The lawyer I work with thinks its funny that I say I will get used to it. The fans help, but they kind of just blow around hot air. Its pretty dusty here - my city doesn´t have many paved roads, so I have to wear sunglasses because the dust goes into my contacts, so Ive had quite a few days with very irritated eyes.

So the amount of animals I´m seeing in my house keeps increasing. Of course we have frosty - our dog, the 5 or 6 chickens and roosters that wake me up and stay right near our bathroom, I´ve also seen: little lizards crawling the walls at least twice a day, cockroaches, mice, a bat flying across my bedroom (there is a gap between the top of the walls and the ceilings - I think because of the heat), and of course tons of flies, ants, and other insects. Its fine though, I just pretend I don´t see them, and the lizards are kind of cute, anyway.

So the food situation is okay. I eat good tropical fruits every morning, and fruit juices are tasty. I am okay with the constant rice and beans. Normally, I LOVE cheese, but the only cheese they have here is this incredibly SALTY kind, which is tough to eat at times. But, as I don´t eat meat/chicken anymore, my host mother gives me fish - like tuna all the time, which gets a bit tiresome but oh well. There´s always something I don´t really like, but for the most part its pretty good. I miss my pasta, normal cheese, eggplant, yogurts, etc. However, I am prob eating healthier here than at home because I´m eating lots of fruits and veggies.

I love my host family. They are so friendly and always talk to me. We have deep convos about politics (which are crazy here in Nica), poverty, life, etc. My host brother is funny, and always denounces capitalism, and they all make fun of the current president - Ortega and his wife (the witch) and the government in general. Alhough the Sandinistas are back in power - they won the revolution some years ago, people are not happy, and think there´s almost a dictatorship. There´s corruption everywhere and government leaders make so much money and do nothing. Anyway, they are a lot of fun, and I like to watch tv with them, which includes a lot of american tv - snoop dogg´s fatherhood,and movies like dodgeball, devil wears prada, and also LATIN american idol? My host mom is super sweet and always cheery and optimistic and always telling me that people should be openminded, and respect the rights of others, etc. My host sister is also sweet, and I help her with her English homework, and shes great to talk to.

I absolutely love my organization that I am working with. Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I´m quite the feminist, so I like working with the women´s organization IXCHEN which promotes sexual and reproductive rights, as well working to combat domestic violence, with legal, medical, and psychiatric services. Ive been working msotly with the educator, and we´ve gone out to the communitieS and given talks to women and high school students, I´ve gone with the lawyer to divorce court, listened to heartbreaking stories of abuse and violence, and I´m actually giving my own talk this upcoming Monday about stress and ways to combat it. I´m also going to be working on a sustainble project - a project that will remain here after I leave, and I think it might have to do with lessening the economic dependence that women have, which is the basis of everything - they are too poor to denounce the abuse, to stand up to the men, to get legal help, etc, etc.

The thing I don´t like the most here, is obviously the men, always catcalling me the second I walk out of the house. I also hate that they abuse women, and do nothing around the house, and think they are God´s gift to Earth, and worth more than women, etc etc. Unfortunately the machismo - men have the power, are more important - etc is so embedded in the culture, but luckily organizations like mine are educating that society is the one that imposes the roles of men working - women being submissive and being housewives, and it is not the way it should be.

Basically, Im getting really close to the people I work with, and I love talking to them. They constantly ask me about life in the U.S., and I´ve sort of been comparing the U.S. to how things are here, which I´m going to try to stop doing, because I really need to put myself in the shoes of the community members.

The U.S. influence here is immense, and it kind of makes me mad, because we jsut love to project our culture on others, and Nicaragua really needs to have its own companies reinverting money into the country. The cell phone minutes are in dollars, I´ve seen tons of U.S. companies - Coldwell Banker, Ernst and Young, Payless (in the mall), TGI Fridays, and of course everyone wears clothes from U.S. companies - Nike, GAP, MLBaseball gear, etc. etc. I guess its nice to see a piece of home, and of course I l love being an American despite my disagreements with a lot of U.S. foreign policy, but the U.S. has quie a history of messsing up this country.

Anyway..
This past weekend I went to Granada, with some of the other interns. Granada is a really nice colonial city, with beautiful buildings, and its like the tourist hub here in Nica, so there were a lot of gringos. It was fun, we ate pizza WHICH I WAS SO CRAVING, and also went to a Spanish restaurant, and watched a Euro Cup game (which is HUGE here). I really like the other interns - especially the ones that are with me in Ciudad Sandino here. Granada was quite different than Ciudad Sandino - which is one of the poorest cities in Nica.

I am still loving the music, although it is often the same 25 reggaeton songs, I love them all.

Another very intense experience is riding the bus here. Old U.S. schoolbuses,sometimes you don´t have a seat, are packed tightly with tons of other sweaty people, and have to basically jump off, and hang on as soon as you get on. They also drive a bit crazily, and the roads are bumpy as it is. Despite this, the music is always blasting, and all of the buses are nicely decorated with quotes, and colors, etc. Its quite an experience, and Im getting used to it.

I am learning SO much everyday, and despite any of the discomforts, I am having an incredible and intense experience.

PLease keep in touch ! Thanks for all your comments, and Im sorry I couldnt respond to them individually but I only have very little time to be online before it gets too dark, and I have to pay for the internet.

Nicaragua Nicaraguita...

2008-06-14T20:26:00.000-03:00

Wow - so its been one week in Nicaragua and I´ve seen so much. The first week up until Thursday was orientation, and we spent three days at the beach which was amazing. They really prepared us during orientation, and I feel pretty safe. The other interns are great - and we all have a lot in common in terms of our outlook on things, and our love of travel and global issues. Theres 4 of us in Ciudad Sandino, plus three more from the first summer group, so we have quite a crew here.

Nicaragua is a beautiful country, but it has had a tumultous history. The poverty here is staggering - in Managua you see people literally living in trash bags - 15% of the population lives an extreme poverty. People beg everywhere, its especially sad to see little children begging. Right when I got out of the airport some kids asked me for all my things. What I find admirable about the people is that they try to find any honest way to make ends meet, selling water or food on the streets, dressing up as clowns and acting on buses, etc etc. They say its best to not give them money, because it just furthers the dependence, and its the dont give a man a fish teach him how to fish sort of thing. Its best to contribute to something more sustainable. However, it is pretty difficult for me to ignore the poverty, the emaciated dogs, and the lack of opportunity here.

Managua is a strange capital. A massive eartquake in 1972 pretty much destroyed it, so there are no sky scrapers or anything, and its pretty green. Kind of a creepy city, but I think I´ll get used to it.

People talk about politics all the time. Currently theres a hunger strike going on with one of the parties the Sandinistas are trying to get rid of. Theres talk of corruption all over the place - the govt officials who do next to nothing make $5,000 a month, while doctors make $450.

Although its the ¨rainy season¨, it hasn´t rained yet, nor has the power gone out yet. But it is HOT, so HOT. I am sweating from the time I get out of bed till the time I go to bed. Its pretty gross, but hopefully I can get used to it quickly.

So Im liking Ciudad Sandino so far. Most of the roads are unpaved, there´s trash everywhere, its a lot different from what Im used to, but and Im still trying to get used to people staring at me because im a gringa, and men yelling chelitaaa, amorrrr, etc. Its an interesting experience to be the other.

My host family in Ciudad Sandino is great they are so much fun. Right when I got there my host mom told me that she sells beauty products, and that every 2 weeks a woman goes to the house and gives her and her daughter a manicure and pedicure, and I could get them too If I´m interested. My host mom is super talkative, and smart - shes a computer engineer and has studied law, and I like my bro and sis. My sis (who studies bus. administration at the university) and I went to the gym today, which was an interesting experience. The gym is sort of outdoors, and the guy worked us out so hard, I don´t know If I´ll be able to walk tomorrow. My brother is cool, he´s studying like veteranary medicine, and showed me just about every ring tone on his phone.

My host dad is amazing, hes an ex guerilla with the sandinistas, was tortured dduring the Somoza dictatorship, and has worked for several governments, and knows ortega personally, etc, etc. Today he gave me like a 2 hr talk about the history of Nicaragua, and his views on helping the country develop, and more. I will learn so much from him. He and my mother are big upholders of democracy, and the rights of all people to have an education and opportunities.

I also have a few pets, Frosty a cute black lab who is really friendly, and some chickens and roosters that live close to the bathroom, lol. They wake me up at like 5 in the morning, people here wake up super early, but are usually in bed by 9, and definitely by 10. The bathroom is like two separate cement blocks one with a shower - which was great water pressure but no hot water (but thats fine because its so hot), and then another with a toilet.

Yesterday was my first experience on the bus, they kind of throw you on, and drive right away, and then throw you off. The buses are pretty much all retired U.S. school buses, painted bright colors, and given names and usually have some religious quote on them, as well as holes in the floor. Also - there were clowns, and people selling things. Today I went to the inauguration of some beauty store in Managua. It was fun, there was a band, free cotton candy, pop corn etc.

The food in general is okay so far, I think I will become tired of rice and beans quickly, but the fruit is great. Ive been eating ice cream pretty much everyday,

My home is pretty nice by Nica standards, but its a bit strange because its half inside and half outside. Like you walk to the bathroom and you are kind of outside. But houses are made that way because of the heat. My room is very comfortable - I have a big closet (complete with britney spears photos circa hit me baby one more time), powerful fan, shelves, a radio!, and a decent bed.

The thing I like the most by far is the music here. You can hear awesome reggaeton at any time of the day on the radio or in the streets. It is LOUD here, everywhere, with animals, music, the sound of buses, etc.

I start work on Monday - with a women´s rights organization about 1 minute from my house. Im having a good time, although its a little hard to get used to some things, and I do miss everyone. I´ll keep you all posted, and will add photos as soon as I can.

Here´s my address in case anyone is interested!

De la plaza padre Miguel, 2 cuadras al norte, 1/2 al este zona 1, T-13 Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua

Please comment and email! Miss you all!