lluvia in la ciudad y mas fotos

Today it rained all day, and the city was completely transformed. Everyone was rushing around trying to get inside as quickly as possible, the plazas were practically deserted, and the only vendors were hawking umbrellas. I had a great time walking around sort of pretending I was in Seattle and rocking my raincoat (yes! using things I packed makes me so happy!!). I was literally the only person in the entire city wearing a raincoat, it was weird.. everyone had umbrellas or nothing, except for the guys on bikes/motorcycles, who had some nice ponchos. No work--for some reason the rain cancelled the Fundacion's activities at the hospital--so I did the rainy day museum thing and checked out the Casa Historica de Independencia and Museo de Arto Sacro. I'd say they were both worth the 2 pesos I paid, semi-interesting but not enough to hold my attention for long.

Back to los fotos..

I love this kind of thing.. Iglesia La Merced reflected in the Honda window (everyone rides motorcycles here, pretty muich all the traffic is either taxis or bikes)


Entrance to the big city park, Parque 9 de Julio


I walked around the park Sunday evening and it was a completely different scene from when I explored in the morning last week. Tons of people hanging out, flying kites, playing futbol.. all kinds of food and toys for sale, people fishing and swimming in the lake (ignoring all the trash washed up on the banks)
Lake in the park. Here's the lake, and some kids fishing:



The Casa de Gobierno, fountain in the Plaza, and Iglesia Catedral at night:




Monday was a holiday, Dia de la Raza (Colombus Day), so I had the day off and decided to venture out of the city. I set out for San Javier, a big park on the Sierra close to the city about an hour collectivo ride away, at noon. It was a little rainy and really cloudy, so the ride up a really windy road in the mist was pretty exciting. Unfortunately when we got to the top of the hill I couldn't really see anything, so I wasn't sure where to get off.. I caught a sign for la cascada just in time. There was a nice little trail down to the Rio Negro, through a forest that actually felt kind of like the Pacific Northwest rainforest. Maybe cause it was raining.. but anyways, the river valley was gorgeous, and I had a nice serene nature moment eating my sandwhich by the waterfall.
Mid-sandwhich, a whole huge group of kids (and then some teenagers and their parents) showed up and started throwing rocks in the water, running around, generally having fun. Didn't take long for them to notice me, and as soon as I introduced myself to a couple kids I found myself surrounded, explaining my life story/trip to an incredulous audience (estats sola? tienes diez y ocho años???)
But it was a nice interrogation, and one of the adults explained that they were from el campo (the countryside, basically) and I think they were on their way to have? give? all the kids communion.. or something, in Tucuman anyways. We took some photos, it started raining, and all of a sudden I was invited along with them and ended up on their private collectivo, eating sandwhiches with my new 10 year old novio and watching the dance party in the aisles.
Fotos! Nature, me (being crushed) and kids, more kids





On the way to Tucuman we stopped at a dam/lake and played lots of games that I couldn't understand despite everyone's best efforts to explain the rules to me.
Below, the lake w/dam and the ten year old who adopted me with people fishing in the background:




Back at Parque 9 de Julio in Tucuman, I exchanged phone numbers with one of the older girls (chaperones, I think) and possibly was invited to visit their pueblo/go out dancing with her this weekend. Definitely not how I thought the day would go.. but what a cool turn of events.

I'll finish up with some pictures of the hospital form this morning:

fotos de Tucuman

After putting in a good couple days of R&R I may have finally kicked the fever, and I've been dutifully photo-documenting everything since then for your viewing pleasure. Here we go...

Saturday I got to check out another one of the Fundacion's programs, Matias, which is sort of a combination day care/food bank run out of a church in one of the barrios. There were a lot of volunteers there; I went with Joann the French guy (he helped me out with the 40 min collectivo ride there), and there were also two girls from Barcelona and a lot of local volunteers. We played with the kids (aged few months to 14 or so) who generally needed a lot of attention but were sweet/fun, and then we served them lunch and helped clean up. Below, some girls working on an art project; lunch in progress; the church where the commedor is located



That night I went to Diego's (from the Fundacion) house-warming party. It's still weird for me to wait until 11 or 12 or later to go out, but that's the way it goes here, and Saturday night at least it was still hot. The party was pretty much how I imagine 20/30 something parties are in the States.. lots of beverages and people standing/sitting around talking. So it wasn't that exciting but I managed like 3 conversations with strangers in Spanish so I decided to consider the night a success.

In the morning I was supposed to go to Plaza San Martin for some sort of traditional card game get-together with the Fundacion... which ended up being me eating a lot of medialunas (like sweet croissants) and watching old guys play truco, which I didn't even try to understand. But it wasn't a bad way to pass a nice spring morning.
Plaza San Martin

San Martin statue

playing truco

Beatriz and Diego


Mas fotos: The office of the Fundacion, ¨my¨ building, among others; me at the front door; the kitchen





Around Plaza Independencia: the Casa de Gobierno, Iglesia San Francisco, Iglesia Catedral, and the corner of the PLaza closest to my street





OKay sounds like Beatriz needs the computer, but I still have pictures of the park and pictures/stories about an adventure today. So more soon, hopefully..

que paso?

I'm sitting at the personal computer with internet in Beatriz´s apartment, listening to a guy outside in the Plaza play "House of the Rising Sun" on his traditional Peruvian/Bolivian flute... this is Tucuman, as I´ve experienced it so far. The downtown microcentro is really modern and busy, and feels surprisingly like a city in the U.S. But then mixed in with all the stores and schools and offices are these gorgeous old colonial buildings, like the Cathedral a block away, the Governor´s House, and the Casa de Independencia (Tucuman´s claim to fame). And while you can walk down the street in the morning and see all the panaderias and supermercados full, and everyone walking (hardly anyone drives) to school or work or to go shopping, if you go out in the middle of the afternoon once the heat has set in, everything is closed and the streets are practically deserted and it's like, oh right, this IS Argentina.

Unfortunately I haven't been out and about as much as I'd like, because the stupid fever from the farm has returned and I'm trying to get rid of it once and for all. I was fine Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning; started feeling a little funky Tuesday afternoon so I took an ibuprofen and the that night, fever again. Yesterday morning was okay but I was kind of struggling to hold it together, and when I got home the fever was back up at like 103.7... so I took the afternoon off, and Beatriz called her doctor friend who urged more ibuprofen and of course, rest and water. This morning (no fever) we went to see him and he decided that since I don't have any other symptoms besides the fever, I have some sort of virus, so I got pills for that which I take for 48 hours and we see if the fever comes back. Argh. At least I'm in another good place with people to take care of me, and here there's also the big benefit of my own CLEAN room.

The time I've spent at the hospital is definitely good for putting this all in perspective. The Centro de Salud is the biggest and best hospital in the area, with the only burn treatment facilities. And all of its services (like all healthcare in Argentina) are FREE. Which is great, because no one gets turned away, but also results in really long waits for the few beds available. The hospital was remodeled pretty recently, and it looks nice and clean--not the huge, sterile, all-white building I'm maybe more used to, but it seems to serve its patients' needs well. There are generally 4-12 beds in a room, so not a lot of privacy, but the patients seems to all get to know each other and their families.
One of the biggest problems the hospital faces is understaffing--though the staff are very good (there´s a lot of prestige attached to working at the Centro de Salud) there just aren't enough of them--so much of what Fundacion Leon, the organization I'm here with, tries to do in the hospital is pick up the loose ends that the busy staff can't deal with. This means visiting the wards in the moring, checking in with all the patients personally and seeing how they're doing and if they need anything. The Fundacion also provides a "Meridiana Solidaira" twice a week, basically offering snacks and juice to the patients in the middle of the day. There's also a "beauty salon," volunteers who visit the women patients once a week and offer manicures, hairdos, facials (I got to help with those), companionship and some light reading material. I think the Fundacion also brings in live music once a week, but I may be missing that today :( In addition to the personal work with the patients, the Fundacion donates equipment sometimes--and right now they're actaully remodeling a whole wing of the hospital.

Besides the program in the hospital, the Fundacion also runs a kind of mentoring program in a highschool, and a food bank type thing in one of the barrios. I said I wanted to spend most of my time in the hospital, so I haven't seen those programs yet, but they're on my schedule for later so I'm excited to check them out. Probably the most interesting work the Fundacion does, for me, is a microcredit program modeled after a Bank fo the Poor in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately they can't use international or short term volunteers in that program (understandably) but I picked Diego's brain about it earlier. Basically the publicize it in the barrios--the idea being that the bank come to you--and then anyone who has an idea for a project they can do with a loan form a group of 5 with their neighbors, and they recieve a small loan which they pay back oiver along period of time. The group has to provide support for each other, so they build community and help with whatever problems come up--and the amazing thing is that the bank has gotten 100% return so far. This is probably really boring for a lot of people, but Diego was talking about how the Fundacion tries to balance giving people concrete things that they need, and helping them to get the things for themselves (the old give a man a fish, etach him to fish thing) and this sort of microcredit system seems like kind of the perfect balance.

Anyway, what happened the days I was functioning? Beatriz took me out to see sort of the lay of the land, we went to the Fundacion office and met some of the volunteers who were having a meeting with Diego, I followed Diego around on the patient visits and tried to speak Spanish (harder in a hospital than anywhere else so far), explored the big city park (lots of orange trees! so cool), met another volunteer who is from France, visited a... nursing home? where Diego works as well (also free, in the midst of remodel but beautiful, the people were even harder to understand), made the morning rounds at the hospital again, sanded a metal cart to get the old paint off, helped with the beauty salon, went to the Fundacion to meet the other program coordinators.

Lots of walking (takes about half an hour to get from Beatriz's apartment to the hospital) which is fun cause I get to check out everyone else who is walking around, and a fair amount of heat so far. But after the initial farm to city culture shock, and excepting the stupid fever, I'm really happy to be here and to have such a great place to stay and so many interesting things to see. Sorry this is so long, but what else is there to do during siesta? Right, sleep... good idea.

vida ahora y antes y muchos fotos

SO after a lot of difficulty communicating with the program director (to be expected, except that he speaks perfect English so it was phone issues), I´ve actually made it to where I´m supposed to be in Tucuman. My longest busride so far, from Mendoza to Tucuman, was opvernight and took 16 hours.
Highlights: My own two seats, chillin out to slow jams en español (I could actually understand the Shakira chorus because I´m mastering the future tense: vas a ver = you will see!!), this girl who looked about my age asked me to hold her tiny baby while she went to the bathroom and he just smiled at me for the whole 5 minutes, one last sunset over the andes and my first sunrise in the northwest
Lowlights: Stops all through the night made it a little difficult to sleep, as did the occasional cries of the cute baby, slight concern that I couldn´t tell anyone when I´d be arriving

But when I got here this morning I juat had the guy in the tourist office call Diego for me, and he gave me the address for my homestay and I took a taxi and voila! Now I´m in an apartment near the center of town the feels immaculate and palatial after two weeks of farm living. I tooka shower, my clothes are in the wash, I have my own room (!) Sweet deal for 20 pesos. My host, Betty, is of indeterminate age--possibly because of the chain smoking--but she´s been incredibly nice and generous so far; her 14 year old son has been...shy. When I arrived another volunteer, Lucy from New Zealand was getting ready to leave, so I got to chat with her about her experiences here and elsewhere and that was a nice introduction. Diego is coming over tonight to get me oriented, and I assume I´ll start working tomorrow. All in all I´m getting really excited to live in a city for two weeks (Tucuman has some beautiful buildings, nice size, I hear there´re mountains you can hike in nearby), have some mor eintense Spanish immersion, and see what Fundacion Leon is all about.

Backtracking to the last week on the farm...
Let´s see, we had the weekend off, went out Friday, hiung around in Tunuyan Saturday, and then on Sunday Pumita and I went with Julian and Kiley to see a bodega in Maipu (close to Mendoza). It was pretty much the only on eopen since it was Sunday but it was really cool and I´m glad I did the wine tourist thing since that´s what Mendoza is famous for.. I´ll put some pictures of the bodega, it was beautiful. Ooh and then we a parilla in Mendoza, massive amounts of BBQ meat. mmmm. When we got back to the farm soem new volunteers had arrived, Heather and Kevin from the US, who I don´t think would mind me calling them hippies in the most awesome way.

Projects for the workweek: more artichoke mulching, more stick house weaving, trading for building supplies (3 bottles of tomato salsa = 2 cartloads of cow pies; bundle of fruite trees = 600 empty wine bottles). Also cut down a lot of good branches, fixed the broken side of the bano seco (built the same way as the stick house but didn´t hold up in the winter...hmm). AND THEN... mixing the stuff to put on the house. Take clay, water, dirst, straw, lots of cow pies, put them in a big contained bed, and mix... with your feet. Yes, cleanliness is oh so relative and just when you think it couldn´t be worse you stick the stuff on with your hands. Nice. On the plus side, we showered a lot more this week..

Although I somehow escaped the stomach bug everyone else got, I was out for about two days, 3 nights with a really bad fever (up to 104) which gave me lots of time to be confused (how do you even get a fever, anyway? why won´t it go away?), feel bad about not helping with the work, listen to other people´s travel stories late into the night (highlights: drug smuggling and unforunate bowel movements in Nepal.. sorry Soph), and really appreciate the community of people there. As much as I can be independent in a lot of ways, its really really hard to be sick by yourself, and I felt so lucky to a) be staying somewhere where I could jsut lie in bed and drink water all day and b) be in the company of essentially random strangers who would check on me and bring me whatever I needed. Even the kids, Paloma and Nacho, played nurse for a little while and it was so cute to see them tiptoe in and ask how I was doing.

It was weird saying bye to everyone (Pumita and Hayden left earlier in the week, then Kiley, and I left Julian, Marco, Jared, Heather, Kevin, and of course the wonderful family behind). On one hand, it´s a random group of people thrown together and I doubt I´ll be in touch with anyone for long, but on the other hand, it started to really feel like a community that made me appreciate the benefits of not toughing it out alone all the time. People to go out with, people to rely ion, people to learn from.. you can fill in the corny end. BUt I´m realizing that´s how it is with travelling, you just meet so many people and you can really appreciate the time with them but its still so impermanent.

All in all I´m so happy with my experience at Rincon Madre Tierra and I also will never forget: the most stars I´ve ever seen and the clearest milky way, hearing the rooster crowing in the middle of the night, Azucena´s impressive creations with basically starch products and vegetables, learning to work for four hours without a watch, swimming in the river looking at the Andes (doing everything looking at the Andes), watching the sunset from the top of a woven stcik house (finsihing said house , playing with Paloma and Nacho, riding in the back of a truck bed, thinking in Spanish when I´m sick with a fever, all these people´s stories and ambitions

Oh also now I´m really paranoid about eating b/c whenever I thought I was better and ate something the fever came back so today I´ve had: two oranges, two cups of tea, five crackers with marmalade
I think my stomach has shrunk to the size of a walnut... not in a good way. But don´t worry parents I´ll be fine soon!

And now, time to catch up with the pictures. first some more from Valparaiso:











Valpo, out to dinner with my host and her daughter, and the bus ride over the Andes(!!!)









our current casa de voluntarios: kitchen, main room, bedroom




volunteer house, family house, vineyards and bodega, with Pumita on the bus






Julian mixing caca, the completed casa with Kevin and Paloma on the roof, Andes from the farm, last moring with Kevin, Heather, Marco y Jared











LONGEST BLOG POST EVER. free accessible internet is dangerous sorry