Quick Soccer Update

The Ladies of Belgrano are currently in first place with a record of 3-0-1. We beat UBA (La Universidad de Buenos Aires), which was considered the favorites going into the season, 5-1. As of now we are two games out from tournament time and things are looking up!

Never a Dull Moment

Why does Buenos Aires look like London on a really foggy day? Good question, however that's not fog that's smoke! North of the city there was an illegal crop burning that got out of control and thanks to the weather Gods, the smoke made it's way to the city and stayed for over a week. The cold weather currents from the south and the warm winds from the north were enough to keep the smoke or "el humo" compressed in the city skies. Although my tone is joking, this was a serious problem, which caused quite a few accidents due to the low visibility. Above all it made breathing a bit difficult and burned at our eyes and our throats. Those who were responsible have been condemned, and all is back to "normal" here. Every once in a while I'll catch a whiff of the lingering campfire smell.

What could possibly be all that yellow on the highway? But of course it's 2 tons of lemons that fell off a truck and onto the high way below. Fortunately no one was driving by when the top-heavy truck took the turn a little fast and lost his lemon load on none other but the busiest street in the center. Naturally traffic was backed up for hours as they cleaned the lemons off the road. The biggest problem they had wasn't cleaning up the mess of lemons and boxes, but dealing with the people who were running across the high way to steal a few of the precious lemons.

The spontaneous occurrences have made for great stories and memorable experiences so thank you BsAs for never having a dull moment!

The Rotary Club of Lanus

Tuesday May 12th I crossed district lines and visited the Rotary Club de Lanus district 4910. Fellow Ambassadorial Scholar Adam Boscoe, and his counselor invited Willie and me to their Tuesday night meeting. After an always-exciting drive through the city we arrived at Lanus, a province to the capital of Buenos Aires. This particular club is the largest of its district with 33 members, and its main social focus is education. Their yearly project consists of sponsoring local high school students, in which they provide the aid necessary for materials, transportation, tuition, and clothing. As well, a support group known as La Rueda Feminina (The Female Wheel) provides support to their local club. The women that participate in this group are typically the wives of the Rotarians, but are not official members. I was told that they really are the go-getters of the club; however, they have separate meetings from the gentleman.

I don't mean separate like on a different day, I mean, same day, same place but on the other side of the curtain (literally). One of the members from Lanus was quite confused that I was on his side of the curtain, and even offered to walk me over to the other side. What a gentleman! Fortunately the president stopped him and informed me that I would be speaking to their club tonight. However, I did go over and meet the ladies and made plans to dine with them the next time. Dinner was great as usual and afterwards came the club updates. More than once the upsetting loss that the soccer team of Lanus faced the night before was mentioned as it was quite the game. The night was dedicated to initiating a new member and working out the fine details of the "district switch". In June, along with the changing of the club president, Lanus will be changing districts. Being that is currently the biggest club in their small district, hopefully the change will bring them more project opportunities.

Willie and I both spoke about the role of the counselor and the role of Rotary in the scholar’s experience. Willie explained that it's the counselor's responsibility to help integrate the scholar into their family, their club, and their country. For me I mentioned the role of family that Rotary has assumed in my life since I've gotten here, and how with all of the love and support I've received from my club and especially my counselor, it's aided in my transition and has enhanced my experience. I would also like to thank great Rotary clubs like Lanus for inviting me to dine with them, and great Rotary scholars like Adam for sharing his experience with me.

Enjoy the pictures…and yes the women were invited over to watch our presentations. Notice the grand entrance through the curtains.

UB vs UCA: Final score 1-1

As of March intense Wednesday only practices started for the women's soccer team at La Universidad de Belgrano, and on Saturday March 26th the first tournament was scheduled. We practice in the semi-pro "cancha" (field) of the Excursionistas and our tournaments are hosted by La Universidad de San Andrés in San Isidro. The team consists of 20 girls from all over the world, which is drastically different from last year’s 8 members. The bulk of the team is from Ecuador, where women's soccer is more accepted than here in Buenos Aires, and the US, where women's soccer is one of the most played sports by females. Also in the mix are a handful of girls from Buenos Aires, a girl from Italy, one from France, and one from Canada. As we are a very international team, we will see later on that communication proved to be our only defect in our first game.

Around 10:30 in the morning twenty some international female football players crammed into cars and headed to La Universidad de San Andres, to play our first soccer game. On this beautiful fall day we were scheduled to play La UCA (Universidad Católica de Argentina), which is a university located in the neighborhood of Puerto Madero in the southern part of the capital city. The tournament consists of 9 teams that play 8-on-8 for two 30-minute halves. As you've probably noted from some of my sarcasm above, that this team is more for fun than for competition, and fun we had. Just about every 5 min or so we were subbing and exchanging players on the field so that everyone could play in that first game. This made it hard for us to get into the game, because no one was in for more than 10 minutes at a time. Also, we are all learning the language of soccer/fútbol so that we can communicate on the field. Anyone who's played sports, knows that the single most important aspect of the game is communication, well it was there, just in two, three, or sometimes four languages.

In the end we tied UCA 1-1 and all made the collective decision to split up the team each week and take only 12 or so players so that we can get the most out of our experience. For me the team has been a great opportunity to play one of my favorite sports, but more importantly it's been a great opportunity to make friends. Outside of our rigorous one-day a week practices, we've been meeting in parks to play during the week, and enjoying the city of Buenos Aires together during the weekends. As I write the girls are playing La Universidad de Palermo, so hopefully I'll have some positive results to post in the future.