Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bariloche : A Friend's Day Celebration
















Thinking of ways to spend our second winter of the year, some of us scholars decided to plan a skiing trip to the "Aspen" of Argentina, Bariloche. Being on the other side of the globe means our seasons are reversed, and while everyone back in the states is enjoying the summer heat, here in Argentina it's a different story. Although Buenos Aires may never experience a Lake Erie frigid wind-blasting winter, it does get chilly here. Being so close to Antarctica, a large body of water, and mountains parts of Argentina experience winters similar to those in the states. Bariloche is located in the southwestern quadrant of this huge country, near the famous Patagonia region and the Andes Mountains. Over the years it has grown into a popular ski resort town filled with chocolate shops, cafes, beer breweries, and of course out-door sport stores. Weather reports looked promising for snow as the heat of the skiing season was approaching, and still little to no snow had fallen in this city known for it's white winters. So we packed up all or our winter gear and headed 18hrs across the country in a bus, which was surprisingly comfortable, and arrived in Bariloche where snowflakes were falling.

That first hour of snow would be the first and last time snow was seen the rest of the trip. After the second day of warmer temperatures and rain it was apparent that we wouldn't be doing much skiing. Fortunately Bariloche offers much more than skiing; it's mountains and hillsides make for great hiking trails, and the city itself is surround by a series of lakes. Our first day out we hiked up to the Municipal Park of Llao Llao and walked the Arrayan path, which lead to a forest of Arrayan trees. The arrayan tree is a limited species of tree that has a yellowish orangish bark. I was later told by a friend that the forests in the movie "Bambi" were meant to replicate this little forest on the top of a hill in Argentina. We had been walking through forests of trees and plants for an hour when we popped out along the lake. There is where I experienced, for the first time since I've been here, an absolutely quite and still moment. We sat on a rock along the bank that was surrounded by mountains, trees, and a crystal clear lake. Sitting in silence, enjoying it because in a big city like Buenos Aires it's a rarity, we had lunch and relished in one of Argentina's most beautiful sites. Calm and full we hiked back in the rain, hoping not to run into the group of wild dogs that greeted us on our way up. (We didn't)

The following day the sun broke and we decided to go kayaking. We rented kayaks and headed out onto Lake Gutierrez. A lake formed by glaciers and filled by the nearby mountain's melted snow, one could see down for meters. Once we reached the middle of the lake, we were surrounded my mountains on all four sides, and out in the distance a rainbow formed over the top of Mount Catedral. Another beautiful day in Argentina!!!!

But before you think us scholars were only in Bariloche to play, we also held true to our Rotary responsibilities and attended Club Nahuel Huapi’s Friend's-Day" meeting. Club Nahuel Huapi is the host club for Project Patagonia, so I had a chance to meet with the members on the committee and share in their excitement for the project. Project Patagonia was designed by past scholars of the Ambassadorial Scholarship to help bring much needed supplies and multi-media materials to isolated schools in the Patagonia region of Argentina. These schools are small, isolated, and the fortunate students who get to go, need to board there do to the long distances they are from home. Many of these schools lack food materials and typical classroom items because of their distance from government funding and the "real-world". Starting with one school, scholars raised funds and donated materials to build a multi-media center with computers, books, and games for the children. Such a success, Project Patagonia is now planning a six-school "drop-off" off of supplies in late November and early December.

Everyone was in good spirits at the "Friend's-Day" meeting because it wasn't really a meeting, but rather a BBQ to celebrate the nations holiday as well as their Rotary companionship. Roberto Wallace, the member who invited us, said to me as we walked in that that I would probably be the only female there, he was right. I walked into a room filled with men, wine, cigars, and meat. The president of the club was busy cooking what seemed like 50 pounds of meat, members were introducing their friends that the brought to the meeting, and the tables were being set for a feast. A feast it was, the cuts of meat we were served seemed never-ending, as did the wine, and wile we ate members shared stories and sang songs celebrating the good friendships they've established. We were very warmly welcomed and it was a great evening. It was far from the Rotary norms we were used to in the states, but it's not such a bad thing to celebrate something great. A special thanks to Club Nahuel Huapi for sharing their friendship with us, and a special thank you to Roberto Wallace for inviting us.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Club ACORN










For the past few months I've been volunteering my time to a local community center based in La Boca and Barracas neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. It's funded by ACORN an American based non-profit whose mission is providing local communities with a safe and educational place. The idea is to help teach the children at the center concepts of communication, relationships, and respect for one another as well as their own self. At our actual center we offer English classes for the younger students and adults, dance, music, and art classes for the children, after-school tutoring, and literacy courses for the adults. Everything is volunteer based, so the more volunteers the more we can provide for these communities. We have plans to improve the adult classes and introduce an exercise program as well computation classes. In addition we are working on providing a free psychological service, as many of the children come from troubled back-rounds and could the extra guidance. We hope to provide the families of this community services that are currently unavailable to them in hopes that it will brighten their futures.

As of know we have a solid group of kids who come regularly throughout the week to partake in the variety of weekly activities. The above photos are from the other day when we took advantage of the nice weather and traveled all together to a nearby park to play a friendly game of soccer (an obvious favorite). In the background you can see the Boca soccer stadium, which is one of the more popular teams in Argentina, and for the people of this community their everything. Limited to the goal I waited for the perfect opportunity to show the boys that girls can play too. About 15 minutes into play one of the boys felt confident enough to pass the ball back to me in goal (Just so you know I was stopping shots like a wall up until this point...). I decided to leave my 6x6 box and advance forward with the ball. Schooling one little kid after the next and suffering blow after blow to the shins I made it to the other side. I took one look at the goalie...shot and made it! I retreated back to my box with cheers from my teammates, never to advance again. I wasn't proud of myself for schooling 12 year old boys, but I feel like I broke down the barrier of boys being better than girls...probably not forever, but at least for a second. I couldn't help myself.