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.

La Quinta: A Rotary Picnic

Although the conference was a good opportunity to get to know the world of Rotary here in Argentina, the Sunday following the conference was an even better opportunity to get to know its members. Humberto Gilabert, a member of my club, invited fellow members and their families as well as us scholars to his quinta for a picnic. The first question that comes to mind is what is a quinta? A quinta is house located country outside of the city where families go on the weekends to relax and escape the busy city life, and that is exactly what we did. We all gathered at Willie's house and we headed to the countryside of Escobar where Humberto's quinta was located. Early afternoon we arrived to one of Argentina's quaintest areas. Humberto's quinta was a beautiful wooden cottage surrounded by a fruit orchard, garden, green house, pool, and plenty of space to play soccer.

The scene was just as breathtaking as the genuine friendliness of the members and their families. For lunch we gathered around a picnic table filled with delicious empanadas (an Argentine staple which is a small bread pastry filled with meat chicken, corn, or cheese), sandwiches, and deserts like flan, medialunas (sweet croissants) and cookies. As the mate was passed around, we all shared stories about ourselves, our experiences with Rotary, and our adventures in Argentina. Afterwards a friendly game of soccer (futbol) was played by all, of which the star defender for the other team was a pile of dog poop directly in front of the goal, making it nearly impossible for my team to advance. Players and spectators shared both on and off the field a few laughs.

At the end of the day the Rotary principals of service and friendship suddenly had a new meaning. Having arrived in this country alone, the feeling of family was omnipresent that afternoon. Counselors and fellow Rotary members went out of their way to make it be known that they are here to support us, help us, and above all be our friends. Interesting enough along side the garage was a sign that read the following: El que no vive para servir, no sirve para vivir. The literal translation is " He who doesn't live to serve, doesn't serve anything in life." Looking back on that afternoon, I realize that sign has a much deeper meaning: what good is life if we don't have any desire to share it with others.

A special thanks to all the Rotary members and their families who went out of their way to make this very special day happen, especially Humberto and his wife for sharing their quinta with us, and Willie for organizing everything. Fue un verdadero placer!!!! (It was truly a pleasure.)

4890 81st District Conference

On Saturday April 19th District 4890 had their 81st District Conference at the University of Belgrano. All seven Ambassadorial Scholars were invited to present themselves to their host district, and share with them our future endeavors in Buenos Aires. The district itself is made up of 42 clubs that reside in the Capital, and range in membership numbers from 9 to 265. For us scholars it was a wonderful opportunity to introduce ourselves and thank the rotary clubs of Buenos Aires for the warm welcome and their contributions to the scholarship program. In addition to a short presentation, I awarded the governor, Carlos Roberto Matalon with an Arch Klumph Medallion. Thanks to Arch Klumph and his ambitious dreams to create the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, us scholars have been given this wonderful ambassadorial opportunity to be in Argentina. Also, I'm fortunate to have such an important Rotary figure be not only from my state, but also from my district club, because everyone I meet in the Rotary world knows of Ohio. I suppose it really is the heart of it all, Rotary including.

Like a proud father, Willie stood in the front taking pictures and smiling throughout all of our presentations, so thanks to him I've been able to post a few pictures. The first one is of the governing committee and guest speakers for the event. The second is of my presentation, and the third is of the US scholars and the governor. For anyone who may be interested in learning more about my host district their website is http://www.rotary4890.org.ar/ and it does have an English link.

Mate