It's Saturday and I'm back! I was in such a grumpy mood yesterday, but today all has changed! It's the weekend and I love it here. I had such a good time last night and this afternoon, and it's only 6pm so the night is young!
I ended up falling asleep at half 8 last night and sleeping until Sile woke me up at 10 past 11 so that we could go out. Oops! Sleeping before heading out is the way forward here, as no one even thinks about going to bed before 6am. I love it! We went back to Cristobal, the bar on the Costanera that we were in the other night, and had a few beers before heading up to the Friday club, Mentecato. It had been far too long since I had had one of their fine Caipirinhas! The door policy there seemed very random and we all ended up paying different prices. Some people got voucher for a free drink with their entrance fee, but I didn't, no idea why! The place was packed, but we still managed to bump into people that we know. It's so cool that I have only been here for 3 weeks and yet I have loads of new "friends" from Posadas! I think that because everyone in the whole city goes to the same club, it is pretty likely that we will see the same faces, but everyone here is so friendly that it makes me feel as though I have really settled in and that I am part of the life of the city.
I was particularly pleased to bump into Sergio, the very sweet waiter who served us at Cristobal on Thursday night. He had been telling us that night which bars were the best and he advocatec Mentecato, and there he was. I had a really good conversation (in Spanish as he can barely speak a word of Inglés) with him and I am pleased to report that he asked for my number. Yay! I don't imagine this will be the romance of the century as I am only here for another 6 days, but it was nice anyway! Apparently I'm supposed to be meeting him in Power tonight, and this could go one of 2 ways - it is huge and packed and like a rabbit warren, so there is a chance I will never see him again, or, being that Posadas is worse for bumping into people than Edinburgh, he might be in front of me in the queue to go it. Either way, I'm quite happy!
Today Sile, Jenny, Hannah and I went into town to have lunch and do some shopping. One thing that we have become really used to here is being stared at constantly. It generally isn't done in a threatening way, but people here seem to be fascinated by us. I think it must be our incredibly pale skin. People keep commenting on my eyes as well, I think because it's really unusual to have blue eyes here. Anyway, we got stared at and approached constantly during our lunch, although most people are quite happy to leave us alone if we give them a polite "no, gracias". Just as well!
After lunch, siesta (annoyingly, from around 12.30pm to 4.30pm - the best part of the shopping day!) was over and it was time to hit the amazing shops. I had no idea that a provincial town in Argentina would be such a mecca of shops. I love all the stuff here, it is as if they saw me coming. I got a pair of earrings for the equivalent of 20p and a pair of shoes for around 12 pounds. It's amazing, and I want to make the most of it. I also bought a few souvenirs and we had a good look around the centre of town. Amazingly, I managed to get my bearings and find my way on my own to the taxi rank, more by good luck than anything else, though. The town is built on a grid system, and there are supposed to be signs on each corner saying which streets are crossing which, but some are missing and a lot of the corners look the same. I don't want to really obviously get my map out, but although I don't always fully trust my sense of direction, it turns out it is more reliable than I thought.
I am also loving the fact that my Spanish is as fluent as it now is. I had a really good chat with Sergio last night and we understood each other - I even attempted a joke, although this was probably unwise as no one gets my sense of humour even in English - and I had a really good natter with the taxi driver on the way to the locutorio to write this. We were discussing the weather (how die-hard British am I?) and how great Posadas is. We ended up talking about barbecues (very popular here) and the difficult economic situation in Argentina. And I used to sit in Spanish in school and wonder if I would ever need the random verbs that have been coming in so useful this last 3 weeks!
I mentioned the barbecue as Sile and I have been invited to one at Cuca's daughter's house. Jonny and Tim will be there too as their homestay mum is Cuca's daughter-in-law and it's a family affair! I'm looking foward to it. The meat here is amazing!
After that it's off to Power and tomorrow we are going to San Ignacio. We bumped into Veronica in town (Posadas is so Edinburgh! As they say in Spanish, el mundo es un panuelo - the world is a handkerchief (!)) and she told us to see the ruins first and then go to the beach. It's my mission to wear everything that I brought out here, and so far I think I only have my bikini left to go, so I can't wait!
¡Hasta lunes, chiquitos!
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Friday, 28 September 2007
A Land Far, Far Away...
I'm so relieved it's Friday, as I imagine people all over the world have been feeling at various times throughout today. It's been such a hard week. I know that since Oli left we have been partying less and having to work harder, but I feel now that the novelty of being here, in this strange country with its new sights, sounds, customs and all the rest of it, has worn off a bit. I remember the first couple of weeks being hit with the realisation that at long last I was in Argentina and I felt so incredibly lucky... now I feel more tired and fed up than excited. But then, it is Friday evening and it's been a long week. Tomorrow I will be rested and will hopefully be back on form. Until then, I will tell you a bit about last night and today.
After tea, Sile, Tim, Jonny and I went down to the Costanera (not Costa Negra as I had previously thought, although "Black Coast" does have an appealingly Goth quality to it) to see the Parade for Noche del Estudantina (or something like that . I haven't quite managed to get a handle on what the title is. Everyone mumbles the words a lot here and it's very hard to get a sense of what they are saying!). The parade is made up of hoardes of school children who are dressed in various sorts of Carnival get-up. From what I can gather, all the high schools in the city are represented. They wore lots of themed outfits, including boys in spats, girls dressed as princesses, a japanese-style drumming band and a whole load of boys dressed in red and black pirate outfits (I was quite tempted to ask them where they got their sparkly shoes). There were several contingents of girls dressed in plumed headdresses and with huge ostrich-feather tails attached to their minute skirts, dancing to samba music. It was very iconic of South American culture and looked like amazing fun. I was impressed with how long the girls danced for and how well they knew their moves - they must have been practising for ages. It certainly beats being in the chorus line for the school musical! Earlier on the bus home, I had seen what looked like a big red yeti at the back of the bus. When it got off, it transpired to be a girl carrying one of those plumed headdresses. I couldn't imagine what she was doing, and was quite bemused by the whole incident. Now it makes sense!
Everyone made it to work this morning, and the kids at Arcoiris were pretty calm. We ended up playing a new game that we bought for them the other day. It is an English vocabulary game and went down well, especially with the older kids. Sacarias, who is 12 and very interested in learning English, picked up a lot of the words very quickly and although he struggled a bit with the pronunciation (I think it must be the way I say things!) he did very well. I wonder if in 10 years he will be a fluent English speaker, maybe travelling abroad and doing really well for himself - I really hope so.
At one point Analia brought out a book of nursery rhymes and fairy stories in Spanish, and started reading Snow White ("Blancanieves") to us. When she got bored half way through, I picked it up and started reading it to the kids. It was such a nice experience for me. I used to really enjoy reading to my class last year, and it was incredibly challenging to do the same in Spanish. I had to make sure that I put all the accents and stresses in the right places, never mind checking my pronunciation! Children's stories are often the way that kids learn their native language, though, so it was an interesting insight for me as a non-native learning Spanish. Some of the rhymes and so on are the same as ones we know - there is one about a boy who kisses girls and makes them cry like Gorgie Porgie, and they have Frere Jacques, although it is about Uncle Tom (or something!) instead. There were lots about going to sleep and Sacarias started reading me some of these while we were outside lying in the sun. I was really struggling to stay awake. All the kids here seem to still be up at 11 or 12 at night, so maybe these lullaby rhymes are more necessary here than at home, hence the large number of them! Also, fairy stories in Spanish do not end with a direct translation of "...and they all lived happily ever after". Rather, in Spanish-language fairytales, our brave heroes "lived happily and ate partridges" ("vivieron felices y comieron perdices"). So there!
More of the same at Refugio today... but my nerves are frazzled and I was doing well to keep my temper. Walter was particularly destructive and his brother wasn't much better. All the kids constantly hit each other with objects or their hands if there is nothing else around, and no one apart from us is ever around to see it. I was annoyed as well as after only 3 days, we lost a piece of the domino set and no one tried to find it. That says it all about the way the kids feel about their surroundings. We brought out the jenga set later on, and the older boys seemed really keen, but instead of playing, they just kept knocking down the tower. I ended up putting the game away, and was really disappointed by the boys' attitude. It's the kind of delicate situation that cannot be mended or even approached, though, with the language barrier that we are facing. I generally understand the kids well and make myself understood, but they choose which parts of instructions, warnings or reproaches that they want to understand, just to make things difficult for me. At one point today I was struck by how thankless the job is - I thought that the kids here would appreciate what I am trying to do, and thought that somehow they needed the help I can give. However, apart from the majority of kids at Arcoiris, the opposite is true. I know that they have been brought up to be this way and that it isn't at all their fault, but I didn't come here to have a mop thrown at me or be spat on. I could have stayed in Bonnyrigg! I do feel, though, that I'm doing the best that I can in the face of all the obstacles. I mentioned Maria, the girl with the speech impediment, before. Up until recently, all she has ever said to me is "Tía!", but today I was delighted (however briefly!) when she called me by my name. I didn't think she had it in her!
I did know that this was never going to be just a pretty little holiday. But I hope that what I am doing is making a difference and I hope that in the last few days I am here I will make an impact that will somehow improve these kids' very lonely and hard lives.
However, when work is over, holidaying begins. We are going out tonight and tomorrow night, probably with the new girl who arrives today. On Sunday, I think we are going to go to the jesuit ruins at San Ignacio, which are supposed to be amazing at sunset. I'm really looking forward to getting away and having a break! I will try to write this again tomorrow, otherwise I will probably be signing off until Monday. Hoping this finds you all well.
After tea, Sile, Tim, Jonny and I went down to the Costanera (not Costa Negra as I had previously thought, although "Black Coast" does have an appealingly Goth quality to it) to see the Parade for Noche del Estudantina (or something like that . I haven't quite managed to get a handle on what the title is. Everyone mumbles the words a lot here and it's very hard to get a sense of what they are saying!). The parade is made up of hoardes of school children who are dressed in various sorts of Carnival get-up. From what I can gather, all the high schools in the city are represented. They wore lots of themed outfits, including boys in spats, girls dressed as princesses, a japanese-style drumming band and a whole load of boys dressed in red and black pirate outfits (I was quite tempted to ask them where they got their sparkly shoes). There were several contingents of girls dressed in plumed headdresses and with huge ostrich-feather tails attached to their minute skirts, dancing to samba music. It was very iconic of South American culture and looked like amazing fun. I was impressed with how long the girls danced for and how well they knew their moves - they must have been practising for ages. It certainly beats being in the chorus line for the school musical! Earlier on the bus home, I had seen what looked like a big red yeti at the back of the bus. When it got off, it transpired to be a girl carrying one of those plumed headdresses. I couldn't imagine what she was doing, and was quite bemused by the whole incident. Now it makes sense!
Everyone made it to work this morning, and the kids at Arcoiris were pretty calm. We ended up playing a new game that we bought for them the other day. It is an English vocabulary game and went down well, especially with the older kids. Sacarias, who is 12 and very interested in learning English, picked up a lot of the words very quickly and although he struggled a bit with the pronunciation (I think it must be the way I say things!) he did very well. I wonder if in 10 years he will be a fluent English speaker, maybe travelling abroad and doing really well for himself - I really hope so.
At one point Analia brought out a book of nursery rhymes and fairy stories in Spanish, and started reading Snow White ("Blancanieves") to us. When she got bored half way through, I picked it up and started reading it to the kids. It was such a nice experience for me. I used to really enjoy reading to my class last year, and it was incredibly challenging to do the same in Spanish. I had to make sure that I put all the accents and stresses in the right places, never mind checking my pronunciation! Children's stories are often the way that kids learn their native language, though, so it was an interesting insight for me as a non-native learning Spanish. Some of the rhymes and so on are the same as ones we know - there is one about a boy who kisses girls and makes them cry like Gorgie Porgie, and they have Frere Jacques, although it is about Uncle Tom (or something!) instead. There were lots about going to sleep and Sacarias started reading me some of these while we were outside lying in the sun. I was really struggling to stay awake. All the kids here seem to still be up at 11 or 12 at night, so maybe these lullaby rhymes are more necessary here than at home, hence the large number of them! Also, fairy stories in Spanish do not end with a direct translation of "...and they all lived happily ever after". Rather, in Spanish-language fairytales, our brave heroes "lived happily and ate partridges" ("vivieron felices y comieron perdices"). So there!
More of the same at Refugio today... but my nerves are frazzled and I was doing well to keep my temper. Walter was particularly destructive and his brother wasn't much better. All the kids constantly hit each other with objects or their hands if there is nothing else around, and no one apart from us is ever around to see it. I was annoyed as well as after only 3 days, we lost a piece of the domino set and no one tried to find it. That says it all about the way the kids feel about their surroundings. We brought out the jenga set later on, and the older boys seemed really keen, but instead of playing, they just kept knocking down the tower. I ended up putting the game away, and was really disappointed by the boys' attitude. It's the kind of delicate situation that cannot be mended or even approached, though, with the language barrier that we are facing. I generally understand the kids well and make myself understood, but they choose which parts of instructions, warnings or reproaches that they want to understand, just to make things difficult for me. At one point today I was struck by how thankless the job is - I thought that the kids here would appreciate what I am trying to do, and thought that somehow they needed the help I can give. However, apart from the majority of kids at Arcoiris, the opposite is true. I know that they have been brought up to be this way and that it isn't at all their fault, but I didn't come here to have a mop thrown at me or be spat on. I could have stayed in Bonnyrigg! I do feel, though, that I'm doing the best that I can in the face of all the obstacles. I mentioned Maria, the girl with the speech impediment, before. Up until recently, all she has ever said to me is "Tía!", but today I was delighted (however briefly!) when she called me by my name. I didn't think she had it in her!
I did know that this was never going to be just a pretty little holiday. But I hope that what I am doing is making a difference and I hope that in the last few days I am here I will make an impact that will somehow improve these kids' very lonely and hard lives.
However, when work is over, holidaying begins. We are going out tonight and tomorrow night, probably with the new girl who arrives today. On Sunday, I think we are going to go to the jesuit ruins at San Ignacio, which are supposed to be amazing at sunset. I'm really looking forward to getting away and having a break! I will try to write this again tomorrow, otherwise I will probably be signing off until Monday. Hoping this finds you all well.
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Playing With the Big Boys
We did go bowling... and the rest. I have had very little sleep but have still managed to do a whole day's productive work. Feeling smug! Actually, I feel better today than I have for a while. Maybe it's because it wasn't as cold today and the sun was shining, or maybe it's because the kids in Arcoiris were relatively calm this morning and didn't clamber all over me as soon as I got there.
But one thing at a time. All 6 of us went bowling in town, I was dead chuffed as I got 2 strikes... a record by my standard and I didn't lose (for once). Ok, I didn't win either... However, it seemed that this was way too tame and adolescent for Sile and Jonny, who suggested going back to Tauro, the place where we saw the Tango dancers last week. When we got there it was virtually deserted, but that made it all the more easy to get a pool table. I was relunctantly drafted in as Jonny's "copiloto", and I did warn him about my laughable pool ability. I think I potted one ball in that game. Anyway, things improved as I got warmed up (a few cans of Speed helped sharpen my reactions too. Calm down, it's only Red Bull!) and I ended up just losing to Tim by the black and wondering if I was getting away with pretending that I knew what I was doing and that when the ball went in by pure fluke, it had been exactly what I had meant to happen.
Jonny and Tim were lucky enough to be approached by a couple of men who were keen to be more than just friends! Score! They invited all of us to a barbecue tonight, but I suspect nothing will come of it. Probably for the best!
I managed to make it into work by half 10 this morning, not for lack of trying to be in early. I left the house at half 9. I think I may finally have cracked the irritating bus conundrum, although it took 45 minutes of waiting for the right bus to come. I was so pleased with myself that I actually found my way to Arcoiris withough the aid of a taxi.
Sile was not to be moved this morning, and there was no sign of Jenny, so I worked the morning shift alone. Luckly it was very quiet and I had some nice moments with the kids. In the ongoing saga of trying to get photos online, Lorena suggested I take her CD to the locutorio around the corner from the home, with the 2 older girls, Analia and Rocio, to accompany me. It was a wasted by lovely trip - the CD still didn't work (I have given it back to Lorena and given up all hope of seeing my photos on here) but I had a really good chat with the girls on the way there. They are really sweet but mature and intelligent too, and I felt like their big sister taking them out. They took an arm each and we had a nice little stroll in the sunshine. I had a bit of lunch with the kids again and it's always a really nice family experience. They always eat with spoons and have started calling me "Sara Cuchara" (Sarah Spoon) and take great amusement in saying "I've got your sister (etc) here" and waving their spoon at me.
I didn't have as much luck with the buses on the way to Refugio; Veronica had told me the other day that we could get a bus from the crossroads by our flat, but I couldn't remember where the bus stop was (they generally are only marked by a shelter here, and if there's no shelter you're guessing) and managed to go to the wrong place, duly watching the bus sail by. I ended up in a taxi that I'm sure tok me the longest route possible.
When I first got in, I was very pleased to be invited by one of the older-ish boys to play marbles. I have never seen them played by anyone of my generation or younger, and in fact didn't even know how to win. It didn't take me long to learn though and pretty soon I had my own cache of stolen marbles. This really touched me as the last time I think I heard of anyone playign marbles would have been in the Beano or an Enid Blyton book.
Jenny came along to Refugio after a bit, but we were both quite content to lie in the sun for as long as possible whilst minding the kids playing with the blocks that we bought them. Dominoes retained its popularity - probably becuase rather than being the traditional spotted type, they are each printedwith a number and an equivalent simple football strip, while zero is a big football. Three of the strips are like the River, Boca and Argentina strips. 6 is the Boca strip and everyone gets very excited about having the double 6 ("doble Boca") as they call it. The game was really popular with a lot of the kids who moved in and out of the playing group as they felt like it. From the youngest to the oldest kids, it rally grabbed their attention and the the same could be said of the lego. I was going domino crazy by the end of the afternoon, though! It's funny how something so small and cheap can make such a huge difference to them - they were all rapt so I can only imagine that they don't often get to do something like that. They don't need expensive or complicated toys, and they can amuse themselves, but clearly a few toys can make a huge difference.
We'll see how it pans out tomorrow. Thankfully it's Friday! Tonight there is supposed to be a big parade, but I suspect I am currently missing it. I hope it's still going on by the time I finish my tea. Speaking of which, I better run. Not across the road, though... it's scary enough as it is!
Stick with me...
But one thing at a time. All 6 of us went bowling in town, I was dead chuffed as I got 2 strikes... a record by my standard and I didn't lose (for once). Ok, I didn't win either... However, it seemed that this was way too tame and adolescent for Sile and Jonny, who suggested going back to Tauro, the place where we saw the Tango dancers last week. When we got there it was virtually deserted, but that made it all the more easy to get a pool table. I was relunctantly drafted in as Jonny's "copiloto", and I did warn him about my laughable pool ability. I think I potted one ball in that game. Anyway, things improved as I got warmed up (a few cans of Speed helped sharpen my reactions too. Calm down, it's only Red Bull!) and I ended up just losing to Tim by the black and wondering if I was getting away with pretending that I knew what I was doing and that when the ball went in by pure fluke, it had been exactly what I had meant to happen.
Jonny and Tim were lucky enough to be approached by a couple of men who were keen to be more than just friends! Score! They invited all of us to a barbecue tonight, but I suspect nothing will come of it. Probably for the best!
I managed to make it into work by half 10 this morning, not for lack of trying to be in early. I left the house at half 9. I think I may finally have cracked the irritating bus conundrum, although it took 45 minutes of waiting for the right bus to come. I was so pleased with myself that I actually found my way to Arcoiris withough the aid of a taxi.
Sile was not to be moved this morning, and there was no sign of Jenny, so I worked the morning shift alone. Luckly it was very quiet and I had some nice moments with the kids. In the ongoing saga of trying to get photos online, Lorena suggested I take her CD to the locutorio around the corner from the home, with the 2 older girls, Analia and Rocio, to accompany me. It was a wasted by lovely trip - the CD still didn't work (I have given it back to Lorena and given up all hope of seeing my photos on here) but I had a really good chat with the girls on the way there. They are really sweet but mature and intelligent too, and I felt like their big sister taking them out. They took an arm each and we had a nice little stroll in the sunshine. I had a bit of lunch with the kids again and it's always a really nice family experience. They always eat with spoons and have started calling me "Sara Cuchara" (Sarah Spoon) and take great amusement in saying "I've got your sister (etc) here" and waving their spoon at me.
I didn't have as much luck with the buses on the way to Refugio; Veronica had told me the other day that we could get a bus from the crossroads by our flat, but I couldn't remember where the bus stop was (they generally are only marked by a shelter here, and if there's no shelter you're guessing) and managed to go to the wrong place, duly watching the bus sail by. I ended up in a taxi that I'm sure tok me the longest route possible.
When I first got in, I was very pleased to be invited by one of the older-ish boys to play marbles. I have never seen them played by anyone of my generation or younger, and in fact didn't even know how to win. It didn't take me long to learn though and pretty soon I had my own cache of stolen marbles. This really touched me as the last time I think I heard of anyone playign marbles would have been in the Beano or an Enid Blyton book.
Jenny came along to Refugio after a bit, but we were both quite content to lie in the sun for as long as possible whilst minding the kids playing with the blocks that we bought them. Dominoes retained its popularity - probably becuase rather than being the traditional spotted type, they are each printedwith a number and an equivalent simple football strip, while zero is a big football. Three of the strips are like the River, Boca and Argentina strips. 6 is the Boca strip and everyone gets very excited about having the double 6 ("doble Boca") as they call it. The game was really popular with a lot of the kids who moved in and out of the playing group as they felt like it. From the youngest to the oldest kids, it rally grabbed their attention and the the same could be said of the lego. I was going domino crazy by the end of the afternoon, though! It's funny how something so small and cheap can make such a huge difference to them - they were all rapt so I can only imagine that they don't often get to do something like that. They don't need expensive or complicated toys, and they can amuse themselves, but clearly a few toys can make a huge difference.
We'll see how it pans out tomorrow. Thankfully it's Friday! Tonight there is supposed to be a big parade, but I suspect I am currently missing it. I hope it's still going on by the time I finish my tea. Speaking of which, I better run. Not across the road, though... it's scary enough as it is!
Stick with me...
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
The Kindness of Strangers
Thanks for the all the get well messages! Especially to one reader, who shall remain anonymous, who was up reading this late last night and texted me straight away to ask how I was feeling. Lovely. The wonder of technology!
I am now avoiding PC5 in my local locutorio, as it takes a good 15 minutes to send any email and hasn't even heard of Facebook. It also regularly signs me out of Bebo, so I generally find there's not even any point on going on it. On PC1 just now (the only other one is 6, no idea what happened to 2, 3, 4 or 7) so fingers crossed. I will also apologise for any mistakes I make that I don't edit out, the keyboard has a will of its own and it's very hard to correct entries once they're published. As for the photo situation... this continues to be a source of frustration for me. I managed to put my pics onto a CD using Arcoiris' PC, but the PC in the locotorio doesn't recognise them. I am now starting to believe that I won't be able to publish any pictures on here until I get home... but if you bear with me, I will do it when I'm back and you can get a rough idea of what it's been like here.
I'm feeling better, anyway, so that's cheered me up. I was in bed by 10 last night and slept right through til 8, which I think has helped me shake off the flueyness a bit. I can't beleive how cold it is, though - I now have 2 blankets and a duvet on my bed. When I first arrived, the heat just about knocked me over as soon as I got out of the airconditioning of the plane. It was technically winter at the time too. The 21st (last Friday) was officially the first day of spring, but somehow it is colder than before. I imagine this is what it will be like in Scotland when I get home, but I would like to make the most of the Southern Hemisphere spring while I can. Not fair!
It was still a trial getting to Arcoiris this morning, though, as my legs felt like lead. I have just about had enough of the 14 bus that is "supposed" to take us there. It comes at indeterminate times and it has the most random bus route. We have never actually managed to get it all the way from Cuca's to the stop outside the home. Either a taxi or a long walk, or both, has ensued. Today was no different. I think tomorrow we may just admit defeat and get a taxi door-to-door. The taxi drivers here are mental, though. And don't get me started on the bus drivers! My arms are getting a great workout holding all my weight as my feet repeatedly get pulled out from under me every time the bus stops or pulls away. They are G-force addicts here.
Inside the home was little better - all the kids spent a lot of time screaming today and sliding repeatedly up and down the floor on their knees. Last night, Jenny, Sile and I bought some toys and games for the kids in a poundstretcher-type shop in town, and we brought some of them along, but attention spans were fairly short and it was hard to keep up. At one point I found myself giving a baby her bottle with my right hand, playing dominoes with a 4 year-old with my left hand and trying to stop a 2-year old running out the front door with the other (...exactly). Multitasker extraordinaire! While all this was going on, a woman was sitting in the room waiting to go into the office for an interview for a job at the home. God knows what she made of it all!
I used to be terrified of babies. It's funny as now they don't bother me (so much!). On Monday I was very pleased with myself that I managed to get Mile (pronounced "Meelay" and short for Milagros, "Miracle") from screaming the house down to sleeping in a smooth 5 minute movement. Achievement! Yesterday Sile and I got roped into feeding Nicole, who just turned 1. It took 2 of us to get the soup in her mouth, although most of it went on all our jumpers. I would be totally rubbish at this if it was my own baby.
Of course, Refugio remains another matter entirely. I continue to be shocked and upset by the stuff I see there. Yesterday and today, the place was filled with thick woodsmoke, and it transpires that the gas has run out so they are burning a wood stove. It doesn't seem to be that efficient, though, as all the smoke was coming out straight into the kitchen. It seemed even worse today, so much so that we couldn't go inside and spent what time we had there outside in the patio. We did manage to take 4 of the boys to the park, including the 2 I shouted at yesterday. I thought we had done well and was pleased at how well they behaved, but they blotted their collective copybook by moaning that they would only enjoy themselves if I went to the shop and bought them some coke. Not a chance. It may sound mean, but if I give in once I 'll get known as a bank rather than a volunteer, and all subsequent volunteers will be subject to the same expectation. It was incredibly hard to say no to kids that clearly have nothing, but it ultimately has to be a case of being cruel to be kind. But kind to who? Me or them?
Later on, we brought out some of the games we had bought for the Refugio kids - more dominoes and some lego. Both proved popular, but I was shocked at how illiterate the kids are. One 8 year-old girl didn't know the numbers 1-9. One wee girl, Maria, has a serious speech impediment and possible learning difficulties. She doesn't say much more than "Tía" ("Miss") all the time, followed by a point at some object. This can be quite wearing, but the dominoes proved a bit hit with her. I'm not sure she got it, but it was really nice for her to be involved in something, as normally she is on the periphery of games that she doesn't understand and that don't involve her.
Later on, I saw something that has really shocked me. I have become used to the women carrying sticks as a deterrent or a punishment, the cockroaches on the walls and in the food, the lights that don't work, the doors hanging off the walls, everything being broken and the kids' clothes in tatters... but this was unbelievable. I walked past the boys' dorm and could hear crying, but couldn't see any of the kids. When I went in I realised it was a baby, lying on her own in the bed. I got closer and realised there was another baby there, with a pillow beside her! I tried to pick up the crying baby and she screamed even harder... I worry about her sanity as I usually see her wandering about crying. The other baby was in serious danger of falling out of the bed. I don't particularly want to write what image it reminded me of, because it's probably unfair of me to put it in this context. What was the most shocking of all this was that these 2 babies are the children of one of the women who works here, who was nowhere to be seen. When I found her, I told her what was happening and she sort of shrugged and carried on with what she was doing. I feel so helpless to help these children, who rely on the kindness of strangers. It's a very sad situation.
There is some mooting of a trip to the bowling tonight. Sounds good to me. I feel that this blog is getting darker and darker in tone, but I'm just writing what I see. Stay with me!
I am now avoiding PC5 in my local locutorio, as it takes a good 15 minutes to send any email and hasn't even heard of Facebook. It also regularly signs me out of Bebo, so I generally find there's not even any point on going on it. On PC1 just now (the only other one is 6, no idea what happened to 2, 3, 4 or 7) so fingers crossed. I will also apologise for any mistakes I make that I don't edit out, the keyboard has a will of its own and it's very hard to correct entries once they're published. As for the photo situation... this continues to be a source of frustration for me. I managed to put my pics onto a CD using Arcoiris' PC, but the PC in the locotorio doesn't recognise them. I am now starting to believe that I won't be able to publish any pictures on here until I get home... but if you bear with me, I will do it when I'm back and you can get a rough idea of what it's been like here.
I'm feeling better, anyway, so that's cheered me up. I was in bed by 10 last night and slept right through til 8, which I think has helped me shake off the flueyness a bit. I can't beleive how cold it is, though - I now have 2 blankets and a duvet on my bed. When I first arrived, the heat just about knocked me over as soon as I got out of the airconditioning of the plane. It was technically winter at the time too. The 21st (last Friday) was officially the first day of spring, but somehow it is colder than before. I imagine this is what it will be like in Scotland when I get home, but I would like to make the most of the Southern Hemisphere spring while I can. Not fair!
It was still a trial getting to Arcoiris this morning, though, as my legs felt like lead. I have just about had enough of the 14 bus that is "supposed" to take us there. It comes at indeterminate times and it has the most random bus route. We have never actually managed to get it all the way from Cuca's to the stop outside the home. Either a taxi or a long walk, or both, has ensued. Today was no different. I think tomorrow we may just admit defeat and get a taxi door-to-door. The taxi drivers here are mental, though. And don't get me started on the bus drivers! My arms are getting a great workout holding all my weight as my feet repeatedly get pulled out from under me every time the bus stops or pulls away. They are G-force addicts here.
Inside the home was little better - all the kids spent a lot of time screaming today and sliding repeatedly up and down the floor on their knees. Last night, Jenny, Sile and I bought some toys and games for the kids in a poundstretcher-type shop in town, and we brought some of them along, but attention spans were fairly short and it was hard to keep up. At one point I found myself giving a baby her bottle with my right hand, playing dominoes with a 4 year-old with my left hand and trying to stop a 2-year old running out the front door with the other (...exactly). Multitasker extraordinaire! While all this was going on, a woman was sitting in the room waiting to go into the office for an interview for a job at the home. God knows what she made of it all!
I used to be terrified of babies. It's funny as now they don't bother me (so much!). On Monday I was very pleased with myself that I managed to get Mile (pronounced "Meelay" and short for Milagros, "Miracle") from screaming the house down to sleeping in a smooth 5 minute movement. Achievement! Yesterday Sile and I got roped into feeding Nicole, who just turned 1. It took 2 of us to get the soup in her mouth, although most of it went on all our jumpers. I would be totally rubbish at this if it was my own baby.
Of course, Refugio remains another matter entirely. I continue to be shocked and upset by the stuff I see there. Yesterday and today, the place was filled with thick woodsmoke, and it transpires that the gas has run out so they are burning a wood stove. It doesn't seem to be that efficient, though, as all the smoke was coming out straight into the kitchen. It seemed even worse today, so much so that we couldn't go inside and spent what time we had there outside in the patio. We did manage to take 4 of the boys to the park, including the 2 I shouted at yesterday. I thought we had done well and was pleased at how well they behaved, but they blotted their collective copybook by moaning that they would only enjoy themselves if I went to the shop and bought them some coke. Not a chance. It may sound mean, but if I give in once I 'll get known as a bank rather than a volunteer, and all subsequent volunteers will be subject to the same expectation. It was incredibly hard to say no to kids that clearly have nothing, but it ultimately has to be a case of being cruel to be kind. But kind to who? Me or them?
Later on, we brought out some of the games we had bought for the Refugio kids - more dominoes and some lego. Both proved popular, but I was shocked at how illiterate the kids are. One 8 year-old girl didn't know the numbers 1-9. One wee girl, Maria, has a serious speech impediment and possible learning difficulties. She doesn't say much more than "Tía" ("Miss") all the time, followed by a point at some object. This can be quite wearing, but the dominoes proved a bit hit with her. I'm not sure she got it, but it was really nice for her to be involved in something, as normally she is on the periphery of games that she doesn't understand and that don't involve her.
Later on, I saw something that has really shocked me. I have become used to the women carrying sticks as a deterrent or a punishment, the cockroaches on the walls and in the food, the lights that don't work, the doors hanging off the walls, everything being broken and the kids' clothes in tatters... but this was unbelievable. I walked past the boys' dorm and could hear crying, but couldn't see any of the kids. When I went in I realised it was a baby, lying on her own in the bed. I got closer and realised there was another baby there, with a pillow beside her! I tried to pick up the crying baby and she screamed even harder... I worry about her sanity as I usually see her wandering about crying. The other baby was in serious danger of falling out of the bed. I don't particularly want to write what image it reminded me of, because it's probably unfair of me to put it in this context. What was the most shocking of all this was that these 2 babies are the children of one of the women who works here, who was nowhere to be seen. When I found her, I told her what was happening and she sort of shrugged and carried on with what she was doing. I feel so helpless to help these children, who rely on the kindness of strangers. It's a very sad situation.
There is some mooting of a trip to the bowling tonight. Sounds good to me. I feel that this blog is getting darker and darker in tone, but I'm just writing what I see. Stay with me!
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Sick as a Puppy
I woke up this morning feeling completely rotten - sore eyes, sore head, sore throat... and I don't suppose any of that was a result of the banana milkshake I had after the cinema. I have had a cough of varying degrees for a couple of weeks now, so this morning I gave in and went to the Farmacia across the road and picked up some jarabe, which is what you get for cough medicine here. I feel a bit better already, I think mainly because I actually succumbed to the need for medicine rather than trying to ignore my illness! I was feeling very under the weather, not least because it was freezing last night and was still really cold this morning. I had stupidly put all my long trousers into the laudrette the night before and though I would have to wear shorts to work, but luckily I found my one pair of smart trousers that I brought. Not sure what I thought I would need them for, but being as I followed the instructions of all the travel books and websites I read before leaving to the letter, I thought I would bung a pair in my suitcase. Just as well!
I ended up wearing my hat and scarf too (glad I brought them!) and although the cold seemed to barely register with anyone else, I have been shivering all day. At Arcoiris, it seemed to be Official Cream Puff Day, with various kids going off into corners and sulking throughout the day. I felt like following suit at one point! We decided to take the kids out to the park again, this time with a skipping rope and minus Tutui, the 2 year-old whose inquisitiveness is outweighed only by his lack of fear. A dangerous mix in a playground full of glass and barbed wire.
Skipping proved still to be a classic entertainment, and kept the kids busy in the sunshine for a good while. I managed to get sunburnt yesterday, despite it being freezing cold, so made sure I put on the sunblock for the tiny bits of skin that were sticking out of the spaces between hat, scarf and jumper. It felt wrong! The kids showed us some of their skipping games and I showed them "I Had a Little Bumper Car" - the bit about knocking into the policeman still makes me laugh, but it was hard to translate to the kids so they could understand too.
There were still a number off kids in several degrees of huffs when we got back, which made trying to get an organised game on the go very difficult. I opted to introduce "What's the Time, Mr Wolf" ("¿Cuál Es La Hora, Señor Lobo?") which seemed pretty popular - no surprise there, though!
After lunch I felt really rotten and ended up having a very long siesta, and feeling worse for it. Sile had to drag me along the road to get the bus to El Refugio, and the combination of feeling ill and what had happened yesterday meant I was not exactly excited about going to work... but as with all things, you get out of it what you put in. However, my Spanish had gone off to lurk in the back of my brain somewhere while all my thoughts were of getting back under the warm covers, so I realkly struggled. Yesterday, 2 of the patient older boys had asked why they weren't getting taken to the park, and I said that we couldn't take them then but I would take them soon. I promised that I would take them, though specified that it might not be today. Of course, when we arrived, the first thing they asked me was if we wer going to the park and I tried to explain that we weren't going as I was ill, and they turned my promise around on me and tried to say I had said they could go today. They wouldn't listen to me and I didn't get a chance to properly explain. I'm sorry to say that I totally lost my patience and shouted at them in English, which I'm not proud of. Later on, I was really pleased because one of the boys, whom originally I had thought to be bit of a wide-o, came up to me and sat right down beside me, and said gently "what happened?". I asked him if he had ever had flu and he said "many times", so I explained how I couldn't go in that state, and he said he understood. He accepted my apology, and I hope I haven't spoilt things by losing my temper. I think they are used to shouting from the other women, but I don't want to be like them.
Later on I noticed that I hadn´t seen 2 of the kids for ages, and another girl told me that these 2 had escaped over the weekend, by climbing onto the wall and over the roof. I am really quite sad, as the girl, Mariaeugenia, had always seemed mature and intelligent to me and we had some good convsations. She had previously told me that she wasn't allowed to come to the park with us as she was deemed an escape risk. Probably nothing made her want to escape more than that. I've kept a drawing that she did for me on one of the first days, when I asked her to draw her dreams. She drew herself, her brother and her mum in a house surrounded by flowers. I asked her where her mum was and she said she didn't know, but that she had promised to call Mariaeugenia, and that she had never done it. I don't suppose I will ever see her again.
Even sadder than all this is the newest resident of El Refugio, a black mongrel pup called Michaelangelo. He belongs to one of the girls, but as they lie quite openly a lot of the time, it is hard to tell who is the true owner. Yesterday he seemed shaky and confused, but today he really did not look well. I ended up with him wrapped in a jumper, trying to keep him warm next to my chest. I tried to get him to drink some water at one point, but he wouldn't. I hope he won't be mistreated or will suffer, but it's hard to imagine him being cared for properly. We'll need to see.
Apart from that, today marks 3 weeks since I left for Argentina. I can't believe how quickly it has passed and how dumbstruck I was by everything when I got here. Part of me wants to come home, but part of me wants to stay and see and do everything this crazy country (and all those surrounding it) has to offer. I really want to go to Montevideo, to Patagonia, Chile and Tierra del Fuego. But the ticket is booked and I'll be home 2 weeks tomorrow. It's too soon!
Thanks again to everyone who has been reading this and leaving comments. The first thing I do after checking my email every day is look to see if I have any comments. I'm trying to add a bit of humour to it, but I'm afraid that's just a wee bit thin on the ground today!
¡Mañana será mejor!
I ended up wearing my hat and scarf too (glad I brought them!) and although the cold seemed to barely register with anyone else, I have been shivering all day. At Arcoiris, it seemed to be Official Cream Puff Day, with various kids going off into corners and sulking throughout the day. I felt like following suit at one point! We decided to take the kids out to the park again, this time with a skipping rope and minus Tutui, the 2 year-old whose inquisitiveness is outweighed only by his lack of fear. A dangerous mix in a playground full of glass and barbed wire.
Skipping proved still to be a classic entertainment, and kept the kids busy in the sunshine for a good while. I managed to get sunburnt yesterday, despite it being freezing cold, so made sure I put on the sunblock for the tiny bits of skin that were sticking out of the spaces between hat, scarf and jumper. It felt wrong! The kids showed us some of their skipping games and I showed them "I Had a Little Bumper Car" - the bit about knocking into the policeman still makes me laugh, but it was hard to translate to the kids so they could understand too.
There were still a number off kids in several degrees of huffs when we got back, which made trying to get an organised game on the go very difficult. I opted to introduce "What's the Time, Mr Wolf" ("¿Cuál Es La Hora, Señor Lobo?") which seemed pretty popular - no surprise there, though!
After lunch I felt really rotten and ended up having a very long siesta, and feeling worse for it. Sile had to drag me along the road to get the bus to El Refugio, and the combination of feeling ill and what had happened yesterday meant I was not exactly excited about going to work... but as with all things, you get out of it what you put in. However, my Spanish had gone off to lurk in the back of my brain somewhere while all my thoughts were of getting back under the warm covers, so I realkly struggled. Yesterday, 2 of the patient older boys had asked why they weren't getting taken to the park, and I said that we couldn't take them then but I would take them soon. I promised that I would take them, though specified that it might not be today. Of course, when we arrived, the first thing they asked me was if we wer going to the park and I tried to explain that we weren't going as I was ill, and they turned my promise around on me and tried to say I had said they could go today. They wouldn't listen to me and I didn't get a chance to properly explain. I'm sorry to say that I totally lost my patience and shouted at them in English, which I'm not proud of. Later on, I was really pleased because one of the boys, whom originally I had thought to be bit of a wide-o, came up to me and sat right down beside me, and said gently "what happened?". I asked him if he had ever had flu and he said "many times", so I explained how I couldn't go in that state, and he said he understood. He accepted my apology, and I hope I haven't spoilt things by losing my temper. I think they are used to shouting from the other women, but I don't want to be like them.
Later on I noticed that I hadn´t seen 2 of the kids for ages, and another girl told me that these 2 had escaped over the weekend, by climbing onto the wall and over the roof. I am really quite sad, as the girl, Mariaeugenia, had always seemed mature and intelligent to me and we had some good convsations. She had previously told me that she wasn't allowed to come to the park with us as she was deemed an escape risk. Probably nothing made her want to escape more than that. I've kept a drawing that she did for me on one of the first days, when I asked her to draw her dreams. She drew herself, her brother and her mum in a house surrounded by flowers. I asked her where her mum was and she said she didn't know, but that she had promised to call Mariaeugenia, and that she had never done it. I don't suppose I will ever see her again.
Even sadder than all this is the newest resident of El Refugio, a black mongrel pup called Michaelangelo. He belongs to one of the girls, but as they lie quite openly a lot of the time, it is hard to tell who is the true owner. Yesterday he seemed shaky and confused, but today he really did not look well. I ended up with him wrapped in a jumper, trying to keep him warm next to my chest. I tried to get him to drink some water at one point, but he wouldn't. I hope he won't be mistreated or will suffer, but it's hard to imagine him being cared for properly. We'll need to see.
Apart from that, today marks 3 weeks since I left for Argentina. I can't believe how quickly it has passed and how dumbstruck I was by everything when I got here. Part of me wants to come home, but part of me wants to stay and see and do everything this crazy country (and all those surrounding it) has to offer. I really want to go to Montevideo, to Patagonia, Chile and Tierra del Fuego. But the ticket is booked and I'll be home 2 weeks tomorrow. It's too soon!
Thanks again to everyone who has been reading this and leaving comments. The first thing I do after checking my email every day is look to see if I have any comments. I'm trying to add a bit of humour to it, but I'm afraid that's just a wee bit thin on the ground today!
¡Mañana será mejor!
Monday, 24 September 2007
Another Brick in the (Filthy) Wall
Well, I didn't manage to write this yesterday as there are no locutorios open of a Sunday... qué sorpresa. Just as well anyway as I was quite content just to stay in bed all day making up for the lost sleep during the week. It was nice just doing nothing! We went out on Saturday night to Veronica's, although she was away on business so her mum, dad, friend Carolina and husband Marcelo entertained us insted. Plus, I had been so pleased with myself when I got back in on Saturday evening from blogging at exactly half 7, thinking I would impress Cuca, but when I arrived there was no tea on the table and she told me that Marcelo had phoned and we were eating with him! Typical! I will probably be late instead tonight, though... oops! Too much to do!
We met up again with Hannah, Tim and the other new girl, Jenny, who had just arrived. She was knoackered and did a good job of surviving until abotu 10 pm. We had pizza and empañadas, a local speciality which in reality are something akin to cornish pasties. I'm afraid my jury is still very much out on them. Then Marcelo served up the Tinto de Verano, evil Fernet and beers and it was time (1am) to head out to Power... I love it!
Power is a massive warren of rooms and it's impossible not to get lost in there, but somehow I ran into 2 of my new Posadas friends - Chantal (who, shall I say, has designs on young Jonny!) and Francisco, who I met in Mentecato last week and who greeted me as I passed with "hé, Escocesa!", which was quite amusing! We paid a bit extra (about 1 pound 60!) to get into the "VIP" section and were treated to music from the 80s and 90s - but it was mostly latin american or Spanish stuff. I was pleased to hear them play a couple of tunes that I heard in 1996 on a totally random tape I bought in a French market, thinking it was French music. It was the weirdest feeling when I realised where I recognised the tunes from.
We ended up dancing until the early hours (around half 5!) and headed back home, but it was well worth it. I am sad that I only have one more weekend here now. I intend to make the most of it!
Nothing much to report about yesterday, but today I woke up feeling really fed up. I have been reading the memoirs of Sandra Gregory, a British woman who was arrested in Thailand in 1993 for smuggling herion. Her book is a graphic description of prison life, and last night I dreamed I had been sent to prison. I woke up feeling really scared and a bit homesick, which I suspect is a lot to do with reading the book. Hmm!
Sile and I went with Jenny and Hannah to Arcoiris (I have been spelling it wrong all this time) this morning and took them to the park. It was a beautiful day (compared to yesterday - there were terrible storms and the power cut out again, in fact we ended up eating dinner by candlelight!) and the kids were really enjoying themselves, but the park was covered in glass and we had to watch them every single second. It was incredibly tiring and worrying, as we had had no idea the park was so dangerous.
We went into town for lunch, which was lovely as we sat in the sun outside a cafe. We were also pleased to be recognised by Marcelo and Veronica, who beeped the car horn at us as they drove past. It made us feel like proper locals!
After that, we headed back to El Refugio. We had explained to the new girls a bit about the situation... but they were still as shocked as I had been. We agreed that we would take 8 kids to the park and of course, we were met with the usual moaning and cheek from them. They were absolute pains in the rear the whole way there, and then one of them hit her face on the climbing frame and started gushing blood. We had to go back with her and at least 1 other kid, and they were all being so annoying about who was going to go. None of them has any sense of authority and I'm afraid that at that point I lost my temper with them, and said I wasn't going to take them to the park again because none of them did what I say. They just do what they want and are so cheeky, and there's no support from the staff, so why should I put up with it? More than anything else, I came out here to make a difference to the lives of kids who have suffered, are suffering and need to be nurtured. But I just feel I can't do it like this. I don't really know what to do next.
Sile, Jenny and I are going to try and buy some simple toys tomorrow, such as a skipping rope, so we can play more constructively, but I am sorry to say that my patience with the lack of structure or support is really starting to get me down.
Off to the cinema tonight, though, and I'm not as down as I sound. I just feel like I'm banging my head off El Refugio's dirty brick wall.
We met up again with Hannah, Tim and the other new girl, Jenny, who had just arrived. She was knoackered and did a good job of surviving until abotu 10 pm. We had pizza and empañadas, a local speciality which in reality are something akin to cornish pasties. I'm afraid my jury is still very much out on them. Then Marcelo served up the Tinto de Verano, evil Fernet and beers and it was time (1am) to head out to Power... I love it!
Power is a massive warren of rooms and it's impossible not to get lost in there, but somehow I ran into 2 of my new Posadas friends - Chantal (who, shall I say, has designs on young Jonny!) and Francisco, who I met in Mentecato last week and who greeted me as I passed with "hé, Escocesa!", which was quite amusing! We paid a bit extra (about 1 pound 60!) to get into the "VIP" section and were treated to music from the 80s and 90s - but it was mostly latin american or Spanish stuff. I was pleased to hear them play a couple of tunes that I heard in 1996 on a totally random tape I bought in a French market, thinking it was French music. It was the weirdest feeling when I realised where I recognised the tunes from.
We ended up dancing until the early hours (around half 5!) and headed back home, but it was well worth it. I am sad that I only have one more weekend here now. I intend to make the most of it!
Nothing much to report about yesterday, but today I woke up feeling really fed up. I have been reading the memoirs of Sandra Gregory, a British woman who was arrested in Thailand in 1993 for smuggling herion. Her book is a graphic description of prison life, and last night I dreamed I had been sent to prison. I woke up feeling really scared and a bit homesick, which I suspect is a lot to do with reading the book. Hmm!
Sile and I went with Jenny and Hannah to Arcoiris (I have been spelling it wrong all this time) this morning and took them to the park. It was a beautiful day (compared to yesterday - there were terrible storms and the power cut out again, in fact we ended up eating dinner by candlelight!) and the kids were really enjoying themselves, but the park was covered in glass and we had to watch them every single second. It was incredibly tiring and worrying, as we had had no idea the park was so dangerous.
We went into town for lunch, which was lovely as we sat in the sun outside a cafe. We were also pleased to be recognised by Marcelo and Veronica, who beeped the car horn at us as they drove past. It made us feel like proper locals!
After that, we headed back to El Refugio. We had explained to the new girls a bit about the situation... but they were still as shocked as I had been. We agreed that we would take 8 kids to the park and of course, we were met with the usual moaning and cheek from them. They were absolute pains in the rear the whole way there, and then one of them hit her face on the climbing frame and started gushing blood. We had to go back with her and at least 1 other kid, and they were all being so annoying about who was going to go. None of them has any sense of authority and I'm afraid that at that point I lost my temper with them, and said I wasn't going to take them to the park again because none of them did what I say. They just do what they want and are so cheeky, and there's no support from the staff, so why should I put up with it? More than anything else, I came out here to make a difference to the lives of kids who have suffered, are suffering and need to be nurtured. But I just feel I can't do it like this. I don't really know what to do next.
Sile, Jenny and I are going to try and buy some simple toys tomorrow, such as a skipping rope, so we can play more constructively, but I am sorry to say that my patience with the lack of structure or support is really starting to get me down.
Off to the cinema tonight, though, and I'm not as down as I sound. I just feel like I'm banging my head off El Refugio's dirty brick wall.
Saturday, 22 September 2007
All Shook Up
Hola de nuevo. Somehow again it's nearly teatime and I have to go very shortly. I woke up to the sound of the pounding rain again this morning - it's nothing compared to Scottish rain, absolutely unbelievable! I am feeling the slightest bit homesick too, I think because the situation has changed a bit and and I'm back out of my comfort zone... that's a daft thing to think though as it will be great to have 3 new people and more adventures are sure to follow! We went out last night to a new bar, El Faro (the lighthouse to you), which is on the Costa Negra and has a beautiful view over the Rio Paraná to Paraguay. We didn't last long though as everyone was knackered, including newbie Tim, who is staying with Jonny now.
Today we met up with Hannah, the new girl who is working at El Puma, the animal sanctuary. We are meeting up with Jenny, the girl who will be working at Arcoaires and El Refugio with us, later. I hope she's brought some waterproof trousers!
I have to go now, Cuca and tea will b waiting. Did I mention how much I hate crossing the roads here? I can't figure out the traffic light system at all and to get home from the locutorio where I write this, I have to cross a busy crossroads and risk death every time. I always come out of the locutorio and think again how much I hate the roads here! But it´s all part of the experience.
Hopefully I will have some more interesting news tomorrow. We are off to Power, the Saturday nightclub again tonight, with a bit of Mentecato to start with. ¡Qué bueno!
!Hasta manaña... or whenever I can next get to a locutorio, bearing in mind it is Sunday here tomorrow... I miss 24/7 opening times!
Today we met up with Hannah, the new girl who is working at El Puma, the animal sanctuary. We are meeting up with Jenny, the girl who will be working at Arcoaires and El Refugio with us, later. I hope she's brought some waterproof trousers!
I have to go now, Cuca and tea will b waiting. Did I mention how much I hate crossing the roads here? I can't figure out the traffic light system at all and to get home from the locutorio where I write this, I have to cross a busy crossroads and risk death every time. I always come out of the locutorio and think again how much I hate the roads here! But it´s all part of the experience.
Hopefully I will have some more interesting news tomorrow. We are off to Power, the Saturday nightclub again tonight, with a bit of Mentecato to start with. ¡Qué bueno!
!Hasta manaña... or whenever I can next get to a locutorio, bearing in mind it is Sunday here tomorrow... I miss 24/7 opening times!
Friday, 21 September 2007
Tired and Emotional
Good god, what is wrong with the computer? I have spent countless hours waiting for it to load up and clicking away all the virus pop-ups. I'm starting to lose my patience!
Feeling a bit sad today because Oli headed off back to "England"... the gang's been split up! We are getting 3 more people though, including a girl who will be working at the Refugio with us so that should be helpful.
We made the most of our last night as a foursome, though, with a delicious meal at the same restaurant as last time. I had this amazing steak that was still alive in the middle - just the way I like it! The steak here is better than anything I have eaten in France and so on. I love it! }Our friendly regular waiter, Mauricio, also served us with free cake and champagne, and the whole meal cost around 8 pounds each. I love that too! Afterwards, we headed like a bunch of losers to Copacabanna - there was a quinceañera party going on up the stair and we were the only ones in the lower floor... so embarrassing. We did get a chance to indulge our new-found love of Argentina's answer to Bacardi Breezers - the infamous Doctor Lemon. I'm going to import some of that when I come home. There are other weird drinks - Fernet, Jonny's favourite, which looks and tastes like boiled shoe polish, and Speed (!), which tastes like a better and more palatable version of Red Bull. I am quite partial to a vodka & speed of a night! Hmm!
Of course, we ended up in Mentecato, where the waiter practically knows us as well as any of you. We never leave that place alone! The club room was open up the back, though, and it ended up being packed. I think the whole of Posadas must go there when it's open! I met several Argentines and got a good wring out of my Spanish, it's hard work in that kind of environment. It was all over too quickly though, as was my sleep when the alarm went off at half 7 this morning.
We had a fairly pleasant morning at Arcoaires, Lorena searched for Edinburgh on the internet and was showing them photos of Princes Street and Arthur's Seat - made me the tiniest bit homesick, but a bit proud too. I have taught some of the kids how to do the "bounce-kick" thing from ceilidh dancing and we did that to some bagpipe music that came on. Talk about authentic.
We got our lunch again, and I was horrified to discover it was my absolute nightmare meal... MINCE AND POTATOES. Mum, you'd be proud of me, I did eat a couple of the offending spuds out of politeness, but I couldn't manage more than a few mouthfuls. Yuck! ¡Me de la boke!
We managed to head off early enough to pop round to Jonny and Oli's to see Oli off. While we were there, a programme about the Madres de Plaza de Mayo came on and the boys' homestay mum told us that the headscarves that they wear signify the shawls of the babies that were taken away from their mothers, as one woman used to wear the shawl of her missing baby as a headsquare. She also said that 30 years on from the disappearances, some of the women have been reunited with the children that were taken away from them.
El Refugio is really doing my head in. It's really in a state - there are so many tiny little things tha need done that would make a huge difference to the quality of life of the kids. For example, some bed have no mattresses - no idea where those kids sleep - there are doors off their hinges, missing window panes, doors with holes right through them, and a layer of grime everywhere. There's so much that needs done that I don't know where to start. This weekend Sile and I intend to get stuck into planning what we're going to do with the kids next week and get some proper resources organised.
Right, it's teatime and I want to stay in Cuca's good books!
¡Hasta mañana!
Feeling a bit sad today because Oli headed off back to "England"... the gang's been split up! We are getting 3 more people though, including a girl who will be working at the Refugio with us so that should be helpful.
We made the most of our last night as a foursome, though, with a delicious meal at the same restaurant as last time. I had this amazing steak that was still alive in the middle - just the way I like it! The steak here is better than anything I have eaten in France and so on. I love it! }Our friendly regular waiter, Mauricio, also served us with free cake and champagne, and the whole meal cost around 8 pounds each. I love that too! Afterwards, we headed like a bunch of losers to Copacabanna - there was a quinceañera party going on up the stair and we were the only ones in the lower floor... so embarrassing. We did get a chance to indulge our new-found love of Argentina's answer to Bacardi Breezers - the infamous Doctor Lemon. I'm going to import some of that when I come home. There are other weird drinks - Fernet, Jonny's favourite, which looks and tastes like boiled shoe polish, and Speed (!), which tastes like a better and more palatable version of Red Bull. I am quite partial to a vodka & speed of a night! Hmm!
Of course, we ended up in Mentecato, where the waiter practically knows us as well as any of you. We never leave that place alone! The club room was open up the back, though, and it ended up being packed. I think the whole of Posadas must go there when it's open! I met several Argentines and got a good wring out of my Spanish, it's hard work in that kind of environment. It was all over too quickly though, as was my sleep when the alarm went off at half 7 this morning.
We had a fairly pleasant morning at Arcoaires, Lorena searched for Edinburgh on the internet and was showing them photos of Princes Street and Arthur's Seat - made me the tiniest bit homesick, but a bit proud too. I have taught some of the kids how to do the "bounce-kick" thing from ceilidh dancing and we did that to some bagpipe music that came on. Talk about authentic.
We got our lunch again, and I was horrified to discover it was my absolute nightmare meal... MINCE AND POTATOES. Mum, you'd be proud of me, I did eat a couple of the offending spuds out of politeness, but I couldn't manage more than a few mouthfuls. Yuck! ¡Me de la boke!
We managed to head off early enough to pop round to Jonny and Oli's to see Oli off. While we were there, a programme about the Madres de Plaza de Mayo came on and the boys' homestay mum told us that the headscarves that they wear signify the shawls of the babies that were taken away from their mothers, as one woman used to wear the shawl of her missing baby as a headsquare. She also said that 30 years on from the disappearances, some of the women have been reunited with the children that were taken away from them.
El Refugio is really doing my head in. It's really in a state - there are so many tiny little things tha need done that would make a huge difference to the quality of life of the kids. For example, some bed have no mattresses - no idea where those kids sleep - there are doors off their hinges, missing window panes, doors with holes right through them, and a layer of grime everywhere. There's so much that needs done that I don't know where to start. This weekend Sile and I intend to get stuck into planning what we're going to do with the kids next week and get some proper resources organised.
Right, it's teatime and I want to stay in Cuca's good books!
¡Hasta mañana!
Thursday, 20 September 2007
General Impropriety
Getting up this morning was a bit of a trial! Thankfully, we had arranged to start work at 11 rather than 9, and I certainly needed my sleep! The leaving do turned into a bit of a late one, of course. We went to Veronica's at 9 for the asado (barbecue). Asados are nothing like barbecues at home, no no. They are massive meatfeasts with huge chunks of beef, breaded veal and chorizo sausage. I ignored all the sidesalads and went straight in there for the delicious meat slabs. I had managed to find some cheap champagne in the back of the fridge of our local shop, and we shared that between the lot of us. Red wine here also costs as little as 6 pesos - that's 1 pound 20, folks! Unbelieveable.
After the asado and much hilarity, we headed of to Oli's choice of bar, Tauro, which turned out to be a real spit-and-sawdust joint. As soon as we went in we were hit by the smell of smoke, rough men and general sleaze. Perfect! There was an impromptu tango dance-off and we made some random Argentine pool-playing friends. I'm not quite sure what time I eventually got to bed. I have to say that I was amused by Cuca's advice as we left the house before we went, though - she said "take a jacket, because it gets cold in the early morning and you never know what time you'll be in". She said all this with a wry smile. She was right, of course, and I'm glad I took her advice. I reckon Cuca's seen it all!
We had quite a pleasant morning in Arcoaires - we made bead necklaces and bracelets with some of the kids, and of course they kept going all over the floor. Then we played a board game that was a mixture of Pictionary, Charades and Blockbuster. Brilliant fun and really good for my Spanish! Later on we ended up playing "guess what animal I am" and I had a great old time writhing around on the floor pretending to be a crocodile (cocodrilo), and fell about laughing when I was being a crab (sadly I still don't know the word for this!).
There was a huge storm just as we were thinking of heading off. The skies here grow almost as dark as night when there is a storm, which gives me an odd creepy feeling. As usual, we were really sad to leave. No siesta today, so we went straight to the stark contrast of El Refugio. The power had cut out during the storm so we sat around for a while in the dark. I'm finding it hard to deal with Refugio - the kids are incredibly demanding, often not clean (I have lost count of the number of times I have been peed on - and worse), and play little tricks on us and so on. One of the kids who loves to climb up for a cuddle clearly needed a nappy change, and was wet right through - I pointed this out to one of the women, who took him away, but she didn't change his clothes so he was still soaking on the outside. I couldn't bear to pick him up, and there was nothing more I felt I could do to help. When this child doesn't get picked up, he starts to call for attention by destroying things and hurting people, so it is a real nightmare. Very frustrating.
Finally, I think today I saw one of the most wrong things - it was some sort of holy day (I think!), and all the kids had pictures of the Virgin Mary with a prayer on the back. One wee girl came up to me and started doing this rather inappropriate dance (no doubt gleaned from the endless hours of risqué TV that the kids watch) whilst holding the card in her left hand. The irony was not lost on me. Later on she went off to have her shower and appeared naked, and proceeded to do the dance! ¡Madre Mía!
I have spent the last hour and 45 minutes in the locutorio writing this and several job applications that are due tomorrow. I'm currently about to scream as the emails won't send and I fear all my work will have been for nothing... and that I won't get a job because of it. As Mike Skinner rightly said, it was supposed to be so easy. I hope it's worked - I have to leave now as we are meeting the boys in 45 minutes to go out for a meal - Oli is leaving tomorrow, so we are going to celebrate/commiserate one more time. Any excuse!
Just checked, email seems to have gone through. Fingers crossed, or as they say here, ojalá. Pues, ¡me voy!
After the asado and much hilarity, we headed of to Oli's choice of bar, Tauro, which turned out to be a real spit-and-sawdust joint. As soon as we went in we were hit by the smell of smoke, rough men and general sleaze. Perfect! There was an impromptu tango dance-off and we made some random Argentine pool-playing friends. I'm not quite sure what time I eventually got to bed. I have to say that I was amused by Cuca's advice as we left the house before we went, though - she said "take a jacket, because it gets cold in the early morning and you never know what time you'll be in". She said all this with a wry smile. She was right, of course, and I'm glad I took her advice. I reckon Cuca's seen it all!
We had quite a pleasant morning in Arcoaires - we made bead necklaces and bracelets with some of the kids, and of course they kept going all over the floor. Then we played a board game that was a mixture of Pictionary, Charades and Blockbuster. Brilliant fun and really good for my Spanish! Later on we ended up playing "guess what animal I am" and I had a great old time writhing around on the floor pretending to be a crocodile (cocodrilo), and fell about laughing when I was being a crab (sadly I still don't know the word for this!).
There was a huge storm just as we were thinking of heading off. The skies here grow almost as dark as night when there is a storm, which gives me an odd creepy feeling. As usual, we were really sad to leave. No siesta today, so we went straight to the stark contrast of El Refugio. The power had cut out during the storm so we sat around for a while in the dark. I'm finding it hard to deal with Refugio - the kids are incredibly demanding, often not clean (I have lost count of the number of times I have been peed on - and worse), and play little tricks on us and so on. One of the kids who loves to climb up for a cuddle clearly needed a nappy change, and was wet right through - I pointed this out to one of the women, who took him away, but she didn't change his clothes so he was still soaking on the outside. I couldn't bear to pick him up, and there was nothing more I felt I could do to help. When this child doesn't get picked up, he starts to call for attention by destroying things and hurting people, so it is a real nightmare. Very frustrating.
Finally, I think today I saw one of the most wrong things - it was some sort of holy day (I think!), and all the kids had pictures of the Virgin Mary with a prayer on the back. One wee girl came up to me and started doing this rather inappropriate dance (no doubt gleaned from the endless hours of risqué TV that the kids watch) whilst holding the card in her left hand. The irony was not lost on me. Later on she went off to have her shower and appeared naked, and proceeded to do the dance! ¡Madre Mía!
I have spent the last hour and 45 minutes in the locutorio writing this and several job applications that are due tomorrow. I'm currently about to scream as the emails won't send and I fear all my work will have been for nothing... and that I won't get a job because of it. As Mike Skinner rightly said, it was supposed to be so easy. I hope it's worked - I have to leave now as we are meeting the boys in 45 minutes to go out for a meal - Oli is leaving tomorrow, so we are going to celebrate/commiserate one more time. Any excuse!
Just checked, email seems to have gone through. Fingers crossed, or as they say here, ojalá. Pues, ¡me voy!
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Not An Entry
Sorry folks, this is the shortest entry ever as I have no time left... I had fully intended to write loads today, but I spent the last hour trying to do application forms and get the slow computer to work and now I have to go... sorry. So much to tell too. Am now able to get photos off camera so will try to get them on here too.
Off to Oli´s leaving do tonight - que lastima.
´Ta mañana...
Off to Oli´s leaving do tonight - que lastima.
´Ta mañana...
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Getting Lost and Running Away
Back in Posadas again. Iguazu seems like ages ago. We got back in last night after 11, the journey was in way as bad as the one there, we had proper reclining seats and they even showed 3 films (including Gladiator in Spanish!). When we got back none of us was in any particular hurry to get back to home so we went for a very tasty pizza. I didn't end up going to sleep until 2am, but even then I was awake half the night scratching my numerous mosquito bites. I'm so itchy and it looks like I have some sort of pustulous disease.
I awoke this morning to the sound of rain, and for a short while thought that I was back in Morninside, and that the whole Argentina episode had been a dream. However, it was just another spate of forceful Argentine rain, which due to our position near the tropic, is accompanied by powerful and impressive storms. We decided to get the bus straight to work this morning instead of meeting Lorena - a foolish error! Despite squeezing our noses to the window all the way, we missed the stops (it was hard to see with all the raindrops and condensation) and eventually, when we realised that we didn't recognise our surroundings, we got off and crossed the road to wait for the return bus. We had to wait 40 minutes... oh dear! To make matters worse, the rain became increasingly heavy and more and more slanted to the left - we got totally soaked as the bus shelters here don't have sides. Eventually we got another bus back and missed the stop again! We ended up back at the flat, totally soaked and having to ring Veronica, who sent out the rescue party (Marcelo!), who very kindly took us to Arcoaires. We were only 70 minutes late!
When we got there, Lorena had a bombshell - 3 of the girls had run away from the home on the Sunday. They are 3 of the oldest residents in the home. One of them was back as she had been found, but the other 2 made allegations against the staff of the home and are now living elsewhere. It is really sad, as from what I can see the girls are treated really well there. Lorena was visibly upset by the matter and sad she felt really hurt by what they had said.
We spent the rest of the morning playing with the kids - some of them have made up their own themed versions of "This Little Piggie" and they are so cute to listen to. I spent as much time as I could speaking to individual children and being cuddled and kissed to pieces again. It's quite exhausting! The rain continued for the rest of the morning and we were glad to stay for lunch, which is always a cooked meal and very tasty. It's lovely getting to sit down with the kids and I'm finding my teacher/psychology skills really useful - the kids really respond to positive praise, although I struggle to find the words that are adequate. I do "thumbs up" a lot!
Neither of us were particularly looking forward to El Refugio in the afternoon, as when it rains they only have a tiny indoor space to play, eat, watch TV and everything else. We spent the whole afternoon watching innappropriate soaps - I can't really follow them, but it's the ideal opportunity to get 5 minutes with each kid on my knee, something that they are really starting to respond to (funnily enough, most of the keen beans are the boys). I was really pleased that I made something of a breakthrough with 2 of the older boys, who have been very wary of me. One of them came straight up and greeted me with the traditional 2 kisses and both of them brought their chairs to sit by me for a while.
We are both very shocked at some of the practices in the home, which I don't really want to write about here. One thing that did really annoy me though was that one older girl was enforcing discipline with a stick. It was hard to stop this as we don't ahve any authority. However, at one point she went to hit a child and hit me instead - I pointed this out and she just looked at me. I'm not too sure who is in charge and if the children are really safe at all.
On that note, I really have to run - I'm going to attempt to be home in time for tea to impress Cuca. And of course to organise something sociable for the evening!
I awoke this morning to the sound of rain, and for a short while thought that I was back in Morninside, and that the whole Argentina episode had been a dream. However, it was just another spate of forceful Argentine rain, which due to our position near the tropic, is accompanied by powerful and impressive storms. We decided to get the bus straight to work this morning instead of meeting Lorena - a foolish error! Despite squeezing our noses to the window all the way, we missed the stops (it was hard to see with all the raindrops and condensation) and eventually, when we realised that we didn't recognise our surroundings, we got off and crossed the road to wait for the return bus. We had to wait 40 minutes... oh dear! To make matters worse, the rain became increasingly heavy and more and more slanted to the left - we got totally soaked as the bus shelters here don't have sides. Eventually we got another bus back and missed the stop again! We ended up back at the flat, totally soaked and having to ring Veronica, who sent out the rescue party (Marcelo!), who very kindly took us to Arcoaires. We were only 70 minutes late!
When we got there, Lorena had a bombshell - 3 of the girls had run away from the home on the Sunday. They are 3 of the oldest residents in the home. One of them was back as she had been found, but the other 2 made allegations against the staff of the home and are now living elsewhere. It is really sad, as from what I can see the girls are treated really well there. Lorena was visibly upset by the matter and sad she felt really hurt by what they had said.
We spent the rest of the morning playing with the kids - some of them have made up their own themed versions of "This Little Piggie" and they are so cute to listen to. I spent as much time as I could speaking to individual children and being cuddled and kissed to pieces again. It's quite exhausting! The rain continued for the rest of the morning and we were glad to stay for lunch, which is always a cooked meal and very tasty. It's lovely getting to sit down with the kids and I'm finding my teacher/psychology skills really useful - the kids really respond to positive praise, although I struggle to find the words that are adequate. I do "thumbs up" a lot!
Neither of us were particularly looking forward to El Refugio in the afternoon, as when it rains they only have a tiny indoor space to play, eat, watch TV and everything else. We spent the whole afternoon watching innappropriate soaps - I can't really follow them, but it's the ideal opportunity to get 5 minutes with each kid on my knee, something that they are really starting to respond to (funnily enough, most of the keen beans are the boys). I was really pleased that I made something of a breakthrough with 2 of the older boys, who have been very wary of me. One of them came straight up and greeted me with the traditional 2 kisses and both of them brought their chairs to sit by me for a while.
We are both very shocked at some of the practices in the home, which I don't really want to write about here. One thing that did really annoy me though was that one older girl was enforcing discipline with a stick. It was hard to stop this as we don't ahve any authority. However, at one point she went to hit a child and hit me instead - I pointed this out and she just looked at me. I'm not too sure who is in charge and if the children are really safe at all.
On that note, I really have to run - I'm going to attempt to be home in time for tea to impress Cuca. And of course to organise something sociable for the evening!
Monday, 17 September 2007
An afternoon in Brazil
No prizes for guessing where we went today. And I have to say too, sorry for the quality of the last couple of days´entries, I´m feeling really tired, there are always massive queues for the PCs and I´m easily distracted by what the hostel has to offer... I feel like I´ve been on a mini-holiday this weekend, which has been really nice. but I´m now feeling really lazy and tired. We had to get the bus back in about an hour, and it´s another 6 hour journey back to Posadas... with work again first thing.
Oh dear, last night was another late one... we ended up playing poker and, unbelievably as I am a total novice, I won! I think there was a haul of 30 pesos (6 quid!). At last!
We went to the Brazilian side of the falls today, it was very beautiful. The photos are amazing and no words can accurately describe it. I need to find a way of getting my photos onto this. I was very pleased indeed to get a Brazilian stamp on my passport. I will write a bit more tomorrow when I have more time - we are leaving very shortly for the bus station. Argh! It´s so hot and sticky, I´m really uncomfortable and wonder if I can fit in a quick swim before we leave.
Hope this finds everyone well, sorry for the brevity! I suppose maybe it´s a pleasant relief!
Oh dear, last night was another late one... we ended up playing poker and, unbelievably as I am a total novice, I won! I think there was a haul of 30 pesos (6 quid!). At last!
We went to the Brazilian side of the falls today, it was very beautiful. The photos are amazing and no words can accurately describe it. I need to find a way of getting my photos onto this. I was very pleased indeed to get a Brazilian stamp on my passport. I will write a bit more tomorrow when I have more time - we are leaving very shortly for the bus station. Argh! It´s so hot and sticky, I´m really uncomfortable and wonder if I can fit in a quick swim before we leave.
Hope this finds everyone well, sorry for the brevity! I suppose maybe it´s a pleasant relief!
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Pioneer to the Falls
Hello! Before I even get started on this, I have to say that I cannot find the apostrphe on this keyboard so there will be none in this entry. Vile, I know, but it must be done.
I had a rude awakening this morning at 5 to 8 when Jonny - theres no "H" apparently - burst into our room saying that we were going to be late... We were supposed to be getting on a bus to the Iguazu falls at 8 oclock, and had somehow slept through our wake-up call. I got ready in the record time of 59 seconds and we were on the bus shortly afterwards. I blame the free Caipirinhas that were on off at the hostel last night!
We managed to entertain ourselves in this wild place... there was a huge BBQ at the hostel that cost around 4 quid and there was as much steak as you could eat, and Caipirinha in a huge basin for dipping into... too tempting. Then we went out with other hostelers to a pub in the town - more Caipirinhas - and rolled back in far too late. As a result I have had no make up on all day,which is virtually criminal.
We were taken in the bus to the falls at 8, just as the park opened. This was Olis idea, something to do with "sleep cycles", so we ended up being there really early. It was nice and cool when we first got there, though, so that was a bonus. By the end of the day, I was a bit burnt as I managed to forget my suncream in the rush - sorry, mum!
The falls are amazing - so huge and high, some parts you cant even see the bottom for all the mist. The Devils Throat is the best one - I will try to get my photos uploaded next week as works dont do it justice. The best part of the day though was going on the speedboat ride, which took us right up into one of the smaller waterfalls. We got completely soaked, which was really exciting, but of course we were wet for the rest of the day!
This PC is driving me crazy as I am typing faster than the words are appearing, and I dont want to leave the mistakes... so Im signing off until next time, possibly tomorrow, when I should have a bit more time to write about the Falls. Im just so pleased that Ive seen them, they were the one thing that I really wanted to go to see when I was here. Once in a lifetime! In another part of the world. And I did find that I was asking myself "how did I get here?".
Luego!
I had a rude awakening this morning at 5 to 8 when Jonny - theres no "H" apparently - burst into our room saying that we were going to be late... We were supposed to be getting on a bus to the Iguazu falls at 8 oclock, and had somehow slept through our wake-up call. I got ready in the record time of 59 seconds and we were on the bus shortly afterwards. I blame the free Caipirinhas that were on off at the hostel last night!
We managed to entertain ourselves in this wild place... there was a huge BBQ at the hostel that cost around 4 quid and there was as much steak as you could eat, and Caipirinha in a huge basin for dipping into... too tempting. Then we went out with other hostelers to a pub in the town - more Caipirinhas - and rolled back in far too late. As a result I have had no make up on all day,which is virtually criminal.
We were taken in the bus to the falls at 8, just as the park opened. This was Olis idea, something to do with "sleep cycles", so we ended up being there really early. It was nice and cool when we first got there, though, so that was a bonus. By the end of the day, I was a bit burnt as I managed to forget my suncream in the rush - sorry, mum!
The falls are amazing - so huge and high, some parts you cant even see the bottom for all the mist. The Devils Throat is the best one - I will try to get my photos uploaded next week as works dont do it justice. The best part of the day though was going on the speedboat ride, which took us right up into one of the smaller waterfalls. We got completely soaked, which was really exciting, but of course we were wet for the rest of the day!
This PC is driving me crazy as I am typing faster than the words are appearing, and I dont want to leave the mistakes... so Im signing off until next time, possibly tomorrow, when I should have a bit more time to write about the Falls. Im just so pleased that Ive seen them, they were the one thing that I really wanted to go to see when I was here. Once in a lifetime! In another part of the world. And I did find that I was asking myself "how did I get here?".
Luego!
Saturday, 15 September 2007
South American Skies
Hello again... I´m now in Iguazu, which is on the border between Brazil and Argentina. It was a really crap bus journey from Posadas leaving at 3.30 this morning... we went out to Mentecato for more Caipirinhas and then just headed off to the bus station. It was supposed to be a bed bus, but was just a really crap citysprinter style effort. We had the worst journey ever on incredibly bumpy roads with very little sleep! We got in around 9am and had to sleep for a substantial part of the day, so it was hardly worth it.
In the afternoon, we went to the local wildlife sanctuary. It was really interesting, with lots of birds and animals that are from the local area, such as toucans, monkeys, capybaras, wild cats and talking parrots! Some of the amimals are troublemakers, which is all very Mighty Boosh, and are in animal prison for a period until they are straightened out! There are also several animals that are there being taken care of in the rehabilitation centre following accidents of some kind. We got a guided tour from an English speaking guide, which was really interesting, especially considering we were in a rainforest.
Afterwards, we had a dip in the hostel pool. The moon was just up and I was really surprised to see that it is lying on its side here, apparently this is how it appears in the Southern Hemisphere. This completely blows my mind.
This computer is very annoying as the puncutation buttons aren't working, so I can't get it to do certain things. I'm not going to write much more, except to say that tomorrow morning at 8 am we are off to the Falls, which I can't wait for. But before that, we have a barbeque and another night out!
Until the next chance I get to write... hasta luego.
In the afternoon, we went to the local wildlife sanctuary. It was really interesting, with lots of birds and animals that are from the local area, such as toucans, monkeys, capybaras, wild cats and talking parrots! Some of the amimals are troublemakers, which is all very Mighty Boosh, and are in animal prison for a period until they are straightened out! There are also several animals that are there being taken care of in the rehabilitation centre following accidents of some kind. We got a guided tour from an English speaking guide, which was really interesting, especially considering we were in a rainforest.
Afterwards, we had a dip in the hostel pool. The moon was just up and I was really surprised to see that it is lying on its side here, apparently this is how it appears in the Southern Hemisphere. This completely blows my mind.
This computer is very annoying as the puncutation buttons aren't working, so I can't get it to do certain things. I'm not going to write much more, except to say that tomorrow morning at 8 am we are off to the Falls, which I can't wait for. But before that, we have a barbeque and another night out!
Until the next chance I get to write... hasta luego.
Friday, 14 September 2007
Mind the Games!
This will to be a super-rapido entry, I wa supposed to be back for my tea 20 minutes ago and Cuca is not keen on lateness as I have discovered! I have also discovered that I have at least one Argentine reader (hello to th eman who calls himself "Loco"!) as he left me a comment. I'm dedicating this (very small) entry to everyone that is reading my blg - I've had quite a few messages from people telling me how much they enjoy reading what I'm up to and it's so nice to know you're out there - everything at home seems so very far away. So thanks and keep reading and commenting and emailing and texting... I really appreciate it! Sorry if I don't reply individually, the computer here is quite slow and texting on the phone I have here takes ages as I am not used to non-predictive text yet!
So, I actually managed to get some sleep last night... what a relief. The boys were off out on the pull again (not sure how they got on - more on this later when I have had a chance to rendez-vous with them) but met us for an ice cream in the random ice cream shop across the road from Cuca's. It's open until 1am - how random! I felt much better for it this morning, but still managed to fit in a power-siesta later in the day.
Morning shift at Arcoaires was brilliant as usual, and refugio wasn't too bad either have been teaching the kids daft games and rhymes (Thumb War was a big hit today) and they have been going crazy for "Round and Round the Garden Like a Teddy Bear", the Hokey Cokey, "This Little Piggy Went to Market", "2 Little Birdies Sitting on a Wall"(!) and the song about speckled frogs on a speckled log. I have translated "This little piggy" for them and it goes like this: Este cerdito se fue al mercado. Este cerdito se quedó en casa. Este cerdito come rossbif (yes, I know!). Este cerdito no come nada... y este cerdito dice "hui hui hui hui hui (etc)" a la casa. Classic! They bloody love it. So easy to please!
Right, I better dash off. I don't konw if I'll get another chance to write until Monday, we are off to Iguazu for the weekend and not back until Monday afternoon - day off work! We are spending 2 days at the Iguazu Falls - they are right on the border between Argentina and Brazil, so we are spending one day on each side, and then the last day at the safari park nearby. I think this may be the highlight of my trip (well, apart from eating pickled cow's tongue last Saturday...). I'll let you know how I get on!
Hasta luego....
So, I actually managed to get some sleep last night... what a relief. The boys were off out on the pull again (not sure how they got on - more on this later when I have had a chance to rendez-vous with them) but met us for an ice cream in the random ice cream shop across the road from Cuca's. It's open until 1am - how random! I felt much better for it this morning, but still managed to fit in a power-siesta later in the day.
Morning shift at Arcoaires was brilliant as usual, and refugio wasn't too bad either have been teaching the kids daft games and rhymes (Thumb War was a big hit today) and they have been going crazy for "Round and Round the Garden Like a Teddy Bear", the Hokey Cokey, "This Little Piggy Went to Market", "2 Little Birdies Sitting on a Wall"(!) and the song about speckled frogs on a speckled log. I have translated "This little piggy" for them and it goes like this: Este cerdito se fue al mercado. Este cerdito se quedó en casa. Este cerdito come rossbif (yes, I know!). Este cerdito no come nada... y este cerdito dice "hui hui hui hui hui (etc)" a la casa. Classic! They bloody love it. So easy to please!
Right, I better dash off. I don't konw if I'll get another chance to write until Monday, we are off to Iguazu for the weekend and not back until Monday afternoon - day off work! We are spending 2 days at the Iguazu Falls - they are right on the border between Argentina and Brazil, so we are spending one day on each side, and then the last day at the safari park nearby. I think this may be the highlight of my trip (well, apart from eating pickled cow's tongue last Saturday...). I'll let you know how I get on!
Hasta luego....
Thursday, 13 September 2007
You´re an Immigrant Too
Another day, another peso spent on the bus fare. I´m shattered following last night´s adventure… But I´m annoyed because this PC is very slow and I can´t actually see what I´m typing, plus I don´t have much time, so I may not edit mistakes… sorry!
My main gripes today are the buses (do they even run to a timetable? Why do they not say where they are going and how do I find out? Why are the drivers total psychos high on G-force?) and the pavements (dangerous half-metre drops as you are walking along and no streetlights to see by… and it´s dark by half 7) so getting around is a bit hairy… and don´t even get me started on the traffic lights. If you get across the road without being mown down, it´s by pure fluke!
It´s been a long day… we were up until 4 am again and work at half 8… not cool. But worth it. We went to the Festival of Immigrants in Obera, 90 minutes away. We ended up going in a taxi, and were subjected to the most dangerous journey of my life. The driver kept making unwise overtaking manoeuvres on blind bends, and so on, and the car didn´t have any seatbelts (none of them do!)… hairy. We eventually got there in one piece… just. It was “la Noche de la Juventud” (Youth Night) at the festival, which itself goes on for ten days. So there were just tons of teenagers in the place… yes, the boys´ eyes were on stalks! The festival was really cool, it had about a dozen houses done in different styles of the countries that people have emigrated from to live in Argentina… such as Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Spain and so on. They were serving food and drink from (allegedly) the corresponding country, but all the beer seemed to be Stella! It was really interesting though, and hoaching with kids. Apparently there was a “rock” band playing, but I didn´t see or hear them! There was a rap collective though that was pretty cool. My high point of the night was meeting a Argentine kindred spirit – I spotted this guy coming down the hill with ace indie hair, a black shirt, red tie and eyeliner…. I couldn´t help myself, so I asked him if I could get my photo with him. Sadly it´s on Sile´s camera, but I´ll get it off her ASAP! We had a brief chat about Green Day and then I asked if he liked Interpol… I almost fell over when he replied that not only did he know them, he was a big fan! Classic! That totally made my night.
It was all downhill from there and we all ended up falling asleep in the taxi home. This morning I could barely move, but we made it up to the hogar and managed a scaled-down version of yesterday. The kids are so sweet. I had a chat with a couple of the older girls, and they were telling me that they wanted to have boyfriends but not husbands, as husbands always ask where you´re going and who with (?!), and that men are really jealous (not sure how they know this!) – at that point one of the boys popped his head round and said “women can be jealous too” – he´d obviously been listening to every word!
The rest of the afternoon passed without incident – I picked up my clothes from the laundrette and they seem ok, so it worked out in the end. I also have no plans for tonight (going to bed might be a good idea) but who knows what might happen?
Next installment soon. Thanks to all of you who have stayed with me on this so far, hope you find it interesting… leave me your comments, it´s great to hear from you.
My main gripes today are the buses (do they even run to a timetable? Why do they not say where they are going and how do I find out? Why are the drivers total psychos high on G-force?) and the pavements (dangerous half-metre drops as you are walking along and no streetlights to see by… and it´s dark by half 7) so getting around is a bit hairy… and don´t even get me started on the traffic lights. If you get across the road without being mown down, it´s by pure fluke!
It´s been a long day… we were up until 4 am again and work at half 8… not cool. But worth it. We went to the Festival of Immigrants in Obera, 90 minutes away. We ended up going in a taxi, and were subjected to the most dangerous journey of my life. The driver kept making unwise overtaking manoeuvres on blind bends, and so on, and the car didn´t have any seatbelts (none of them do!)… hairy. We eventually got there in one piece… just. It was “la Noche de la Juventud” (Youth Night) at the festival, which itself goes on for ten days. So there were just tons of teenagers in the place… yes, the boys´ eyes were on stalks! The festival was really cool, it had about a dozen houses done in different styles of the countries that people have emigrated from to live in Argentina… such as Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Spain and so on. They were serving food and drink from (allegedly) the corresponding country, but all the beer seemed to be Stella! It was really interesting though, and hoaching with kids. Apparently there was a “rock” band playing, but I didn´t see or hear them! There was a rap collective though that was pretty cool. My high point of the night was meeting a Argentine kindred spirit – I spotted this guy coming down the hill with ace indie hair, a black shirt, red tie and eyeliner…. I couldn´t help myself, so I asked him if I could get my photo with him. Sadly it´s on Sile´s camera, but I´ll get it off her ASAP! We had a brief chat about Green Day and then I asked if he liked Interpol… I almost fell over when he replied that not only did he know them, he was a big fan! Classic! That totally made my night.
It was all downhill from there and we all ended up falling asleep in the taxi home. This morning I could barely move, but we made it up to the hogar and managed a scaled-down version of yesterday. The kids are so sweet. I had a chat with a couple of the older girls, and they were telling me that they wanted to have boyfriends but not husbands, as husbands always ask where you´re going and who with (?!), and that men are really jealous (not sure how they know this!) – at that point one of the boys popped his head round and said “women can be jealous too” – he´d obviously been listening to every word!
The rest of the afternoon passed without incident – I picked up my clothes from the laundrette and they seem ok, so it worked out in the end. I also have no plans for tonight (going to bed might be a good idea) but who knows what might happen?
Next installment soon. Thanks to all of you who have stayed with me on this so far, hope you find it interesting… leave me your comments, it´s great to hear from you.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Una Vida Loca
¡Díos mío! Everything is a bit mad here. We ended up behaving ourselves last night, sharing 2 bottles of wine between 4 and getting to bed by 1! The restaurant we went to was amazing, Sile and I had a meat platter to share which had all the finest of cured meats on offer, and then I had this to-die-for steak kebab that was perfectly rare... delicious. Our waiter looked like a cross between Jet Li and the Croatian one from ER too. Thankfully, CopaCabanna was closed, so it was an early night for us!
This morning Sile and I had our first day at the other home, Arcoaire de Sueños ("Rainbow of Dreams"... you may think this is cheesy, but the kids there so deserve to have all their dreams come true). The difference from Refugio is staggering. The kids there are just as cute, but none of them have the specific developmental or behavioural problems of those at El Refugio. One of the tías (ladies who looks after the kids) told us that the 9 kids there are from 2 families. Some of the kids are former drug addicts from having been given drugs by their mother, to stem their hunger when they were living on the street. I could have cried when I heard this. When we arrived, we pretty much got jumped on and hugged and kissed to bits. They clearly are very loving and have been taught to share and be affectionate. To begin with, they showed us all their schoolwork (I resisted the urge to get out my red pen) and then we got the atlas out and showed them where we were from. They were fascinated. Then one of them started asking what the alphabet was in English, as it is painted on the wall. I wrote out the whole thing in Spanish phonetics and he was pretty good at remembering it. He was telling everyone, and then the others wanted to learn too. Of course, I got a great kick out of this! After that, he wanted to know the numbers, so I wrote them phonitically too (like twenty as "tuente")- and I must admit, he did end up pronouncing things with a great wee Scottish accent. It made me giggle! We spent the rest of the morning playing games with them and being cuddled, kissed and slobbered on to within and inch of our lives (I HATE slobber!).
Then it was back home for a bit of lunch and a kip. Despite being totally opposed to everything the siesta stands for in terms of it being impossible to get anything done on your break as ALL shops are shut, I am starting to love getting a wee sleep between 1 and 2. I needed it too, as it was back to El Refugio in the afternoon. It is starting to bother me a bit less, I´m bonding a bit more with the kids (especially the older girls, who have taken me into their confidence a wee bit) and the surroundings don´t seem as bad somehow. Today the kids asked to be taken to the park and I relented - Sile and I chose 4 kids each and off we went. One wee boy wet himself almost as soon as we got there, but as he didn´t seem at all bothered, we just let him get on with it (I know, terrible!!!). He dried off quick in the intense heat anyway! The girls mainly wanted a chat about all sorts, especially because some of their friends in the other home had written them letters for us to pass on. One girl has a sister in Arcoaire, who ran away from El Refugio... a long story. One girl, Rosa, is really intelligent and told me she wants to be a lawyer when she´s older. I really hope she makes it.
My Spanish is making improvements and I´ve noticed that I´m starting to think in Spanish, which makes me feel a bit mad as if I´m talking out loud to myself. I don´t think anyone else can hear, though. I did have a bit of an incident on my way here, though. I realised that I can´t wear my shorts for another day without washing them, as they are totally manky from the kids, so I took all my wordly washable goods to the laundrette in a taxi... on the way, I realised I didn´t have any pesos left, and asked the driver if I could pay in dollars (some accept this). He said "oh, how pretty" (?) and so I though that was a yes. When we got to the laundrette, I tried to give him a $20 note and he just about boked... we had a very long discussion about it and in the end, he just let me off with the fare. He said he´d get it tomorrow - I hope he doesn´t come looking for me! It was only about 4 pesos - 80p!
Right, I have to dash off now, as I have just been informed by Oli that we are now taking a taxi to the Immigrants' Festival tonight as opposed to a bus. It will cost 170 pesos (about 12 quid each) but he will wait for us throughout the festival and personally chauffeur us home - not bad, considering that the festival is in Obrera, one and a half hours away. Oli and Johnny love the taxi drivers here, as apparently they always talk about 2 things - football and Argentine women (you can imagine the boys' delight). I wonder if I will have to endure a match's worth of time listening to this inane chat. I may bring a book.
Hasta manaña otra vez!
This morning Sile and I had our first day at the other home, Arcoaire de Sueños ("Rainbow of Dreams"... you may think this is cheesy, but the kids there so deserve to have all their dreams come true). The difference from Refugio is staggering. The kids there are just as cute, but none of them have the specific developmental or behavioural problems of those at El Refugio. One of the tías (ladies who looks after the kids) told us that the 9 kids there are from 2 families. Some of the kids are former drug addicts from having been given drugs by their mother, to stem their hunger when they were living on the street. I could have cried when I heard this. When we arrived, we pretty much got jumped on and hugged and kissed to bits. They clearly are very loving and have been taught to share and be affectionate. To begin with, they showed us all their schoolwork (I resisted the urge to get out my red pen) and then we got the atlas out and showed them where we were from. They were fascinated. Then one of them started asking what the alphabet was in English, as it is painted on the wall. I wrote out the whole thing in Spanish phonetics and he was pretty good at remembering it. He was telling everyone, and then the others wanted to learn too. Of course, I got a great kick out of this! After that, he wanted to know the numbers, so I wrote them phonitically too (like twenty as "tuente")- and I must admit, he did end up pronouncing things with a great wee Scottish accent. It made me giggle! We spent the rest of the morning playing games with them and being cuddled, kissed and slobbered on to within and inch of our lives (I HATE slobber!).
Then it was back home for a bit of lunch and a kip. Despite being totally opposed to everything the siesta stands for in terms of it being impossible to get anything done on your break as ALL shops are shut, I am starting to love getting a wee sleep between 1 and 2. I needed it too, as it was back to El Refugio in the afternoon. It is starting to bother me a bit less, I´m bonding a bit more with the kids (especially the older girls, who have taken me into their confidence a wee bit) and the surroundings don´t seem as bad somehow. Today the kids asked to be taken to the park and I relented - Sile and I chose 4 kids each and off we went. One wee boy wet himself almost as soon as we got there, but as he didn´t seem at all bothered, we just let him get on with it (I know, terrible!!!). He dried off quick in the intense heat anyway! The girls mainly wanted a chat about all sorts, especially because some of their friends in the other home had written them letters for us to pass on. One girl has a sister in Arcoaire, who ran away from El Refugio... a long story. One girl, Rosa, is really intelligent and told me she wants to be a lawyer when she´s older. I really hope she makes it.
My Spanish is making improvements and I´ve noticed that I´m starting to think in Spanish, which makes me feel a bit mad as if I´m talking out loud to myself. I don´t think anyone else can hear, though. I did have a bit of an incident on my way here, though. I realised that I can´t wear my shorts for another day without washing them, as they are totally manky from the kids, so I took all my wordly washable goods to the laundrette in a taxi... on the way, I realised I didn´t have any pesos left, and asked the driver if I could pay in dollars (some accept this). He said "oh, how pretty" (?) and so I though that was a yes. When we got to the laundrette, I tried to give him a $20 note and he just about boked... we had a very long discussion about it and in the end, he just let me off with the fare. He said he´d get it tomorrow - I hope he doesn´t come looking for me! It was only about 4 pesos - 80p!
Right, I have to dash off now, as I have just been informed by Oli that we are now taking a taxi to the Immigrants' Festival tonight as opposed to a bus. It will cost 170 pesos (about 12 quid each) but he will wait for us throughout the festival and personally chauffeur us home - not bad, considering that the festival is in Obrera, one and a half hours away. Oli and Johnny love the taxi drivers here, as apparently they always talk about 2 things - football and Argentine women (you can imagine the boys' delight). I wonder if I will have to endure a match's worth of time listening to this inane chat. I may bring a book.
Hasta manaña otra vez!
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Highs and Lows
Well! It's been a funny couple of days. Yesterday in particular was a day of contrasts... in so many ways. After my last entry, Sile and I met the boys and attempted to take the bus to the International Bridge over to Paraguay, but we managed to miss it while in the shop buying juice. So we hailed a taxi, which here are white Fiat Pandas. It's quite funny trying to fit the 4 of us in. Anyway, a taxi to Paraguay... I might use this as the title for my memoirs. It dropped us at the port, as there is still a rickety old ferry that takes people over the River Paraná to Paraguay. We had been well warned that we needed to make sure of getting all the necessary stamps on our passports so that we could get in and out ok. We had to wait in a massive queue but eventually managed to get on the oldest boat in the world to take the 10 minute journey over the river. It was the same rigmarole at the other side, but we were just pretty excited that it was so easy for us to be in yet another South American country. We had had various reactions from Posadas residents when we announced our intention to cross the river, ranging from the disgusted to the shocked. We had been told that it was "dirty", "poor", that lots of thieves operated there and that they had cheap electronic goods but only because they were fake. So, understandably, we were on guard. Happily, although the very small bit of the town (Encarnación) that we did see was run down and scabbit, it seemed like a really cool place. We had a bit of a wander round the town and checked out the shops, which are cheap even by Argentine standards. We stopped off for a traditional "asado" barbecue, which was to die for... especially the chorizo. We only had a couple of hours, so we didn't see much, but it was just so cool to be in a random country for a matter of hours and for it to be so easy to get there. On the way back, Oli managed to walk through passport control without remembering to get his passport stamped at the exit from Paraguay, and we wondered if he would be immediately deported or stripped of his nationality at the Argentine side. However, he was allowed to re-enter without incident, despite what Veronica said!
Sile and I had to rush off to get ready for work at that point. We were picked up by Marcelo and taken to the orphanage. It houses 39 kids that have been taken away from their parents by the judicial system due to abuse, neglect or death of a parent, as well as kids who have been found wandering the streets, abandoned. Where can I start with that... it really is something from another world. I was utterly shocked by the way the children live there - they have nothing, just a bed and a few ragged clothes. I tried hard not to show that I was shocked, but I felt terrible for the children. They showed me round and I was so shocked at how small it was, that there are next to no toys and there is no garden, just a courtyard bit that seems to serve as a bathing area as well as all manner of sports pitch. Children from babies to teenagers were wandering around - but they were delighted to see us and I was delighted to discover that they understood my Spanish and I could understand them. I'm getting very good at my command words - "dejame" (leave me alone), "no toques esto" (don't touch that) and "no hagas esto" (don't do that). Some of the kids there clearly have really sad stories that I don't want to put on here, but it is exactly as heartbreaking as I had imagined. The girls in particular seem to like our company though and like to play clapping games, have their hair braided (I saw my first headlouse today!) and play dodgeball. They keep asking to go out to the park, I'm not sure how confident I feel about that though, especially as some of them are banned from this as they are classed as being in danger of running away.
After a really hard introduction to orphanage life (there could be no other!), Marcelo and Veronica picked us up. They told us that they had another orphanage in mind for a project, and asked us if we would like to go along and see it. We decided to go with them, and I'm so glad we did. This place was completely different - for starters, there are only 8 kids, and they were more like a family than a disparate group of random kids. They were all over us as soon as we walked in - I think they must be used to posing for photos, as as soon as Marcelo got his camera out, they formed an orderly group around us and smiled for him! I'll see if I can get the photos from him, it would be good to get some on here and at the moment, I can't get any from my camera to the PC. Anyway, the kids seemed more used to adult interaction (no doubt from the small adult:kid ratio) and the place was so much more child-friendly. Sile and I were both a bit shocked at the difference, and part of me secretly wished we were working there instead. Of course, I didn't say anything, but Veronica asked us afterwards if we would rather work there that at El Refugio. I would have liked to have said yes in terms of easiness for me, but I can't leave the kids who really need me. Very kindly and without prompting, Veronica suggested that we work at the other place in the mornings and at El Refugio in the afternoons - so that was quite a relief and we were pleased to agree.
After a hard day's work and being subjected to a number of bodily fluids (mostly not belonging to me), we went out for a bit of relaxation in town. We met the boys back at Mentacata - I managed to only have one deadly Caipirinha this time, but then it was a Monday night! The boys were, of course, keen to stalk any unlucky Argentine girls that they could find, so we ended up heading down to the Costa Negra, where all the best bars and clubs are (apparently). We rolled up outside CopaCabanna, which describes itself as a "Pizza Club" or something equally daft, and I was horrified to discover that most of the people in the queue were literally around the age of 12. The door staff claimed it was for people of 17 or over (I just about fell over my walking stick at this point) so the boys were through the door before you could say "jailbait"! What a place... wall-to-wall 16 year-olds and a crazy dance-off to Pink Floyd between 2 boys (I captured this on my mobile for posterity!). It was good to get out of there. The boys still have nothing to report (sorry if you're reading this, Oli!). I did, however get chatted up (in English!) by a 19 year-old who very smoothly told me I didn't look 26. At least, that's what he said, but something may have been lost in translation!
Today was more of the same at El Refugio (we start at the other place tomorrow morning ), and somehow it didn't seem as bad. The high point of the day was when Oli and Johnny turned up unexpectedly at the door, and the boys from the orphanage loved it. They aren't that impressed by all the female staff (unlike Oli, who needs his own portable cold shower), so I think it was really special for them to meet some guys who wanted to play with them and chat to them. I suddenly remembered that classic game "A Leg and a Wing", so we ended up playing that for about 2 hours with all the kids in the place fighting to get a shot. I think I may wake up with back problems tomorrow, and I can still feel phantom arms around my neck from all the hugs I got!
Time to go again, I really need a shower after all the exertion. The four of us are going out for tea tonght (meeting at CopaCabanna in an hour and a half!) and I can make a pretty safe bet on how the evening will turn out. Posadas is truly one crazy place!
Hasta pronto...
Sile and I had to rush off to get ready for work at that point. We were picked up by Marcelo and taken to the orphanage. It houses 39 kids that have been taken away from their parents by the judicial system due to abuse, neglect or death of a parent, as well as kids who have been found wandering the streets, abandoned. Where can I start with that... it really is something from another world. I was utterly shocked by the way the children live there - they have nothing, just a bed and a few ragged clothes. I tried hard not to show that I was shocked, but I felt terrible for the children. They showed me round and I was so shocked at how small it was, that there are next to no toys and there is no garden, just a courtyard bit that seems to serve as a bathing area as well as all manner of sports pitch. Children from babies to teenagers were wandering around - but they were delighted to see us and I was delighted to discover that they understood my Spanish and I could understand them. I'm getting very good at my command words - "dejame" (leave me alone), "no toques esto" (don't touch that) and "no hagas esto" (don't do that). Some of the kids there clearly have really sad stories that I don't want to put on here, but it is exactly as heartbreaking as I had imagined. The girls in particular seem to like our company though and like to play clapping games, have their hair braided (I saw my first headlouse today!) and play dodgeball. They keep asking to go out to the park, I'm not sure how confident I feel about that though, especially as some of them are banned from this as they are classed as being in danger of running away.
After a really hard introduction to orphanage life (there could be no other!), Marcelo and Veronica picked us up. They told us that they had another orphanage in mind for a project, and asked us if we would like to go along and see it. We decided to go with them, and I'm so glad we did. This place was completely different - for starters, there are only 8 kids, and they were more like a family than a disparate group of random kids. They were all over us as soon as we walked in - I think they must be used to posing for photos, as as soon as Marcelo got his camera out, they formed an orderly group around us and smiled for him! I'll see if I can get the photos from him, it would be good to get some on here and at the moment, I can't get any from my camera to the PC. Anyway, the kids seemed more used to adult interaction (no doubt from the small adult:kid ratio) and the place was so much more child-friendly. Sile and I were both a bit shocked at the difference, and part of me secretly wished we were working there instead. Of course, I didn't say anything, but Veronica asked us afterwards if we would rather work there that at El Refugio. I would have liked to have said yes in terms of easiness for me, but I can't leave the kids who really need me. Very kindly and without prompting, Veronica suggested that we work at the other place in the mornings and at El Refugio in the afternoons - so that was quite a relief and we were pleased to agree.
After a hard day's work and being subjected to a number of bodily fluids (mostly not belonging to me), we went out for a bit of relaxation in town. We met the boys back at Mentacata - I managed to only have one deadly Caipirinha this time, but then it was a Monday night! The boys were, of course, keen to stalk any unlucky Argentine girls that they could find, so we ended up heading down to the Costa Negra, where all the best bars and clubs are (apparently). We rolled up outside CopaCabanna, which describes itself as a "Pizza Club" or something equally daft, and I was horrified to discover that most of the people in the queue were literally around the age of 12. The door staff claimed it was for people of 17 or over (I just about fell over my walking stick at this point) so the boys were through the door before you could say "jailbait"! What a place... wall-to-wall 16 year-olds and a crazy dance-off to Pink Floyd between 2 boys (I captured this on my mobile for posterity!). It was good to get out of there. The boys still have nothing to report (sorry if you're reading this, Oli!). I did, however get chatted up (in English!) by a 19 year-old who very smoothly told me I didn't look 26. At least, that's what he said, but something may have been lost in translation!
Today was more of the same at El Refugio (we start at the other place tomorrow morning ), and somehow it didn't seem as bad. The high point of the day was when Oli and Johnny turned up unexpectedly at the door, and the boys from the orphanage loved it. They aren't that impressed by all the female staff (unlike Oli, who needs his own portable cold shower), so I think it was really special for them to meet some guys who wanted to play with them and chat to them. I suddenly remembered that classic game "A Leg and a Wing", so we ended up playing that for about 2 hours with all the kids in the place fighting to get a shot. I think I may wake up with back problems tomorrow, and I can still feel phantom arms around my neck from all the hugs I got!
Time to go again, I really need a shower after all the exertion. The four of us are going out for tea tonght (meeting at CopaCabanna in an hour and a half!) and I can make a pretty safe bet on how the evening will turn out. Posadas is truly one crazy place!
Hasta pronto...
Monday, 10 September 2007
Questioning My Orientation
Hello again. It´s monday now - the internet cafe was closed yesterday so no blog! I was really disappointed - I was full of beans after a really fun night on Saturday and wanted to share it. After I last wrote, I met up with Sile (it´s Irish - pronounced Sheila) who had just arrived at the flat. Veronica (the very lovely In-Country Coordinator, who looks a lot like Kylie) came to pick us up at 9 to take us out on the town. Also there were her husband Marcelo, who unfortunately for him speaks no English at all, and Carolina, Vero´s assistant, who looks like Cameron Diaz a bit and has amazing English, despite never having been abroad. They took all 4 of us out to a club called Mantecata - that was the place the boys had been to the night before. I tried to order a vodka and lemonade, but everyone seemed really unsure of what this was and eventually the barman brought me a Caipirinha - which was delicious to the point of being juice-like. I ordered a second one which turned out to be utterly lethal. Oops! Then Argentine gang left us about 2am (that´s the time the clubs open here!) and dropped us at Power, which is apparently the "Saturday Club", while Mantecata is for Fridays! Power is a massive warren of rooms packed with people. Some parts are inside and some outside. It was mental! I managed to survive until 4am, when Sile and I bowed out and left the boys trying out their amusingly weak pulling techniques on the local ladies! Apparently they were unsuccessful! I was pleased to find out too that Power is on the same street as our house, and it cost us the equivalent of about 50p to get home in the taxi.
I slept in really late in the morning and woke up with a rather fuzzy head after the late night and incredibly cheap drink. Sile said that the beer she had ordered cost around $1.50 a litre - dearie me! We were picked up by Vero and Marcelo at 4 and taken back to their house for our official i-to-i orientation. This covered everything from doing our washing to our dress code at work and tourist stuff that we might like to do. We were told that Posadas is a very small place (maybe more like Dalkeith than I had thought!) and that everyone will know who we are, so we have to behave ourselves! Yikes!
We were shown a dvd from the company that was quite cheesily presented, but made a good point about not taking risks here that we wouldn´t do at home, and it explained where the money that we have paid is going. The money doesn´t go to the projects themselves (such as the Orphanage or the Animal Sanctuary) as it´s not an aid organisation, but their commitment is to keep providing a constant flow of humans resources to the projects. Our money goes on our accommodation and the service of being looked after by the team members, which I have to say so far has been worth the price!
We were also given a look at some photos and brochures from the Iguazu falls, which are spectacular waterfalls 6hours away by bus on the Brazil border. Half the falls are on the Argentine side and half on the Brazilian side, and there is a wildlife park there as well, so wer were advised to take 3 days there. We´ve all decided to go there next weekend, as Oli is only here for one more weekend. We can get the bed bus (cochecama) at 3.30am on Saturday morning and wake up in the morning having arrived at Iguazu, then we´re allowed Monday off work to make the most of our trip. I can´t wait.
On Wednesday as well, there´s a festival celebrating the cultural melting pot that is Argentina in a town 1 and a half hours away - the Festival de Inmigrantes - festival of immigrants. We´re going to go there too, it looks amazing. More about that later.
We had a brief look around the town later, we went back down to the waterfront where everyone gathers here on a Sunday. It´s amazing that Paraguay is visible across the river. We mentioned our intention of going there, and were told that there´s not really much to see, but that doesn´t bother me - I really just want to get the stamp on my passport and to know that I´ve been!
I´m supposed to be rendez-vousing with everyone back at mine at 10am to get the bus to Encarnacion, the town over the river in Paraguay, which gives me about 5 minutes more here. We get the bus to the International Bridge, which spans the River Parana (no piranhas included, apparently) get our passports stamped, then jump back on and get them stamped on the other side too. I have just introduced myself to Nicolas, the owner of the locutorio (the word here for internet cafes and telephone box shops) and had a great Standard Grade Spanish conversation about where I was from and so on. He asked if I´d been to Spain and when I said I´d lived there, he commented that my Spanish was very good. Phew!
I´m starting to understand Cuca, my homestay mum, a lot better, although her chat is totally full on and random and jumps all over the place. I´ll leave you with a priceless story that she came out with on Saturday night - I was so bemused, I didn´t want to laugh but it was hilarious! She was just chatting away about her family when suddenly she came out with "inseminacion artificial". I just about spat out my quiche. Apparently she was talking about her daughter´s dog, though! Not exactly table talk!
Hasta mañana....
I slept in really late in the morning and woke up with a rather fuzzy head after the late night and incredibly cheap drink. Sile said that the beer she had ordered cost around $1.50 a litre - dearie me! We were picked up by Vero and Marcelo at 4 and taken back to their house for our official i-to-i orientation. This covered everything from doing our washing to our dress code at work and tourist stuff that we might like to do. We were told that Posadas is a very small place (maybe more like Dalkeith than I had thought!) and that everyone will know who we are, so we have to behave ourselves! Yikes!
We were shown a dvd from the company that was quite cheesily presented, but made a good point about not taking risks here that we wouldn´t do at home, and it explained where the money that we have paid is going. The money doesn´t go to the projects themselves (such as the Orphanage or the Animal Sanctuary) as it´s not an aid organisation, but their commitment is to keep providing a constant flow of humans resources to the projects. Our money goes on our accommodation and the service of being looked after by the team members, which I have to say so far has been worth the price!
We were also given a look at some photos and brochures from the Iguazu falls, which are spectacular waterfalls 6hours away by bus on the Brazil border. Half the falls are on the Argentine side and half on the Brazilian side, and there is a wildlife park there as well, so wer were advised to take 3 days there. We´ve all decided to go there next weekend, as Oli is only here for one more weekend. We can get the bed bus (cochecama) at 3.30am on Saturday morning and wake up in the morning having arrived at Iguazu, then we´re allowed Monday off work to make the most of our trip. I can´t wait.
On Wednesday as well, there´s a festival celebrating the cultural melting pot that is Argentina in a town 1 and a half hours away - the Festival de Inmigrantes - festival of immigrants. We´re going to go there too, it looks amazing. More about that later.
We had a brief look around the town later, we went back down to the waterfront where everyone gathers here on a Sunday. It´s amazing that Paraguay is visible across the river. We mentioned our intention of going there, and were told that there´s not really much to see, but that doesn´t bother me - I really just want to get the stamp on my passport and to know that I´ve been!
I´m supposed to be rendez-vousing with everyone back at mine at 10am to get the bus to Encarnacion, the town over the river in Paraguay, which gives me about 5 minutes more here. We get the bus to the International Bridge, which spans the River Parana (no piranhas included, apparently) get our passports stamped, then jump back on and get them stamped on the other side too. I have just introduced myself to Nicolas, the owner of the locutorio (the word here for internet cafes and telephone box shops) and had a great Standard Grade Spanish conversation about where I was from and so on. He asked if I´d been to Spain and when I said I´d lived there, he commented that my Spanish was very good. Phew!
I´m starting to understand Cuca, my homestay mum, a lot better, although her chat is totally full on and random and jumps all over the place. I´ll leave you with a priceless story that she came out with on Saturday night - I was so bemused, I didn´t want to laugh but it was hilarious! She was just chatting away about her family when suddenly she came out with "inseminacion artificial". I just about spat out my quiche. Apparently she was talking about her daughter´s dog, though! Not exactly table talk!
Hasta mañana....
Saturday, 8 September 2007
A Big Day in the North
Hello again. I´m sitting in a really small internet cafe in Posadas, probably for the first time of many! I´m really lucky, this is just across the street from my homestay. So! I got here yesterday afternoon on the flight from BA. The in-flight meal wasn´t up to my usual standard, but it was ok! Oli and I were picked up by Norma, who is the mother of Veronica, my in-country coordinator. She took my to my homestay first. My homestay mother is called Cuca, she is an Argentine granny and very sweet, but she talks 19 to the dozen and it´s very hard indeed to understand what she´s talking about! I did catch a couple of her amusing stories, though - see the end! She changed subject so rapidly that at times I find myself struggling to keep up. I catch the odd word, say "lawyer" and think I´ve got a hook on what she´s saying and then the next thing I´ll understand is "she fell and hurt her head". To make matters worse, the noise from the road outside is so loud that entire chunks of conversation are lost to the traffic! The best comparison is the Fast Show´s Rowley Birkin QC, but as Cuca is an elderly, churchgoing lady I doubt that I will hear her utter "but I was very, very, drunk." I´m not sure I would understand if it she did, anyway!
So, Posadas is very different to BA. It´s not westernised at all and is pretty run down. It seems cool in a different way, though. Last night I didn´t do anything, just got an early night (I know, on a Friday! It was 2am GMT when I hit the sack though, fairly respectable!). Before that, Veronica came round and explained what was going on. 2 of the volunteers hadn´t taken the plane and no one had heard from them. We were supposed to be getting our orientation this morning at 11, but because these girls hadn´t come, it has been delayed until sunday. I was a bit miffed as I was hoping to meet up with Oli again and the other guy he´s staying with, Jonny. Turns out they got invited to a barbecue at the local rugby club, but the gits didn´t invite me! I met them this afternoon though and laid it on thick!
So they went out and hit the town and I got some kip. This morning I chatted to Cuca over breakfast and managed to grasp a bit more of what she said, but she has a very strong accent and I still don´t really know what is going on. The girl I am supposed to be sharing with has turned up, she should be ther now. Apparently she speaks no Spanish, though so I am not looking forward to being translator!
Oli and Jonny are staying with Cuca´s daughter in law and her 2 sons, they are apparently a bunch of "party animals" so I feel a bit like I´m missing out! They phoned this morning and asked me to come over and watch the England match with them, and after a bit of work I managed to convince them to come and get me, because I didn´t fancy being a lone female in a strange town! It´s funny, the first Saturday I was in Lyon I got dragged along to watch the England-Germany game. Why does this keep happening to me? They walked along and we went into town. It was dead due to being siesta time! We found a bar and watched the match - I said I was supporting Israel, of course, even though Oli´s dad had already texted him the result! Not much else to say about that!
The boys were being typically laddish and going on about the Argentine girls, and while they were in a sports shop I found Posadas´ answer to Claire´s Accessories. Inside, there were some girls discussing the lack of good-looking men in Posadas and the shop assistant said that men weren´t good for anything! I was laughing along with them, and so they gave me a discount! Sexism pays!
Right, I better head off, it´s almost tea time (7,30) and Sile, the other girl, must have arrived by now. My final thought for this entry is this: if you had told me when I first started learning Spanish ("me llamo Sarah. Vivo en Edimburgo") that 13 years later I would be in a house on the border with Paraguay, listening to an elderly Argentine lady´s story about stumbling mistakenly on a nudist beach, I could never have believed it. And yet here I am.
Hasta luego.
So, Posadas is very different to BA. It´s not westernised at all and is pretty run down. It seems cool in a different way, though. Last night I didn´t do anything, just got an early night (I know, on a Friday! It was 2am GMT when I hit the sack though, fairly respectable!). Before that, Veronica came round and explained what was going on. 2 of the volunteers hadn´t taken the plane and no one had heard from them. We were supposed to be getting our orientation this morning at 11, but because these girls hadn´t come, it has been delayed until sunday. I was a bit miffed as I was hoping to meet up with Oli again and the other guy he´s staying with, Jonny. Turns out they got invited to a barbecue at the local rugby club, but the gits didn´t invite me! I met them this afternoon though and laid it on thick!
So they went out and hit the town and I got some kip. This morning I chatted to Cuca over breakfast and managed to grasp a bit more of what she said, but she has a very strong accent and I still don´t really know what is going on. The girl I am supposed to be sharing with has turned up, she should be ther now. Apparently she speaks no Spanish, though so I am not looking forward to being translator!
Oli and Jonny are staying with Cuca´s daughter in law and her 2 sons, they are apparently a bunch of "party animals" so I feel a bit like I´m missing out! They phoned this morning and asked me to come over and watch the England match with them, and after a bit of work I managed to convince them to come and get me, because I didn´t fancy being a lone female in a strange town! It´s funny, the first Saturday I was in Lyon I got dragged along to watch the England-Germany game. Why does this keep happening to me? They walked along and we went into town. It was dead due to being siesta time! We found a bar and watched the match - I said I was supporting Israel, of course, even though Oli´s dad had already texted him the result! Not much else to say about that!
The boys were being typically laddish and going on about the Argentine girls, and while they were in a sports shop I found Posadas´ answer to Claire´s Accessories. Inside, there were some girls discussing the lack of good-looking men in Posadas and the shop assistant said that men weren´t good for anything! I was laughing along with them, and so they gave me a discount! Sexism pays!
Right, I better head off, it´s almost tea time (7,30) and Sile, the other girl, must have arrived by now. My final thought for this entry is this: if you had told me when I first started learning Spanish ("me llamo Sarah. Vivo en Edimburgo") that 13 years later I would be in a house on the border with Paraguay, listening to an elderly Argentine lady´s story about stumbling mistakenly on a nudist beach, I could never have believed it. And yet here I am.
Hasta luego.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Unhappy Feet
Hello again. I feel like a right old geek on here, but it´s quite cool to write it all down! The hotel staff probably think the same thing, the PC is in the lobby and I was on here for ages last ngiht (well, that was a long entry!).
I´m totally shattered again today, but surprisingly not from jetlag. I slept so well last night, probably due to the luxury of a proper flat bed rather than all scrunched up in economy class with a travel pillow and a pair of fetching flight socks. The breakfast in the hotel is a total feast - a buffet without limits! I did the cheap thing of stealing some fruit to eat later in the day, and a yoghurt too, then I realised I needed to steal a spoon too. Tomorrow I might go for the toaster. That would be cool in my room!
I was supposed to be meeting Oli at half 10 outside the Palacio de Congresos, the Argentine parliament building. It´s just a short walk from the hotel, and there was a tour scheduled there for 11am... anyway, Oli was really late (he originally claimed it was a traffic jam, but let slip later on that the wee daughter of the family he was staying with wanted to show him all her Barbie dolls and he couldn´t get away!) and totally ran to get in... but he probably shouldn´t have bothered! It was a pretty shambolic tour, conducted in Spanish by a formidable-looking Dueña, and translated loosely by some other woman. However, there was a woman who looked a bit like Cruella de Ville (but dressed in leopardskin) who kept chipping in with her own "facts" about the parliament, and some arguments ensued between her and the official guide! We saw the main chamber, which was really amazing, and then another chamber which is topped with a beautiful domed ceiling. But then the tour was cut short with no real explanation (probably something to do with Cruella!) and we were left feeling a bit disappointed! At least it was free.
After that, Oli decided to go off to the stadium of the team that Maradona used to play for - it´s in an area renowned for being dodgy, so I elected not to join him! He did say later that at one point he thought his luck was out, when a guy approached him and said "amigo!" in a threatening voice... but he was just asking for the time. Good story, though! I went on a walking tour of the central area, and walked MILES. I saw lots of the main sights in the centre and got lots of exercise! At one point, I walked up a very narrow pedestrian street that was packed with people. It was mental! I´m not going up there again! It was really interesting just walking around, I got a really good feel of the city through the sounds and smells, as well as just looking around. The place seems to be pretty safe, I didn´t feel on edge in the way that I expected. I learned as well that you need to just keep walking, no one at all says "excuse me" here or steps out of your way! Also, the traffic can still drive across zebra crossings when the green man is on, and they don´t take any prisoners. Apparently 7 people die here on the roads every day, and that really is no surprise. It´s also incredibly polluted, the sky was hazy all day and it was quite hard to breathe by the time I was heading home.
Oli and I met up again at 3.30 in the Plaza de Mayo - this is the time that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (see yesterday!) start their campaign walk. This was something that I´m really glad I´ve seen. I first heard about it when I was at school, aged about 13 or 14, and we were reading a book in Spanish about the Dirty War in Argentina, called "Retorno a la Libertad". It´s funny, I don´t remember much about the story, but I do remember the teacher telling us about the Madres and what their protest meant. At the time, it all seemed very far away and somehow unimportant - something that had nothing to do with me. It´s funny how things turn out! The women were very old, in their 80s probably, and incredibly dignified. They marched slowly round the square holding placards with pictures of missing people - they are still demanding answers from the government about their loved ones. They wore matching headscarves and the real veterans at the front carried a banner calling for the redistribution of world wealth. Apparently they now also use their platform to campaign for other humanitarian causes. I was quite moved by it all. There was quite a crowd gathered to see them, and everyone fell respectfully silent as they passed.
After that we headed for a walk around the barrio - there is a building rumoured to have gained its pink hue from a coat of bovine blood among other curiosities. We stumbled into the grounds of an impressive building, which, on closer inspection, had a tank and a collection of armed guards outside. After realising that they all seemed to be looking at us in a none-too-friendly manner, we hotfooted it out the gate! There was a huge monument to the country´s dead of the Falklands War too - at this point we really felt unwelcome!
We had a look down at the port, which is like all docklands areas with its urban regeneration and posh warehouse conversions. Very swish, apart from the incongrous additions of a TGI Friday´s and a Hooters! Oliver fancied a cocktail but I refused to patronise either establishment!
Cocktails drunk, we went our separate ways. I thought I only had a few blocks to walk to get back to the road that led to my hotel, but after walking for a good half hour I realised I was in fact very much further south than I had anticipated! I was really hungry too, but didn´t want to stop until I was somewhere I knew. I walked for an hour and a half in the end and was almost on my knees!
Being alone in the big city is cool, but I have no intention of staying in my hotel room all night watching crazy local TV (although this morning I did watch Argentine MTV, which played American songs with Spanish subtitles. I finally found out what Dave Grohl is actually saying in "the Best of You"!), so I took myself off the cinema again. I picked Die Hard 4.0 - which in Spanish is titled "Hard to Kill". I think that´s maybe a better title! It was 2 hours of gratuitous ultraviolence with a thin and barely believable plot, an unlikely techie loser sidekick/hero-in-waiting and plenty of exploding flyovers, and therefore totally ridiculous. I loved it!
I think that´s enough for one night. The hotel door is open and I can smell the car fumes coming in. My throat has just about closed up here! Tomorrow I´m off to Posadas on the Paraguay border to start my placement proper. In for a penny.... Hasta mañana!
I´m totally shattered again today, but surprisingly not from jetlag. I slept so well last night, probably due to the luxury of a proper flat bed rather than all scrunched up in economy class with a travel pillow and a pair of fetching flight socks. The breakfast in the hotel is a total feast - a buffet without limits! I did the cheap thing of stealing some fruit to eat later in the day, and a yoghurt too, then I realised I needed to steal a spoon too. Tomorrow I might go for the toaster. That would be cool in my room!
I was supposed to be meeting Oli at half 10 outside the Palacio de Congresos, the Argentine parliament building. It´s just a short walk from the hotel, and there was a tour scheduled there for 11am... anyway, Oli was really late (he originally claimed it was a traffic jam, but let slip later on that the wee daughter of the family he was staying with wanted to show him all her Barbie dolls and he couldn´t get away!) and totally ran to get in... but he probably shouldn´t have bothered! It was a pretty shambolic tour, conducted in Spanish by a formidable-looking Dueña, and translated loosely by some other woman. However, there was a woman who looked a bit like Cruella de Ville (but dressed in leopardskin) who kept chipping in with her own "facts" about the parliament, and some arguments ensued between her and the official guide! We saw the main chamber, which was really amazing, and then another chamber which is topped with a beautiful domed ceiling. But then the tour was cut short with no real explanation (probably something to do with Cruella!) and we were left feeling a bit disappointed! At least it was free.
After that, Oli decided to go off to the stadium of the team that Maradona used to play for - it´s in an area renowned for being dodgy, so I elected not to join him! He did say later that at one point he thought his luck was out, when a guy approached him and said "amigo!" in a threatening voice... but he was just asking for the time. Good story, though! I went on a walking tour of the central area, and walked MILES. I saw lots of the main sights in the centre and got lots of exercise! At one point, I walked up a very narrow pedestrian street that was packed with people. It was mental! I´m not going up there again! It was really interesting just walking around, I got a really good feel of the city through the sounds and smells, as well as just looking around. The place seems to be pretty safe, I didn´t feel on edge in the way that I expected. I learned as well that you need to just keep walking, no one at all says "excuse me" here or steps out of your way! Also, the traffic can still drive across zebra crossings when the green man is on, and they don´t take any prisoners. Apparently 7 people die here on the roads every day, and that really is no surprise. It´s also incredibly polluted, the sky was hazy all day and it was quite hard to breathe by the time I was heading home.
Oli and I met up again at 3.30 in the Plaza de Mayo - this is the time that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (see yesterday!) start their campaign walk. This was something that I´m really glad I´ve seen. I first heard about it when I was at school, aged about 13 or 14, and we were reading a book in Spanish about the Dirty War in Argentina, called "Retorno a la Libertad". It´s funny, I don´t remember much about the story, but I do remember the teacher telling us about the Madres and what their protest meant. At the time, it all seemed very far away and somehow unimportant - something that had nothing to do with me. It´s funny how things turn out! The women were very old, in their 80s probably, and incredibly dignified. They marched slowly round the square holding placards with pictures of missing people - they are still demanding answers from the government about their loved ones. They wore matching headscarves and the real veterans at the front carried a banner calling for the redistribution of world wealth. Apparently they now also use their platform to campaign for other humanitarian causes. I was quite moved by it all. There was quite a crowd gathered to see them, and everyone fell respectfully silent as they passed.
After that we headed for a walk around the barrio - there is a building rumoured to have gained its pink hue from a coat of bovine blood among other curiosities. We stumbled into the grounds of an impressive building, which, on closer inspection, had a tank and a collection of armed guards outside. After realising that they all seemed to be looking at us in a none-too-friendly manner, we hotfooted it out the gate! There was a huge monument to the country´s dead of the Falklands War too - at this point we really felt unwelcome!
We had a look down at the port, which is like all docklands areas with its urban regeneration and posh warehouse conversions. Very swish, apart from the incongrous additions of a TGI Friday´s and a Hooters! Oliver fancied a cocktail but I refused to patronise either establishment!
Cocktails drunk, we went our separate ways. I thought I only had a few blocks to walk to get back to the road that led to my hotel, but after walking for a good half hour I realised I was in fact very much further south than I had anticipated! I was really hungry too, but didn´t want to stop until I was somewhere I knew. I walked for an hour and a half in the end and was almost on my knees!
Being alone in the big city is cool, but I have no intention of staying in my hotel room all night watching crazy local TV (although this morning I did watch Argentine MTV, which played American songs with Spanish subtitles. I finally found out what Dave Grohl is actually saying in "the Best of You"!), so I took myself off the cinema again. I picked Die Hard 4.0 - which in Spanish is titled "Hard to Kill". I think that´s maybe a better title! It was 2 hours of gratuitous ultraviolence with a thin and barely believable plot, an unlikely techie loser sidekick/hero-in-waiting and plenty of exploding flyovers, and therefore totally ridiculous. I loved it!
I think that´s enough for one night. The hotel door is open and I can smell the car fumes coming in. My throat has just about closed up here! Tomorrow I´m off to Posadas on the Paraguay border to start my placement proper. In for a penny.... Hasta mañana!
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Estoy aquí en Buenos Aires!
Hello, folks! Glad that you are reading this, it makes it so much easier for me to tell everyone what I´m up to without sending multiple emails.
I left Edinburgh at 7pm last night, flew to Frankfurt and then on to... Sao Paolo! I wasn´t expecting that! So now I can say I´ve seen Brazil, even if it was through a grimy plane window. As you may or may not know, I absolutely love airline food and think it´s almost worth flying for the meals alone. I think it´s the tidy wee packets everything comes in. I always challenge myself to eat everything they provide, and so far I have only been beaten by a radish (!) and something that looked like a giant pretzel. Yesterday we got yummy sausages and a tasty omelette, among other small treats! I made the mistake of accepting the free wine, though, which made me feel rotten. I managed to fall asleep 15 minutes into both the in-flight films, so am none the wiser about what happens in Ocean´s 13 or Shrek III, both of which I mistakenly tried to listen to in German because I didn´t understand how the audio system worked. Phew! When I first got on the flight, a guy was sitting in my seat and I was glad to budge him over. I got the last aisle seat on the flight (phew again!) and was not about to give up my rightful claim! The girl next to me tried to get me to swap to a middle seat - no chance! She was really grumpy about it and spent the rest of the flight sticking her elbow into mine and hogging the armrest. She foolishly did not accept the sausages either. I later realised that the pair were from the Judo team of Kazakhstan - it was printed on the back of their tracksuits. I couldn´t help wondering if they´d seen the Borat film, and what they´d make of it. I particularly enjoyed watching her doing a crossword in cyrillic script too!
Despite the elbow jamming and hostile atmosphere, I did manage to get a bit of kip over the western tip of Africa and the Atlantic. It was funny thinking that I was flying over all these exotic places while completely oblivious. On my flight to Canada in August, we flew over Greenland and the views were amazing. But I suppose one bit of ocean looks very much like another!
After the stopover in SP it took another couple of hours to Buenos Aires, by which time I was beginning to feel like part of the seat. I got a taxi into the centre of town, but we drove through all the crappy bits in the suburbs first. I have to admit I was really shocked to see the shantytowns - there are all these sprawling "developments" that are half-build brick structures. They look really flimsy and uncomfortable. There were loads of these on the way in. I couldn´t believe how poor it was. I was also shocked by a group of kids who went to each of the cars in turn at the traffic lights, begging, and the families sleeping under tents made of cardboard and blankets on street corners. Later on, I saw several people and their children going through the binbags on the street - it seems so much worse that the children were involved. Naive westerner or what!
Asides from that, I was struck by how cool the city is. It reminds me of Paris or Lyon, and it´s hard to believe it´s in the Southern hemisphere, except... did I mention the weather? It´s very clearly winter here, which has really screwed up my already shattered and jetlagged brain. There are no leaves on the trees and I´m sure I saw my breath earlier! Luckily I have my Roxy jacket (the one I got for 14 quid and 1 euro at Dunstaffnage!), and I certainly needed it this evening! My hotel is in Avenida Callao, which is a busy 5 lane main street with loads of interesting stuff on it.
I met up with Oliver, who is also going to Posadas with i-to-i. It was really good to have someone to talk to who is feeling the same as me! We went for something to eat in one of the huge shopping centres. He is only 19, the same age I was when I went to Lyon. I remember how clueless and scared I was and how unable I was to do anything on my own. He seems to have travelled quite a lot already, though, so we had lots to talk about. We went to the Cemetery (actually, it was more of a necropolis - that´s the word I was trying to think of on the phone, Mum!) where Evita is buried. What a weird place - it´s basically laid out like a small town, except the doors don´t lead into houses or shops, but to crypts. Some of the doors had glass that gave you a clear view of the coffins. Really rather unpleasant! As was the fact that we stumbled on a burial without realising - we assumed it was just another gathering around a famous grave, as there had been tons of people taking photos of Evita´s tomb. I felt awful about that. The place would make a great place to play hide and seek if it wasn´t so creepy (and disrespectful!). Adding to the Omen-style atmosphere was the ubiquitous presence of some creepy and knowing-looking cats. These weren´t nice moggies! They must be part of a feral population, but they looked like guardians of the place to me! I have some photos, but I can´t see how to plug my camara into this PC so they´ll have to wait.
After that rather weird experiend, Oliver went home and I went for a long walk down Callao. I spotted what I thought was a cinema, but it turned out to just be a cafe called "the Cinema". To be honest, I should have twigged, because it was the English word for cinema, not the Spanish (cine). I have only just realised that! But all this had put me in the mood for seeing a film, so I tracked down the nearest cinema. It was huge and really confusing, not helped by the fact that I didn´t understand why the ticket booth and the screens were on 2 different floors, with another level between them - ???! I ended up seeing the Bourne Ultimatum, thinking it would be dubbed into Spanish, like they do in France. I was rewarded, though, as it was in English with Spanish subtitles, and some of it wasn´t directly translated! The subtitles were really useful when they were whispering things over the phone and so on as my left ear is blocked due to a combo of the flight pressure and a cold that seems to have moved in on me. What?
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel now and starting to feel sleepy. It´s 2:53am GMT according to my phone. I need to get some decent kip as tomorrow I´m meeting Oliver to see the Palacio de Congresos (where the Parliament meets) as we have found out there´s a FREE tour at 11am! We were also planning to go to the Plaza de Mayo, where every Thursday the Madres de Plaza d e Mayo - women whose sons and other relatives were disappeared during the Dirty War -still hold their protest march. This was apparently the only form of anti-government resistance tolerated by the regime of the time, as mothers are so highly regarded by Argentine society.
Ok, history lesson over - thanks for sticking with this so far, I know it´s a long entry! You have my mum and dad to thank for that, after years of making me write a detailed chronological diary of all the holidays we went on. M&D, I have started saving up things to stick in a scrapbook! But I forgot to bring Pritt Stick with me - oops!
Hope this finds you all well!
I left Edinburgh at 7pm last night, flew to Frankfurt and then on to... Sao Paolo! I wasn´t expecting that! So now I can say I´ve seen Brazil, even if it was through a grimy plane window. As you may or may not know, I absolutely love airline food and think it´s almost worth flying for the meals alone. I think it´s the tidy wee packets everything comes in. I always challenge myself to eat everything they provide, and so far I have only been beaten by a radish (!) and something that looked like a giant pretzel. Yesterday we got yummy sausages and a tasty omelette, among other small treats! I made the mistake of accepting the free wine, though, which made me feel rotten. I managed to fall asleep 15 minutes into both the in-flight films, so am none the wiser about what happens in Ocean´s 13 or Shrek III, both of which I mistakenly tried to listen to in German because I didn´t understand how the audio system worked. Phew! When I first got on the flight, a guy was sitting in my seat and I was glad to budge him over. I got the last aisle seat on the flight (phew again!) and was not about to give up my rightful claim! The girl next to me tried to get me to swap to a middle seat - no chance! She was really grumpy about it and spent the rest of the flight sticking her elbow into mine and hogging the armrest. She foolishly did not accept the sausages either. I later realised that the pair were from the Judo team of Kazakhstan - it was printed on the back of their tracksuits. I couldn´t help wondering if they´d seen the Borat film, and what they´d make of it. I particularly enjoyed watching her doing a crossword in cyrillic script too!
Despite the elbow jamming and hostile atmosphere, I did manage to get a bit of kip over the western tip of Africa and the Atlantic. It was funny thinking that I was flying over all these exotic places while completely oblivious. On my flight to Canada in August, we flew over Greenland and the views were amazing. But I suppose one bit of ocean looks very much like another!
After the stopover in SP it took another couple of hours to Buenos Aires, by which time I was beginning to feel like part of the seat. I got a taxi into the centre of town, but we drove through all the crappy bits in the suburbs first. I have to admit I was really shocked to see the shantytowns - there are all these sprawling "developments" that are half-build brick structures. They look really flimsy and uncomfortable. There were loads of these on the way in. I couldn´t believe how poor it was. I was also shocked by a group of kids who went to each of the cars in turn at the traffic lights, begging, and the families sleeping under tents made of cardboard and blankets on street corners. Later on, I saw several people and their children going through the binbags on the street - it seems so much worse that the children were involved. Naive westerner or what!
Asides from that, I was struck by how cool the city is. It reminds me of Paris or Lyon, and it´s hard to believe it´s in the Southern hemisphere, except... did I mention the weather? It´s very clearly winter here, which has really screwed up my already shattered and jetlagged brain. There are no leaves on the trees and I´m sure I saw my breath earlier! Luckily I have my Roxy jacket (the one I got for 14 quid and 1 euro at Dunstaffnage!), and I certainly needed it this evening! My hotel is in Avenida Callao, which is a busy 5 lane main street with loads of interesting stuff on it.
I met up with Oliver, who is also going to Posadas with i-to-i. It was really good to have someone to talk to who is feeling the same as me! We went for something to eat in one of the huge shopping centres. He is only 19, the same age I was when I went to Lyon. I remember how clueless and scared I was and how unable I was to do anything on my own. He seems to have travelled quite a lot already, though, so we had lots to talk about. We went to the Cemetery (actually, it was more of a necropolis - that´s the word I was trying to think of on the phone, Mum!) where Evita is buried. What a weird place - it´s basically laid out like a small town, except the doors don´t lead into houses or shops, but to crypts. Some of the doors had glass that gave you a clear view of the coffins. Really rather unpleasant! As was the fact that we stumbled on a burial without realising - we assumed it was just another gathering around a famous grave, as there had been tons of people taking photos of Evita´s tomb. I felt awful about that. The place would make a great place to play hide and seek if it wasn´t so creepy (and disrespectful!). Adding to the Omen-style atmosphere was the ubiquitous presence of some creepy and knowing-looking cats. These weren´t nice moggies! They must be part of a feral population, but they looked like guardians of the place to me! I have some photos, but I can´t see how to plug my camara into this PC so they´ll have to wait.
After that rather weird experiend, Oliver went home and I went for a long walk down Callao. I spotted what I thought was a cinema, but it turned out to just be a cafe called "the Cinema". To be honest, I should have twigged, because it was the English word for cinema, not the Spanish (cine). I have only just realised that! But all this had put me in the mood for seeing a film, so I tracked down the nearest cinema. It was huge and really confusing, not helped by the fact that I didn´t understand why the ticket booth and the screens were on 2 different floors, with another level between them - ???! I ended up seeing the Bourne Ultimatum, thinking it would be dubbed into Spanish, like they do in France. I was rewarded, though, as it was in English with Spanish subtitles, and some of it wasn´t directly translated! The subtitles were really useful when they were whispering things over the phone and so on as my left ear is blocked due to a combo of the flight pressure and a cold that seems to have moved in on me. What?
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel now and starting to feel sleepy. It´s 2:53am GMT according to my phone. I need to get some decent kip as tomorrow I´m meeting Oliver to see the Palacio de Congresos (where the Parliament meets) as we have found out there´s a FREE tour at 11am! We were also planning to go to the Plaza de Mayo, where every Thursday the Madres de Plaza d e Mayo - women whose sons and other relatives were disappeared during the Dirty War -still hold their protest march. This was apparently the only form of anti-government resistance tolerated by the regime of the time, as mothers are so highly regarded by Argentine society.
Ok, history lesson over - thanks for sticking with this so far, I know it´s a long entry! You have my mum and dad to thank for that, after years of making me write a detailed chronological diary of all the holidays we went on. M&D, I have started saving up things to stick in a scrapbook! But I forgot to bring Pritt Stick with me - oops!
Hope this finds you all well!
Monday, 3 September 2007
Getting Ready!
This is the first post on my new blog, which I'm starting before my trip to Argentina - which begins tomorrow. I haven't even packed yet!
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