update
so far en argentina...
i arrived and stopped at the university to check in with my program. then i went to the casa de los schenones (my cousins here) for lunch and a siesta and to unpack and rest
the next day i got up at 7 por la manana. got to spanish classe by 9 (un pocquito tarde, nada más) then had lunch and then we visited la Matanza MTD. this is a colective of people who lost their jobs in the crisis, and are now trying to live in solidarity. to them education is very important. they have a kindergarten that we saw and a bakery and a place where they make clothes. i had opiniones on all of this, pero bueno, maybe i need to write about that after i describe everything. that night we went to a bar where thay had live tango music, really cool.
next day, same thing in the morning, then after lunch we visited las madres de la plaza de mayo. they were a group of mothers who had their kids taken from thier homes in the night by militants about 30 years ago. they protest every thursday becuase they still do not know what happened to their children, and they want the memory of thier children to live on through the struggle, they are fighting for what their children fought for, peace and no repression, and for the government to acknowlege their mistakes and about what happened. really moving. then we went to un lugar con el universidad de BA and watched some movies on the social movements and had the history explained to us, which was very helpful. then i had dinner can mi familia.
next day, same thing in the morning, after lunch we went to there places. the first IMPA, the recovered aluminum factory that i will be working at. i will be working in the cultural center, in the teatro! i am sooo excited about this, just walking around IMPA i knew how i wanted to help. then we went to Global, a recovered balloon factory. we got to play with the balloons and see how they are made, and we talked with the president a bit about the history of the factory. it was a rainy cold day so we shared maté y pastries, they were very nice at the factory. then we went to the museo de international debt that the country has from other países como los Estado Unidos. it was a bit boring, but i guess good to see how much money is actually owed, and how the peso dropped in worth. again i got to eat con mi familia.
sturday i slept late finally, skipped the tour, and went to a manifestación (a protest). they/we were protesting the imprisonment of activists in a demonstracion that were arrested without bail, and have been in jail for a year now, and are being charged with kidnapping and other rediculous claims. i got to see marina, my professor at gallatin, at the protest, which was awesome. i met up with everyone from the program (about 20 of us in total) at the protest and we went for culture night at IMPA. we saw an experimetal play, that only made me more excited to be working there. afterwards i went out for a drink con mis compañeros, and went to bed really late.
sunday we had a mini asado, and then i rushed off to meet the program people to go to ville 21. ville 21 is a shanty town, very much like the projects in nyc, i think. it is poverty, the third world, bam, right their in the middle of buenos aires federal city. it was a very cold day
afterwards we went to Chilavert, another recovered factory, and kind of the meeting place of the movement, to discuss the week and anything else we wanted. then i had pizza con mi familia and went to bed.
more to come...
i arrived and stopped at the university to check in with my program. then i went to the casa de los schenones (my cousins here) for lunch and a siesta and to unpack and rest
the next day i got up at 7 por la manana. got to spanish classe by 9 (un pocquito tarde, nada más) then had lunch and then we visited la Matanza MTD. this is a colective of people who lost their jobs in the crisis, and are now trying to live in solidarity. to them education is very important. they have a kindergarten that we saw and a bakery and a place where they make clothes. i had opiniones on all of this, pero bueno, maybe i need to write about that after i describe everything. that night we went to a bar where thay had live tango music, really cool.
next day, same thing in the morning, then after lunch we visited las madres de la plaza de mayo. they were a group of mothers who had their kids taken from thier homes in the night by militants about 30 years ago. they protest every thursday becuase they still do not know what happened to their children, and they want the memory of thier children to live on through the struggle, they are fighting for what their children fought for, peace and no repression, and for the government to acknowlege their mistakes and about what happened. really moving. then we went to un lugar con el universidad de BA and watched some movies on the social movements and had the history explained to us, which was very helpful. then i had dinner can mi familia.
next day, same thing in the morning, after lunch we went to there places. the first IMPA, the recovered aluminum factory that i will be working at. i will be working in the cultural center, in the teatro! i am sooo excited about this, just walking around IMPA i knew how i wanted to help. then we went to Global, a recovered balloon factory. we got to play with the balloons and see how they are made, and we talked with the president a bit about the history of the factory. it was a rainy cold day so we shared maté y pastries, they were very nice at the factory. then we went to the museo de international debt that the country has from other países como los Estado Unidos. it was a bit boring, but i guess good to see how much money is actually owed, and how the peso dropped in worth. again i got to eat con mi familia.
sturday i slept late finally, skipped the tour, and went to a manifestación (a protest). they/we were protesting the imprisonment of activists in a demonstracion that were arrested without bail, and have been in jail for a year now, and are being charged with kidnapping and other rediculous claims. i got to see marina, my professor at gallatin, at the protest, which was awesome. i met up with everyone from the program (about 20 of us in total) at the protest and we went for culture night at IMPA. we saw an experimetal play, that only made me more excited to be working there. afterwards i went out for a drink con mis compañeros, and went to bed really late.
sunday we had a mini asado, and then i rushed off to meet the program people to go to ville 21. ville 21 is a shanty town, very much like the projects in nyc, i think. it is poverty, the third world, bam, right their in the middle of buenos aires federal city. it was a very cold day
afterwards we went to Chilavert, another recovered factory, and kind of the meeting place of the movement, to discuss the week and anything else we wanted. then i had pizza con mi familia and went to bed.
more to come...