My Legacy in Argentina I am so happy and excited that I had to write this blog entry. Today I finished my project and truly left a legacy in Argentina! The last 3 months I have networked, sympathized and analyzed a mountain of information with a large number of people all over the city for social movements, cooperatives, and entrepreneurial resources. I was able to write and win a grant proposal for a consulting project to work with a few of the local comedors in Buenos Aires province leading workshops in social entrepreneurship for cooperatives. After the research part of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Things are winding down but not without a ton of work and play and of course another Argentine Crisis. My 25th Birthday I turned 25 about a mth ago but I have been slacking on my blog entries so I thought I would start with that. I had a fantastic Birthday thanks to all of my friends especially Jennifer! We had a huge American Southern food fest in her house, which the Argentines seemed to like. From there we made it out to one bar where a bunch of people met up with us and the bar gave us a few [View Full Entry]

---

---

AND THE FIGHT CONTINUES: This is so ridiculous that I had to share it with all of you. As most of you have probably read my previous Quilombo blog the government is still fighting with the farmers over export taxes (on just soy beans mind you) and the protesting problems continue. Soy is 90% exported and this was not only a government attempt to "redistribute wealth" through taxes but also to encourage the farmers to produce more items for internal use. This country has a huge gap between the rich and poor and the poor are starving with little to no [View Full Entry]

---

---

Unfortunately this entry isn't about cars but about how I became VERY if not overly proactive this past week!!! This is the typical Jenn schedule ;) for those of you who don't know me I’m a complete workaholic. When the myriad of travelling stopped about two weeks ago, I got extremely bored and started brainstorming......................... CEP My internship at CEP has been extraordinarily slow; such is the life of an intern. I was able to accompany Virginia and Luis to a bunch of PYMES the last few weeks to discuss this years plan for capacity training. Next week I will sit [View Full Entry]

---

---

Mendoza: Land of Wine and the Mountains ** I am apologizing up front because this one is a bit long, but I included a few tasting notes** After a 13 hour drive through the night we arrived to a beautiful view of the Andes Mountains fronted by a small cobblestone terracotta city. An hour and a half drive north we arrived at our little cabana and packed in while my host parents relaxed from the drive and Jen and I just chatted and took in the surroundings. A few hours later we headed into the city for some directions, maps [View Full Entry]

---

---

Que Quilombo!!! AKA what a mess.... This is definitely the third world. I learned a few lessons these past few weeks that I wanted to share. I promise I will post Mendoza info once I get all the pictures uploaded. Farmers Protest Streets are blocked and lined with farming equipment. On the biggest travel weekend in Argentina, Semana Santa, farmers blocked all of the major roads causing delays some lasting more than 10 hours!!! They are protesting because the government is taxing them over 50% on exported good. The biggest problem with this situation is that 90% of farmed goods [View Full Entry]

---

---

A weekend at the Beach Last weekend was a much needed break from literally a week of solid pouring rain. It rained so hard that in my 40 min walk home from work the seams of my umbrella began to split under the pressure!!! Buenos Aires had ridiculous floods causing them to hold a rope and wade through 3 and a half feet of water at the corners! Obviously they have drainage system issues here and the government again promised to fix them with an underground piping system.. But of course this promise was made last year as well.... So in [View Full Entry]

---

---

It’s not all about traveling Just wanted to make sure to add some info about the work I'm doing so that it doesn't seem like I took an 8 month vacation ;) CEP I work for CEP (Centro de Entrenamiento para la Producción)(http://www.centrocep.com.ar/Index.html). They are an NGO that works with PYMES (Small and medium sized businesses). CEP works with PYMES to promote the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Argentina, which is quickly growing as the government has started offering a lot of growth subsidies and tax credits for training and technology that make them more competitive with larger businesses. CEP [View Full Entry]

---

---

Strange Luck This past week taught me the meaning and idiosyncrasies of luck. On Thursday I got stuck in the middle of a downpour that flooded the city for 7 hours straight... suffice it to say.. it was raining very very hard and the rain on the top of my umbrella hit it so hard it spilt the seams of the fabric and created running holes! I made it to the office soaked and shivering and luck have it.. one of the host moms had dropped off clothes for donation and I was able to change into dry clothes for my [View Full Entry]

---

---

This is one for the story books. Planning for this trip got a little out of hand. We all live pretty far from each other and this group was half FSD and half Argentine friends of one of the girls. Come Friday when we left town we’d already spent the last 7 days going back and forth about tents and sleeping bags and transportation… this is much more complicated than it sounds. Friday morning I went up with Facu to Concepcion de Uruguay because it was only a short bus ride down to Gualyguaychu where Carnaval was held. Around 1230 in [View Full Entry]

---

---