Oooh the Argentines

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Hey yall!

So its been two weeks since I returned from paradise. Back to smelling like bus and avoiding dog poo every step to class. Good news, I joined this really great gym and its drastically improved my quality of life (I knew it would!). So everyday I sped some time there working off the medilunas, ice cream, and milinesa.

The first weekend after getting back to BA Katie, Julia, Danielle, and I went with a large group (600!) Argentines to Escobar. Its a small town about an hour outside BA. We went to build "roofs" for some 60 families. This was the 3rd world... The number of stray dogs (and stray children) was just crazy. The family dog of the house we were building had one single puppy she was nursing. The pup was COVERED in ticks. When the little boy saw me staring at the pup (named oso) he rushed over and began pulling the 100s of ticks off with his BARE hands. A little girl joined him quickly and while he pulled them off, she squished them with a hammer... enough about dogs. The houses we built were simple and took only 3 days but were much more than what these families had before. Most of the families had TONS of kids and the majority of the moms were only kids themselves. The children were just ADORABLE. What a cultural experience... and not just because of the poverty. We soent 3 whole days with spanish speakers. Due to the language barrier my group was a little reserved with me at first but slowly warmed up as we spoke broken spanglish to one another. I found that the Argentine youth are little less mature than I would have expected. We played the dreaded "team building" games and while us few americans stared at each other in disbelief the Argentines jumped right in. Needless to say it was a loooong weekend. Over all the experience was great. The families were incredibly thankful, I got to play futbol with the kids, and even got a handmade card from the group of little girls who became our best friends. I didn't have my camera but I stole the picture from the website Un Techo Para Mi Pais

You can check it out if you want to know more!

The past weekend was spend relaxing in BA. It was wonderful to just hangout with all the girls! This week was full of school and just pretty much hangin out. The weather is HOT HOT HOT here... well except today when the weather dropped 20 degrees and it POURED for over an hour. Katie and I had to walk to class in the down poor while all the Argentines clung to the walls under the awnings. On Saturday we are going with our program to Colonia. A small town just across the river in Uruguay. I'll let everyone know how it goes!


PS... This entry is dedicated to Carlos. You will be missed by soooo many. Thanks for so many great laughs and great meals.

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Photos

Escobar
This is my construction group (who loooved making fun my spanish). Annnd the family we built for...totally sweet people.