Angels in Mendoza

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Hello everyone -

It has been a great week in Mendoza. The weather has been warm and dry and our days have been action packed. By now, all of the boys are getting to know Mendoza and have favorite places they like to go. Alex has really enjoyed exploring Argentine tango-influened music in a music shop here. Noah and Ryan have a favorite place on the Sarmiento Plaza where they can people watch while enjoying cappocinos. Mike loves to run in the beautiful Parque San Martin, and Louis has really excelled at meeting all sorts of wonderful new people as we explore the city. All of the boys enjoy attending the English speaking meeting on Wednesday nights. There they have had the opportunity to get into in- depth discussions with local Mendicinos as well as travelers from all over the world. The boys have made lots of friends here, but their biggest amigo is Julio, who loves every minute of being our host and guide.


This week we started our volunteeer project at an elementary school, Carlos Gonzales, where Kelly (Julio's wife) works. The school is about 20 minutes outside of Mendoza and is surrounded by beautiful vineyards. The landscape looks alot like what Southern California must have looked like in the 1920's before it became so populated. There are about 80 children attending the school. Julio tells us that many of them live in poverty. Often many of them do not get enough to eat. We hope that on future Pathways trips to this area, we can help establish some kind of permanent, ongoing assistance to them.

Our work this week included painting the outside of the building, the bathrooms, and the iron fence. We also did some landscaping and cleaned up trash in the school yard. The children at the school were thrilled to have our students as visitors and flocked to them whenever they showed up. The children were fascinated by our digital cameras and wanted their pictures taken often. Inspite of our limited Spanish, all of the boys have done very well talking with the "chicos". Despite their poverty, a few of the children at the school have presented us with gifts including their own marbles, fresh and canned fruit from home, and friendship bracelets they made for Rich, Julio, and each of the boys. We are almost done with our project and are planning on bringing helado (ice cream) for the students on the last day.

We are planning on heading south this coming Thursday to the smaller and more " tranquillo" town of San Rafael. While Mendoza's Italian influce is evident in everything from the food and architecture, San Rafael has a strong French influence, which we are looking forward to learning more about! We plan on exporing the city and it's many nearby natural attractions.

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Photos

Louis On The Roof Of Mendoza City Hall
The roof of City Hall is a great place from which to view Mendoza.

Ryan With Kelly and Paula
Ryan, Kelly, and Paula pose after a game of Scrabble Espanol.

Alex waits for the Asado
Alex on the roof of the hostel where he awaits another meal of carne pepared by our asadodor Julio and his apprentice, Noah

Julio and Kelly
A picture of us at Julio's parents house after the Boca-River Game

Noah Strikes a Pose
Noah at Mendoza's Parque San Martin

Dos Chicas
These two girls were in love with our cameras.

More Chicos
It was difficult to pick from the many photos of the kids.

The older boys
Teens at Carlos Gonzales

Teachers and students
Students and teachers on our first day working at the school

Julio and Some Chicos
Julio takes a break from painting to pose with some chicos

Boy With Hat
We have a lot of photos of this 6 year old student.

Noah Shows A Boy His Camera
The kids were fascinated with our cameras.

Mike And One Of His Many Admirers
All of the kids like Mike.

The Boys Hard At Work
Louis, Mike, and Ryan working in the hot sun.

Mike and Alex Take A Break
Mike and Alex with some kids while Ryan talks with some more kids in the backround