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Hey Everyone-
Alright let's think...where did we leave off? This past week was pretty busy...
Monday I had spanish lessons in the morning and then volunteered. I actually ended up being the coordinator for a different place than i originally thought and it's crazy! Our program hasn't been to this particular comedor(soup kitchen) in a few months and we recently changed how we're doing some things so I kind of have to start fresh here and it's hard! The school year starts tomorrow here and our program provides school supply packages for all the kids....For this reason and just to have a log of how many kids and who comes each time we have to make an attendance list. So on monday, thinking not too many kids would show up, there were 4 of us....50 kids came! So while the other 3 were trying to play with them, help them with math, etc, i was in charge of starting the attendance. This is very difficult as you can imagine...1 because they are constantsly moving around and i can't tell who i already have, 2 because when you aren't fluent in a language it's very hard to understand when a 3 yr old tells you their last name....and they can't spell it....and lastly, which is very sad, because many of them don't know their last names or birthdays, even the older kids.
Anyway i got a pretty good list the first day. That night i went to dinner with a guy i volunteered with because we had both been talking about going to this middle eastern place that was supposed to be fabulous, long story short it was amazing, and super cheap but i ended up with food poisoning or something. It actually was probably something else tho because this guy and i shared all the dishes and he didn't get sick...so im not sure...
thank goodness i didn't have to volunteer tues tho because i could barely make it to the coordinators meeting for 1/2 hour. so i stayed in bed pretty much all day tues and weds.
Thurs i went back to my comedor which is called Las Horas Felices by the way and it went much better, there were only about 40 kids this time and 6 volunteers. Also this particular comedor is farther into the slums than previous ones i have gone to, we therefore get dropped off outside of it and are escorted to it by a local. I continued my attendance log but this time had to get what grades they were going into so we could deliver school supplies. By the way "utiles" is the word for school supplies.....after 50 kids demanding where the utiles where and when they were coming i finally figured it out and it has helped immensely let me tell you!
so after that i got home around 7 and met with my argentine contact Lorena and a guy from ny who is here doing things similar to me, frank. we went to a very nice restaurant, had several dishes, wine and dessert for about $10 each. after that frank and i went to meet up with people i volunteer with (LIFE) because one of the main office guys had organized a night out for us. we met at a bar around midnight and stayed there until about 145 when we took a "booze train" to a club....OK this was seriously a trolley covered in flashing xmas lights....you'll see a few pics. It was about a 30 min ride to the club, which i now know is supposed to be the best club in the city, its over on the port and is very nice. Keep in mind clubs don't get crowded until about 3am here so I was there until about 530 when i went home....then got up a few hours later for spanish (which i didnt cancel by the way because i had cancelled on weds due to my food poisoning or whatever)
I also volunteered on friday but nothing too exciting.
And finally today, I went over to Recoleta, the most expensive area of town, technically where i got often for LIFE but in an area i had never seen before, there is an extremly ritzy street with tiffany and cartier, louis vuitton, etc and then the famous Recoleta cemetery which is not only the number 1 tourist attraction here in BsAs but also the number 1 cemetery in the world to see. Eva Peron (evita) is here. The cemetery is HUGE and grogeous and very interesting, its free entrance so i wandered around for a bit but barely scratched the surface. I am aware now however that if wesley and dad make it here we're gonna have to allow several hours there for photography! anywhoo i think that's about it, i'll add a photo album of of the last week and then have to work on an excel spreadsheet for my kids attendance. CHAU!
ps-happy birthday eli :)
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