We started work!!! It's a miracle. Friday was our first day and a bit of an eye opener in terms of wealth disparity in this country. Up to this point we've spent the majority of the time either in the city, which is commercial, busy and fairly wealthy, or at the rugby club where all the players seem well off. The institute is about a 40 minute bus journey away in an area that I really wouldn't want to be in on my own. They have an armed guard letting people in and all the houses surrounding it are pretty run down. Anyway, we met all the children whose ages range from 2 to about 10 and who are absolutely full of energy! We were shattered after 3 hours of playing with them but I think they liked us picking them up and throwing them around. We're going to do the same thing twice a week and we're both really glad we've started. We feel like we're doing something useful and something we came here to do.

The other occurrence of note from this week is that we were invited to look around the bodegas of our rugby coach. He owns 3 separate vineyards which he uses to make wine using the malbec grape the region is famous for. He also exports grapes all over Europe including to England and by the end of the day we were fairly sure we'd eaten our own body weight in grapes! While he was at his office we had the chance to look around a museum they had in the town which was a replica of the house that San Martin had lived in. The original was destroyed in the earthquake that wiped out most of the city. There were also bits and pieces left from a church that used to stand at the site as well and one of the most interesting things it showed is how the depictions of the Virgin Mary have changed over time. Originally in this area she had tanned skin and long brown hair but, due to immigration into this country, the image has changed to a fair skinned blonde woman that's more familiar today. We spent virtually all day looking around the 'fincas' in the glorious sun (more sun burn for Ben) and they really were very scenic. (Check out the pictures on facebook) This paragraph is going to focus solely on rugby since I got a complaint last time that I didn't go into enough depth on the match so this is basically a heads up for Farrah that she can skip this section. We had our third match on Saturday and unfortunately lost. It was one of the most frustrating matches I have ever played in. The opposition's pack was massive and the game was basically an example that it's impossible to win without the ball. The reason it was so frustrating was that on the rare occasions we actually got the ball our backs would cut them to shreds but they shoved us off every single scrum and turned the ball over whenever we formed a ruck. The final score was 27 - 20 (I think) but the possession stat would have given them about 80% of the ball. I did absolutely nothing of note apart from stand at full back and defend a lot. Hopefully I'll be able to provide a slightly more flattering account next week. Ben's grandparents have been here for the last couple of days and came to watch the game on Saturday. They also, very kindly, saved us from our own cooking for the day and took us out for lunch at a local restaurant which served excellent food. We went out last night to a friend's 21st though that's pretty much all I can tell you about the evening's events as I had a few to drink while we were there. We plan to do nothing today, like everyone else in the city, as it's Sunday (when in Rome/Mendoza). On Tuesday I plan to go to the University and look at enlisting on a Spanish course as they often provide them for free and it'll be useful to keep building on the Spanish so I'll let you know how all that goes in the next blog! Sam