ISP (For any spanish speakers)

Too exhausted to translate this to english right now, but for anyone's that's intersted, I finally have clarity for my ISP! Here is my (very rough) idea and research question, to be later turned into a thesis. For those unfamiliar with SIT, we spend the last month down here working on an ISP, an independent study project, where we have total liberty over a research question. We have the month free to research, interview, and write a 20-40 page paper.

"Mi idea para el ISP es trabajar con el población que va a votar por primera vez en esta elección para averiguar si ya son desilusionados por la política como tantas otras personas en la Argentina o si piensan que si pueden lograr cambios positivos a través de la política. Quiero saber: ¿si votan porque es obligatorio o porque piensan que su voto de hecho puede lograr un cambio positivo en la política? Y si solo votan porque es obligatorio (o si no votan) ¿de dónde viene esa desilusión con la política? ¿Es transmitido por los profesores de las clases de acción cívica o es debido a una falta de programas para los jóvenes para desarrollar el interés en lo político por parte del gobierno?

Comprendo que una persona no se puede escapar las experiencias personales en una investigación así entonces voy a investigar ese asunto, tomando en cuenta mis propias experiencias trabajando con la campana de Obama en la Florida y en Missouri. Allí, por primera vez, me metí en la política y me sentí que los jóvenes si se pueden lograr cambios sociales y positivos a través de la política. Esta experiencia cambio mis pensamientos sobre el poder de la gente con respeto a la política y me gustaría sabre como relaciona con la política acá en la Argentina.

Pienso que quiero hacer las investigaciones en la Plata, donde concentran las elecciones en el 28 de Junio.( Históricamente se realizarán el 25 de Octubre, pero por la crisis económica mundial que amenaza el poder política de su gobierno, logró moverlas a Junio. El voto fue realizado el 28 de Marzo en el Congreso (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/world/americas/27argentina.html?partner=rss&emc=rss) Una de las problemas con ese cambioes que ahora los jóvenes que iban a cumplir 18 años antes de los elecciones no tienen la habilidad de votar). Quiero trabajar con jóvenes de 17-18 anos, en escuelas secundarias en la área".


Also, as a side note, I may have found the most rachel-unfriendly product in the world.

Cartoneros

I was riding the bus home today and realized that I've become accustomed to seeing 'cartoneros' on the street. In shanty towns, during our service visits, in my neighborhood, even in the nicer areas of Buenos Aires. They're starting to blend into the scenery of the city for me, and yet I remember how shocking their presence was to me upon first arriving . I find that really quite and troubling.

Well to start, I'm assuming at least a few of you reading this don't know what a cartonero is. I had no concept of it when I first got to Buenos Aires. Cartoneros are people whose "profession" it is to go through the city's garbage, searching for things to use, sell, or even eat. It's a big problem in the city, especially of late with the repercussions of the economic crisis being felt around the world. Entire families of cartoneros will take city blocks and "own" them, sorting through dumpsters as full-time jobs during the day. A new surge of 'cartoneros jovenes' (children cartoneros) has swept the city. As noted in the major newspaper down here, Clarin, many of these children will go to school during the day and sort trash at night in order to survive on the streets. Their attendance rates are surprisingly okay, until middle school when they seem to fall off the map.

It frustrates me that I am beginning to become accustomed to seeing them every few blocks. I've only been here 6weeks or so. Imagine what it's like for residents of the city who grew up with such a reality. How, as a society do we address these problems if we, as humans, have this incredible and scary capacity to ignore that which is "everyday" for us?

It's amazing and yet so sad at the same time the things a person can get use to seeing.

Drum Roll Please

Alright, I've been putting this off for some time since there is just so much I need to write about, but I'm finally back (by popular demand from my Beta boys :) ).

Things have been flying by like crazy down here. I can't believe it's already April and I'm starting to plan out what I'm doing this summer and where I want to travel at the end of the program. My to-do list is getting super long, but that's besides the point.

When I last wrote we were getting ready to go to the northern providence of Salta. I felt a little strange two days before we left but thought nothing of it. Argentine food is full of meet, bread and other such heavy foods and I just figured I was still not quite use to it. I felt so alright the next day though that I spent the day at an American bar watching NCAA basketball. It was so nice to indluge in american food, sports and english again, even if I was super embarrassed to be at this Ex-pat Bar. (Well, in retrospect I guess I wasn't too embarrassed because I'm heading back there in a few hours for Final Four basketball! Makes me miss being at school and sitting on a couch with all my guy friends..)

Bascially, to make a long story short, I spent the next four days, including the entire plan ride to Salta being miserably sick. At first my group just thought I had altitude sickness, then they thought I had food poisoning but by day four of being stuck in the hotel as the rest of the group attended classes, went up the gondola into the mountains and explored Salta they decided it was time for me to go a doctor. I spent the afternoon in the tiny emegency clinic (and actually learned a lot about the public/private heath care system down here) and they finally told me I had a parasite called Blastocytis Hominis. Pretty exciting stuff.
















I think the worst part of the experience for me was realizing how much being sick made me miss home. It's so interesting the things we take for granted (ie being able to explain your symptoms in your native langauge) and so many aspects of the health care system that are so cultural. For example, the first doctor I saw came up to my hotel room. While he spoke to me about what was going on with me (for a total of 5 minutes) his assistant was preparing an anti-nausea medicine for me. However, they didn't explain that, so he just came up to me in the middle of my conversation and started giving me this huge shot. I freaked out, as any of us would, laying in bed, in the middle of trying to explain why you can't keep food or water down for more than 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was very homesick (really for the first time in my life) for those four days.

I do finally feel like myself now though. I took three rounds of meds and have to repeat again in a week to kill the eggs (ew) that might have grown in my intestines. Bascially, I'll never dirnk tap water again-- even though I only did it about twice. Buenos Aires water is suppose to be some of the best in South America and totally portable for Americans. Of cousre, I just had the bad luck to gulp some down with a parasite in it.

I'd love to continue but I'm off to catch my bus to head to Chinatown, and then to watch some Final Four basketball. I'll write about my rural homestay (which they let me go on by a slight margin) and how things are going in preparation for Pesach, Semana Santa and leaving for my family's casa de campo and then Bariloche next sunday. Whew. Time just needs to slow down.

Chau. Thinking of everyone back in the states.

Suerte

Obviously, I have an intestinal parasite. Obviously.

Corte de Ruta

Well, the farmers in the north have started a 7 day strike where they are cutting off major highways and ceasing the production of soy, grain, and beef. The inetersting part, though, is that no one really seems to mind. It's headline news and yet the only reason we talked about it in class today was because the route we were taking up to Salta is has been "cortada" by the farmers. We are now flying, instead of taking the bus ride through the countryside. Apparently the delays would have been up to 40 hrs. So that's that. Just as simple as changing a bus ticket.

Take a second and think what would happen if in Washington D.C. thousands of farmers took the streets and cut off the major highways leading in and out of the city.

Gotta love Latin America.

A crazy few days

It's amazing how fast the time is passing. We've been here nearly three weeks, and on Saturday we're off to Salta for an 11 day trip north. I remember looking at a calendar and thinking about how much time there was before we got to travel, and yet, here it is.

The last few days have been crazy. We headed into this week knowing that it was going to be busy, but classes have really picked up and I'm not sure where the time has gone. Tomorrow we are visiting an organization, Sol Naciente, that works with single mothers in one of the biggest slums in Buenos Aires. In the middle of the city, among the high-rises and resturants, is a very large shanty town, mostly filled with single-parents households. This organization, from what I understand, has bascailly formed a collective where women can live free of fear of domestic violence and send their children to school. Among the services it offers are a soup kitchen, a mini-market where women can sell handicrafts and childcare during the day while these women work. I believe we have an escort to go into the shanytown, though. Should be quite interesting. Then friday we have our spanish "midterm" and two written assignments on the theory of social movements due. Work? What is that? I've sort of forgotten how to sit down and study.

Once I get through Friday, this week should really take off. Saturday we leave for Salta (20 hours by bus to the north). We are doing some touring (visiting local monuments such as the indignenous museum, the salt mines) doing some hiking and taking classes on indigenous movements and social organization at the University of Salta.
Then we start our rural homestay. Now that should be the interesting part. For four days we are living with farmers, in their huts, in this small village outside of Jujuy. No cell phones. No lights. I can't wait. The houses -- well, at least one per neighborhood -- are equipted only with radios in the off shot that something happens. Needless to say they've already placed me with the equivalent of the town doctor, as close to the "main" road as possible, but so it goes with my asthma. Sigh. Either way, it's going to be so interesting to see the different lifestyles and pace down there. I am so excited to sit under the stars and talk to my host family (all 10 of them that live in the house?) I am so ready to be pushed out of my comfort zone again.

That's all for now. Missing everyone in the states a lot..


Random addition: Latin salsa turned out to be more like step aerobics/cardio latin dance, to bad spanish covers of 90's music, in spanish. Needless to say it kicked my ass.

Today I joined a "gym". Since being sick, I've been going crazy just sitting around the house. While part of me loved watching old re-runs of Friends with my host family, the other part of me was dying from being inside while in such a dynamic city.

So, I joined a "gym". I put that in quotations, because apparently the gyms here in Buenos Aires (with the exception of a big chain that exists in the center of the city) are located in people's homes. Mine, two blocks from my house in Barracas, is the converted garage of a single woman who has made it her life passion to get people fit. In general it's pretty run down, with two old school tredmills, a few bikes and some rusty machines - but man do they take pride in their rusty machines! She followed me around this tiny space all afternoon, "teaching" me how to use the bench or showing me exercises. As my host mom explained when I got home, no one there knows anything but everyone thinks they know something. It at least made for some interesting conversation as I was working out today. I am going to go back Wed to try their "latin salsa" class. I think she teaches that as well.

It's not quite U of M, but it'll do.