Un Techo Para Mi Pais

            Last weekend, I went with a volunteer organization, Un Techo Para Mi Pais, to build a house for a poor family in one weekend.  We arrived in a huge warehouse to get together with our groups.  We were all split up, so I didn’t know anyone in my group, but it was a great way to meet some new people and DEFINITELY practice my Spanish! After meeting with our group of 35ish people, we packed up all the supplies for the weekend into an old bus and then preceded to all board the bus! Let me tell you though, I highly doubt that anything like this would ever happen in the US.  It would just be a lawsuit waiting to happen.  We packed a mountain of juice bottles, about 20 shovels, all our bags, sleeping bags, and some random building material and we just sat around in any space we could find.  People were on the floor with bottles continuously falling on them, sitting next to the shovels…..everything seemed a bit hazardous but that’s what happens in Argentina.

            We only drove about an hour, outside the city of Buenos Aires but still in the providence Buenos Aires.  We arrived at a school in the area and unpacked all the supplies assembly-line-style while a lot of the organizers ran around in ridiculous costumes (I should mention that everyone here was between 18 and 30 probably).  We then sat down and EVERYONE (about 75 of us) had to get up and tell a joke…either one of our own or we could pull from a basket. And, miraculously, I successfully delivered my own joke in Spanish in front of 75 Spanish-speakers…WOOO.  I was quite nervous though, needless to say J

            At this point it was getting late…as in after midnight.  So, we then ate dinner and finally got divided up into out six-person groups to build individual houses.  We had 4 girls and 2 guys in our group.  One of the girls was from Spain, but all the rest were from Buenos Aires, and everyone was really nice. After talking about what we were going to do the following day, we finally got to bed around 330.  Even though we were on tile floors in a classroom, I was so tired that I slept like a baby J

SATURDAY

            I woke up to the sound of shouting Argentines dressed in costumes and blaring wacky music.  I swear I felt like I was waking up to the circus raiding the building.  I just couldn’t help but laughing in disbelief as I laid there not wanting to get up at 7 am after three and a half hours of sleep and as a guy in a grim reaper costume poked at the girl sleeping next to me. 

            By the end of the day though I was completely exhausted.  We had a very light breakfast (Argentine style) of coffee, mate, and tiny crackers and then went outside to discuss the day and play some games.  We ended up waiting for hours for the bus that never came so we finally got on a mini bus/van to get to the villa and packed about 40 people with shovels and construction tools into a bus meant for maybe 20.  Seriously, someone sat on my lap the whole time. 

            The neighborhood reminded me a lot of Equador.  There were wood fenses and houses and tin roofs.  There were some nicer houses too but the same was true of Ecuador.  Our family for whom we were building the house was really nice, although I didn’t get to talk to the husband and wife much the first day.  I did get to talk to the grandma thought.  And I just love that everyone called her grandma even though she obviously wasn’t any of our grandmothers.  The family also had three little girls, all under the age of four and they were really adorable. 

            This first day, we managed to get all 15 posts buried (so the house is elevated for flooding) and only really stopped for an awesome lunch with the best chicken leg I’ve ever had.  By the end of the day we got most of the boards nailed on top of the posts so that we could set the pre-assembled floor on top.  It was great to see all of our work come together in the last 10 minutes to see a real-looking base for the house. 

That night we played some games, ate, and I got a great opportunity to talk to a bunch of Argentines about so many interesting things.  It was interesting hearing their perceptions of Argentina and its government, and their perceptions of the US.  The funniest part was when one guy asked me if people in the US actually think they’re the best.  It led to an interesting conversation about the US in foreign affairs and how they all see us as the number one economy in the world.  I then pointed out that we are $12 trillion dollars in debt. ha

SUNDAY

            We again woke up at the break of dawn, but thankfully had a little better breakfast since we had these fried pastries :D We got to the house earlier and started putting up the pre-assembled walls. We worked hard all day and finally finished after dark.  We had a “finishing ceremony” and gave the family some house-warming food and balloons. We were surprised that the mom didn’t come out for this part but we later found out that she did not want to cry in front of us.  It turns out that the reason they were getting this house was so that her three older children from her first marriage could move back in with them. Social services had come to their house and said that six kids could not live with them under one roof. 

It was a great experience but I was mentally and physically exhausted.  The stress of using so much Spanish, the extreme weakness in my forearms….all I could think was how are we going to make it back to Buenos Aires tonight when it has been dark for an hour already and we are still at this new house??  We finally did get back at midnight and I finally got back at 1AM.  I have never been so happy to not have a class until 4 :))

One interesting thing that we all noticed (everyone from my program I mean) was how much the Argentines share their drinks.  When we opened a bottle of juice to rehydrate, each person took a drink and passed it.  There really wasn’t such thing as “your” or “my” drink.  And we of course had mate at different points, just passing it around, even to the people working on the roof. 

The other thing I noticed here was how starved the families’ dogs were.  It was just so sad how one of our family’s dogs just laid there all day. Even when her skinny puppy came up to her to try to play, she just lifted her head to look and then put it back down.  The worst part though was that there wasn’t all that much that the family could do with as little as they had. 

Aside from the dog and her puppy, Un techo was an incredible experience and if you ever make the trek to Argentina, Chile, or one of the other countries that do this project, I highly recommend you join the trip. J

My Random Stories

30/09/12

Well, I can’t say I’ve had any particularly great blog-worthy events in the last few weeks, but here are some of the things I’ve been up to or funny things that have happened

First, dying my hair might’ve worked a bit at least for a while.  I think less people automatically decided I was a foreigner and there are still less looks now even though my hair is almost back to my normal blonde.  I think it’s because a lot of the looks and piropos we got came from people on the street we live on and now people realize we live here so they don’t wanna make it awkward?  That’s what I’m hoping at least. 

Also, I’ve gone out some nights recently with Porteños and even though I didn’t come with any expectation of what Buenos Aires would be like, one night I just realized that THIS is what I had expected.  We went to someone’s apartment first for a few hours and then at 2:45, the porteños said, “alright, let’s go out now!” So we walked for quite a ways down the streets, none of which had power, until we got to this warehouse looking club.  We got in and it was just a concert-like setting with all Porteños.  First time I felt confident that a place was not touristy at all J

            Pills: There are always some sort of people on the streets handing out pamphlets or free coupons, but it was definitely a first when I walked out of the university one day last week and what did I get?  A package of pills.  Yes, they were handing out pain pills to college students as they left the building.  I still can’t get over this….Only in Argentina…haha
            Bandoneon:  Whenever you're on the train or subway and sometimes even on buses, there will be some guys trying to sell stuff or telling you their life story to beg for money, but on the train this weekend, I felt like we got a very Argentine experience.  An older man came out of nowhere, seriously there wasn't even a recent stop, and started to play his bandoneon, a tango accordion.  If you've never heard one, let me tell you, they are LOUD but really pretty, and as we passed all different parts of Buenos Aires in this train, from the nice apartment skyscrapers to the shantytown villas of Retiro, it just made for a great train ride.  :D

Another strange thing here is that almost no one is wearing shorts yet here even though it has reached 80 once or twice.  Apparently it’s not hot enough for them yet.  It’s crazy though to see people wearing heavy winter coats with a sweater and long sleeved polo underneath even though it’s about 70 degrees outside and burning up in the city buses. 

Finally, people keep asking me if I’ve had any terrible language mishaps and I have to say, I’ve of course made too many mistakes, today alone, to write here, but as we’re learning, the funny thing is that everyone is realizing how much we keep using Spanish phrases, mannerisms, and words when we talk in English such as “more or less” or (I’m really bad about this one) “I’m going to ‘take’ some juice”…what I actually mean to say is ‘drink’ some juice but here they say “take,” AND a few times we just have problems recalling the English word: “what’s the English word for ‘carne?’” “Um you mean beef?”  “Oh yeah that’s it.” 

            It’s also always funny when you don’t realize that a word someone is using here is the exact same as in English, just a different pronunciation and accent.   One night our host mom told us she was making “Pan Pudding” except pudding is pronounced as “poo-ding” with an accent on the “ding.”  We of course asked what poo-ding was only to feel really dumb when she puts pudding out on the table.  (Might I add this was the best banana pudding I’ve ever had…or any type of pudding for that matter.  It was almost like cheesecake :D) Also, I will admit that I still have to say “¿Cómo?” a couple times and sometime wait for an explanation when someone here tries to say McDonalds here…I guess it’s just one of those words :P

            It’s also funny if you mix up Spanish words like when one guy from our program asked a lady on the bus “¿Quieres sentir?” (Want to feel?) instead of “¿Quieres sentar?”  (Want to sit?).  I’m happy to say that I haven’t done anything tooo embarrassing yet….at least not that I know of.  J