Argentina Trip Round-Up

I'm not sure how many others will read this post but wanted to include it for possible future reference. So, we've been home for just over nine days now. I still can't believe the trip is over; that it passed by so quickly. Here is a list of all that we accomplished, workwise and food wise:

* We painted by hand more than 140 square meters (1500 square feet) of the outside of two of the families houses.
* We finished painting the exterior of Balcarse’s house.
* We moved more than 1000 bricks,
* 50 wheelbarrows of rubble,
* 70 wheelbarrows of earth.
* We broke more than 5000 kilos (11000 pounds) of rubble.(Go Flintstones!!)
* We painted windows and doors with two coats of paint.
* We moved more than 20 panels. (The houses we worked on were cement-panel.)
* We closed and finished 3 wells.
* We cleaned the rubble and bricks from the entire estate.
* We filled with cement and rubble 4 windows and 10 doors
* We moved more than 10 cubic meters (350 cubic feet) of sand and rubble.
* We dug more than 1 meter (4 feet) of well.
* We cleared the grass from in front of the Villagra’s house.
* We moved and mended more than 150 meters of fence around the perimeter of the job site.
* We filled more than 600 meters (1960 feet) of cracks between the panels with cement.
* We worked in temperatures up to 35C (95F)
* We drank 120 liters (32 gallons) of water.
* We ate more than 50 kilos (100 pounds) of fruit and 7 kilos (14 pounds) of cookies.
* We ate more than 184 lunches.(trays of food)

Also, here's a pic of the team from our last day:


Top Row (l to r): Jack Giordano, Mark Foster, Brad Reigstad, Janet Webb, Lindsey Guenther, Don Norwood, Sue Thill, Kirk Mason, Gloria Cooper.
Front row (l to r): Jake Jacobs, Me, Rebecca, Thea Comeau, James Siddall, Lizeth DeLaPaz.

And another of me and Rebecca. Without her as my co-leader, this trip would not have been such a success! I love you GIRL!!!

Argentina, Day 14, 3:45 PM

Well, we leave in less than an hour for the airport. It´s so sad to say goodbye to all these amazing people you have gotten so close to, spending 24 hours a day with them for the past two weeks and then having to say goodbye. You know you are better for having known them but at the same time you wish you hadn´t met them because now you will miss them forever. Now you know what you are missing for having met each of them finally. At the same time, I am looking forward to going home.

Today we had our tour of Buenos Aires in a ghetto bus but saw a lot of great sites and took some cool pics, not to mention had an amazing lunch at a waterfront restaurant. So look out for photos in the next week or so. See you all soon.

Argentina, Day 12, 5:06 PM

Today was our last day on the worksite. It was a bit sad thinking how in two days time we´ll be headed to the airport for our return flights. Some team membes are staying on for a few extra days of travelling on their own but I am headed straight home. I´m looking forward to my own bed and a great shower but am sad to be leaving the team behind. It´s funny that two weeks ago most of us were strangers but now we are friends.

The mood on the site today was a sluggish one. It was work, day 8. We all had work to get done but did it half-heartedly. Kind of slacked off at the end, hanging out on the rock pile, just chillin´. After leaving the site at 1:00, we headed to our farewell event. Another great lunch,although I have had my fill of asada meat (well-grilled cow). Then there were the usual farewell speeches and the presentation of certificates. I did cry a bit on the way home. Last night we had an amazing dinner with Mariano and his wife, Silvia. It was not our last team meal but it certainly was the fanciest. We got back to the hotel around midnight. Dinners here start so late and really take their time. Plus, paying the dinner bill is always a hassle. Habitat wants the food and drinks on one bill, alchohol on another. So accounting for every dollar can take a long time and test your patience, as it did last night.

Keep forgetting to mention, for my old boss, Jane, that I did have dinner with her friend, Mara, on May 10, the day we arrived in Buenos Aires. She was a lovely woman who told me, Rebecca, and Brad all about Argentina. She also asked what we were doing here and what we thought of B.A. so far. I have the picture to prove it.

Anyway, another short entry. Must head back to the hotel to pack up. Tomorrow we head back to B.A. for one more night in the country. Count on at least one more entry before you all see me again. Thanks for reading the blog! Can´t wait to see everyone over the long weekend.

Argentina, Day 11, 4:00 PM

My voice seems to be back to normal after suffering from a raging sore throat, which turned into laryngitis. It started the Thursday before I left, was just a little sore. Stupidly I thought it would just go away. At least I hoped it would. But it didn´t. No amount of Tylenol helped. It got so bad that on Thursday night I stopped talking altogether and used a pad and pen to communicate. Quite comical. No one could stop talking about it the next day.

Another custom here is to not eat dinner until late in the evening, after 8:00. And the young ones are always out as well. It´s definitely a different custom thatn back home. There´s also a lot of begging, it´s not as bad as Romania but it always the kids, and the restaurants they come in to either don´t seem to mind or are so used to it that they ignore it.

We did it up the car race on Friday night. The actual race was on Sunday, Friday was only the exhibition. But the cars were totally awesome. There´s something to be said for the roar of the engines. After that we had an amazing team dinner at a nearby hotel. It was Friday night, afterall, and our R&R started the next day.

Tomorrow, sadly, is our last day on the worksite. We´re only working until 12:30 and then driving to have lunch nearby with the local affiliate and, I hope, the families. Tonight, we are having a nice dinner with Mariano Columbo, our site supervisor, and his wife, Silvia. Everyone is getting all snazzed up and very much looking forward to eating some fantastic food.

Speaking of which, our lunches every day have been provided by a gentleman who does catering for schools and churches. The food has been very yummy, but a lot of meat. I´m no vegetarian, but a lot of the stuff is fried and uses a lot of salt.

Sorry for the short entry, but I´m meeting some teammates soon to do some shopping. There should be one or two more entries before I return home. Miss and love you all!

Argentina, Days 8-10, 4:00 PM

We got back from our R&R time yesterday. It lasted Saturday and Sunday. We wish we had more time just to relax but there was a bunch of stuff packed in. The team had a lot of fun, though. First, on Saturday, we had lunch at a local restaurant, La Pista, and then went on a short driving tour of Sante Fe along the water. After that, we stopped to pick up the kids of our hosts, Daniel and his wife, Sara. Then we made our way to the Cabana de Sol. It was just like summer camp but for adults. The team was split up into three cabins. Within minutes of arriving, we were all in our bathing suits and hanging out by the pool drinking beer and soda. On these trips, you truly don´t realize how tired you are until you have an extended amount of time to sit back and just chill. That night, we played Bocce and had an amazing dinner, followed by Argentine folk dancing and music. After dinner, we all just hung out some more, staying up and chatting until real late. But it´s all good: We get extra time to catch up with everyone, as you are split up during the work days on whatever task you are doing.

Sunday morning we were slow to rise, but really got going once Kirk made coffee and Lindsey, James, and Gloria got breakfast. After this very brief stay at the cabins, we packed up and headed to another area. There was also a traditional gaucho festival going on. There we saw the gauchos break horses. It was all very ceremonial. We then got to do some horseback riding. It was so great to be back on a horse. I forgot how much fun I used to have all of those summers out at Montauk. Got into a good gallop at one point. There were not a lot of experienced riders in the group so those of us who knew what we were doing were allowed to get to the front of the pack and pick up the pace. That was followed by a great lunch. We ate cow that had been slaughtered the traditional way and grilled at the festival. Apparently, they just split the cow down the middle and gut it and lay it right down on the grill, tail and all. Even tried instestines. But just two small bites. Not the greatest but not the worst. Just not totally agreeable, squishy filling and all. After that some of us climbed a short rock wall, about 10 meters high. That was a total blast as well. Have not done that in a few years. But I did get up the fastest.

Two distinct customs of note about Argentina:

The kiss greeting: You always go to the right cheek, and it´s more of an air kiss.

Maté: This is a tea drink with a very ceremonial mannter about it. It´s also known as Yerba Maté. (I know this is available in the States.) It tastes like green tea, is loose in the cup, and is always drunk through the bombillo (straw). The straw functions as the strainer, and you have to rinse it out at the end of the day. When you get the cup, the straw has to be towad you--just as it is when you are finished and hand it back to whoever served you. Also, it´s not impolite to slurp when you are finished. And you never say "Gracias" because that implies you didn´t like the tea or how the person prepared it. It´s all very formal.

Today on the site (working day 6), I painted some more. Then we cut out at 3:00 and visited the local Habitat office in Recreo, where we´re actually building. Tomorrow will be another short day followed by a great team dinner with Mariano and his wife at a nice restaurant. There are only two days of working left before we head back to B.A. and fly home on Friday night. It´s also been very warm here, although the season is Argentina´s Fall. When the next team arrives in June, it will be much cooler.

It is strange how quickly the trip has gone by. It feels like just yesterday that the Romania trip was ending in 2006 and Val was announcing that Habitat had asked her to lead a trip to Argentina. But this always happens because you start having a fantastic time and the days just fly by.

This has been a very long entry, so I think I´ll sign off for now. But before I go, I have to ask a favor of my parents: Two team members, Rebecca (my co-leader) and Sue have a five-hour layover at JFK on our way home. Can they hang out at the house for a while and then I´ll drive them back? This is a lot better than being stuck in the terminal for that long. Plus, they´ll get a shower after an 11-hour flight.

Argentina, Days 4 - 7, 10:05 AM

There are a few things of note about Argentina that I would like to tell you all about:

1. The cars are either very old or falling apart (rust, no mirrors, cracks everywhere, missing hubcaps). I´m not talking old, I´´m tlking about cars that their owners have to hold on to because no alternative is available. I haven´t seen any new models. It´s sad that the economy is in such bad shape--and it´s only been that way sicne 2001 when the economy collapsed.

2. No matter how poor you are, you can afford a cell phone and to smoke. Plus, crackberries are universal. Priorities, people. I also noticed this in Hawaii and Romania. Maybe there is nothing better to do? I don´t really have any answers. In Hawaii, one of the dads we were building for showed up un a brand new truck with shiny rims. How does Habitat pick these families? It really makes me question Habitat, and I don´t like to do that.

3. There are a ton of stray dogs. Lizeth found out its because of the 2003 floods, when a dam broke amd buried the city and its buildings. The families had to get out immediately and leave there pets behind. (Curiously, we´ve only come across one cat.) 2003 is also the year Habitat came to be in Argentina.

Days 4 thru 7 here (days 2 thru 5 on the worksite) were been pretty much the same. On Tuesday, there was more scraping and filling in cracks. Mariano really wants us to get these houses done, although he says we don´t always have to be working. On Wednesday, I broke rocks all day with Thea, James, and Jack. This task continued on Thursday (which was only half-day ending at 12, after which we walked around Recreo, the city where the worksite is) and half of Friday. After lunch yesterday, I painted until we quit at 3:00. There was a soccer match between our build team and the construction crew when we ended the day. Our team is starting this tradition, and we hope it will continue with the rest of the teams that follow us. We even bought a trophy with a soccer player on it. Mind you, soccer is so huge here, and our team lost 5-1. But we had a complete blast and did score the first goal. Aferwards, we shared beer and these amazing, iced dulche de leche cookies that Don, a team member, had so generously purchased.

We´ve been told that our actions, just by coming here, serve as inspiration to the families we help out. That´s a lot on our shoulders. I never quite know what to think of my Habitat trips. I know it´s a great thing to do, but to me, it´s nothing extraordinary, it´s just another part of who I am or what I do. Just that.

Rebecca and I continue to get a lot of compliments from the entire team that we´ve picked a great bunch of individuals. The main question has been, "How were you able to do that? What were your criteria?" We just wanted a range of ages and experiences. And we totally lucked out. Everything happens for a reason, I say. Mark told me and Rebecca personally that he´s glad we invited him, Lizeth said she hasn´t laughed this much in a long time; Jake and Don are happy, too. The one exception is Janet from Colorado; she seems to have a chip on here shoulder. She´s made some comments about the food and seems real set in her ways. Maybe she resent us being younger and in charge somewhat. I don´t really know. The past few days she seems to be having a better time. That´s our only real goal for the people we have brought along: To make sure they are happy and having a blast. Which we hope will translate into them wanting to go on another trip.

There is so much more I want to write about in regards to where we are building,how things are going on the site, team dinners, and in general, but I must log off to go and pack. We leave at 11:30 for our two days of R&R and the room is a mess.

Argentina, Days 2 - 3, 4:54 PM

It´s been a busy few days with late dinners, so I hope to catch you all up on my current Habitat build (because it certainly won´t be my last): On Day 2, May 11 (thanks for all the b-day shout-outs), we had a morning meeting at the national Habitat offices in Sante Fe. This was actually a house. The economy and real estate are so shaky here that this was pretty much all that was available; plus, a year´s rent had to be paid up front to guarantee they wouldn´t back out of the lease. There we learned about the GV program in Argentina and had a great lunch of empanadas. Nothing is better than the real thing. Then I was surprised with a dulche de leche cake. Rebecca, my co-leader, had informed the Habitat volunteer working with us, Lynn Merril, that it was my birthday. That was so incredibly sweet of her. The team and Habitat staff serenaded me with a spirited version of "Happy Birthday" that brought tears to my eyes. Nothing is better than celebrating your day twice.

We followed that meeting with a five hour bus ride to Sante Fe, where we are camped for the next two weeks. Thought that would be worse than it was, but I slept part of the way and read, listened to my iPOD, or watched a bad movie for the rest of the way. It also didn´t hurt to check out the winter stars. (Since we crossed the equator, the seasons are opposite, but it´s still 75 during the day. Go figure.) It´s funny seeing the constellations we would normally see in the winter months. Anyway, we got in to Sante Fe around 8:00 PM and were met by Mariano Moreno, the Sante Fe Habitat coordinator. He walked us to our hotel, which is basically a bad, cheap hotel. The mattresses and pillows are foam, the paint is peeling, the windows don´t close, and it´s dirty. Plus, we only get one towel and was cloth. Maybe we are spoiled back home, I don´t know. I understand that Habitat wants to save money, but this is ridiculous. I´ve been very lucky on all of my trips. But we are here to work, that´s the most important thing.

The first day on the worksite (Monday, May 12) was easy. It started even earlier though, with me, Rebecca, Brad, and Lizeth (a team member who has really stepped up and is acting as our translator) meeting at 7:00 AM for a run. It was still dark when we headed out for a run of about 4 miles across town and along the water. (Must pause here and give a shout out to my trainer, John. I´m not neglecting anything. Another run is planned for tomorrow and there´s plenty of heavy lifting and upper body work going on at the site.) Like I said, the first day on site was easy. It started late at 9 AM with a meeting at the Sante Fe Habitat office. We were all starving at this point because we thought we were having breakfast there and slept in late. We got to the site around 10 AM and had a lengthy orientation. Mariano, our site supervisor, took us around showing us what needed to get done and what he hoped we would accomplish. We were split into three groups: breaking rocks into usable pieces of rubble for mortar, sanding and filling in cracks on four houses (this was me) (these houses are our priority), and interiors. It was a rather short day; in fact, our days seem very short because we´re starting at 8:00 AM and ending at 4:00 PM. The team seems to really like this.

Who knows how the rest of the trip will go but everyone seems to be having a fun time so far. Check back soon. Now that I know where the Internet cafe is, you´ll be hearing from me more often. Miss and Love you all!