Wednesday, May 26, 2010
What have you always wanted to scream into a waterfall?
Grab a cup of coffee or a mate goard...this one's going to be a long one!
Part of our class at the comission "Indigenous rights and the environment" was a trip to Puerto Iguazu. Iguazu, or as they write it there, Yguazu is a small sliver of Argentina between paraguay and Brazil. It is a small town, but gets alot of tourist traffic because it includes the national park of Misiones and las CATARATAS (which are in the running to become one of the next 7 wonders of the world!). It was also a great chance to get to know our professor, Gisela Juare who is one of the coolest people I've gotten to know in Argentina. Alex said it best when he described her as the type of person who could easily be in the film an Avatar- she is tall and graceful with a fervent love for nature and a way of connecting easily with everyone and everything around her. She took great care to plan the trip with our interests in mind. We left La Plata Wednesday morning and drove to the airport in Buenos Aires. It was strange to be in an airport for the first time since arriving here and even stranger to think that the next time I enter Ezezia will be to fly home on July 17th. (mark your calendars and come visit me!!)
When we landed in Iguazu I felt like I was in a different country entirely. Several of the formative works of argentine literature Martin Fierro and Facundo claim that argentina consists of 2 parts- the province of Buenos Aires and the "rest" of the country. I certainly saw the link. The land, people, and wildlife appeared completely different. We stayed at STOP hostel which was right next to a tango bar that had a mural painted of Che Guevarra and Eva Peron dancing the tango...if that's not essentially the argentine stereotype I don't know what is. We were lucky to discover the JOY of 2x10 peso cocktails during happy hour. Our first Portuguese lesson of the trip came from the drink name- CAIPIRINYAS...I don't know the literal translation but we were all extremely fond of them and even our trip leaders enjoyed several before dinner.
Thursday was kind of a slow day because some of our plans were impeded by the flooding of the localities wherein we planned to travel. We met with a woman named Angela who is very esteemed within all parts of the community because she started a bilingual school in the area. Though Argentina doesn't have a high indigenous population comparatively (2%), a large portion of this percentage is found in this northern province. Angela explained to us a little bit of the dynamics of the Guarani tribe we were going to spend time with the following day. She made a comment I found unsettling and offensive about how "white American feminism is merely a power struggle". It took me a long time to process her perspective but in the end I took away from it that she didn't want us to judge their gender relations based on our societal framework. I have found throughout this experience that the things I am most passionate about tend to be also the ones that I am most ethnocentric and closed minded.
No Caipyrinhas tonight as we were all preparing for a midnight soccer game and an early morning. Emily, Michelle, Alex and I had made some friends in the hostel earlier in the afternoon that invited us to come play soccer with them at a nearby small indoor field. In a group of Argentine and Brazilian males my soccer skills were less than exemplary but all of the spectators particularly loved when one of the 3 of us made a good play or stole the ball from one of the men. One of the Brazilian men kept yealling what sounded to us like- "choque monito" (little monkey crash...), and at the end of the game we asked him what it meant in Portuguese. It turned out he was saying "jogo bonito"....I suppose beautiful play makes alot more sense than little monkey crash.
Friday morning we loaded up into the back of a pickup truck and drove about 20 minutes past civilization on red dirt pathways till we reached the bilingual (guarani and castellano) school. It was down a mountain by a watering hole and appeared to have about 5 different tiny classrooms divided by sheet metal. The celebratory sign read "hagamos una Argentina con Raices"- "Let's make an Argentina with Roots" and I feel that well encompassed the goal of the school- to tie the guarani culture with Argentine nationalism. They were celebrating the bicentennial of Argentine independence from Spain so the directors of the school spoke and each class gave a dance performance. I felt extremely out of place and slightly uncomfortable at first but we had some time afterwards to joke around with the kids before heading back to the center of their community. They slept in simply constructed wooden lean to's, used an outhouse, and the soccer field was clearly the center of attention. The young boys were playing soccer all afternoon as the girls were helping the older women with food preparation and cleaning. We got to play a full game against the females of the community- that was a spectacle! At first they were demolishing us but we managed to come back and hold our own. I was playing goalie and I certainly have the battle wounds to prove it.
It was beautiful to me how soccer served as an icebreaker to ease the cultural differences between the two groups of us. It didn't matter that we were pretty bad, we still managed to establish a level of trust and friendship throughout the game. Afterwards we ate with them- pasta cooked in a HUGE pot with a reddish oil and a bit of chicken. I was excited to see the boys starting a game of pickup volleyball and scarfed down the rest of my food eagerly in hopes of playing a sport I felt more at home with. It is easy to see why these people are in such great shape and so evidentally happy. They were active and social all afternoon long. Bettina posed an interesting question to the group- "what help do you think you need from the rest of Argentina to continue thriving?" I didn't quite understand the answer but it seems to me they straddle a fine line between not wanting interference and being slightly afraid for their sustainability in an evolving word.
It was an excellent and powerful day for everyone. We spent the night at the hostel (more caipyrinhas of course) making friends from Australia, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, and the UK. I am now convinced you can meet the most fascinating and eclectic people at a youth hostel. I learned about German soccer, portuguese diction, and that it's cheaper to film reality TV shows in Argentina than Brazil. A memorable quote from our goofy German friend Claudius "Sometimes I don't like to make party. I just like to be in nature. Beautiful nature." It was weird to be on the other end of the linguistic spectrum, that is communicating in our first language while everyone else was communicating in their second. Michelle and I went with the crew for late night hotdogs then called it a night. Some of the other group members may have regret their decision not to do the same the next morning when we had to be out and about by 9. The next day in the hostel they had changed the Happy hour time to read- HAPPY HOUR- ALL NIGHT LONG Caipyrinhas 2x10, Tequila Shots 2x10. I think its safe to say we had a fun group.
While Friday was one of the most culturally interesting things I have witnessed, Saturday was easily the most incredible natural spectacle I've seen. I will add pictures of the waterfalls...but just know that no picture could accurately capture how incredible they are. We got a bit of the Amazon experience (catered toward tourists...clearly) and hiked through the jungle a bit before seeing our first falls. We saw a large variety of gorgeous butterflies, toucans, and aardvarks. Aardvarks seem to be this region's equivalent of the WM squirrel infestation. I literally saw an aardvark steal a bag of chips out of a man's lap...I guess I can check that one off the bucket list. One of the most memorable moments was running out to the ledge and getting soaked by a particularly huge section of the falls. It was so loud and liberating...we could yell whatever we wanted into the falls and just felt it be absorbed by the powerful force of the waterfall. You MUST add las cataratas de iguazu onto your list of places to travel if you have the opportunity.
Probably my favorite stretch of time on the trip. It was an absolute blast...I can't stop smiling even typing about it. Now it's back to the reality of over 30 pages of writing in Spanish over the next few weeks!
Part of our class at the comission "Indigenous rights and the environment" was a trip to Puerto Iguazu. Iguazu, or as they write it there, Yguazu is a small sliver of Argentina between paraguay and Brazil. It is a small town, but gets alot of tourist traffic because it includes the national park of Misiones and las CATARATAS (which are in the running to become one of the next 7 wonders of the world!). It was also a great chance to get to know our professor, Gisela Juare who is one of the coolest people I've gotten to know in Argentina. Alex said it best when he described her as the type of person who could easily be in the film an Avatar- she is tall and graceful with a fervent love for nature and a way of connecting easily with everyone and everything around her. She took great care to plan the trip with our interests in mind. We left La Plata Wednesday morning and drove to the airport in Buenos Aires. It was strange to be in an airport for the first time since arriving here and even stranger to think that the next time I enter Ezezia will be to fly home on July 17th. (mark your calendars and come visit me!!)
When we landed in Iguazu I felt like I was in a different country entirely. Several of the formative works of argentine literature Martin Fierro and Facundo claim that argentina consists of 2 parts- the province of Buenos Aires and the "rest" of the country. I certainly saw the link. The land, people, and wildlife appeared completely different. We stayed at STOP hostel which was right next to a tango bar that had a mural painted of Che Guevarra and Eva Peron dancing the tango...if that's not essentially the argentine stereotype I don't know what is. We were lucky to discover the JOY of 2x10 peso cocktails during happy hour. Our first Portuguese lesson of the trip came from the drink name- CAIPIRINYAS...I don't know the literal translation but we were all extremely fond of them and even our trip leaders enjoyed several before dinner.
Thursday was kind of a slow day because some of our plans were impeded by the flooding of the localities wherein we planned to travel. We met with a woman named Angela who is very esteemed within all parts of the community because she started a bilingual school in the area. Though Argentina doesn't have a high indigenous population comparatively (2%), a large portion of this percentage is found in this northern province. Angela explained to us a little bit of the dynamics of the Guarani tribe we were going to spend time with the following day. She made a comment I found unsettling and offensive about how "white American feminism is merely a power struggle". It took me a long time to process her perspective but in the end I took away from it that she didn't want us to judge their gender relations based on our societal framework. I have found throughout this experience that the things I am most passionate about tend to be also the ones that I am most ethnocentric and closed minded.
No Caipyrinhas tonight as we were all preparing for a midnight soccer game and an early morning. Emily, Michelle, Alex and I had made some friends in the hostel earlier in the afternoon that invited us to come play soccer with them at a nearby small indoor field. In a group of Argentine and Brazilian males my soccer skills were less than exemplary but all of the spectators particularly loved when one of the 3 of us made a good play or stole the ball from one of the men. One of the Brazilian men kept yealling what sounded to us like- "choque monito" (little monkey crash...), and at the end of the game we asked him what it meant in Portuguese. It turned out he was saying "jogo bonito"....I suppose beautiful play makes alot more sense than little monkey crash.
Friday morning we loaded up into the back of a pickup truck and drove about 20 minutes past civilization on red dirt pathways till we reached the bilingual (guarani and castellano) school. It was down a mountain by a watering hole and appeared to have about 5 different tiny classrooms divided by sheet metal. The celebratory sign read "hagamos una Argentina con Raices"- "Let's make an Argentina with Roots" and I feel that well encompassed the goal of the school- to tie the guarani culture with Argentine nationalism. They were celebrating the bicentennial of Argentine independence from Spain so the directors of the school spoke and each class gave a dance performance. I felt extremely out of place and slightly uncomfortable at first but we had some time afterwards to joke around with the kids before heading back to the center of their community. They slept in simply constructed wooden lean to's, used an outhouse, and the soccer field was clearly the center of attention. The young boys were playing soccer all afternoon as the girls were helping the older women with food preparation and cleaning. We got to play a full game against the females of the community- that was a spectacle! At first they were demolishing us but we managed to come back and hold our own. I was playing goalie and I certainly have the battle wounds to prove it.
It was beautiful to me how soccer served as an icebreaker to ease the cultural differences between the two groups of us. It didn't matter that we were pretty bad, we still managed to establish a level of trust and friendship throughout the game. Afterwards we ate with them- pasta cooked in a HUGE pot with a reddish oil and a bit of chicken. I was excited to see the boys starting a game of pickup volleyball and scarfed down the rest of my food eagerly in hopes of playing a sport I felt more at home with. It is easy to see why these people are in such great shape and so evidentally happy. They were active and social all afternoon long. Bettina posed an interesting question to the group- "what help do you think you need from the rest of Argentina to continue thriving?" I didn't quite understand the answer but it seems to me they straddle a fine line between not wanting interference and being slightly afraid for their sustainability in an evolving word.
It was an excellent and powerful day for everyone. We spent the night at the hostel (more caipyrinhas of course) making friends from Australia, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, and the UK. I am now convinced you can meet the most fascinating and eclectic people at a youth hostel. I learned about German soccer, portuguese diction, and that it's cheaper to film reality TV shows in Argentina than Brazil. A memorable quote from our goofy German friend Claudius "Sometimes I don't like to make party. I just like to be in nature. Beautiful nature." It was weird to be on the other end of the linguistic spectrum, that is communicating in our first language while everyone else was communicating in their second. Michelle and I went with the crew for late night hotdogs then called it a night. Some of the other group members may have regret their decision not to do the same the next morning when we had to be out and about by 9. The next day in the hostel they had changed the Happy hour time to read- HAPPY HOUR- ALL NIGHT LONG Caipyrinhas 2x10, Tequila Shots 2x10. I think its safe to say we had a fun group.
While Friday was one of the most culturally interesting things I have witnessed, Saturday was easily the most incredible natural spectacle I've seen. I will add pictures of the waterfalls...but just know that no picture could accurately capture how incredible they are. We got a bit of the Amazon experience (catered toward tourists...clearly) and hiked through the jungle a bit before seeing our first falls. We saw a large variety of gorgeous butterflies, toucans, and aardvarks. Aardvarks seem to be this region's equivalent of the WM squirrel infestation. I literally saw an aardvark steal a bag of chips out of a man's lap...I guess I can check that one off the bucket list. One of the most memorable moments was running out to the ledge and getting soaked by a particularly huge section of the falls. It was so loud and liberating...we could yell whatever we wanted into the falls and just felt it be absorbed by the powerful force of the waterfall. You MUST add las cataratas de iguazu onto your list of places to travel if you have the opportunity.
Probably my favorite stretch of time on the trip. It was an absolute blast...I can't stop smiling even typing about it. Now it's back to the reality of over 30 pages of writing in Spanish over the next few weeks!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
dale dale dale LOBO
First of all...it's starting to hit me how little time I have left here. With my WM friends headed home for summer and friends in other study abroad programs heading back stateside the reality of the time slipping by is starting to sink in. The other night I had a dream that I suddenly had to fly home because Kevin and Lauryn decided to get married and I was really upset to leave prematurely and kept thinking of all of the things that I hadn't done and seen here. SO this weekend I accomplished one of the things I was upset about not doing in my carpe diem dreams- seeing 'our' team CLUB GIMNASIA ESGRIMA de LA PLATA play a live soccer game!
Michelle and I went to the Gimnasia headquarters yesterday evening to buy tickets for the game today. They have special rates for "dama" girl tickets...35 pesos compared to 50. My feminist side was unsettled whereas my cheapskate side was pleased...asi es la vida. Afterwards we went to see a really interesting documentary playing at the art school called "La Guerra Por Otros Medios" (The War through other modes). It was a great perspective on the indigenous perspective of La Ley de Medios. La Ley de medios is a media law that's being introduced that would basically give the government some of the same censorship rights it had during the dictatorship.
Today after a delicious lunch of Pizza Bacci we headed out to the field to meet up with Alex, his host mom's son Simon and his friends. This was apparently a "calm" game as it wasn't important for the league standings and there was a HUGE crowd of people dressed in navy blue with drums, trumpets, UMBRELLAS, flags and whatever else you could possibly make noise with filling the streets. There were a striking amount of cops with RIOT gear which made me a little anxious about the crazyness that was about to ensue. Soccer is more than diversion here...it's almost a political/social statement. There are two main clubs here in La Plata- Gimnasia and Estudiantes (Pincha RATA...andate de la plata!) and Gimnasia branched off from Estudiantes a while back. Neither of them are as good, or well funded...as the Buenos Aires teams and historically Gimnasia has been more of the underdogs which makes me love them even more. Anyhow, Gimnasia (el LOBO) is associated with the working class and there was even a huge flag in the stadium with Eva Peron's face painted in gimnasia colors to strengthen that association.
In size, the stadium itsself wasn't that impressive. Then again, that is coming from a member of a DIEHARD hokie family who grew up in the sea of orange and marroon (largery?) also known as lane stadium. The energy of the stadium was CERTAINLY on par however. Banners were tied from the bottom of the stadium to the top and loud Argentines were standing on railings holding onto the banner to keep from falling. They swayed back and forth and chanted the whole time and there were times I was afraid that young children were going to get accidentally clotheslined. The boys next to us had firecracker things that gave off blue and white smoke which was alot of fun but probably not so great for our lungs. There was constant jumping, a repotoire (sp?) of at least 15 songs accompanied by this hand motion we refer to as the limp wrist.
Both teams fought hard the whole time though mi querido LOBO fell a little flat near the end, so Tucuman was able to come back and tie 3-3. Overall we had an absolute blast being such a part of something that they are all so passionate about. We hope to go back next Sunday which will apparently be a way more important and CRAZY game!
Love and miss you all!
Michelle and I went to the Gimnasia headquarters yesterday evening to buy tickets for the game today. They have special rates for "dama" girl tickets...35 pesos compared to 50. My feminist side was unsettled whereas my cheapskate side was pleased...asi es la vida. Afterwards we went to see a really interesting documentary playing at the art school called "La Guerra Por Otros Medios" (The War through other modes). It was a great perspective on the indigenous perspective of La Ley de Medios. La Ley de medios is a media law that's being introduced that would basically give the government some of the same censorship rights it had during the dictatorship.
Today after a delicious lunch of Pizza Bacci we headed out to the field to meet up with Alex, his host mom's son Simon and his friends. This was apparently a "calm" game as it wasn't important for the league standings and there was a HUGE crowd of people dressed in navy blue with drums, trumpets, UMBRELLAS, flags and whatever else you could possibly make noise with filling the streets. There were a striking amount of cops with RIOT gear which made me a little anxious about the crazyness that was about to ensue. Soccer is more than diversion here...it's almost a political/social statement. There are two main clubs here in La Plata- Gimnasia and Estudiantes (Pincha RATA...andate de la plata!) and Gimnasia branched off from Estudiantes a while back. Neither of them are as good, or well funded...as the Buenos Aires teams and historically Gimnasia has been more of the underdogs which makes me love them even more. Anyhow, Gimnasia (el LOBO) is associated with the working class and there was even a huge flag in the stadium with Eva Peron's face painted in gimnasia colors to strengthen that association.
In size, the stadium itsself wasn't that impressive. Then again, that is coming from a member of a DIEHARD hokie family who grew up in the sea of orange and marroon (largery?) also known as lane stadium. The energy of the stadium was CERTAINLY on par however. Banners were tied from the bottom of the stadium to the top and loud Argentines were standing on railings holding onto the banner to keep from falling. They swayed back and forth and chanted the whole time and there were times I was afraid that young children were going to get accidentally clotheslined. The boys next to us had firecracker things that gave off blue and white smoke which was alot of fun but probably not so great for our lungs. There was constant jumping, a repotoire (sp?) of at least 15 songs accompanied by this hand motion we refer to as the limp wrist.
Both teams fought hard the whole time though mi querido LOBO fell a little flat near the end, so Tucuman was able to come back and tie 3-3. Overall we had an absolute blast being such a part of something that they are all so passionate about. We hope to go back next Sunday which will apparently be a way more important and CRAZY game!
Love and miss you all!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
que lo cumplas muy feliz- FELIZ FELIZ
This was without a doubt one of the most exhausting, social, fascinating, caloric, intense and EXCELLENT weekends of my trip. I already knew that I won the host family lottery, but this weekend confirmed it more than ever. Hugo and Lidia had three children- Yamila, Eliana (my host mom) and Mariano. They were militantly active Peronists that fleed the country during the dictadura to Panama then Miami. I think this period of time when really all they had was eachother to lean on that made their family's bond so unique and special. Hugo is a vibrant man of around 78 I believe with a handle bar mustache, constant smile and truly is the life of the party. Lidia is a little bit quieter and a strikingly beautiful woman of 75 with flat ironed blond hair, artificially pink lips who pampers everyone around her. Anyway, it was Lidia's 75th birthday this thursday and the Bacci clan rallied the troops to throw her one of the most amazing and touching parties I have ever been a part of.
I have no idea how Lidia didn't see it coming with the amount of planning that went into it and the talkative tendencies of the bacci sisters in particular, but I have a feeling it has to do with how selfless of a person she is. Anyhow, they rented out a venue that is sometimes used for Peronist meetings, told her that there was a reunion and invited 100 of her friends and relatives to join the festivities. Michelle and I were on babysitting duty as the bacci's prepared and actually had alot of fun teaching the kids songs in english, learning them in spanish, and playing hand clap games. They were particularly fans of- WHO stole the cookie from the cookie jar? and we learned that the Argentine equivalent translates to SOMEONE was in the bathroom and left a stink...WHO was it?
I could not believe the amount of food that was present. there was a HUGE table filled with cheeses, salamis and these crackers with pizza sauce baked onto them in addition to about 12 HEAPING trays of empanadas, bread baskets with multiple dips, pizza, plates of sandwiches, about 20 bottles of wine, soft drinks and fernets galore...it was insane...we will be dealing with the leftovers for days, except for the wine (every last drop was consumed).
Lidia was absolutely shocked and it took a minute for her to realize the entire party was actually for her. After lots and lots of hugging, chatting and more eating they played a slide show with a bunch of Bacci family pictures which was adorable. They brought out a table of cakes, lit the candles on a particularly gorgeous one and sung two versions of happy birthday...one of which was set to the tune of the Peronist anthem...go figure. Perhaps the most touching moment of the night was when Hugo and Lidia began to waltz in the middle of the dance floor right after the singing and Eliana and Mariano cut in. After the warm fuzzy moments, the REAL argentine dancing began which was of course spearheaded by the dynamic duo of Yamila and Eliana. Thats how I will forever remember Eli and Yami- dancing as if they were 18 years old in tight dark jeans, white shirts and boots laughing uproariously in the middle of their mothers 75th birthday party.
It was a BEAUTIFUL celebration of life.
I have no idea how Lidia didn't see it coming with the amount of planning that went into it and the talkative tendencies of the bacci sisters in particular, but I have a feeling it has to do with how selfless of a person she is. Anyhow, they rented out a venue that is sometimes used for Peronist meetings, told her that there was a reunion and invited 100 of her friends and relatives to join the festivities. Michelle and I were on babysitting duty as the bacci's prepared and actually had alot of fun teaching the kids songs in english, learning them in spanish, and playing hand clap games. They were particularly fans of- WHO stole the cookie from the cookie jar? and we learned that the Argentine equivalent translates to SOMEONE was in the bathroom and left a stink...WHO was it?
I could not believe the amount of food that was present. there was a HUGE table filled with cheeses, salamis and these crackers with pizza sauce baked onto them in addition to about 12 HEAPING trays of empanadas, bread baskets with multiple dips, pizza, plates of sandwiches, about 20 bottles of wine, soft drinks and fernets galore...it was insane...we will be dealing with the leftovers for days, except for the wine (every last drop was consumed).
Lidia was absolutely shocked and it took a minute for her to realize the entire party was actually for her. After lots and lots of hugging, chatting and more eating they played a slide show with a bunch of Bacci family pictures which was adorable. They brought out a table of cakes, lit the candles on a particularly gorgeous one and sung two versions of happy birthday...one of which was set to the tune of the Peronist anthem...go figure. Perhaps the most touching moment of the night was when Hugo and Lidia began to waltz in the middle of the dance floor right after the singing and Eliana and Mariano cut in. After the warm fuzzy moments, the REAL argentine dancing began which was of course spearheaded by the dynamic duo of Yamila and Eliana. Thats how I will forever remember Eli and Yami- dancing as if they were 18 years old in tight dark jeans, white shirts and boots laughing uproariously in the middle of their mothers 75th birthday party.
It was a BEAUTIFUL celebration of life.
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