Mendoza, Argentina
Hi everyone. Sorry for not writing a blog in a very long time. Between working with the Juniata College Hillel group, going on vacation with my sister, translating, writing proposals for activities and planning for Europe (!) I haven’t had much time to really sit down and write, until now.
Where to start…
Hillel
In the beginning of March a Hillel group from Juniata College in Pennsylvania came to Córdoba for Alternative Spring Break, a Hillel trip that is centered around tourism, community service and getting to know another Jewish community and Hillel. I personally had a great time with the group and it was the most fun I’ve had in Córdoba since arriving here. Although working days were very long, from 12- 14 hours a day, it didn’t even really feel like working because I got to do community service, travel though Córdoba and the mountains and best of all, speak in ENGLISH! Some of the activities we did were horseback riding through the mountains, zip line and high ropes course in the mountains, city tour, painting a soup kitchen and more. This particular Alternative Spring Break was an extra special experience for me because it was the 1st full time Alternative Spring Break for Hillel of Córdoba. In the past typically Hillel groups only came to Córdoba for the day instead of a week. I think that everyone had a good time, the group, Hillel Córdoba members and the staff.
I proposed the idea of doing an “American Coffee” program, an informal English conversation class that some of the JSC fellows are doing in other countries to my boss at Hillel. She loved the idea and I hope we will talk about logistics soon.
I’ve been working on creating a Hillel database, which contains all contact info of the Hillel Córdoba members. I’ve also been given another long document (28pages) that needs to be translated. I haven’t started yet because the database takes up lots of the time and its more urgent to get that done than the translation.
Social Welfare
Not much has changed in social welfare. Elsa and the señoras are just as great as they were before. I proposed the idea to Elsa of doing a “Big Brothers Big Sisters” program with one of the kids of the beneficiaries. She really liked the idea and said that we need to talk about it more in depth. There are legal matters that need to be figured out (working with minors), what exactly my roll would be (teacher, tutor, friend, “big sister”) and what the future of the program would be. Elsa would hate for the kid to get attached to me and then I would go back to the US and the program would die and the kid would be left alone. We will discuss how to continue this program after I leave.
In December Elsa mentioned the idea of having me write grants to individuals and organizations in the US to ask for money to fund programs in the Social Welfare center (such as birthday parties, holiday parties, excursions through the city for the beneficiaries). I told her that first I would like to see the plans and proposals of each program so that I have a better understanding (Elsa has already written them out), translate them, put them on the blog that I started and talk more in depth about how to make this initiative and these programs grow. We are both excited to start this massive project and Elsa said we will talk more about it this Tuesday.
Macabi
After making millions of phone calls, writing millions of emails and staring at the computer screen so long that I started to see dots, I’m proud to say that in one week I was able to send two Argentines to DC to attend Kallah, a BBYO event. A teenage girl from Macabi and the Israeli Shlicha attended and went to the Jewish Federation of DC, a Jewish school, a few synagogues, spoke with a Jewish senator on Capital Hill, visited the monuments and more. The girls had a great time and learned a lot, which made all that hard work worth it.
March 12th was the first meeting at Macabi so really not much has happened since then. I proposed two ideas to the Youth Department for teen activities, one being a casino night and the other being a lecture about the Ethiopian Jews that immigrated to Israel. They did not like the casino night idea because it wasn’t educational but they loved the idea of the Ethiopian/Israeli Jews. I will lead that lecture in August to the 16 – 17 year olds.
I have about 8 more proposals that I would like to present to Macabi but I know that I need to take it slow and sit back and watch a bit, because things operate much slower here than in the US, and even in Buenos Aires. I’m hoping that they will like more of my ideas and that we can implement them into the Macabi Youth Department for the teens to participate in.
For a while I’ve been trying to get in contact with the direcor of Macabi to set up a meeting but it’s been quite difficult getting a hold of him. I’d like to talk about my work in Macabi for the year, how he envisions it will be and I’m eager to explore other areas of Macabi and new working opportunities.
That’s about all that’s happened regarding work. Now some other topics that I’m excited to share with you…
Vacation with Sigal!
In mid March I took my 1st vacation. My sister came to visit me for a week and we traveled to Mendoza and Santiago, Chile. Mendoza is the Napa Valley of Argentina, very green and beautiful. We went to natural hot springs, toured a winery, a “bodega” and an olive oil factory. Then we went to Santiago, Chile, which completely blew me away. I told my sister, if you took out the Spanish and put in English, it could be a city in the US. That’s how developed Santiago is, everything is new, clean, super high tech….incredible! I had a great time with my sister and it was nice to see her, because the last time I saw her was August!
Berlin, Alemania!
This weekend I’ll be traveling to Berlin for the JSC midyear seminar. Everyone in my fellowship program will meet up in Berlin to recharge our batteries, share information about our countries and communities, talk about our work and our challenges and successes. I’m very much looking forward to this because I am eager to share and listen to other peoples stories, because I’m sure we all have many things in common. There are also many JSC fellows that I have yet to meet so I’m excited for that too. Lastly, I’ve never been to Germany so I’m excited to see Berlin because I hear its awesome! To add onto the excitement, the week after the conference is Passover and Semana Santa (Easter) and in Argentina there is no work for the week, especially for me because it’s two holidays. Because I have no work, I thought to myself, why not travel around Europe for the week instead of going back to Argentina early? So after the Berlin Conference some JSC fellows and I will be traveling to Stockholm and then Tallinn, Estonia to have Passover seders. After seders we will separate and I will meet up with a friend in Amsterdam, spend two days in Madrid and then fly back to Argentina. I don’t think that I even need to describe my happiness and excitement to you all, I’m sure you have an idea. This is all so crazy and unreal for me, because never in my life I thought I would be in Europe, especially with these amazing people and this year!!!!
More to come at the end of April when I return to Argentina. So although it’s early I wish you all a jag sameaj and hope you all have a nice Passover. Espero que tengan un lindo Pesaj!
